Developing strict regulations for hemp products containing THC will be the main task facing Texas lawmakers when they return to Austin for the special session on July 21.
For the purposes of anonymity, let’s say I work at a penguin sanctuary. It is primarily a research facility, people love penguins, and we love teaching people about them, so we do tours. Generally, we only do tours for school groups or other educational groups. Tours also take a back seat to the actual research and the welfare of the penguins. Part of my job is to coordinate the tours and decide for any tour request if we can accommodate the group or not based on the availability and needs of the researchers and penguins.
About four years ago, a senior researcher, Wakeen, was fired for, among other things, sexual harassment. He is not allowed to visit our facility without express permission from our executive director. He does try to visit semi-regularly or otherwise stay involved in our work, annoyingly. (It’s been four years, dude, find another hobby.)
Recently, Wakeen requested tours on behalf of an organization that provides outdoor recreation opportunities for disadvantaged urban kids. Let’s call the organization OutdoorKidz. Wakeen does not work for OutdoorKidz, but I don’t know what his relationship with them is exactly. Normally, we would be delighted to try and accommodate tours for a group like this. However, we had to turn the group down for this summer. I didn’t want to tell Wakeen that I was denying his request because I’m not willing to subject my staff to him, so I told him that we could not accommodate his request on the dates he wanted. Which was true! He sent his request two weeks before the requested dates during a time of year that we get the most requests and can do the least amount of tours due to nesting season.
My boss would like me to reach out to OutdoorKidz directly and let them know that, basically, we will have a much easier time accommodating their requests if Wakeen is not involved. I am struggling to figure out the best way to do that. Part of me thinks I should be straight up with them that Wakeen is banned from our facility, so they should not ask him to book their tours or have him accompany them on the tours. Part of me thinks I should leave Wakeen out of it entirely. If I tell them that we need dates farther in advance and that they can just coordinate with me directly, maybe they’ll cut out Wakeen on their own. Since I don’t know what Wakeen’s relationship is to this group, I’m not sure how direct I can be. What’s my best option here?
Piece that I am not sure is relevant or not: OutdoorKidz is a religious organization. I hate to prejudge people I don’t know, but I know there is a tendency within some in this religion to “forgive” sexual harassers who have “repented.” I’m afraid that they won’t take that piece seriously. I, personally, don’t care if Wakeen has repented or changed or not. His past actions traumatized women here and I will not subject them to his presence.
My first thought was for you to simply tell Wakeen that due to his history with the facility, you can’t accommodate tour requests from him and someone else from OutdoorKidz will need to coordinate the visit … but I’m worried that that will just lead to the group never visiting, because Wakeen won’t want to admit the situation to them.
My second thought was whether you could tell him the visit request needs to be submitted by an official employee of OutdoorKidz, since he doesn’t appear to be one … but that’s just skirting the issue.
My third thought is that you should reach out to OutdoorKidz directly, say you weren’t able to accommodate Wakeen’s request because it was so last-minute but that you’d love to host the group in the future, and would they like to coordinate directly with you to arrange it? But that risks them saying yes and then kicking it back to Wakeen to coordinate.
Given all that, if you want to host this group and you want to leave Wakeen out of it, I think your boss is right. Contact OutdoorKidz and say Wakeen contacted you about arranging a visit and you’d love to host their group but Wakeen is a former employee of the sanctuary who unfortunately is no longer permitted at the facility, so is there someone else there you can coordinate with? You don’t need to explain why he’s no longer permitted there; they can draw whatever conclusions they want, and you’ll have gotten the essential info to them (would love to host them, needs to be coordinated by someone else).
Gov. Greg Abbott vowed Tuesday to continue rescue and recovery efforts in the flood-ravaged Hill Country “until every missing person is accounted for.”
CANYON LAKE, TX—Remarking that the 3-year-old didn’t even come close to stealing the show at a recent family wedding, witnesses reported Monday that they were unimpressed when a completely charmless flower girl walked directly down the aisle. “Sure, she did her job, but she utterly failed to delight us with any adorable toddling, spinning, or other childlike antics that would have really made her shine,” said guest Jackie Pearlman, noting that the entire audience watched stone-faced as the child calmly completed her assigned task instead of accidentally dropping her bouquet, nervously sucking her thumb, or giggling uncontrollably as she sprinted wildly around from pew to pew. “It’s unfortunate, because there were so many opportunities where she could have wandered around confused, stubbornly refused to wear her veil, or even tripped, fallen flat on her face, and burst out crying. Overall, there was nothing that made me want to crane my head around and gently chuckle. Not a fan.” Pearlman added that the flower girl was nothing compared to the completely charmless groom, who totally failed to show up drunk.
LOS ANGELES—Attributing her behavior to insecurity about the government, local woman Kirsten Sears told reporters Monday that she did not like eating in front of the surveillance state. “I try to remember the government is more interested in my ideology than my macronutrients, but still, every time, I get so embarrassed,” said Sears, who explained that she had developed the fear in adolescence around the time she started becoming self-conscious about her personal data and growing digital footprint. “I’d hate for Big Brother to see me with mustard on my face. Usually around lunch I’ll head to a stairwell, look around and realize that’s not safe, hop in my car, drive 150 miles to the desert, get out, and then walk 10 more miles by foot. I know it’s irrational, but I can’t stop imagining that every time I take a bite of my sandwich, Peter Thiel is thinking, ‘Oink, oink.’” At press time, Sears added that she restricted herself to neutral-colored foods to avoid satellite detection.
About two dozen people were still missing. Many more people could still be unaccounted for, officials warned, noting that visitors to the area for the July 4th weekend make it difficult to assess an exact number.
Flooding in Central Texas and the Texas Hill Country has killed at least 119 people, with 161 still missing in Kerr County. Rescue crews are still searching for missing people as more rain is expected. Here is a guide on how to help those affected.
A GOP state lawmaker who represents Kerr County says he likely would vote differently now on House Bill 13, which would have established a grant program for counties to build new emergency communication infrastructure.
On Sunday, as Kerrville began the long process of rebuilding after ruin, the unique horrors of what unfolded here Friday night hung thick over the whole town.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said during a press conference that the county doesn't have a warning system and that local officials were caught off guard.
CHARLOTTETOWN – Insurance manager Percy Gotell says he’s found a cure to the male loneliness epidemic. The social phenomenon was named when mental health experts noticed rising levels of loneliness, linked to factors like lack of social circles, difficulties in forming close friendships, and societal pressures around traditional concepts of masculinity. Gotell fights this epidemic […]
Now we’re talking, now we’re talking, a classic yarn around the campfire. And I am certain that Astir’s big-lunged shouting about the Grey Forest will cause absolutely no problems whatsoever. My pledge to you.
In brief: After yesterday’s post on Texas, we wanted to raise a couple additional points after some reactions. Plus, TS Chantal made landfall near Myrtle Beach and is now a flooding threat for North Carolina.
Texas comments
There remains a lot to unpack still after yesterday. The reaction to our post covered a rather broad spectrum, and I just want to emphasize a couple points.
1.) We have been on record as saying the proposed budget cuts to NOAA would be disastrous. We’ve had people throwing that back at us and saying “Wait a minute…” The reality is that there are a handful of key ways the budget cuts will impact offices, alerts, and warnings. First, the primary current cuts have led to understaffing in many offices. Relative to other offices, the NWS office in San Antonio/Austin is fairly well off. For example, they currently have seven more full-time staff members than the neighboring Houston office.
They are missing the warning coordination meteorologist, who primarily focuses on building understanding of warnings on what we call “blue sky” days. That work gets done before tragedies occur. That position has only been vacant for a couple months, so it likely did not play a role here. But it will if it is not filled in the coming weeks.
But the office has most of their meteorologist positions filled, as well as most of their hydrologists. From the warning perspective in real time, this plus the timeliness of issued warnings is why I don’t believe staffing was an issue here.
2.) Weather balloon launch cuts probably had little to no impact on this specific forecast. Again, I want to emphasize that the launch of the evening balloon at Del Rio was crucial to understanding the potential severity of the event, and this emphasizes that fully funding and staffing NWS offices to be able to launch balloons is critically important. The takeaway here is that funding NOAA leads to better understanding of unfolding weather, forecast weather, and real-time decision-making.
3.) Weather model forecasts were imperfect ahead of time, but as the event closed in, they performed as designed and did better. Why is this? Because of NOAA-led research. The HRRR and HREF models have been instrumental in improving our understanding of localized (or mesoscale) forecasts like this. We have a long way to go to perfect those forecasts, but they more often than not do their job in guiding the horses (meteorologists) to water. How will we improve those guidance tools more? By fully funding NOAA research. How will we reduce false alarms during potential high impact weather? By fully funding NOAA research. It comes back to that in the end.
4.) We need to understand the limits of predictability in these scenarios. Models often tell us about the potential for a high-end event. But in Texas in particular the specific placement of a high-end event is extremely tough to pin down. A few miles makes a world of difference, and I think it’s evident that we need to build some pad into rainfall forecasts beyond what we’re currently doing. These are works that are accomplished by having NWS meteorologists working together with local emergency managers to help improve knowledge and refine trigger points for warnings. Again, this points back to fully funding and staffing NOAA and NWS offices to accomplish this critical work. The private sector cannot fill this gap at all.
For the families dealing with unimaginable tragedy right now, none of this matters. They deserve time, privacy, and space to grieve. But for those not directly impacted, it’s important for us to push this dialogue to try to play a small part in our broader understanding of the problems and realities. And it’s important to do it immediately because those on the outside have short memories. But I again want to share our condolences to all those affected in some way.
Tropical Storm Chantal
Chantal made landfall earlier this morning near Myrtle Beach as a fairly spicy little tropical storm with winds of about 50 mph. We had a handful of gusts to 48, 54, and 56 mph between Bald Head Island in North Carolina and Murrells Inlet just south of Myrtle Beach, SC.
Chantal is rolling inland across North Carolina this morning. (Tropical Tidbits)
The main threat going forward from Chantal will be heavy rainfall. Flood Watches are now posted for the Piedmont in North Carolina and include Raleigh, Durham, and the Triad, as well as Fayetteville and Goldsboro to the south and east. Model forecasts suggest an average of 1 to 4 inches of rain, but depending on exactly how quickly Chantal pushes northward and weakens, there could be isolated pockets of 4 to 6 inches in spots, leading to some more serious flash flooding.
A slight risk (2/4) for excessive rainfall and flash flooding is posted for much of central North Carolina. (NOAA WPC)
Given what has happened lately, I think it would be important for folks in central North Carolina, particularly in flood-prone areas to be acutely aware of conditions through the day.
Chantal will dissipate over North Carolina later today, but some locally heavy rainfall could extend north into parts of Virginia, Delmarva, or even southern New Jersey tonight and tomorrow.
We don’t see anything else on the horizon right now in the Atlantic, but as always we’ll keep watching.
Housekeeping reminder
A lot of you have reached out to request ways to support our work beyond just reading, and we have (to this point) resisted that, other than various small sponsorships last hurricane season. And we are grateful for the interest many potential sponsors have shown this year too! However, we are going to try something else this year: subscriptions.
To be abundantly clear, our daily content will remain free, never paywalled, and that is not going to change as long as we operate this site. So, forever. This year, however, we will give readers who wish to support the site the option to do so at a modest cost, as well as a premium option for people who want a little bit more access. We will have more information on this soon.
The first step in this process is to migrate our email newsletter over to the Substack platform. If you currently subscribe to The Eyewall via email, your email should roll over to our Substack without you having to do anything. We understand a few people have various concerns about the Substack platform, and some of the content posted there by other writers. If you decide to unsubscribe from emails, we understand. But the benefits of this route outweigh the potential costs. The primary issue is that WordPress caps our email subscribers, and the process to manage an account is not user-friendly. For a site with a limited budget such as ours, this is the best way to ensure the continued delivery of an email newsletter with our content. We will still continue to post here at The Eyewall.com, but updates will not be sent via email from here.
Also: Nothing at all is changing with Space City Weather. So for our Houston readers, our site, email, and annual fundraiser is not changing! This only applies to The Eyewall.
Our target date for this migration of The Eyewall newsletter to Substack is tomorrow, Monday, July 7th. We hope that this will offer us the flexibility to do more things, offer more options, more content, and a better overall user experience as time goes on. Thanks for your support!
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