CAS in the Media | Washington State University

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WSU project tells untold story of WWII soldiers

November 8, 2019 adriana

The Fallen Cougars Project sheds light on former students who died in battle

The Washington State College students who would go on to fight in World War II were very much like the Washington State University students of today.
But when it was their turn to serve their country, they were called upon to perform extraordinary acts of heroism and sacrifice.

That was one of the major takeaways Washington State University graduate student in history Samantha Edgerton said she found after completing extensive research into the lives of Cougars who fought and died in the war.

She spent months delving into the soldiers’ letters to loved ones, newspaper clippings, school yearbooks and other documents to create a digital archive of biographies on 20 servicemembers.

The archive represents the beginning of The Fallen Cougars Project, an effort started by Edgerton’s adviser Ray Sun, a WSU associate professor of history.

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Moscow-Pullman Daily News
WSU Insider

Glacier Conservancy raises funds for lynx research, education

November 8, 2019 adriana

In Glacier National Park, little camouflaged cameras are hidden throughout the trails, not to see hikers’ antics but to capture photos of the elusive lynx.

The 132 cameras took about 570,000 photos last summer capturing everything from bears and lynx to worn-out hiking boots.

This is part of a three-year study of the lynx population that hopes to learn about their activity in the southernmost portion of their habitat.

Alissa Anderson, a graduate student in environmental studies at Washington State University and fondly called A-lynx-ssa by her colleagues, brought the camera trap technique to Montana after it was developed in Washington.

Lynx studies are often done in the winter to avoid disturbing bears, but field work in the winter is expensive and dangerous, Anderson said.

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The Spokesman-Review

Salmon on Prozac? A new study will look at what King County’s wastewater chemicals do to fish and orcas

November 7, 2019 adriana

A new study funded by and focused on King County, Washington, aims to go beyond the sensational “salmon on cocaine” headlines to get us closer to understanding what chemicals in wastewater means for the life cycles of salmon and orcas that eat them. It has become a frequent topic of discussion within state government — especially after the Governor’s Orca Task Force made reducing exposure to pollution a top priority.

Over the next year, researchers will explore how effluent from King County’s three largest plants and nearby waters affect orca prey species and orca exposure.

The researchers will collect effluent from the West Point, Brightwater and South plants and water from nearby drainage outfalls, then send it to a lab to get a breakdown of the compounds in it. In the spring, they’ll expose juvenile chinook salmon from a hatchery to effluent mixtures at a laboratory in Puyallup run by Jen McIntyre, assistant professor in the School of the Environment at Washington State University.

“We will dilute the treatment plant effluent with clean water to simulate for fish exposure to different ‘strengths’ of effluent from the treatment plant, such as occurs in receiving water,” McIntyre says.

Beyond measuring bioconcentration of chemicals and evaluating for impacts both acute (death) and chronic (limited growth and reproduction), they’ll be studying biomarkers in the blood and liver that can show subtle negative health impacts, including metabolic, endocrine or behavioral disruption.

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Crosscut

Why protests around the world often involve public transportation

November 7, 2019 adriana

In Hong Kong, Santiago, and New York City, protesters have disrupted, delayed, or even boycotted subways.

In acts of civic resistance, protesters have taken up space in stations, sometimes disrupting or delaying services. And since transit systems are often seen as an extension of local government and of the officials that run them, they’ve become a ripe setting for civil disobedience.

For people in major metropolitan areas, transit systems are vital, connecting them to jobs, schools, and social communities. They’re largely perceived as a public service, funded by taxpayer money and fares although owned and operated — either partially or completely — by the government.

And since transit systems are an extension of the local government, it’s fair to assume that specific policies (like fares, increased policing, or service hours) reflect the priorities of the state.

As Andra B. Chastain, an assistant professor of history at Washington State University, writes in her explanation of how the metro system is a microcosm of Chile: “Transportation is not just about having a well-run system from the standpoint of economists or engineers, but about people’s basic dignity.”

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Vox

Revisiting the Archaeology of Bears Ears with Bill Lipe on Monday’s Access Utah

November 5, 2019 adriana

Bill Lipe is professor emeritus of anthropology at Washington State University. He has spent much of his more than 50 year career in Utah archaeology beginning with the archaeological salvage of Glen Canyon before the dam construction and on into Cedar Mesa where he became a leading scholar in the early Basketmaker agricultural societies of southeastern Utah. Dr. Lipe began his work at a time when there was little federal legislation protecting archaeology or guiding preservation efforts. He became a leader in the development of what we now know of as Cultural Resource Management archaeology. Because of his involvement in CRM and his work in Cedar Mesa, he remains one of archaeology’s main voices in the Bears Ears controversy.

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UPR.org