The Supreme Court Takes Up The Case Of The Missing Fish

Usually when a fisherman tells a fish story, he makes the fish as big as he can carry. But on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court hears a case about a fisherman convicted of deep-sixing some fish altogether so no one could accurately check their size.

The question before the justices is whether his conviction, based on a law passed after a scandal that destroyed energy firm Enron and resulted in criminal convictions for accounting firm Arthur Andersen, should get the hook.

Commercial fisherman John Yates and his crew were fishing for grouper in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico when Florida Fish and Wildlife officer John Jones boarded the boat. Jones, suspecting that the fishermen were keeping fish smaller than the 20-inch minimum, measured some of the catch and found 72 grouper that were undersized. As fisherman Yates tells the story, he got "a citation for short fish; it's like a speeding ticket."

Jones, who had been deputized as a federal officer, ordered the fish kept, but when the boat arrived on shore he determined that the fish in the crate were not the same ones he had measured. Yates professes surprise at what happened down the line.

"Three years later, all of a sudden they come with bulletproof vests and guns. They put me in handcuffs and they took me to jail," he says.

The government tells a very different story. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli says the state inspector put the undersized fish in a crate on board Captain Yates' boat and instructed him to bring the box back to shore, where he would be met by federal authorities.

Verrilli says that once the state inspector had left the boat, Yates instructed one of his crew: "Take that crate of fish, dump it overboard, and replace it with fish that were no longer undersized. And then the employee got back on shore and he ratted out his boss."

Yates was convicted of destroying evidence to impede a federal investigation and sentenced to 30 days in jail. He appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, contending that the law used to prosecute him was meant to apply to documents and records, not fish. He has a small army of supporters, particularly in the business community.

The federal government, however, argues that the law was clearly written and intended to be a broad anti-obstruction-of-justice law that would fill gaps in the criminal code that had long existed. The text of the law makes it a crime to destroy, alter or cover up "any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to ... impede or obstruct" the investigation of "any matter" within federal jurisdiction.

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Robel Phillipos, center, departs federal court Oct. 28 in Boston with defense attorney Derege Demissie, right, after he was convicted on two counts of lying about being in the dorm room of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev three days after the bombing in 2013, while two other friends removed a backpack containing fireworks and other potential evidence.

Stephan Savoia/AP

The government looks at that language and says the plain meaning covers more than just financial records. Indeed, for more than a decade, federal prosecutors have used the statute in obstruction cases involving everything from terrorism to environmental safety violations; the "tangible object" that defendants sought to alter or destroy has included human bodies, bloodstains, guns, drugs, cash and automobiles. Most recently, the statute was used to win the conviction of a Boston man for helping the accused Boston Marathon bomber conceal physical evidence of his crime.

At the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Assistant Public Defender John Badalamenti, representing captain Yates, will tell the justices that the government's argument is a huge overreach.

"This statute does not cover the destruction of anything but records or documents," he says. Indeed, he notes, the title of this section of the law is "Destruction and Alteration of Records" and, he contends, the purpose of the law was to prevent and punish obstruction in the financial industry.

"I would not dispute that anything can be a tangible object under the broadest dictionary definition. But they have to be read in the context of all the words that Congress legislated," Badalamenti says.

Supporting the argument and opposing the government's position is a phalanx of business organizations, as well as defense and civil liberties lawyers. They contend that if the Court upholds the government's broad reading of the statute, it will give prosecutors the power to seek penalties of up to 20 years in prison if an individual destroys any object, no matter how trivial, with the intent of obstructing a federal investigation.

The government replies that the "records only" argument would make it a crime for a murderer to destroy his victim's diary, but not the murder weapon.

Source: npr.org

Taste of Ethiopia to open on South Congress in 2015

By Matthew Odam

Taste of Ethiopia restaurant owners Woinee Mariam, left, and her husband, Solomon Hailu. (Credit: Mike Sutter AMERICAN-STATESMAN)

Woinee Mariam plans to open a South Austin location of her excellent Pflugerville restaurant, Taste of Ethiopia, next spring in the mixed-use development at 3801 Congress Ave. Mariam says she hopes to be open by March.

Below is my 2009 mini-profile of Mariam and her husband Solomon Hailu’s family and their journey from the Washington D.C. are to Austin:

From caring for her family to preparing a sublime array of traditional Ethiopian dishes at her Taste of Ethiopia restaurant in Pflugerville, Woinee Mariam throws her heart and soul into everything she does.

That passion compelled her to sit for four hours on the hard floor of her daughter’s new school in Washington, D.C., nearly three years ago.

Her daughter, Hewan, is autistic. And Mariam, dismayed by what she perceived as the disregard of the staff and apathy of the students, did not feel comfortable sending her to a new school that failed to meet the family’s standards. The determined mother wanted to take her daughter out of that school. Immediately.

After deciding with her husband, Solomon Hailu, that their family needed to relocate to find a better life, Mariam gathered their four adolescent children and moved to Cedar Park. Hailu, who would join the rest of the family soon after, had relatives here, and after researching school districts, the couple said they were certain the city would be a wonderful place to raise their children.

Upon her arrival in Texas 21/2 years ago, Mariam worked briefly at a bank before deciding it was time to realize her own dream. With the support of friends and family and an infectious exuberance, the small woman who had spent 17 years working in other people’s restaurants opened her own. Taste of Ethiopia was born.

Spend two minutes in the little restaurant painted with comforting natural hues or on the breezy patio area sweetly scented by jasmine, and as the sounds of Bob Marley and traditional Ethiopian music permeate the mood, you drift into the warm peace that comes with being a member of Mariam’s extended family.

That family includes John Durant, one of Mariam’s former bank co-workers, who offered for free the services of his design firm.

‘I knew they were just starting out, and the design and feel of the restaurant was the last thing on their minds, ‘ said Durant. ‘It was something that I felt drawn to do, to help my friends make their dream a reality. Woinee is a woman of energy and love.’

Mariam extends that love and positive energy to her customers, greeting all with the smile of someone who looks like she’s gotten away with something, as her eyes sparkle and her gregarious nature almost dares you to ask her a question. Once you have, it’s off to the races, your conversation pinballing from children to music to philosophy and, of course, food.

‘This is one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. I get to meet people from all walks of life, ‘ Mariam said. ‘There is nothing more satisfying than to see people come and dine and leave satisfied. I enjoy serving the first-timers who never had Ethiopian food. I see the skepticism in their eyes and hear it in their tone of voice. Then, I comfort them and explain the traditions and the food.’

Her people skills are surpassed by her hand in the kitchen. Each dish features fresh ingredients, traditional spices from Ethiopia and a balance of robust and subtle flavors that make each item its own revelation.

”All dishes have to be as authentic as they can be, cooked with spices from Ethiopia, ‘ Mariam said. ‘I credit my mom for teaching me the essence of cooking.’

‘What I learned during my early years has paid off, ‘ she said. ‘Major holidays such as New Year, Easter (the end of a 60-day fasting season), Christmas and other holidays are celebrated by preparing a major feast consisting of the dishes that are being served at the restaurant.’

With her gratitude, easy nature and love for food and people, Mariam has brought that sense of celebratory and communal feasts to Taste of Ethiopia.

A choice made in the best interests of a family has become a boon to the food lovers of greater Austin.

For Woinee Mariam and Solomon Hailu, the days of searching for the right home seem well behind them.

‘It’ll take a bulldozer to move me from Austin, ‘ Hailu said.

Taste of Ethiopia’s vegetarian sampler with yellow split peas, red split lentils, collard greens, a stew of string beans and carrots and a combo of cabbage and carrots. Also present are the beef dishes chefuye and tibbs. (Credit: Mike Sutter AMERICAN-STATESMAN)

Below is Mike Sutter’s 2009 review of the restaurant, which he gave 8 out of 10:

I’m no Ph.D. in gastro-culturalism, but I’ve seen enough to know that Ethiopian food is a full-contact sport, at least the way it’s done at Taste of Ethiopia, a Pflugerville restaurant recommended to me by austin360.com colleague Matthew Odam (see previous page).

The meat and vegetable dishes might come to the table in boundary-respecting bowls of their own, but unless you put a stop to it, out they go onto this flying saucer of a platter lined with injera, the Horn of Africa’s answer to the tortilla or the pita.

From there, it’s a free-for-all. Sweet cabbage and carrots (tikil gomen) bump into grainy yellow split peas with the peppery warmth of turmeric (ater kik), which in turn get a good soak of peppery red sauce from the rosemary-scented simmered beef (tibbs). Tear off a piece of injera and wrap it around anything that looks good, or you might get left out.

Somehow, even in these Purell-ian times, this all makes sense, propelled by the warmth of hosts Woinee Mariam and her husband, Solomon Hailu, Ethiopian immigrants who opened Taste of Ethiopia in October. The restaurant joins Aster’s and Karibu in Austin as outposts for the country’s love affair with garlic, red berbere spice and ginger.

For our circular bounty, we ordered the beef tibbs described above ($10.95), a sampler of five vegetarian dishes ($17.95 for two, $11.95 for one) and a beef specialty called chefuye ($11.95). Mariam spooned the dishes into two sets of roughly equal portions within the big platter, explaining the spices and components of each one as she went, saving the robust tibbs for the center. In a basket to the side, injera played a host of roles: silverware, gravy mop, napkin. It’s truly a wonder bread.

In addition to the cabbage and split peas mentioned earlier, the vegetable sampler included chopped and steamed collard greens with a sly jalapeño and garlic bite (gomen), a robust stew of string beans and carrots tingling with ginger and tomato (fesolia) and aggressively spiced split lentils (yemisir wot) to keep things interesting. Brightly dressed salads of lettuce, tomato and onion took the tray’s four compass points.

But the winner of the cafe-pageant sash for Most Enigmatic Dish went to chefuye, an $11.95 collection of lean beef chunks the size of robin’s eggs warmed in clarified butter and served with collard greens and housemade cottage cheese. It’s important to say ‘warmed, ‘ because for all practical purposes, we’re talking about a fistful of raw meat. But the earthy spice warmed the mouth, and the meat was as yielding as the best tenderloin, though it came from the beef knuckle, also called the tip roast. The greens and soft cheese lent sweetness, bitterness and sour creaminess to the dish, making it a fully rounded flavor experience.

Judging from its humble home in a catch-all strip mall that includes a Mexican barbecue, a nail shop and an Asian restaurant, I didn’t expect atmosphere from Taste of Ethiopia, exactly. But with muted ochre walls, a gallery-quality photo installation of Ethiopian men on horseback and a side patio tented with billowing tan fabric, the setting matched the food for its embracing warmth.

Speaking of warmth, the place gets extra-credit points for its Ethiopian coffee fortified with cardamom and cinnamon, the better to elbow out your tablemates for first dibs on the tibbs.

Source: http://dining.blog.austin360.com/

Uhuru Leaves for IGAD Summit in Ethiopia

President Uhuru Kenyatta left the country early Thursday to attend the 28th Extra-Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

The Plane carrying the President and his delegation departed Jomo Kenyatta International Airport shortly after 9.00 a.m and was seen off by Deputy President William Ruto, Chief of Defence Forces General Julius Karangi and other senior government officials.

The IGAD leaders are meeting to discuss how best the remaining barriers to the South Sudan peace process can be resolved.

A recent consultative forum of regional leaders in Juba endorsed the IGAD Summit in the wake of significant progress made in the on-going negotiations in Addis Ababa and Arusha.

Delegates of the three rival groups of the South Sudanese ruling party met in Arusha in September in an intra-party dialogue process hosted by the Tanzanian ruling party and agreed on a framework to end the civil strife.

The factions of the ruling party, the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement (SPLM) of President Kiir, SPLM-in-Opposition of former Vice President Riek Machar and former detainees signed a framework agreement which aims at addressing the root causes of the conflict.

Source: AllAfrica

Ethiopia Electric Power Developing 300 MW Of New Solar Projects

The East African country of Ethiopia will be seeing a pretty substantial solar energy buildout in the next few years, based on the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding between Ethiopian Electric Power and Green Technology Africa.

The deal will see US-based Green Technology Africa (GTA) aid Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) in the development of 300 MW of new solar projects in Ethiopia — with the aim of helping the country hit its goal of expanding electricity capacity from the current 55% coverage to 75% by the end of 2015.

Further details about the deal have yet to be publicly revealed. Though it’s part of the country’s new $600-million-strong solar energy investment plan.

The solar push follows pretty closely on the heels of the country’s recent (substantial) investments into hydro, geothermal, and wind energy projects.

As per GTA, the recent moves by the Ethiopian governments are worth lauding, as the country has been “supporting organizations that have been launched internationally by Ethiopians that have acquired years of training and professional expertise overseas and choose to return home to go with local specialists to demonstrate best practices and solutions for a greener Ethiopia.”

The company’s president, Dereje Mesfin, speaking to the Ethiopian newspaper The Reporter, noted that the company was planning to seeks project financing via the US’ Power Africa initiative — launched back in 2013 with the aim of increasing the number of people in Sub-Sahara Africa with access to electricity.

As per the new deal, GTA is set to develop projects in the cities of Dire Dawa, Kombolcha, and Desse — following on the completion of feasibility studies. The current expectation is for the project to begin construction in around six months time.

Image Credit: GTA

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Source:http://cleantechnica.com/2014/11/05/ethiopia-electric-power-developing-300-mw-new-solar-projects/

Fishing is not all about catching fish

By Myra Starkey

Last weekend, Taylor and I went fishing in Rockport. We are not experts in this pastime.
In fact, the only fish I caught in the past year was with my friend, Clay. When I say I caught a fish I mean that I only caught one stinking fish. It was a decent size redfish that I caught while wading using a chunk of fresh-cut mullet.
That was a year ago, and I haven't caught a fish since.
Lately, fishing has been on my mind since the weather is cooling and a day on the water fishing is just what I needed for some relaxation.
I mentioned to my co-workers at the clinic on Friday that I was going to go fishing. They are aware that I don't know how to fish.
They returned from their lunch hour with artificial bait that would surely put me at the top of my game.

Lisa bought me fishing tape, which looks like a strip of bubble gum and purports to keep the "stink off your hands and in the water," which is apparently a desirable trait for bait.
Jennifer brought me the equivalent of stinky rubber fish, which looked like they were mired in a clear gooey liquid. Upon opening the container I realized why the unscented fish tape was so popular.
With bait in hand I was ready for a weekend of catching fish. My friend, Susan, joined us for the weekend in Rockport. She, Taylor and I set out with an ice chest full of ice, fishing rods, a tackle box and my sure-to-catch-em bait.
Saturday morning was beautiful. The water was several shades of blue and green and the sky was full of puffy clouds. The air was crisp, so a day on the water required an extra layer of clothes.
We had all the gear plus a live bait well in our boat stocked with small mullet.
For me, I was going with the stinky artificial stuff. Another good reason for using the artificial bait is that you don't have to hook the little frantic mullet behind their fins and watch them wriggle and writhe on the hook.
This has always bothered me so I usually allow Taylor to perform this task and try not to think about it as I cast my line into the water.

I first used the stinky rubber fish, which was pink and white and looked real when it was in the water. Immediately, my cork went under and I let out a whoop but it was short lived and up came the cork. Down the cork plunged again, and I reeled it in only to find the rubber tail missing from the fish.
Susan is a better fisherwoman than me, so I was eager to hear her pointers. She offered a few, like not constantly reeling in my line and how to avoid the bird nest tangle, which is inevitable if you are me.
I threw the fake fish back in and sniffed. The bad smell was coming from my fingers, which were beyond stinky after handling the lure. Despite the fact that I tried to wash them in the water they remained fragrant like I had dipped them in rotten fish sauce.
After about a half hour of my cork going under and resurfacing without catching a fish, I was ready to move locations. Taylor and Susan were using live bait and having no luck either so off we went to another fishing area a little farther down the Intracoastal.
I should mention at this point that we didn't know exactly where the fish were. We were looking for other boats with fisherman who appeared to be attentive and excited and would pull up in their general vicinity. If they looked bored there was no need to share in their lack of success.
Once in the past, when I noticed two guys pulling in one fish after another I begged Taylor to pull up beside them so I could ask what bait they were using. His reply, "That's against fishing etiquette," so I never found out their secret.
Our next location yielded the same results despite the fact that I changed to fishing tape. This bright pink strip attracted lots of fish who chewed on it until it was just a nub, but none of the nibblers were large enough to swallow the hook.
Taylor enjoys fishing. I mainly just like catching. I must admit the three of us were having so much fun despite the fact that the ice chest remained empty. It is often said that an expert is someone who only has to know more than you, so Susan was the expert in regards to fishing since she has been so often.
Susan announced that she was going to get out of the boat and wade fish thinking that being in the water with the fish might change her luck. She had on stingray boots and so she was outfitted for the "in water" experience.
I also had boots however was a little unsure of the dangers lurking below the murky water. I feared there might be some leviathan who loved stinky rubber fish and I certainly did not want to have to reel that in while I was in the same water with the creature.
I found safety in the boat not to mention that it contained all the drinks and snacks.
While Susan was waist deep in the cold water, Taylor and I had blue cheese and crackers, turkey and provolone cheese and a sparkling water.
I put my rod in the holder on the boat and relaxed while I nibbled. I saw the cork going under many times in the next hours as the creatures below also only nibbled.
Nothing swallowed my bait, so I passed the time daydreaming and looking at the brown pelicans that soared overhead. Several dolphin swirled near us, which is a sign that there were fish but maybe not the kind I hoped to catch.

Once Susan got back in the boat we ventured over to a patch of beach where shells had washed up and although I am a lousy fisherman I am great at finding interesting seashells. The three of us went in different directions each returning with beach treasures. I found olive shells and a large whelk, and Susan found at least a vase full of all sorts. We waded back to the boat and resumed our fishing adventure.

Next, we fished in shallow water with lots of sea grass and mud. I felt a pull and reeled in a large mass of sea grass, which had wound itself around my rubber fishing lure. This location proved to be better because when I reeled in my lure the next time the entire body of the rubber fish had been eaten. The cunning fish was wise enough to avoid the hook, except not so smart for eating a rubber fish.
I went home empty handed. Susan and Taylor fished as hard as me, perhaps harder, as I stopped multiple times for snacks. Fishing makes me hungry.
The three of us had to stop by the grocery store on the way home and pick up our catch of the day.
Susan and I wanted to try out my new spiralizer so I loaded all kinds of vegetables in my cart. A spiralizer is a type of kitchen gadget that cuts the vegetables in curly strings. I bought one in Houston last weekend and planned to make zucchini pasta with a red sauce. I was quite sure the zucchini would taste nothing like angel hair pasta. It is worth a try because I am trying to cut out white, starchy food from my diet. My doctor/husband swears that starches are the reason for weight gain, and I am willing to give it a try.
The spiralizer worked, and Susan and I were making mounds of the spaghetti-like strands from the zucchini.

I roasted tomatoes, onions, and garlic and made a red sauce and served it with salmon caught somewhere by real fisherman with a lot of luck.

Myra Starkey lives in Victoria. Write her in care of the Advocate, P.O. Box 1518, Victoria, TX 77901, or e-mail myra@vicad.com.

Source: https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2014/nov/04/fishing-is-not-all-about-catching-fish/

These Submersible Sensors Measure All the Ways Dams Brutalize Fish

Dams can be rough on migrating fish. Visitor7/Wikipedia

Hydropower dams provide almost half of the nation’s sustainable energy, but they can be death traps for fish, particularly juveniles headed downstream. In hopes of engineering more fish-friendly dams, scientists have created small aquatic sensors that record how fish would get spun, stunned, and barometrically burst in the hydroelectric gauntlet.
Called Sensor Fish, each is a sandwich of two circuit boards stuffed inside a water tight cylinder. They were first developed in the late 1990s by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, but the early versions were expensive and could only gather a limited amount of data. A paper in today’s Review of Sensor Instruments describes the latest version, which is better, and more cost-effective, at modeling fish stress than its predecessors.
Say you’re a juvenile salmon, or smolt, headed into a massive dam. Spinning turbine blades nearly chop you in half, but they are hardly the only danger. You can also be squashed against concrete, sheared apart by a sudden rush of high pressure water, or even blown up from the inside as your swim bladder expands from the rapid pressure drop on the far side of the turbine. Even if your fishy little body is intact on the other side, you might be so disoriented that you’re easy pickings for a hungry bird. It’s almost enough to make you wish you’d grown up in a nice, safe fish farm.
Sensor Fish records these bumps and pressure changes using an array of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and pressure sensors. These are sensitive enough to tell the sudden, jarring strike of a turbine blade from the gradual onslaught of a high-speed water jet. Auto-inflating balloons make them easy to find in the churning downstream dam water. In dam trials so far, the Sensor Fish’s pressure sensors have measured pressure drops equal to ascending the world’s tallest mountain in less than a second.
In order to correlate the Sensor Fish data with biological trauma, the researchers also inject smolt with tiny acoustic tags to track how far they make it through the dams. “This shows where the fish are getting injured,” said Daniel Deng, the lead scientist on the project, while the Sensor Fish measures exactly what physical stresses caused the injuries.
Sensor Fish will be an important tool for keeping the US’s dams operating as they get older, and need to be relicensed. They will also be useful in developing new types of dams capable of producing smaller, more localized hydro power in the US, and other, large scale projects overseas.
Deng says he doesn’t believe the data will lead to generalized standards, but rather a way of testing the conditions specific to each river, dam, and fish species passing through.

The first sensor fishes were shaped like real fish, but the researchers realized that they actually behaved more like small fish when shaped like cylinders. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Source: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/fish-sensor-hydropower-dam/

Did government go overboard in prosecuting fisherman? Justices hearing case of missing grouper

By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Did the federal government go overboard when it prosecuted a Florida fisherman for throwing undersized grouper off his boat?
Commercial fishing boat captain John Yates says he was wrongly convicted of destroying evidence — namely the fish — under a law passed in the wake of the Enron accounting scandal that was really meant to stop financial documents from being shredded.

The Supreme Court was to hear arguments Wednesday in a case that business groups and other critics have derided as an example of government overreach. The Obama administration says it simply was enforcing the plain language of a law that prohibits destruction of "any tangible object" during a federal investigation.
The case started in 2007 when a Florida fish and wildlife officer boarded Yates' boat in the Gulf of Mexico and discovered 72 grouper that appeared to be less than 20 inches long, the minimum length permitted by law. The officer ordered Yates to return to port so the fish could be seized.

But when the vessel arrived, the officer found only 69 undersized fish on board. The officer suspected these were not the same fish he had measured before. A crewmember later testified that Yates had ordered the undersized fish to be tossed overboard and replaced.

Prosecutors charged Yates under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, passed in response to the Enron accounting scandal when scores of documents were shredded to conceal wrongdoing. Part of the law prohibits knowingly altering or destroying "any record, document, or tangible object" with the intent to obstruct an investigation.

A federal jury convicted Yates of dumping the undersized fish. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail. The federal appeals court based in Atlanta upheld the conviction.
Yates argues that the phrase "tangible object" means items used to preserve information such as computers, servers or other storage devices. He says no one would reasonably expect that Congress intended the document-shredding provisions the law to apply to a fisherman throwing red grouper into the Gulf of Mexico.
Even former Rep. Mike Oxley, R-Ohio, who helped draft the law, submitted a brief arguing that it applies only to business records and devices that store records "like hard drives and CD-ROMs. Not fish."
But the administration argues that Congress wanted to address a loophole in federal law in which no statute expressly prohibited the destruction of evidence before legal proceedings had begun. The government says the text of the law makes no distinction between documents and other types of physical evidence.

Source:  Associated Press