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Before she was Sonic Youths iconic bassist, sing-speaking recondite poetry over squealing guitars, and before she published her memoir, started a fashion line, and acted in films, Kim Gordon was an art-school kid staging interventions in friends apartments. The goal, she wrote at the time, was to use art to deconstruct design.

40 years later, the impulses behind those interventions still inform Gordons art making.Following the rather public dissolution of her band and marriage in 2011, Gordonmoved to her hometown of Los Angeles and refocused on her art practice, whichenacts some of the same public-vs-private tension thats ungirded her personal life over the past decade.

Its kind of ironic that I ended up as a public person whos sort of uncomfortable with it all, Gordon tells Artnet News over the phone from her home in California. Shes just returned from New York, where her show The Bonfire opened at 303 Gallery. Shes battling a rough head cold from the trip, but her voice is unmistakably familiar.

Lining 303s walls are blurry, amber-tinted photographs of friends encircling a beachside bonfire. The scene is jovial, but the context is not. Subjects are framed by digitized rectanglesthe type that pop up when facial recognition software hones in on a known pixel pattern; others have crosshairs trained on them, like the targets of a drone strike. Its all a reminder that even the most intimate of moments are threatened by technocapitalisms watching eye.

Meanwhile, a recent performance piece,Los Angeles June 6, 2019, blares from a stack of monitors in the center of the gallery. In it, Gordon uses LAs municipal architecturehandrails, benches, cornicesto play a screeching guitar, reclaiming the space through a kind of earsplitting ritual thats equal parts Vito Acconci and Glenn Branca.

Gordon spoke with Artnet News about her new show, the evolution of her art practice over the years, and her unease with being a private person in the public eye.

Kim Gordon, The Bonfire 7 (2019). Kim Gordon. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

Lets start with the bonfire images. What is it about this scene that interested you?

Its just an archetypal image. Last summer I was in Provincetown and my friend organized a bonfire. She had to get a license just to have it on the beach. I took those pictures as it was happening and I just thought they looked really cool. The lighting reminded me of Old Master paintings.

I had been thinking a lot about the branding of different experiences. For example, the way Airbnb now rents out things like camping trips, selling you on the idea that youll live like a cowboy. These are special private moments that are being highlighted and sold. In actuality, there is no sense of real privacy anymore. And people dont care until it turns into something bad.

Atop the canvas prints are swathes of acrylic medium. Theyre almost unnoticeable until the light hits them. What was the intention of using the acrylic on those works?

I wanted them to be more than just photographs. Its almost like a shadow painting. Creating a secret painting in public is interesting to me.There are also overlaid, Photoshopped digital surveillance lines. They tie in with a video that Loretta Fahrenholz did for one of my songs, Earthquake. She had these special effects people use those graphics to hide peoples faces because we didnt have release forms. I liked the idea of tying it in with that. Ive always had my art and music so separate, but theyre starting to merge together more.

Those Photoshop graphics kind of create a hybrid design and an abstraction within a representational picture. You see that a lot in designeverything is designed to tie together. Its all kind of like a modern-day landscape to me.

Kim Gordon, Los Angeles June 6, 2019 (2019). Kim Gordon. Courtesy of 303 Gallery, New York.

Theres a great dialogue between the video installation and the bonfire prints. In the video, while youre roving around LA with your guitar, the viewer becomes hyper-aware of all the security cameras in the background and the way that public and municipal space is being controlled and privatized.

And the security guards were everywhere. It was like I was a terrorist. Understandably, I guesswhen you do something like that [Laughs]

Im interested in the gardens and the waterfalls and the way landscaping works in those corporate plazas throughout the city. Its something Im particularly aware of in LAeven more than New Yorkhow those things disguise this corporatization of city life.

You conceived this work,Los Angeles June 6, 2019, as a one-off performance. How does its current form as a video installation change the piece for you?

I actually made it for this show that took place between Ste, France, and LA. It was an idea Id had for a long time. I always liked the way skaters repurposed those corporate buildings, the stairways and the railings. I wanted to do the same thing, reclaim the space using those same railings as giant guitar slides. I asked a documentary filmmaker friend to shoot it and she did such a great job. She shot it with three iPhones. It was originally shown in a storefront on Sunset Boulevard, which was pretty cool because the sound of the traffic going by added to the experience and we didnt start showing it until the sun was setting so the light was interesting and then it got dark. I knew I wanted to include it in the New York show but I didnt want it to be this giant image of me on the wall, so I put them on the floor. Then the director of exhibitions at the gallery came up with the idea of arranging them like a bonfire and putting some fake tree stumps nearby.

Kim Gordon, Los Angeles June 6, 2019 (2019), still. Kim Gordon. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

Even though the piece isnt explicitly about L.A., the subtext is thereyoure engaging with the bones of the city itself. You spent decades on the East Coast before moving back to LA in 2016. Since then, what influence has the city had on your work?

I dont know if LA has really influenced my work. I kind of feel like I always carried a bit of LA with me in New York. I dont think it really changed in that way. I always liked the architecture, the weird customized houses, how you can have a tutor house next to a ranch. LA is a melting pot anyway. People move here from all over and the architecture reflects that. I also find it interesting how customizing ones house or car is kind of the ultimate freedom of expression for people here. Its always been my favorite city to look at. Theres so much space and distance; its very voyeuristic. But I think LA influenced my record more than my art.

Your history with art is longer than your history with music. Do you feel more comfortable in the art world than you do the music world?

Yeah, I do actually. Like a lot of people, I just kind of fell into music as a way to escape the art world. It was the spirit of post-punk do it yourself. I didnt have any training in music at all. But I did go to art school, and I grew up wanting to be an artist since I was five, as cliche as that sounds. Thats why I moved to New York.

I dont really think about the music world at all today. Ive had to recently because I did the solo record, but I still dont interact that much with the music scene in LA.

Installation view of Kim Gordon: The Bonfire, 303 Gallery, New York. Photo: John Berens. Courtesy of 303 Gallery.

When doing research for this interview, I found that most of the pieces of writing that were ostensibly about your art tended to focus more on your fashion and your time in bands. Rarely did they address your artwork critically. Do you find that people have a hard time separating, say, Sonic Youth Kim Gordon from artist Kim Gordon, or past Kim from present Kim?

Oh yeah, totally. Its just something I feel like I always have to overcome. I should probably have more fun with it. [Laughs] I do feel like a lot of the pieces have been like the kind of journalism you often get in the music world, where its clear the writer just read the press release or something. But I havent had a straightforward, conventional art career. You have to really dig around to actually know what my work is. Its kind of a drag. I think its just something I have to work out for myself. I dont want to worry about what other people are thinking.

Your work is also quite disparate. Your word and wreath paintings, your sound and performance pieces, your abstract and figurative sculpturesif these were all to share the same room, unknowing visitors would conceivably be surprised to realize they were done by one person. Do you feel the same way?

For me it all goes back to design. When I did the survey show at White Columns in 2013, I brought it all together under the title Design Office With Kim Gordon and I was actually surprised at just how clearly you could really see a thread running through the whole thing. It was a lot of lo-fi design.

In the early 80s, when I started Design Office, the idea was to do interventions in peoples apartments that were part psychologicalI would take something personal about them and turn it into an art object, then physically alter the space in some way and write about it all in a magazine. I did a few of those. And if you look at the materials in the rest of my work since, the logic behind it, you can see those roots in some way. Im still interested in interiors and Ive always been influenced by how art and design interacts. Its all somewhat performative.

Maybe Im more of a sociologist. Think of me as a sociologist and it all makes more sense. [Laughs]

Kim Gordon, The Bonfire 10 (2019). Kim Gordon. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

Youve spoken about the stranglehold the market has over the art world. Is this something you contend with in your own work or do you make things with the understanding that you cant control their life after they leave the studio?

Its definitely something I contend with, especially with installations. Theres something about professionalism in art that I just want to resist. Its hard to make art thats awkward anymore, or to make something thats unexpected or surprising or unsettling in a way thats not like blatantly offensive or sexual or cheap, especially in spaces like commercial galleries which are just white boxes.

Kim Gordon: The Bonfire is on view through February 22, 2020 at 303 Gallery.

Read more:
There Is No Sense of Privacy Anymore: After Kim Gordons Personal Life Went Public, She Decided to Tackle Surveillance in Her Art - artnet News

(Shutterstock Photo)

No matter the age of your home, drywall damage will occur. Whether it be from doorknobs, roughhousing, minor water damage, moving furniture or mounting hardware from artwork, mirrors, TV mounts, window treatments, etc., it will happen. Minor damage is a relatively easy fix. Small screw or nail holes can even be patched with white toothpaste and touch painted to blend in.

Repairs to areas of major water damage are best left to the pros. You never know what kind of damage is lurking behind that drywall. There could be mold and that is something that is best left to a professional mold remediation expert.

The age and condition of the paint on your wall and stored paint from when it was applied are really the key factors in how quickly you will finish drywall repair projects. But its the quality of the patch work that is critical to restoring drywall to look like new. The paint will only look as good as the surface its applied to. A poor patch with a poor texture match will stand out more than youd expect, even with the best paint coating.

Nail holes in a wall where a picture used to hang can be filled with spackling paste, caulk or even toothpaste for an especially tiny hole; let it dry and sand it down before repainting.

For dents or holes larger than a quarter, drywall texture and drywall tape or mesh will be required to complete the project. Anything over a 2-inch square will require a scrap drywall piece to cut a filler piece along with the following tools:

Optional:

Water-damaged drywall can be identified in a few different ways. Oftentimes on ceilings and walls you will notice that there are ripples or blisters in the paint. If you feel the blisters and they arent solid or if the paint starts flaking off as soon as you touch it, you likely have a water issue.

(Shutterstock Photo)

You may even find water in the paint blisters which makes your investigation easy! Other common signs are areas where the drywall is soft to the touch and water stains/discoloration appear. Before you start a water-damaged drywall repair, be sure to identify and fix the source of the water intrusion.

If water is getting into your wall from rain, a sprinkler thats too close to your house or even from a plumbing leak, youre likely to see patches of damage on your walls near the spot of the intrusion. Thats because drywall has a paper backing, so when it gets wet, it can bubble and wrinkle, sort of like a sheet of paper does.

To diagnose the problem, place a 4-foot level across the damaged area and learn how much the sheetrock has sagged. If its more than about 3/8 of an inch, the structural integrity of the drywall is probably ruined and the section should be replaced.

If no sagging has occurred, use an awl to randomly push into the sheetrock. You should feel substantial resistance, and the awl shouldnt be able to penetrate the sheetrock any more than 1/8 of an inch without excessive force. However, if the awl goes through the sheetrock much deeper than 3/16 of an inch, consider replacing the section.

To replace the section: Use a utility knife to cut out the damaged area, leaving a square or rectangle so its easy to match up with a new patch of drywall. Look in the hole to see if the damage goes deeper than the drywall (to the studs, for example) and find the source of the leak so you can stop it before you fix the wall. Set up a fan near the hole you created and thoroughly dry the area before continuing. Cut a new piece of drywall to fit tightly into the hole you have created. You may have to back it with a piece of plywood. Then attach the drywall and use a good-quality drywall tape to cover the seams.

Prime, paint and keep a close eye on it in case the damage returns. That could signal a more serious water problem than you suspected.

To repair the damage: If the damage is superficial, you may not have to replace the drywall. Dry the area thoroughly, sand the blisters from the wall and prime the spot with a pigmented lacquer product called KILZ. This product will keep the stain from bleeding through a new coat of paint.

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Heres how to repair and patch damaged drywall - KTAR.com

A lawsuit filed this week asks for more oversight, more reporting, and more collaboration in the process.

The union repping Philly teachers has specific suggestions for how to remedy the rampant toxicity in the citys public schools.

In a45-page lawsuit filed Monday in the Court of Common Pleas, the union alleges that the School District of Philadelphia and Superintendent William Hite have repeatedly mishandled problems with asbestos, lead and mold inside school buildings.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers formal complaint comes after a slew of exposed asbestos discoveries led to the closing of six facilities since the beginning of this school year.

Its not the only entity to go to court over the issue. The district is also being sued by the family of a student who ingested lead paint chips fallen from the ceiling of his classroom. A former teacher diagnosed with mesothelioma said in November shes planning to sue as well.

In the unions case, members are not looking for a financial payout. Instead, they want to help build new systems to detect and deal with asbestos and other toxins, so instances like this dont happen again.

How might that work? Here are eight things the PFTs lawsuit demands from the school district.

The PFT wants a streamlined method for staff at any given school to regularly report the conditions straight to the district and they want the reported info to be accessible by the union after its collected.

Not knowing a specific asbestos problem exists is no excuse, the union says. If a building poses a potential asbestos-related hazard to a school community regardless of whether or not its been documented in the past the school district should perform an urgent response inspection, the court filing demands.

Its not enough to assume the district is doing the work, PFT says in the suit. The union wants unfettered access to all the data, reports and schedules of asbestos-related work in school buildings across the district.

In addition to demanding that they be kept informed, the teachers union also demands that the district keep parents and students notified with relevant information like testing, inspection and remediation schedules with at least 48 hours notice.

Repeated multiple times in the unions suit is the demand that members get a hand in developing best practices, like universal metrics to compare the safety of facilities. The union also wants to be involved in determining when to conduct:

This ones pretty simple: If an inspection reveals that an area is hazardous, the school should be closed, the union suit says, and students and faculty should not be permitted inside.

The union wants the district to institute trainings for stakeholders think school employees, even parents and students so they can identify potential asbestos hazards on site.

Just to make sure all works as planned, the PFT wants the Court of Common Pleas to continue to monitor the situation,exercising jurisdiction until both the teachers union and the school district agree theyve set up a solid system.

And though the PFT isnt in this for the money, it wants the district to cover the legal fees involved in this suit and any other relief that may become necessary.

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How Philly teachers want the school district to fix the asbestos problem - Billy Penn

Editor:

Back in the early '60s we wintered in the Keys and met a commercial photographer from Tampa. We had friends in Tampa we wanted to visit so we offered him a ride there.

On the way up U.S. 41 (now I-75) he had to stop to shoot photos of a new development. Off of U.S. 41, down a dusty unpaved road. We came to a small A-frame with a sign "$25 down - $25 a month" selling lots while the pumps were going 24/7 pulled up sea bottom to make land and leaving canals.

When sold to folks up north they moved in and laid sod and a sprinkler system to keep it green (grass it not native to Florida). Some 50 years have gone by of fertilizing to keep it green. Seems to me that over time the sea bottom is sponge-like and now saturated backing into the canals. It will produce blue-green algae to feed red tide. So, Cape Coral, when is enough, enough?

Mary J. Tekip

Port Charlotte

' + this.content + '

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LETTER: Fertilizer dumped since the '60s | Letters To Editor - yoursun.com

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Tax Management Solution Industry Market Global Production, Growth, Share, Demand and Applications Forecast to 2025 - Melanian News

At the regular meeting on January 14, 2020, the Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the rezoning of a 20.2-acre parcel on the southeast side of Sterling Hills Boulevard, approximately 900' of its southern terminus. The entrance to the parcel will be an extension of Windance Ave from Sterling Hills Blvd.

The proposed name for the subdivision was not mentioned during the meeting.

The land is currently zoned agricultural (AG) and will be rezoned as Planned Development Project (Single Family) (PDP(SF)) to accommodate 80 lots for single-family residences, defined in the petition as 13 60-foot lots with a minimum area of 7,200 square feet and 67 50-foot lots with a minimum area of 6,000 square feet. The overall density for the project is 4 dwelling units per acre.

Attorney Darryl Johnston represented the petitioner and owner of the property, Christopher Wert. The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) recommended approval of the petition with the modification of adding a 30-foot vegetation buffer of 80% opacity along the north and east borders of the property.

The eastern border includes a masonry wall that currently separates this property from the Pristine Place subdivision.

Another requirement is that the project includes a gated emergency access meeting the design requirements of the Fire Department in the southwest corner of the site to connect with Sterling Hills Phase IV.

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BOCC Approves Subdivision South of Sterling Hills - Hernando Sun

By Steve Geliot

Hundreds of people have signed a Brighton photographers petition calling on Brighton and Hove Albion to stop lighting up the night skies around the Amex.

The club has been using lights and heaters to promote grass growth in the winter months so it can meet Premiership pitch standards for the last three years.

But the light spills into the night sky, and the orange glow can be seen as far away as the Long Man of Wilmington a distance of more than eleven miles.

As well as light pollution, scientists have now made a link between lights such as these and the deaths of insects which are vital to our eco-system.

Artist Steve Geliot complained last year and says he received a courteous reply from the club. But when the nightlights were switched back on this winter, he decided firmer action was needed.

At the time of publication, 779 people have signed his petition asking the club to put the lights out.

Mr Geliot, who lives near Preston Park, said: I have been becoming increasingly aware and upset by it over three years but last year I particularly noticed it and I did contact the club.

I got a courteous response but I can see that its as bright as ever this year.

What has changed this year is the science. And people like me are saying this isnt right, and Im not putting up with it.

I completely get that theres a lot of loyalty to football and to the club and Im not not anti the club or football.

But the glow shows up in photos I took at the Long Man of Wilmington. The Amex is even brighter than Newhaven Harbour. Its just unbelievably visible.

I dont think its that difficult to fix it, it just needs reflective panels so its lighting up the pitch and not the sky.

If Albion is a progressive club, and I think it is, how wonderful would it be if they were the first to fix it?

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove Albion said: Like most businesses, the football club must balance its concern for, and responsibility to help protect, the environment with our need to practically run our business as a Premier League football club watched by tens of millions of people across the world.

You will appreciate that, with millions of pounds worth of athletic and footballing talent on display each home match day, we must not only meet and maintain league regulations for the quality of our playing surface, but we also have a duty of care to our players and those of visiting teams.

Beyond our responsibilities to the athletes, and to the fans who pay to expect to watch a high quality football match, the quality of our pitch can significantly influence our performance and therefore our results. Indeed, its quality can create a (legally) competitive advantage or a disadvantage.

Our results on the pitch govern the overall health of our business, and with it the thousands of directly and indirectly created jobs (90% of which are local), not to mention the overall local economic impact, independently measured as being worth 212 million in the 2017/18 season alone.

The success of the football club also supports an important local charity, Albion in the Community, which runs more than 60 different health and educational programmes for over 40,000 local participants and makes a further local economic contribution of nearly 30 million each year.

In the winter months, whilst we may at times experience high rainfall and high winds, with little or no natural sunlight, a grass pitch misses a key element of its natural ability to re-generate and grow after use. We must therefore replicate that loss of light artificially.

Clearly, we will always limit the use of artificial light for all the reasons highlighted but Im afraid we are unable to further limit or eliminate its use completely. To do so, would be to significantly neglect the other responsibilities.

Please be assured that we take our responsibilities for the environment very seriously indeed, but like airlines, car manufacturers, supermarkets, consumer goods factories, and other businesses we all use every day, it is impossible for us to eliminate our environmental footprint altogether.

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Hundreds call on Albion to put the glowing Amex's lights out - Brighton and Hove News

by Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

My first look at Badlands National Park is not anything I expected or visualized. The Pinnacles entrance to the national park, where the Wilderness Voyageurs guides have taken us for our first ride of the six-day Badlands and Black Hills bike tour of South Dakota, is aptly named for the spires that form this otherworldly landscape.

Badlands National Park is 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires and the largest, protected mixed-grass prairie in the United States. The Badlands Wilderness Area covers 64,000 acres, where they are reintroducing the black-footed ferret, the most endangered land mammal in North America. Just beyond is The Stronghold Unit, co-managed with the Oglala Sioux Tribe where there are sites of the 1890s Ghost Dances. But as I soon learn, Badlands National Park contains the worlds richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 23 to 35 million years old, a period between dinosaurs and hominids.

The name Badlands was intentional, for the earliest inhabitants and settlers found the extremes of climate and landscape extremely harsh. The American Lakota called this place mako sica, or land bad and early French trappers called it les mauvaises terres a traverser, both meaning badlands. Those very same French trappers would be the first of many Europeans who would, in time, supplant the indigenous people, as they were soon followed by soldiers, miners looking to strike it rich with gold, cattlemen, farmers, and homesteaders recruited from as far away as Europe.

We get our bikes which our guides James Oerding and John Buehlhorn make sure are properly fitted, and outfit us with helmet, water bottle, Garmin. They orient us to the days ride essentially biking through the national park on the road (Dont stop riding as you go over the cattle guards; when the van comes up alongside, tap your helmet if you need help). We will meet up at the 8.2-mile mark where there is a nature walk and the van will be set up for lunch.

And then we are off at our own pace down an exquisite road (the cars are not a problem). That is a mercy because the vistas are so breathtaking, I keep stopping for photos. And then there are unexpected sightings like bighorn sheep.

At the 8.2 mile mark, we gather at the van where James has set out a gourmet lunch.

There is a boardwalk nature trail (I note the sign that warns against rattlesnakes and wonder about the kids who are climbing the mounds with abandon). I realize I am in time for a talk with Ranger Mark Fadrowski, who has with him original fossils and casts of fossils collected from the Badlands for us to look at and touch. We can see more and even scientists working at the Fossil Prep Lab at the Visitor Center further along our route.

There are no dinosaurs here, Ranger Fadrowski explains. This area was underwater when dinosaurs lived. But these fossils gathered from 75 million years ago and from through 34 to 37 million years ago (there is a 30-million year gap in the fossil record), fill in an important fossil record between dinosaurs and hominids (that is, early man). Teeth, we learn, provide important information about the animal what it ate, how it lived and the environment of the time.

The Pierre Shale, the oldest layer when this area was under a shallow sea, is yielding fossils from 67-75 million years ago. He shows us a fossil of a Mosasaur, giant marine lizards, an ancestor of the Komodo dragon, and one of the biggest sea animals.

We dont have fossils from the 30-million year gap either the sediment was not deposited or it eroded. Indeed, we learn that these tall spires of rock with their gorgeous striations, are eroding at the rate of one inch each year, and will be completely gone in another 100,000 to 500,000 years. But the erosion also exposes the fossils.

The environment changed from a sea to a swamp during the Chadron Formation, 34-37 million years ago. That was caused when the Rocky Mountains formed, with a shift in Teutonic plates. That pushed up and angled the surface so water drained into the Gulf of Mexico. It was formed by sediments carried by streams and rivers flowing from the Black Hills, deposited in a hot and humid forest flood plain.

Alligators lived during this time. The alligator fossils found here show that the animal hasnt changed in 30 million years. The alligators migrated when the environment changed, so survived.

During the Brule Formation, 30-34 million years ago, this area was open woodlands, drier and cooler than during the Chadron Formation; in some areas, water was hard to find. Animals that lived here then include the Nimravid, called a false cat because it seems to resemble a cat but is not related. The specimen he shows was found by a 7-year old girl just 15 feet from the visitor center and is the most complete skull found to date (imagine that!); there are two holes in the skull that show it was killed by another Nimravid. Also a three-toed horse (now extinct); and a dog.

In fact, it turns out it is not at all unusual for visitors to the park to come upon important fossils (there is a whole wall of photos of people and their finds just from this year). In fact, one visitor, Jim Carney, a photographer from Iowa, found two bones sticking up and reported the location. They thought it would be a single afternoon. It turned out to be a tennis-court sized field, now known as the Pig Dig; the dig lasted 15 summers and yielded 19,000 specimens, including the Big Pig.

It was found at the beginning of the Brule Formation when the area was drying out. We believe it was watering hole drying up. Animals caught in the mud were prey for other animals.

This is a place of Archaeotherium, Oredonts, Mesohippus, Subhyracodon, Hoplophoneus, Metamynodon, Cricid and Palaeologus.

The Sharps Formation, 28-30 million years ago, is where they have found Oreodont fossils. The name means mountain teeth because of the shape of its teeth, not the environment. Fossils are identified mostly because of teeth which are most common to survive and reveal clues about behavior and what the animal ate, which speaks to the environment.

He shows us the fossil of an Oviodon. It is weird, there isnt anything alive like it. The closest relative is camel-like the weird cousin that no one knows how related. It is the most commonly found fossil which means it was probably a herd animal. And a Merycoidodon (ruminating teeth), which he describes as a sheep camel pig deer.

The Badlands are eroding, so will reveal more fossils. Fossils are harder than rock, so they wont erode as fast. Interestingly, only 1 percent of all life is fossilized. We have to assume there are missing specimens.

The Badlands is particularly lush for fossils because of the types of sediment that preserves them well. 600,000 specimens have been collected from the Badlands since paleontologists first started coming here in the 1840s. Just about every major institution in the world has specimens that were originally found here, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

They provide clues to the Golden Age of mammals halfway between when dinosaurs ended and today horses, camels, deer.

I had no idea.

Im so grateful that John (elected the sweeper for todays ride) has not rushed me away and, in fact, waited patiently without me even realizing he was there.

I continue on, stopping often to take photos of the extraordinary landscape with its shapes and textures and striations. I barely miss a dead rattlesnake on the road (I think it was dead) and am too rattled to stop and take a photo.

I get to the visitor center which has superb displays and an outstanding film (must see). Again, no one is rushing me away, so I stay for the film, The Land of Stone & Light.Native Americans have been in this area for 12,000 years; the Lakota came from the east around 1701 following buffalo, their culture was so dependent on buffalo. They would pray for the buffalos well being rather than their own.

Treaties were signed that defined the borders, but they were broken. The white settlers demanded more and more of the Indian land, especially after gold was discovered in the Black Hills. (I later learn it was William Custer, the famous General of Custers Last Stand, who discovered the gold.)

The buffalo so precious to the Lakota were hunted nearly to extinction. The white men put up fences for their ranches and farms, preventing the buffalo from migrating. What happens to the buffalo, happens to Lakota they were forced to cease their traditional life, settle down and farm or ranch. Resistance led to tragedy (Battle of Wounded Knee). (There is a photo of the Wounded Knee Massacre at the Trading Post.)

By the turn of the 20th century, the federal government was inviting homesteaders to come out and settle the West. They would get 160 acres if they could last five years on the land. They advertised abroad, enticing immigrants to the luscious plains in the Dakotas.

Lumber and stone were rare in the Badlands, so the settlers built their shanties of sod, called sodbusters.

Living was hard; small-scale farming couldnt succeed. They endured blistering summers, cruel winters, extreme wind. Many left, especially in the Great Depression. I think, how ironic.

Before the Lakota, before the dreams of homesteaders ended, paleontologists came here 150 years ago. The layered landscape of the Badlands told the story of geologic change, of climate change, that is still continuing. The Badlands are eroding fast at the rate of one inch per year, so in 100,000 to 500,000 years, all will be gone. The earth is a dynamic and changing system.

The ecology is complex. This is a mixed-grass prairie it may look dry, but the tangled roots store nutrients. Animals help sustain it the bison churn up the soil, mixing the moisture and scattering seeds; prairie dogs are critical to the ecosystem, too they also stir up the soil, and the burrows they dig are used by other animals like owl and ground squirrel. The black-footed ferret lives in abandoned burrows and also eats prairie dogs.

The farmers attempt to eliminate prairie dogs resulted in the near-extinction of the black-footed ferret. They have been reintroduced along with the swift fox, bighorn sheep.

The mission of National Parks is to preserve and restore but we cant restore the biggest animals that once were here the prairie wolf and grizzly bear.

Im about to leave when I stumble upon the Paleontology Lab, which is open to the public, where we can watch as two paleontologists painstakingly work to remove sediment from the bone their efforts magnified on a TV screen.

I am working on a Merycoidodon, an oreodont, which is a group of hoofed mammals native to North America, the sign says in response to what must be the zillionth time a visitor asks. Although they have no living relatives in modern times, oreodonts are related to another native North American mammal: the camel. Oreodonts are sheep-sized and may have resembled pigs, but with a longer body, short limbs and with teeth adapted for grinding tough vegetation. The skulls of Merycoidon have pits in front of the eyes, similar to those found in modern deer which contain scent glands used for marking territory. Oreodonts lived in herds and may at one point have been as plentiful in South Dakota as zebras are in the African Serengeti.

But the paleontologists are happy to answer questions, too. One tells me she has part of an ear canal (very unusual) and ear bones. Its unusual to have the upper teeth. This is a sub-adult I can see wisdom teeth and unerupted teeth. She is working on a Leptomerycid relative of mouse deer an animal the size of house cat.

It has taken her 170 hours to extract teeth from the rock.

This is the second time anyone got an upper row of teeth for this species. It may change scientists understanding. Were not sure if it is a separate species it has a different type of tooth crown. But having a second fossil means we can compare.

Just then, the senior paleontologist, Ed Welch comes in and tells me that because teeth are used to determine species, the work being done could prove or disprove whether this animal is a separate species.

Welch says it so far looks like a species that was named in 2010 based on the lower teeth. Now we have upper teeth and part of the skull. The difference could be variation by ecology (for example, what it ate). It was found at the same site so it would have been contemporary. We looked at several hundred jaws. This one could be an ecomorph just different because of what it ate.

The Badlands have some of the oldest dogs ever found, and the most diversity. In the display case is one of only eight specimens ever found the other seven are at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City but they are not displayed; this is the only specimen that can be viewed.It is the oldest one of its kind, 33-32 million years old and was found by a college student from Missouri.

He says the seven-year-old girl who found the sabercat fossil that the Ranger showed, came back this year, now 16 years old.

We ask visitors to leave the fossil where it is and report to us, give us photos, a GPS, so we can locate. Some of the fossils were found right on the trail, not even in remote areas.

Probably the most famous a hero around the lab is photographer Jim Carney of Iowa who found two bones that ended up being a big bone bed that so far has yielded 19,000 specimens.

Judging by a wall of photos of visitors and their finds just in 2019 it would seem that people have great odds and probability of finding an important fossil.

The fossils collected here since the 1840s are in every major institution. While fossils of dinosaurs and early man might get everyone excited, these fossils the middle of the Age of Mammals are important to fill out that story of ecological and evolutionary change.

The Badlands is in the middle of the earths transition from greenhouse to icehouse and the fossils found here show how animals responded to the ecological change: adapt, migrate or go extinct.

Welch made the decision to open the paleontology lab so people can see scientists at work. We decided to do more than a fishbowl, to make it a great education tool.

The Fossil Preparation Lab in the Ben Reifel Visitor Center is typically open from 9 a.m. 4:30 pm daily from the second week in June through the third week in September. The national park is open all-year-round.

For more information on the Badlands National Park visit nps.gov/badl/planyourvisit/events.htm

During our ride through the Badlands National Park, I spot the major animals that are residents here, including the bighorn sheep, American bison, pronghorn (also called antelope), mule deer, and black-tail prairie dog. The one I miss is a coyote (yet to come).

We have 12-miles further to bike to our accommodation for the night, the Circle View Guest Ranch, which proves to be an amazing experience in itself.

Wilderness Voyageurs started out as a rafting adventures company 50 years ago but has developed into a wide-ranging outdoors company with an extensive catalog of biking, rafting, fishing, and outdoor adventures throughout the US and even Cuba, many guided and self-guided bike itineraries built around rail-trails like the Eric Canal in New York, Great Allegheny Passage in Pennsylvania, and Katy Trail in Missouri.

There are still a few spots left on Wilderness Voyageurs Quintessential West Cuba Bike Tour departing on March 21.

Wilderness Voyageurs, 103 Garrett St., Ohiopyle, PA 15470, 800-272-4141, bike@Wilderness-Voyageurs.com, Wilderness-Voyageurs.com

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Going places: Biking through the Badlands is voyage of discovery millions of years in the making - Blog - The Island Now

A pair of Indiana union representatives have pleaded guilty to beating a group of McHenry County-based ironworkers at a church in 2016.

Former Ironworkers Union Local 395 President and business agent Jeffrey Veach and his fellow business agent, Thomas Williamson Sr., accepted plea deals Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana in the Hammond division.

Each man pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy to commit extortion, the charges of which stemmed from a January 2016 attack that broke the jaw of an employee of the union-based company D5 Iron Works, court records show.

Sometime before the confrontation, Veach and Williamson learned that D5 was completing a construction job for a Baptist church in Dyer, Indiana, federal plea agreements show. According to Veach and Williamsons plea agreements, the church site was within Local 395s territory, but D5 did not have a labor contract with the union.

On the morning of Jan. 7, 2016, Veach and Williamson visited the church in an attempt to persuade the D5 owner to either sign up with Local 395 or stop work on the job, records show.

When the owner refused, Williamson called the man profanities, grabbed his jacket and threatened to take things back to old school, plea documents show.

Williamson and Veach later returned to the job site with more union members that afternoon and struck several D5 employees with loose pieces of hardwood, kicked and punched them.

One D5 worker was hospitalized as a result of the attack and required several surgeries for a broken jaw, according to the plea deal.

Both Williamson and Veach face between two and 4 years in prison. The U.S. probation office must complete individual pre-sentence investigations into the backgrounds and current circumstances of both men before a sentencing hearing is set.

Neither mans attorney could be reached for comment Friday.

A related federal lawsuit has been on hold since June awaiting the outcome of the criminal proceedings.

According to the 20-count civil complaint, Local 395 employees wore steel-toed boots and shouted This is union work! This is 395s work! This is 395s territory and Dont come back! at D5 employees during the attack.

Robert Hanlon, the attorney representing D5 Iron Workers in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment Friday on how Veach and Williamsons guilty pleas might affect the federal lawsuit.

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Indiana union reps plead guilty to beating McHenry County-based ironworkers over church job site - Northwest Herald

Those lucky enough to score tickets to President Trumps Tuesday night rally in Wildwood will face traffic, just based on the sheer numbers of people attending, and one bridge construction project in a key location that may likely slow things down.

Those numbers are the 7,400 people the Wildwoods Convention Center holds, a claim from Congressman Jeff Van Drew who Trump is coming to stump for that 100,000 tickets had been issued, and possibly thousands of protesters who are planning to demonstrate. But only three bridges carry traffic on and off the barrier islands that make up the Wildwoods.

The George Redding Bridge that carries Route 47-Rio Grande Avenue is under construction as part of Cape May Countys Rio Grande Avenue Gateway project, which has temporarily reduced the bridge from four to two lanes one in each direction, said Robert Church, county engineer. Route 47 is the most direct route between the Garden State Parkway and the convention center.

Construction work takes place between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. but as of late Thursday, officials have not been asked to stop the project for the rally, Church said. The rally starts at 7 p.m. and convention center doors open at 3 p.m. The city expects there will be an overflow area nearby with screens for viewing outside and rally-goers are already talking about plans to arrive at least by Monday if not earlier.

Originally we had intended on changing the traffic patterns on Jan. 28 for the next phase of the project, but were asked to delay this until Jan. 29, due to the Presidents visit, so that there would no confusion with the new traffic patterns leading up to the event, Church said.

Route 47, which is normally two lanes in each direction, connects the Garden State Parkway and the Wildwoods. Sinkholes closed a small section of Route 47 located west of the Parkway and Route 9 which is an area that isnt used by most people traveling to Wildwood from other parts of the state.

Headed into Wildwood, those two lanes will merge into one at the top of the bridge. Drivers leaving the rally will also have to funnel into one lane on Rio Grande at Arctic Avenue until the top of the George Redding Bridge about a half-mile distance when it opens back up to two lanes headed west, Church said.

The project, which began in 2019, includes elevating a portion of the roadway above flood level and widening it, Church said.

Drivers thinking about taking a short cut through North Wildwood and into Stone Harbor and Avalon to leave will also face a closed bridge. The Ingrams Thorofare Bridge will be closed from 7 p.m. through 5 a.m. due to ongoing construction between Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, Avalon police said in a Facebook post. Avalon Boulevard also will be closed during those hours.

For the trip to the rally on the Garden State Parkway or Route 9, it should be smooth sailing as far as encountering any construction.

Im not aware of any additional closures around the time of the event on any NJDOT-maintained roads, said Steve Shapiro, a DOT spokesman.

Once supporters arrive, parking may not be an easy task. All the parking lots surrounding the convention center are not going to be available, said Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron. Drivers may have to go at least two or three blocks away. Some commercial establishments that are typically closed for the off-season and a sizable parking lot may reopen just for the rally parking.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Roadwork could snarl traffic on bridges near Trumps rally in Wildwood - NJ.com