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In the movies, when someone quits their terrible job to do the thing they love, the burden is immediately lifted. In reality, getting to the job you love is a long, arduous process and you’ll probably hate it for a while.

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Even if you’re pretty good about washing your bed sheets, it’s easy to forget that your mattress can use a good cleaning every now and again too. This simple three-step method will make your mattress seem like new again.

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Bettas exhibit many signs of sickness, from lethargy to white spots. Any time you suspect a betta is sick, you should take it away from other fish, so that he doesn't pass his sickness on.^[1] Additionally, you may not be able to find medications for bettas in a pet store or even a fish store. If you can't, you can find them online.^[2]

EditSteps

EditLooking for Signs of an Unhealthy Betta Fish

1. Watch out for faded coloring. When a betta gets sick, his coloring may look faded out. He may even lose his color altogether.^[3]
   
2. Keep an eye on your betta's fins. In a healthy betta, its fins will be whole. An unhealthy betta may develop holes or rips in its fins.^[4]
   
   • Another unhealthy sign is if your betta's fins appear clamped down to the body; that is, they aren't fanned out properly.^[5]
3. Look for lethargy. If your betta is sick, his activity level will go down. He won't be his normal, active self. His movements will slow down some.^[6]
   
   • Another sign of sickness is your fish hiding out at the bottom of the tank more often than normal.^[7]
4. Watch your betta's eating habits. With some sicknesses, your fish may stop eating altogether. If your betta appears uninterested in food, he could be sick.^[8]
   
5. Check for spots. Look for small, white spots, especially around the head and mouth. This symptom can be a sign of a certain type of parasite, called Ich.^[9]
   
6. Look for breathing problems. It may sound funny to check a fish for breathing problems. However, if your betta is constantly at the top of the tank trying to get more air, that is likely a sign of a problem.^[10]
   
7. Watch for your betta to rub or scratch. If your betta is trying to rub against the side of the tank, that could be a sign of a problem. Similarly, if your betta is trying to scratch on plants or objects in the tank, he might also be sick.^[11]
   
8. Look for other physical symptoms. Bulging eyes can be a sign of sickness. Watch for your betta's eyes protruding from its head.^[12]
   
   • Raised scales can also be a symptom of sickness.^[13]
   • Watch his gills. If he's unable to close his gills, they may be swollen, another sign of sickness.^[14]

EditDealing with Constipation

1. Look for signs of swelling. If your betta fish suddenly swells, he may be constipated. You need to treat this problem soon.^[15]
   
2. Stop regular food for several days. The first way to help constipation is to stop his regular diet for a few days. That will give him time to digest and move food through his system.^[16]
   
3. Feed him live food. After a couple of days, start feeding him again. However, you should stick to live food for a little while.^[17]
   
   • For live food, you can feed brine fish or blood worms. The general rule on how much food to provide is give enough food so that your betta can eat for two minutes. Do so twice a day.^[18]
4. Don't feed him as much. Constipation is generally a sign you are feeding your betta too much. Therefore, once he starts eating normally again, you need to feed him less than you were.^[19]
   

EditDiagnosing Fin/Tail Rot and Fungal Infections

1. Look for shredded tails and fins.^[20] This disease can affect just the tail or just the fins. However, it gives them a shredded appearance.^[21]
   
   • Also, look for darker coloring near the end of the tail.^[22]
   • Watch for white patches with fungal infection. This disease is most often noticed by the white patches that appear on your fish. He may also have clumpy fins or be less active than normal. While a fungal infection is different from fin rot, they are treated in much the same way.^[23]
2. Change the water. The first step is to change out the water. Of course, you need to remove your fish to another container while doing so. This disease often develops from dirty water, so you need to provide a clean environment for your fish.^[24] You should clean the tank before putting water back in.^[25]
   
   • The best way to clean the tank is to use bleach at a 1 to 20 ratio with water. Let the mixture sit in the tank for about an hour. You can leave the fake plants and scoop in this mixture but not the rocks or gravel, as they can absorb the bleach^[26]
   • Make sure you rinse it several times after cleaning it.
   • For the rocks, bake them at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. Let them cool before adding them back in.^[27]
3. Use a medication. You will give your betta tetracycline or ampicillin, which you add to the water. How much you add depends on the size of the tank, but you will find directions on the package.^[28]
   
   • You will also need to use a fungus eliminator. That will keep the growth out of the water.^[29]
   • If your betta just has a fungal infection, he won't need tetracycline or ampicillin, but he will need fungus eliminator.^[30]
4. Repeat the process. Change the water at least every 3 days. Every time you change the water, add the medication back in. Only stop when the betta fins seem to be growing back in, which can take up to a month.^[31]
   
   • For fungal infections, look for the white patches and other symptoms to disappear. When they do, treat the tank with Bettazing or Bettamax to help eliminate the fungus.^[32]

EditDealing with Velvet

1. Shine a flashlight on your fish. One way to see velvet is to use a light directly on your fish. The light will help you see the shimmer of gold or rust that this disease can produce on the scales. Your fish will exhibit other symptoms, such as lethargy, loss of appetite, and rubbing or scratching himself against walls or items in the aquarium. He may also have clamped fins.^[33]
   
   • This parasite can be prevented by adding aquarium salt and water conditioner to your tank on a regular basis.^[34] You need to add 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt for 2 1/2 gallons of water. You also need a drop of water conditioner per gallon, though always read the instructions that come with your water conditioner.^[35]
2. Use Bettazing. This medication is the most effective against velvet because it has two agents in it that work against the disease. Add 12 drops per gallon of water.^[36]
   
   • You can also use a medication called "Maracide".^[37]
   • Continue treating until the fish doesn't exhibit symptoms anymore.
3. Treat the whole tank. You should still isolate the affected fish, but you should treat the original tank as well. This disease is very contagious.^[38]
   
   • To isolate affect fish, you need to move them to a separate tank with clean water. You need to provide treatment to both tanks.

EditTreating Ich

1. Look for white spots all over the body. Ich is a parasite that produces spots on the body. Also look for clumped fins and lethargy. He may also stop eating.^[39]
   
   • Like velvet, this parasite is preventable if you treat the water right.^[40] Add 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt for a 2 1/2 gallons of water. For water conditioner, use a drop per gallon of water, though always read the directions first.^[41]
2. Try raising the temperature for ich. If you have a large community tank, you can try raising the temperature to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, which will kill off the parasite. However, don't do it if your tank is smaller, as you may mistakenly raise the water too much and kill off your fish.^[42]
   
3. Change and clean the bowl. With ich, you should change the water. Also, take time to clean out the water, as noted under the section about fin and tail rot and fungal infections.^[43] In a smaller tank, you can remove the fish first, clean it, and then heat the water to 85 degrees Fahrenheit before putting the fish back in.^[44]
   
4. Treat the water. Be sure to put in aquarium salt and water conditioner before returning your fish to the tank. That will keep the tank from reintroducing the parasite to your fish.^[45]
   
5. Add Aquarisol. Use one drop of this medication per gallon of water. You can continue to add it everyday until the fish gets better. The medication kills off the parasites.^[46]
   
   • If you don't have "Aquareisol", Bettazing can be used in a pinch.^[47]

EditTreating Popeye

1. Look for bulging eyes. The main symptom of this disease is the fish's eyes protruding from its head. However, sometimes this problem is a symptom of another disease rather than disease itself.^[48]
   
   • For instance, it can be a symptom of tuberculosis.^[49] If it is tuberculosis, the fish will likely not make it.^[50]
2. Change and clean the tank. For popeye, you should provide a clean tank, as noted in earlier sections. In addition, change out the water.^[51]
   
3. Introduce ampicillin. Ampicillin will treat the problem if it's not a symptom of something worse. You need to add this medication every time you change the water and clean the tank, which should happen every 3 days. Continue this regimen for a week after you stop seeing signs of the problem.^[52]
   

EditWarnings

• Your betta can get other diseases that are not treatable. For instance, dropsy is a fatal disease contracted by bettas. With this disease, your betta's stomach will be bloated, and when you view the betta from the top, you will notice the scales aren't flush with the body. Instead, they will be raised. You cannot treat dropsy; however, you should isolate your fish from other fish if he shows signs of the disease.^[53]

EditRelated wikiHows

• Take Care of a Betta Fish
• Cure Betta Fish Diseases
• Clean a Five Gallon Fish Tank
• Breed Blue Gouramis
• Acclimate Your Betta

EditSources and Citations

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NEW YORK (AP) — A New York prosecutor won’t pursue a disorderly conduct case against a postal carrier whose caught-on-camera arrest sparked outrage.

Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said Thursday that the charge against Glen Grays was dropped in the interest of justice.

An overwhelmed Grays thanked the bystander who filmed his March 17 arrest.

Officials say Grays was handcuffed after shouting at the driver of a car that sped past his parked postal truck.

That car was actually an unmarked police vehicle carrying three officers and a lieutenant in plainclothes.

Video shows them getting out of the car and aggressively confronting Grays, pushing him against a door.

The officers were transferred as internal affairs detectives investigate. The lieutenant has been stripped of his gun and badge.

Union spokesmen didn’t immediately return messages.

The post Charges dropped against on-duty mailman cuffed by NY police appeared first on WTOP.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Professional wrestler Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka suffered so many blows to the head during his long career — even getting a coconut smashed on his skull — that he now suffers from dementia and is mentally incompetent to stand trial in the death of his girlfriend more than three decades ago, a psychologist testified Friday.

Snuka’s severe mental impairment also stems from a history of abusing alcohol and cocaine, Dr. Frank Dattilio testified at the wrestling star’s competency hearing.

Snuka was charged with murder and involuntary manslaughter last year in the 1983 death of 23-year-old Nancy Argentino, who was from New York. Snuka’s lawyer asserts he doesn’t understand the charges or even know he was arrested.

Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach, after hearing from prosecution and defense experts, will decide if Snuka is competent to stand trial.

Snuka, who was in the courtroom for Friday’s hearing in Allentown, has pleaded not guilty and is free on bail. His attorney, Robert Kirwan II, has called Argentino’s death an “unfortunate accident.”

Dattilio, testifying for the defense Friday, said he had a “hell of a time” trying to get even basic background information from Snuka. The psychologist said Snuka can’t assist in his own defense and quoted one of Snuka’s doctors as saying he’s a “shell of a man.”

“This is permanent damage, and he’s not likely to be restored to competence,” Dattilio said.

He recounted an infamous televised scene from 1984 in which another wrestler, Roddy Piper, broke a coconut over Snuka’s head. He said one side of the coconut had been shaved down so that it would easily break, but Piper inadvertently used the hard side of the fruit on Snuka’s skull.

The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday, when a prosecution expert will testify.

Prosecutors assert Snuka is well enough to stand trial. During cross-examination Friday, they played a video that showed him in the ring as recently as last year — even doing his trademark move, the Superfly Splash, albeit from the second turnbuckle instead of the top.

Another video showed him giving an interview recently in which he appeared lucid and in character.

Snuka is trying to avoid trial in a case that was long dormant.

The wrestler had been at a World Wrestling Federation taping at the Allentown Fairgrounds, and he told police shortly after Argentino’s death that he had returned to their Whitehall Township hotel room to find her unresponsive in bed. She was pronounced dead at a hospital several hours later.

An autopsy determined she died of traumatic brain injuries and had more than three dozen cuts and bruises, and it concluded her injuries were consistent with being hit with a stationary object. But the probe went cold, and Snuka continued his high-profile pro wrestling career.

After a 2013 story by The Morning Call newspaper raised questions about the case, Argentino’s sisters approached Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin, who reopened the investigation.

A grand jury report said Snuka, a Fiji native who lives in Waterford Township, New Jersey, had provided more than a half-dozen shifting accounts of Argentino’s injuries, at first telling paramedics he hit her during an argument outside their hotel room and she struck her head on concrete, then saying to police she slipped and fell during a bathroom break on their way to the hotel.

The grand jury also said it heard evidence that Snuka beat Argentino four months before her death and repeatedly assaulted his wife, Sharon Snuka, in the fall of 1993. Snuka has long maintained his innocence.

Snuka was known for diving from the ropes in a career that spanned four decades. He was admitted into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1996, according to the organization’s website.

The post Doctor: Ex-wrestler Superfly mentally incompetent appeared first on WTOP.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee police officer tried to prevent the arrests that would embroil his department in a national furor over policing in schools, but his colleagues and supervisors refused to change course.

They insisted on arresting children as young as 9 years old at their elementary school and took them away— two in handcuffs — in view of waiting parents to a juvenile detention center as the school day came to an end.

What followed in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, was an unusually public examination of how police handle children suspected of wrongdoing. Amid protests from parents and community leaders, the incident put the new police chief, Karl Durr — who had come from Oregon less than two weeks earlier — in a tough spot.

The chief formed a committee with a mandate to examine the situation. It found a series of internal conflicts and miscommunications between police and school authorities leading up to the arrests on April 15. The committee’s report, though partially redacted, lays bare a reality that frustrates many parents in communities across the nation: Officers assigned to schools often have wide leeway when handling juveniles, and the interests of children don’t always come first.

Ten children, all African-Americans 9 to 12 years old, were taken to the juvenile detention center that day. Their alleged crime: taking part in some off-campus neighborhood bullying weeks earlier. Some kids had recorded the bullying on their smartphones. An excerpt posted online shows a group of kids following and taunting a boy who shakes off some punches from smaller children.

The report says Officer Chris Williams wasn’t aware of the planned arrests at Hobgood Elementary when he arrived. He later was told the students would be pulled out of class just before the afternoon bell. Bad idea, he thought.

The school’s principal, Tammy Garrett, also tried to intervene, texting another officer to ask why the children couldn’t be arrested at their homes, to avoid a spectacle during the school’s afternoon dismissal.

But the text went unanswered, and two other officers who had concerns remained silent. And as Williams went up the chain of command, he was told to follow orders.

The bullying episode took place off school grounds, and was posted on YouTube on March 20. It’s not clear exactly when it happened, and why officers waited for weeks to make the arrests at school. Murfreesboro Police spokesman Kyle Evans said in an email that state law prohibits him from answering these questions. Juvenile court petitions show 10 children — mostly boys — were charged with “criminal responsibility for the actions of another.”

The report recommends 16 areas for improvement, including “establish protocol for juvenile operations in schools,” and seeing that police supervisors are “proactively and fully addressing concerns of other officers.” A group of local ministers is involved, recommending firmer standards and lines that shouldn’t be crossed.

The officer who obtained the petition against the children has since been transferred, and a supervisor is on paid leave while under investigation.

The report places no blame on Williams, who did not respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment. But he apologized to his congregation and others during a public meeting at the First Baptist Church of Murfreesboro, with Chief Durr in the audience.

Williams told the crowd his wife had only seen him cry twice: when his grandfather died and after the children were arrested, according to a report from WKRN.

“The principal shed tears, the vice principal shed tears, and the office staff shed tears,” Williams added.

His pastor, the Rev. James McCarroll, said he thinks the new chief and other local officials want juvenile justice reforms that could create “a model for the rest of the country.”

This goes way beyond Rutherford County, he said: “The school-to-prison pipeline is a problem around the country.”

Lawyers and juvenile justice experts say it shows what can go awry when adults don’t consider what’s best for the children.

Nationwide, their treatment in criminal justice situations varies widely. Some states, counties and cities allow even young children to be arrested; others don’t. Some bar the shackling and handcuffing of kids; others make no exceptions. Some allow police to issue citations to juveniles rather than arrest them. Some require parents to be present when children are interrogated.

Whether to arrest a child at school for a minor offense committed off campus is a decision that varies by police agency, said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. The organization’s guidelines for restraining or arresting kids is focused on children with special needs, he added.

Unlike some other states, Tennessee doesn’t have a minimum age for when a child can be arrested. And under Rutherford County’s rules, children must be brought to the juvenile detention center for even the most minor infractions, unless an officer decides to issue a verbal warning.

“I can’t understand why we would treat a juvenile more harshly then we are treating adults who are accused of a crime,” said Tom Castelli, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.

There is no clear national data showing how often children are handcuffed like adult criminals for relatively minor offenses, said Terry Maroney, a law professor at Vanderbilt University.

“It’s safe to think this happens less frequently than you fear, but more than what you would like,” Maroney said.

___

This story has been corrected to show the elementary school name is Hobgood, not Hopgood.

The post Arrest of Tennessee children exposes flawed juvenile justice appeared first on WTOP.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The nation’s biggest producer of valuable baby eels is nearing the close of a much more productive harvesting season.

The state’s baby eels, called elvers or glass eels, are a major fishery because they are prized by aquaculture companies and demand for them is high. Fishermen in Maine, the only state with a significant elver fishery, are allowed to catch about 9,700 pounds of the elvers every spring.

Fishermen are within 900 pounds of the quota, and the elvers have sold for about $1,450 per pound this year — less than last year’s record of nearly $2,200, but easily enough for a greater total value.

Asian aquaculture companies buy the elvers to use as seed stock so they can be raised to maturity and used as food, including sushi, some of which comes back to America.

Fishermen fell well short of their quota last year, when they only caught about 5,300 pounds, in part because of a long and harsh winter. This year’s winter was much milder, which allowed fishermen to get started earlier.

“Last year’s crazy cold winter delayed everything severely,” said Mitchell Feigenbaum, an elver dealer. “This was a good season. There’s always demand for our glass eels.”

American eels have become more valuable in recent years because of a decline in eel populations in Europe. Environmentalists sought to list American eels under the Endangered Species Act, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the idea last year.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora includes European eels in its list of animals that must be controlled to protect their survival. The American eel is not on the CITES list.

Maine’s elver season will shut down when fishermen hit the quota. It officially ends for the year on June 7, a week later than the previous season. The state extended the season in the hopes that fishermen would have more time to reach the quota, but it’s doubtful they will need it.

The post Harvest season for biggest US producer of baby eels wraps up appeared first on WTOP.

NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists say a stone knife and other artifacts found deep underwater in a Florida sinkhole show people lived in that area some 14,500 years ago.

That makes the ancient sinkhole the earliest well-documented site for human presence in the southeastern U.S., and important for understanding the settling of the Americas, experts said.

The findings confirm claims made more than a decade ago about the site, some 30 miles southeast of Tallahassee. At that time, researchers reported evidence that humans were there some 14,400 years ago. But in an era when such an old date was widely considered impossible, other experts disputed the evidence, said Mike Waters of Texas A&M University in College Station.

The sinkhole was “just politely ignored,” he said.

Waters was among a new team of scientists who excavated there from 2012 to 2014. They report finding the knife and stone flakes in a paper released Friday by the journal Science Advances. The new work offers “far better” evidence for early humans than the earlier research did, he said.

The sinkhole is nearly 200 feet wide. In ancient times, it had a shallow pond at the bottom. That offered fresh water and a gathering point for animals, which “probably would have been easy pickings” for hunters who saw them trapped in the deep depression, Waters said.

Today, the sinkhole is filled with about 30 feet of water, and it took divers equipped with head-mounted lights to look for artifacts. It was “as dark as the inside of a cow, literally no light at all,” said Jessi Halligan, the lead diving scientist and an assistant professor of anthropology at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

They found the knife while digging with a trowel. It’s a couple of inches long and about an inch wide, sharpened on both sides.

To determine its age, the researchers used nearby mastodon dung, which contained twigs that could be analyzed. The twigs, and therefore the knife, were found to be about 14,550 years old.

Man-made stone flakes were found to be about the same age. The scientists also examined a mastodon tusk recovered in 1993, and confirmed that its long, deep grooves were made by people, probably as they worked to remove the tusk from a skull.

The first people in North America are thought to have crossed a now-submerged land bridge from Siberia to Alaska. From there, people spread southward. Waters said the age of the sinkhole artifacts adds to evidence that people may have migrated south from Alaska as early as 16,000 years ago by boat along the coast, because inland Canada was blocked by ice sheets until 2,000 years later.

Halligan said the ancient visitors to the sinkhole could have been the Southeast’s first snowbirds, moving south for the winter and north for the summer. They could have followed mastodons, whose remains have been found as far north as Kentucky, she said.

“They were very smart about local plants and local animals and migration patterns,” she said.

In American archaeology, sites showing signs of human presence more than about 13,000 years are called “pre-Clovis,” since they predate the Clovis era of widespread human occupation.

Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History said that he ranked the sinkhole with two locations in Pennsylvania and Virginia as “the best-dated and oldest pre-Clovis sites yet found in North America.”

While the other two sites are older, “the Florida site has a major role to play in learning the story of the peopling of the Americas,” said Stanford, who didn’t participate in the research.

Another expert, James Adovasio of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton agreed, saying it promises to shed light on “early Native American lifestyle in an environment where these lifestyles are very poorly defined.”

___

Science writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Texas A&M video of sinkhole exploration: http://bit.ly/1rVAYEe

Science Advances: http://advances.sciencemag.org

__

Follow Malcolm Ritter at http://twitter.com/malcolmritter His recent work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/malcolm-ritter

The post Early snowbirds? Florida sinkhole yields ancient artifacts appeared first on WTOP.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Latest on a Shell oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (all times local):

4 p.m.

Shell says vessels have begun skimming operations to clean up oil that leaked from a flow line at one of its drilling sites about 90 miles off the Louisiana coast.

The company says about 88,200 gallons of oil leaked Thursday from the line. The company says the skimmers will pick up what oil they can from the Gulf’s surface.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement says its investigators are on Shell’s Brutus platform to determine what caused the leak.

___

3:10 p.m.

Shell says crews are preparing to clean up an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after about 88,200 gallons of oil were released from a flow line about 90 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

Shell says five boats were dispatched to clean up oil they can skim off the surface of the Gulf.

The company says a remotely operated vehicle found a flow line as the source of the leak. The flow line is connected to four wells and Shell’s Brutus platform. Shell says the leak has been contained and that wells were shut in. It says drilling at the site has been stopped.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said there have been no reports of injuries. The agency is investigating the cause of the leak.

The post The Latest: Shell: Skimmers start cleanup of Gulf oil spill appeared first on WTOP.

MANSFIELD, Texas (AP) — A Siamese cat recently cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest living cat did not live to enjoy the title.

Scooter marked his 30th birthday on March 26. However, owner Gail Floyd of Mansfield, Texas, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Scooter had died by the time Guinness conferred its title on April 8.

Dr. Tricia Latimer, a Mansfield veterinarian, says Scooter had lived to the equivalent of about 136 human years.

Scooter wasn’t Guinness’ oldest cat of all time, though. That mark belongs to a fellow Texas cat who lived to be 38.

The post Scooter, briefly the world’s oldest living cat, dead at 30 appeared first on WTOP.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Homes located near a gas well blowout that spewed the nation’s largest-known release of methane had higher levels of toxic metals that could have caused symptoms Los Angeles residents have suffered from for months, public health officials said.

Tests found barium, manganese and vanadium more frequently and in higher concentrations in dust in homes located near the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said Friday.

The contaminants could be responsible for eye, nose, throat and skin irritation, but are not expected to cause long-term problems, the report said.

Some 8,000 families moved out of their San Fernando Valley homes after the gas well blowout in October, with many people complaining of persistent headaches, nausea and nosebleeds. Even after Southern California Gas Co. permanently sealed the well nearly four months later, a survey found a majority of homes continued to report health problems.

Health officials initially attributed symptoms to the stinky odorant added to make the gas detectable, but ailments such as rashes and bloody noses were not known to be caused by that chemical.

“It’s really interesting to see all these metals come out to confirm there’s probably more than one reason people have become sick,” said Alexandra Nagy, an environmental activist who wants the facility shut down.

The unusual patterns of metals found appear to have come from the well where gas is stored in a vacant oil field deep underground, said Michael Jerrett, chairman of the Environmental Health Sciences Department at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Some of the metals are trace elements of oil, and barium was an ingredient in the muddy brine used in unsuccessful attempts to plug the high-pressure leak, said Jerrett, who performed environmental testing in Porter Ranch homes.

During attempts to plug the well, an oily mist was sprayed into the air and residents received robocalls telling them to stay inside.

“In a sense, we have a fingerprint that there was something that intruded into a large portion of houses related to hydrocarbons,” Jerrett said, though he couldn’t say for sure that the well was the source. “Barium would be the most direct link to the well leak itself.”

Health officials suggested residents take several measures to thoroughly clean and ventilate homes.

SoCalGas, which expects the leak to cost $665 million, mostly for relocation costs, said the report showed it’s safe to return home. Thousands of families remain uprooted.

“It is time for the residents who chose to remain relocated to exit the relocation program, and for the community as a whole to return to normal,” the company said in a statement.

Jerrett said he’s going to recommend that several homes where elevated levels of cancer-causing benzene and hexane, a neurotoxin, be tested further.

The report said it’s possible other contaminants are present in homes and ambient air, noting that the facility is the single-largest emitter of formaldehyde in the region.

It also said methane levels continue to be higher than expected and could be coming from another source.

The post Study finds toxic metals in Los Angeles homes near gas leak appeared first on WTOP.

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — A family grieving the death of an Alabama-born woman has a request for friends and relatives: Don’t vote for Donald Trump.

Relatives of 34-year-old Katherine Michelle Hinds published an obituary Friday in the Opelika-Auburn News that includes the line: “In lieu of flowers, do not vote for Donald Trump.”

Hinds’ mother, Susan Pool, says her daughter didn’t like the presumptive Republican nominee for president and feared for the future of her three young children if he’s elected.

Pool says her daughter would have liked the anti-Trump message in her obituary although they never talked about the possibility.

Hinds died April 29 near Seattle, Washington, where she had been living. Her father, Allen Hinds, says an autopsy is being performed to determine the cause of death.

The post Woman’s obituary: In lieu of flowers, don’t vote for Trump appeared first on WTOP.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) — The Latest on a high-speed police pursuit from Massachusetts to New Hampshire caught on video showing police pummeling a suspect who appeared to be surrendering (all times local):

3:45 p.m.

A Massachusetts State Police trooper has been suspended with pay after video captured him and other officers beating up a surrendering suspect following a wild car chase into New Hampshire.

Police spokesman David Procopio said the suspension handed down Friday is in effect until an investigation into Wednesday’s chase is complete.

He declined to elaborate on the decision or to release the officer’s name. He said the trooper is 32, has been on the police force since 2011 and was assigned to its Andover Barracks.

An unnamed New Hampshire state trooper has also been suspended.

The 50-mile pursuit started in Holden, Massachusetts, and ended in Nashua, New Hampshire.

News helicopter video captured the suspect, Richard Simone Jr., surrendering on the ground before officers punched him repeatedly.

___

1:00 p.m.

A Massachusetts State Police trooper is facing a disciplinary hearing on his involvement in a 50-mile car chase that ended with a violent takedown of a suspect in New Hampshire that was caught on video.

The closed-door hearing was scheduled for Friday afternoon.

The unnamed trooper was relieved of duty Thursday pending the hearing, which is meant to determine whether he’s suspended or placed on another work status as the investigation continues.

An unnamed New Hampshire state trooper has also been suspended.

The 50-mile pursuit started in Holden, Massachusetts, and ended in Nashua, New Hampshire. News helicopter video captured the suspect, Richard Simone Jr., surrendering on the ground before officers punched him repeatedly.

The post The Latest: Trooper suspended after beating caught on tape appeared first on WTOP.

PAHRUMP, Nev. (AP) — Three Nevada men have been questioned by investigators about vandalism in an environmentally fragile area of Death Valley National Park that may have killed one of the rarest fishes on earth, officials said Friday.

No arrests have been made in the April 30 intrusion while authorities continue to investigate what could be a federal crime, Nye County Sheriff’s Sgt. David Boruchowitz said. He said evidence includes DNA and video recordings.

The men from Pahrump, Indian Springs and North Las Vegas may be held responsible for the death of at least one critically endangered Devils Hole pupfish, Boruchowitz said, along with conspiracy, trespassing and damage to habitat charges.

Boruchowitz said a sheriff’s sergeant was able to identify an off-road vehicle seen in surveillance video and interview the owner in Pahrump. The other two men were contacted by telephone.

Investigators determined the three had been shooting rabbits in the area before they climbed a fence into Devils Hole, a protected sanctuary in Nevada just east of Death Valley National Park in California, Boruchowitz said.

Police say they fired at least 10 shotgun blasts in the preserve, hitting a motion sensor and shooting the locks off of two gates. The National Park Service said they left beer cans and vomit, and one man waded into Devils Hole, leaving his boxer shorts in the water.

Boruchowitz said two surveillance cameras and several signs also were damaged.

On Monday, one of the pupfish was found dead, the Park Service said, although it wasn’t immediately clear if it was due to the intrusion.

Just 115 of the inch-long fish were found in a periodic count last month in their hot spring-fed pool, which is more than 400 feet deep in parts but less than 2 feet deep where they feed.

The Park Service offered a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the intruders, and the Center for Biological Diversity added another $10,000.

Biologists closely monitor the rare species, which numbered more than 500 in the 1970s.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1976 barred groundwater pumping for agricultural use near the site because of its impact on Devils Hole.

The post Nevada sheriff: 3 questioned in endangered fish vandalism appeared first on WTOP.

DALEVILLE, Va. (AP) — Hungry bears have forced the closure of a shelter and campsite along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.

The Roanoke Times reports (http://bit.ly/1X4RVb6 ) that the Lamberts Meadow Shelter and campsite near Daleville could remain closed for several weeks.

Diana Christopulos of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club tells the newspaper that there were numerous bear sightings at Lamberts Meadow last weekend. Hikers reported bears getting food that had been tied up in a tree and even entering the shelter in search of snacks.

Christopulos says the bears weren’t aggressive; they were just looking for food. She says the goal is to fix the problem by cutting off the food supply.

___

Information from: The Roanoke Times, http://www.roanoke.com

The post Bears raid Appalachian campsite food stash, force closure appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON (AP) — District of Columbia officials are helping kids try their hand at fishing.

The city is hosting a free family fishing event on Saturday at Fletcher’s Cove on the C&O Canal.

City officials say that part of the C&O Canal will be specially stocked with fish, and kids can get help from expert instructors for free. Bait and loaner fishing gear are being provided at no cost.

No registration is required. The event is taking place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The post DC officials holding fishing event for kids appeared first on WTOP.

DUNKIRK, Md. — No offense, but Joe Cline’s car looks pretty strange.

“I’ve had people approach me in the city when I’m stopped at a red light … they want to ask me what the car’s about,” he said in an interview in a Dunkirk parking lot.

The black 1994 Honda Civic has what look like white teeth in the front and a funny-looking plastic wing or tail in the back.

“It really gets little kids excited. It’s pretty funny,” Cline said with a laugh.

And the car has a name: Dino. “Since it’s so old … it’s basically our dinosaur in our family,” he said.

Cline is a hypermiler, which means he tries to squeeze as many miles as he can out of every gallon of gas during his commute between Calvert County and the District.

The homemade plastic roof extension in back, called a kammback, looks a bit like a cape and is meant to reduce drag.

Cline also installed smaller-than-normal side mirrors for the same reason. And to reduce the weight of the car, he’s taken out the back seats.

Cline overinflates his tires, although that’s something AAA Mid-Atlantic advises against.

“The factory recommends 33 pounds at each corner, and I do 40,” he said.

Cline says the way you drive makes a difference too. For instance, speeding doesn’t help: “The higher you go, the more gas it takes to keep your vehicle at speed. Certain cars like certain ranges of miles per hour,” Cline said.

“My particular car does really well at 60. If I go 65, I start to reduce my miles per gallon, but if I go 55 I’m actually reducing too.”

If there’s a red light ahead, Cline slows down far in advance. “It actually makes more sense to slow down before you approach the light, so that when you get to the light it turns green and you’re already still rolling. That’s another thing that hypermilers do,” he said.

A message in big white letters on his rear bumper urges other drivers to “Go Around,” with arrows pointing left and right.

So are Cline’s changes really making a difference?

“[The] EPA estimate for this car when it was new was 38 miles to the gallon. I currently get 43 miles to the gallon every tank, and my best tank ever was 52 miles to the gallon,” he said.

He’s kept track of every single fill-up since September 2014, entering the information online at ecomodder.com.

The website estimates that during that time, Cline’s modifications and driving techniques have saved him a little over $150.

But the savings are much larger when you consider Cline used to drive a performance car that ran only on premium gas. He bought the Civic — which runs on regular unleaded gas — for $1,200.

“This car paid for itself in nine or 10 months. Now I’m in the green because I’ve been driving the car for three years,” Cline said.

“Even though it’s old, it’s still reliable — that’s part of the benefit of it. It’s also really, really inexpensive to maintain, which is great, because parts are plentiful and they’re cheap even when you have to buy them new.”

Consumer Reports tried out some of these hypermiling techniques and others, and you can read the results on their website.

The post The story behind a strange-looking car named Dino appeared first on WTOP.

In yet another attempt to align with consumers’ shifting food preferences, McDonald’s is testing hamburgers made from fresh ground beef instead of frozen patties.

Burgers like the Bacon Clubhouse and Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese are being made with fresh hamburger meat at 14 locations in the Dallas area, reports USA Today.

The patties are made from the same grade of beef as the frozen stuff, and are being cooked to order.

Though the test has been underway since November, a spokeswoman tells USA Today that “it’s very premature to draw any conclusions yet,” especially when taking into account whether this kind of move would work at the nation’s 14,000 locations

“Like all of our tests, this one, too, is designed to see what works and what doesn’t within our restaurants,” McComb says, adding that the company is monitoring operations, customer response and price points.

McDonald’s testing fresh, not frozen, hamburger patties [USA Today]

Thousands of travelers arrived at their destination only to find their checked bags were left behind at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Thursday after a Transportation Security Administration computer system suffered a technical issue that took the airport’s bag screening system out of operation. 

The issue caused more than 3,000 bags to miss their flights between 6:45 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Thursday when the system — used to check bags for explosives — was brought back online, KSAZ reports.

“TSA is experiencing significant, unprecedented technical issues with its computer server allowing the automated screening of checked bags for explosives,” the TSA said in a statement Wednesday afternoon, urging travelers to get to the airport early and avoid checked bags if possible.

A rep for Phoenix Sky Harbor says that when the system went down, TSA agents began using a back-up process that involves K-9s and hand checking bags.

In some cases, the airport rep says bags were driven to nearby airports — which are actually hours away in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Diego — for screening and then flown on to their destination.

The back-up process, while effective, is timely and caused many of the bags to miss their intended planes. The Sky Harbor rep urges passengers to make sure their carry-on bags were packed with enough items for a “few days.”

While there were no significant flight delays tied to the issue, passengers were not thrilled to learn their possessions were still in Phoenix.

“They said they had to do the bags manually, that’s all they said,” one traveler tells CBS5 AZ.

“It’s very stressful because I hope everything is still there that I packed because they’re hand-checking it, number one, and number two, that it gets there on time,” another passengers said.

The TSA says the issue was corrected at around 9 p.m. Thursday.

Thursday’s baggage issues comes as the TSA is already facing criticism over increasingly long security lines across the country.

Some airports have threatened to fire the Transportation Security Administration over long lines at screening checkpoints, and other airlines are calling the agency onto the carpet, while an industry group has urged passengers to Tweet the photos of the seemingly unending lines. 

System back online after thousands of bags missed flights out of Sky Harbor [CBS5 AZ]
TSA bag-screening issue causes major delays at Sky Harbor [KSAZ]

The Food & Drug Administration is issuing a stricter warning for dog owners against xylitol, a common sweetener that’s found in many gum products as well as some nut butters, because it can “can have devastating effects on your pet.”

In a consumer update called “Xylitol and Your Dog: Danger, Paws Off,” the FDA notes that its Center for Veterinary Medicine has received several reports of dogs falling very ill or even dying ingesting xylitol. Ferrets should also be kept away from the stuff, but the FDA notes that the toxicity of xylitol for cats has not been documented. Thus far they seem to be okay, since they don’t like eating sweets.

This echoes warnings other experts like the veterinary toxicologists at Pet Poison Hotline, which urged pet owners to be wary of xylitol after an increase in accidental dog poisonings.

Though xylitol is often associated with sugarless gum, it’s also in other products — so check that peanut butter label before you reward Fido for a job well done. Also on the list of items to check: mints, baked goods, cough syrup, children’s and adult chewable vitamins, mouthwash, and toothpaste.

So why is it so bad for your pooch when it just tastes sweet to humans? Xylitol causes a sudden release of insulin in dogs, which causes low blood sugar and could lead to seizures, brain damage and liver failure.

If your dog is vomiting, followed by symptoms like decreased activity, weakness, staggering, incoordination, collapse, and seizures — signs of a sudden lowering of your dog’s blood sugar — and you think he’s chowed down on xylitol, take your pet to the vet or emergency animal hospital immediately, the FDA says.

If you own a newer model Subaru Outback or Legacy vehicle, the carmaker wants you to keep it in the garage after determining the steering can fail. 

Subaru says it has recalled 52,000 model year 2016 to 2017 Outback and Legacy vehicles, and directed dealers to stop the sale of the cars until they can be fixed.

According to a notice [PDF] posted with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the vehicles may contain steering columns that may have been manufactured improperly by a parts supplier.

The issue can cause the steering wheel to rotate freely, leading the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

Subaru says the issue was uncovered on May 3 when the owner of a 2016 Outback reported problems.

The carmaker, along with engineers and a parts supplier, were able to duplicate the issue during an inspection of the vehicle.

The Inspection revealed no conclusive root cause of concern. The steering column was collected and returned to vendor’s lab for further disassembly and inspection for final results.

The carmaker — which did not specify if any injuries or crashes were tied to the issue — says that owners will be notified of the recall. Until an inspection of the steering column can be conducted, owners are advised not to drive their vehicle.

If the vehicle contains a steering column with one of the affected lot numbers, the steering column must be replaced.

No more wondering what your package gets up to while it’s out for delivery — did it stop for a drink and miss its connecting flight? — with a new service UPS is rolling out that allows customers to track their shipments in the final stage, from one second to the next.

“Follow My Delivery” will roll out first for pricier UPS Air and UPS Worldwide Express deliveries as part of the UPS My Choice program, the company announced. Which means yes, if you want to use it, you’ll have to sign up (for free). Though it’s limited to just those two kinds of deliveries for now, UPS plans to expand the new feature to more services in the future.

Customers will be able to see the UPS driver’s truck on a live map, but you won’t be able to see the vehicle’s route, since that would be weird and stalkerish. Again, this is only while the vehicle is out for delivery.

UPS My Choice members also have the ability to re-route packages to their workplace or a neighbor’s house if they’re not going to be home when their shipment is supposed to arrive.

Once upon a time, not terribly long ago, enclosed shopping malls were mammoth physical manifestations of the great American retail experience — just about everything you could want to buy all in the same sprawling building, anchored at various points by those glorious national department store chains. Then came the dramatic shift to big box stores, offering everything from TVs to hardware to clothing to groceries from one store, followed by the advent of online shopping, where all this shopping can be done in your undies and everything will be delivered to your door. One retail analyst says that recent underwhelming sales figures from Macy’s and other mall mainstays could indicate that many of these relics of the not so distant past are doomed.

Speaking to CNBC, analyst Jan Kniffen pointed to Macy’s, which this week reported its worst sequential same-store sales decline since the financial crisis, as evidence that American retailers are throwing away money on bricks-and-mortar stores that aren’t succeeding.

“On an apples-to-apples basis, we have twice as much per-capita retail space as any other place in the world,” explained Kniffen, a formed Senior VP and Treasurer with The May Company. “We are the most over-stored place in the world.”

He contends that Macy’s could shed around 300 (38%) of its current 800 retail locations. That’s significantly more than a recent estimate from Green Street Advisors, who said Macy’s would only need to shed around 72 stores to return to its pre-bubble productivity levels.

The sad state of American anchor stores will also translate into dark days for all malls, predicts Kniffen. By his estimate, more than one-in-three enclosed shopping malls in the U.S. will fail in the years to come. Of those that don’t die quickly, only around one-third will thrive.

On the plus side: Think of all the cool skating and parkour videos that will be shot in the abandoned malls.

Last year, an epidemic of bird flu killed millions of chickens and turkeys, affecting the supply of bird-based meats and of chicken eggs. Experts thought that the shortage and high egg prices might continue, but they were wrong: farmers were able to breed and raise new generations of female chicks, ready to take the place of their fallen colleagues.

Egg shortages led to interesting business decisions across the board: some grocery stores limited how many cartons each customer could buy at a time, while at least one fast-food restaurant cut back on its breakfast hours during the worst of the crisis, fearing that they could run out of eggs and disappoint customers in search of breakfast.

Because the free market is a tricky thing, now egg producers have the opposite problem. In states that the outbreak didn’t reach, farmers ramped up their production to take advantage of the high prices and to Egg prices have fallen significantly as production is up to record highs. In March, hens laid 613 million eggs, but demand is still low.

That’s partly because companies changed recipes so they don’t need eggs –– one example was Lactaid-brand holiday nog, which the company reformulated last year without eggs to avoid customer sticker shock, causing one fan to say that the eggless nog “tastes like sadness and chemicals.”

Mass producers of food may not be in a hurry to change their recipes back, though: there has been one case so far this year spotted at a turkey farm in Indiana, and there’s always the risk that the flu could re-emerge, even as farms take precautions, disinfecting their trucks and keeping birds from other farms off their property.

Bird Flu Egg Boom Goes Bust as U.S. Farms Quick to Replace Flock [Bloomberg]

While Google’s Street View camera cars may have gotten less ridiculous-looking over the years, they are still pretty obvious when they roll down the streets, snapping photos in all directions for later use on Google’s Maps service. So it didn’t take long for savvy folks to sniff out something off about the alleged “Google Maps” truck recently spotted on the streets of Philadelphia.

The faux Google SUV, complete with police license plate, was spotted by U.Penn Professor Matt Blaze earlier this week, who posted a photo of the vehicle to Twitter:

Vice’s Motherboard subsequently confirmed with the Philly Police Department that officers had indeed gussied up the vehicle to disguise it as a Google camera car, but that these particular cops had done so without approval.

“We have been informed that this unmarked vehicle belongs to the police department,” reads the statement to Motherboard, “however, the placing of any particular decal on the vehicle was not approved through any chain of command. With that being said, once this was brought to our attention, it was ordered that the decals be removed immediately.”

The police say they are looking into this matter further, and Google confirmed it too is investigating the Philly PD’s unauthorized use of the Google logo on a surveillance truck.

If you’re going to try to dress up a surveillance van as a Google Street View vehicle, don’t try to be subtle about it. Wrap that entire sucker up in Google logos and have the camera sticking out of the roof like a big honkin’ electronic lollipop. Tech companies don’t go for subtlety.

PotomacLocal.com

A new library for Manassas and Manassas Park? Panel to examine the fate of Central Library. PotomacLocal.com Central Library provides books, reference materials, and online access to people in Manassas, Manassas Park, and those who live in cities' outskirts in Prince William County. The 45-year-old building sits on Mathis Avenue on a tract of land just barely ...

Patch.com

Dog Attacks On Postal Workers On The Rise Patch.com As online shopping soars in popularity and the United States Postal Service delivers more packages, mail carriers have experienced an increase in dog attacks, according to USPS data. Last year, 6,549 dog attacks on USPS mail-carriers were reported, ... and more »

WASHINGTON — A Fairfax County firefighter is filing a federal civil rights suit against the department, claiming she was sexually harassed for years.

The filing comes just a month after another female firefighter took her life after she was cyber bullied by people who claimed to be her colleagues.

At the time, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department Chief Richard Bowers said he’d look into harassment within the department.

A firefighter with Fairfax County since 2005, Magaly Hernandez filed her civil rights suit Friday, May 6, and claimed years of sexual harassment, unnecessary transfers and lack of accountability of supervisors within the department.

“Once she complained about the harassment, she was transferred to a different station, which in the fire department sends a message she’s a problem employee,” Hernandez’s attorney Ellen Renaud said.

Court documents outline years of abuse starting in October 2013, when she was transferred to a new fire station under the supervision of Captain Jon Bruley.

“Bruley’s harassing behavior included physically restricting Hernandez’s movements, frequently invading her personal space and touching her, making repeated unwanted sexual advances and comments towards her, demanding hugs, and tracking her movements including when she used the restroom,” according to the suit.

Hernandez continues to work at the department.

The documents cite other incidents including an occasion where several male firefighters duct taped a female firefighter to her chair, and a male lieutenant threatened a female firefighter with violence without being disciplined.

“What we’re seeking in this lawsuit is to put an end to the regular and systematic harassment of women in the fire department,” Renaud said.

In a statement, Fairfax County said it cannot comment on the suit.

“We cannot comment on a pending lawsuit. However, we want to assure our community that harassment of any kind is not tolerated by Fairfax County. Fairfax County has written policies that prohibit harassment, and all county employees are required to participate in sexual harassment and hostile work environment training. Allegations of harassment are taken seriously and fully investigated,” county spokesman Tony Castrilli said in the statement.

The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department declined to comment separately from the county statement.

The post Firefighter sues Fairfax County for sexual harassment appeared first on WTOP.

When someone writes from a public relations agency to alert us to a “leaked” product posted on some random person’s Facebook page a few weeks ago, it’s not hard to figure out the source and purpose of the leak. Reese’s wanted to get word out about a new creation: peanut butter cups with mini Reese’s Pieces mixed up in the filling.

Well, okay, in the annals of stunt food , compared to watermelon Oreos and pumpkin spice everything, this sounds like a pretty good idea.

The candies will be on store shelves in July, and we’re playing along with their clever, sugary marketing game of pretending to leak the candy photo to build suspense and buzz. You win, Reese’s.

Reese’s [Facebook]

For years, reports have surface related to the mistreatment of chickens — and other animals — that are destined for our dinner tables. What we hear about less frequently are the working conditions for those employed by the nation’s biggest poultry producers.

A new report [PDF] from Oxfam America outlines the difficult conditions that many workers claim to have experienced while working for the likes of Tyson Foods Inc., Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., Perdue Farms Inc., and Sanderson Farms Inc.

The report, part of Oxfam’s campaign to advocate for improved conditions of poultry workers, is based on research conducted from 2013 to 2016 by traveling around the country to review documents and conduct interview with former and currently workers, lawyers, medical experts, and others.

While the report covers a litany of issues the employees say they face, here are four takeaways from Oxfam’s look at the poultry processing industry’s treatment of its workers.

1.) Ignored and Mocked – Everyone has to go. But, according to poultry plant employees, they often aren’t allowed to.

Oxfam reports that employees say they are often mocked or ignored by supervisors when they ask to go to the bathroom.

“Supervisors deny requests to use the bathroom because they are under pressure to maintain the speed of the processing line, and to keep up production,” the report states. “Once a poultry plant roars to a start at the beginning of the day, it doesn’t stop until all the chickens are processed. Workers are reduced to pieces of the machine, little more than the body parts that hang, cut, trim, and load—rapidly and relentlessly.”

Workers say that supervisors sometimes taunt or threaten them for their need to use the restroom.

“Go to the bathroom, and from there, go to Human Resources,” one employee recalls being told.

2.) Wait In Line Or Wear Diapers – Employees say they are given few options when it comes to being denied bathroom breaks.

In one survey of 266 workers in Alabama conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center, nearly 80% said they are not allowed to take bathroom breaks when needed.

As a result, employees “restrict intake of liquids and fluids to dangerous degrees; they endure pain and discomfort while they worry about their health and job security,” the report said.

Employees, who say that when they are allowed to use the restroom must wait in lines that last an hour, report resorting to diapers.

In one case, Oxfam says an employee made such a decision to avoid having to leave their line or interact with supervisors. Other times, the report found that employees have simply relieved themselves while working on the line.

“Too many workers tell stories about urinating on themselves, or witnessing coworkers urinating on themselves,” the report states.

3.) Worse For Women – While the conditions are no doubt awful for men working at the poultry plants, the report suggests women face even more issues.

“They face biological realities such as menstruation, pregnancy, and higher vulnerability to infections; and they struggle to maintain their dignity and privacy when requesting breaks,” the report states.

Amy, a worker in Arkansas, says that “when I was pregnant, I had to constantly go to the bathroom, and a male supervisor told me ‘why don’t women hold it like I have to hold it all day?’ I felt there was a factor of discrimination taking place.”

When it comes to women’s monthly cycles, employees say they have been berated by supervisors when they needed to use the restroom.

“The supervisor gets mad at us because we take longer, but we are women, and our needs are greater than those of men,” another worker says. “They don’t consider that we have more gear to remove, or the fact that the bathrooms are too far away; just walking towards them our time is up. When we have our [menstrual] cycle, we need to go more often to the bathroom, but they don’t let us, they don’t like it.”

4.) Few Policies – According to Oxfam, Tyson Foods is the only company to have a publicly stated policy on bathroom breaks.

“The company states that workers are able to use the bathroom whenever they need to; the “Team Member Bill of Rights” specifies that employees receive “adequate room for meal and rest breaks” and “reasonable time for necessary restroom breaks during shift production time,” the report states.

Oxfam reached out to all four of the processing plants, but Tyson and Perdue were the only companies to reply.

Both noted they care about employees and find the claims troubling.

“By its nature, it is demanding and exhausting work. But it does not have to be dehumanizing, and it does not have to rob people of their dignity and health,” the report states.