SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission aims to test newly designed spacesuits. SpaceX, CC BY-NC-ND
SpaceX’s upcoming Polaris Dawn mission aims to be historic in more ways than one. Polaris Dawn plans to not only orbit Earth higher than any astronauts have in more than 50 years but to also feature the first private spacewalk.
It’s expected to launch Aug. 27, 2024, and feature a crew of four: the mission’s commander, Jared Isaacman; Scott Poteet, a 20-year Air Force veteran pilot; and SpaceX employees Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis. Launching on a Falcon 9 rocket, they will travel in a SpaceX Dragon capsule named Resilience.
As a space policy expert, I see this mission as a major step in the development of commercial spaceflight. If successful, this mission will show that private companies are working on developing the capabilities needed to go to the Moon or Mars.
Polaris Dawn is not the first commercial spaceflight mission SpaceX has launched. In addition to providing launch services to NASA, SpaceX also sells flights on its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon crew capsule to individuals and companies.
SpaceX’s first commercial mission, Inspiration4, launched in 2021. It was led by Isaacman, Polaris Dawn’s commander.
Following that mission, Isaacman purchased three additional flights from SpaceX and worked with the company to start the Polaris program. While neither Isaacman nor SpaceX have released exact numbers, seats on the Dragon have sold previously for about US$55 million.
Polaris Dawn is just the first of three planned Polaris missions. While few details have been released about the second, the third mission will be the first launch of SpaceX’s Starship with humans on board.
High-flying orbit
Given SpaceX’s ambitions to conduct its own missions to the Moon and Mars, it will need to develop and test the many elements that such missions will require. It will need to design and test EVA suits, complete longer missions that mimic the time needed to get to places such as the Moon and demonstrate an ability to communicate with Earth.
Polaris Dawn’s high-flying orbit will send humans farther from Earth than they have been in more than 50 years.
Perhaps more importantly, the spacewalk will test out SpaceX’s new EVA suits. Developing these suits is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish.
A Polaris Dawn crew member tries on SpaceX’s extravehicular activity suit.SpaceX, CC BY-NC-ND
NASA learned early on that spacesuits are incredibly tricky. They must provide life support and protection from the space environment while allowing astronauts to move about. This is particularly tricky, as fully pressurized suits are bulky and hard to move in, leading to exhaustion.
The Polaris Dawn crew is scheduled to conduct their extravehicular activities on Aug. 30. To do so, they will lower their orbit to approximately 434 miles (700 km) to reduce the crew’s exposure to radiation.
All four of Polaris Dawn’s crew members will suit up for the spacewalk. After depressurizing the entire capsule, two of the crew – Isaacman and Gillis – will leave the relative safety of the Dragon capsule to spend approximately two hours in space.
A charitable cause
Polaris and Polaris Dawn are seeking to raise money for children’s cancer research while also expanding SpaceX’s capabilities for space exploration. As a tech billionaire, Isaacman has a long history of charitable giving.
Like Isaacman’s earlier Inspiration4 mission, Polaris Dawn is also raising funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in one case soliciting donations in return for Doritos chips specially developed for space.
Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 and the commander of Polaris Dawn, stands in front of a plane.AP Photo/John Raoux
Isaacman’s commitment to coupling this mission with his philanthropy suggests that he understands many people’s critiques of the so-called billionaire space club. These arguments often include the idea that billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos would help people more by spending their money on things like poverty alleviation rather than on space missions.
While private missions like this aren’t funded by tax dollars and don’t require public support, Isaacman’s decision to make St. Jude a partner creates tangible and immediate benefits on Earth.
Like many of SpaceX’s activities, Polaris Dawn is ambitious, but it is necessary for the company’s future plans. Before SpaceX can run to Mars, it must first walk – or spacewalk, to be more precise.
Aging is a biological process that no one can avoid. Ideally, growing old should be a time to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Aging also has a darker side, however, often linked to disease.
Every second, your cells perform billions of biochemical reactions that fuel essential functions for life, forming a highly interconnected metabolic network. This network enables cells to grow, proliferate and repair themselves, and itsdisruption candrive theaging process.
But does aging cause metabolic decline, or does metabolic disruption accelerate aging? Or both?
To address this chicken-or-egg question, you first need to understand how metabolic processes break down during aging and disease. I am a scientist and researcher, and my lab focuses on exploring the complex relationship between metabolism, stress and aging. Ultimately, we hope this work will provide strategies to promote healthier aging and more vibrant lives.
Link between metabolism and aging
Aging is the most significant risk factor for many of society’s most common diseases, including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders. A key factor behind the onset of these health issues is the disruption of cellular and metabolic homeostasis, or balance. Disrupting homeostasis destabilizes the body’s internal environment, leading to imbalances that can trigger a cascade of health issues, including metabolic disorders, chronic diseases and impaired cellular functions that contribute to aging and other serious conditions.
Disrupted metabolism is linked to many hallmarks of aging cells, such as telomere shortening, which is damage to the protective ends of chromosomes, and genomic instability, the tendency to form genetic mutations.
Metabolism can be divided into two broad processes: anabolism, or building up molecules, and catabolism, or breaking down molecules.
Neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are prime examples of age-related conditions with a strong link between dysregulated metabolism and functional decline. For example, my research team previously discovered that in aging mice, the ability of bone marrow cells to produce, store and use energy is suppressed due to increased activity from a protein that modulates inflammation. This energy-deficient state leads to an increase in inflammation that’s worsened by these aging cells’ reliance on glucose as their main fuel source.
Experimentally inhibiting this protein in the bone marrow cells of aging mice, however, revitalizes the cells’ ability to produce energy, reduces inflammation and improves plasticity of an area of the brain involved in memory. This finding suggests that some cognitive aging could be reversed by reprogramming the glucose metabolism of bone marrow cells to restore immune functions.
Repurposing drugs to treat Alzheimer’s
In our newly published research, my team and I discovered a new connection between disrupted glucose metabolism and neurodegenerative disease. This led us to identify a drug originally designed for cancer that could potentially be used to treat Alzheimer’s.
We focused on an enzyme called IDO1 that plays a critical role in the first step of breaking down amino acid tryptophan. This pathway produces a key compound called kynurenine, which fuels additional energy pathways and inflammatory responses. However, excessive kynureninecan havedetrimental effects, including increasing the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
We found that inhibiting IDO1 can recover memory and brain function in a range of preclinical models, including in cell cultures and mice. To understand why, we looked at the metabolism of brain cells. The brain is one of the most glucose-dependent tissues in the body. An inability to properly use glucose to fuel critical brain processes can lead to metabolic and cognitive decline.
High levels of IDO1 reduce glucose metabolism by producing excess kynurenine. So IDO1 inhibitors – originally designed to treat cancers such as melanoma, leukemia and breast cancer – could be repurposed to reduce kynurenine and improve brain function.
Using a range of lab models, including mice and cells from Alzheimer’s patients, we also found that IDO1 inhibitors can restore glucose metabolism in brain cells. Furthermore, we were able to restore glucose metabolism in mice with both amyloid and tau accumulation – abnormal proteins involved in many neurodegenerative disorders – by blocking IDO1. We believe repurposing these inhibitors could be beneficial across various neurodegenerative disorders.
Promoting healthier cognitive aging
The effects of neurological disorders and metabolic decline weigh heavily on individuals, families and the economy.
While many scientists have focused on targeting the downstream effects of these diseases, such as managing symptoms and slowing progression, treating these diseases earlier can improve cognition with aging. Our findings suggest that targeting metabolism has the potential to not only slow neurological decline but also to reverse the progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and dementia.
Discovering new insights at the intersection of stress, metabolism and aging can pave the way for healthier aging. More research can improve our understanding of how metabolism affects stress responses and cellular balance throughout life.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — A Lake County tribe’s plans to locate a massive casino project in Vallejo is meeting with resistance from tribes in that area as well as elected officials on the local, state and federal levels.
The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians is proposing to build a $700 million casino complex near I-80 and Highway 37 on a 128-acre site that was meant for open space and contains cultural sites sacred to the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.
On Thursday, a coalition of California tribes and elected officials forcefully denounced the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Department of the Interior for what the group called an “insufficient and inadequate” environmental assessment of Scotts Valley’s casino project.
At a press conference hosted by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation in Sacramento, the group urged BIA to swiftly reject Scotts Valley’s attempt to build the casino off-reservation — 100 miles away from their homelands and on Patwin ancestral territory — highlighting the irreparable harm this project would have, including on cultural resources and environmental habitats.
At the press conference, Yocha Dehe Chairman Anthony Roberts — flanked by tribal members holding signs that said “Listen to tribal voices” and “Respect tribal sovereignty,” said his tribe was facing “one of the most severe challenges in decades.”
Roberts expressed his “extreme disappointment” with the Department of Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs, who he said has ignored, excluded and mistreated his tribe for months as they’ve tried to weigh in on the decision making process.
“This unprecedented, distorted public process, an attempt at a secret land grab, would allow Scotts Valley from Clear Lake, 100 miles away, and its wealthy Las Vegas Casino investors to build a mega casino on our land. This mega casino has no basis in law, policy, or common sense. And the Patwin people and other tribes and officials here today will tell you that this is wrong, not only for the Patwin people, for California tribes, and an Indian country as a whole.” Roberts said
“The proposed development would directly impact numerous culturally sensitive and sacred Patwin sites. These sites carry the weight of history representing Patwin villages and our ancestors who regarded this land as their homeland. The proposed use of the restored lands exception for taking land into trust as part of the Scotts Valley project misuses the regulation's intended purpose and if applied in this manner, threaten the integrity of all tribes’ ancestral lands,” said Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation Chairman Charlie Wright during the press conference.
The Department of the Interior released the environmental assessment over the July 4 holiday weekend, Yocha Dehe tribal officials reported.
As a result, tribes, local governments and other stakeholders had to fight to extend the comment period from 30 to a mere 45 days.
Thursday’s press conference — held at the future California Indian Heritage Center site in Sacramento — took place on the last day of the 45-day comment period.
On July 23, the BIA held a public hearing over Zoom to take public input on the project.
During that hearing, Scotts Valley Tribal Chair Shawn Davis said the project would reverse the tribe’s history of displacement. He said it will include a casino as well as an administrative building to be the nerve center for tribal governance, along with 24 homes.
He said it’s not just a business venture but a cornerstone of self-sufficiency, and that will be a promise to future generations and would preserve cultural heritage. “We were thoughtful and deliberate in choosing this site in Vallejo,” he said.
Jesse Gonzalez, Scotts Valley’s vice chair, said the tribe had to demonstrate to BIA that it has a significant cultural connection to the Vallejo area. He said the tribe’s journey to pursue this project began a decade ago, and has been long and difficult.
However, during that meeting, elected officials from Vallejo, Solano and Yolo counties, other tribes and residents pushed back on the plan.
Then, as on Thursday, they faulted the environmental assessment for failing to take into account multiple issues, which they said included the destruction of Patwin cultural resources. Plans include bulldozing a chert quarry used by the Patwin people and sites where there are human remains.
Opponents said the environmental assessment also doesn’t address mitigation measures for the destruction of critical habitats for multiple endangered species, high-voltage power lines that cross through the proposed site and the impact of the casino on local traffic.
Scotts Valley’s casino project, which opponents said is largely funded by out-of-state donors, would defy the commitment of Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to protect the ability of every Native person to live safe and healthy lives in their homelands by upending lands that are recognized by California’s Native American Heritage Commission as Patwin ancestral territory.
The speakers at Thursday’s event are part of a larger and diverse coalition that is opposing Scotts Valley’s project.
U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, U.S. Representatives John Garamendi (D-CA-08) and Mike Thompson (D-CA-04) oppose this project.
“While I support tribes’ self-determination and economic development, I have and will continue to urge the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to follow precedent and well-established safeguards with respect to tribal gaming. A lack of meaningful engagement with impacted Tribes and other interested parties throughout this process would have lasting negative impacts on our community," Thompson said in a written statement.
As the expedited process continues, the group of speakers collectively asked concerned stakeholders to demand Interior Secretary Haaland establish a fair, transparent, and fact-based review process — while warning that an approval of the project would be felt across the state for years to come.
“We believe this casino would have devastating social, cultural, and environmental impacts to the communities and lands around Vallejo. Potential impacts to cultural resources, endangered species, and sensitive habitats that local tribes preserve. It must be taken seriously,” said Yolo County Supervisor Oscar Villegas at the press conference.
“As Chair of the Solano County Board of Supervisors, I am outraged by the obvious irregularities involving the structure, length and time of the Public Comment Period for the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians Environmental Assessment. While we are very clearly on the record in opposition to the project itself, we are deeply troubled by what appears to be your agency showing favoritism to one recognized tribe over another,” said Mitch Mashburn, chair of the Solano County Board of Supervisors in a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Governor’s representative outlines opposition to Scotts Valley and Koi Nation projects
Last week Gov. Gavin Newsom joined the ranks of those opposing the Scotts Valley project.
In an Aug. 16 to Bryan Newland, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, Matthew Lee, Gov. Newsom’s senior advisor for tribal negotiations and deputy legal affairs secretary, wrote that, on behalf of the governor, he was urging the U.S. Department of Interior not to move forward with Scotts Valley casino and tribal housing project in Solano County or the Koi Nation of Northern California’s proposed Shiloh Resort and Casino project in Sonoma County.
The Koi Nation, like Scotts Valley, is a Lake County tribe attempting to locate a casino project well out of their accepted historic territory. In the Koi’s case, they are proposing to build a project in Windsor, also claiming historic ties to the area. Like the Scotts Valley project, the Koi’s casino plan has drawn major opposition from other tribes and community members.
While recognizing the importance of taking land into trust for gaming, the letter said, “caution is warranted when considering the potential expansion of gaming to land that is not currently eligible for gaming. This is particularly true in California, where the voters who legalized tribal gaming were promised that such gaming would remain geographically limited.”
Lee wrote that the Koi Nation and Scotts Valley fail to establish sufficient historical connections to the locations outside of Lake County where they want to locate their projects, and fall far outside of the two tribes’ aboriginal homelands, which make them ineligible for a “restored lands” exception in federal law.
The “restored lands” exception of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows a casino off-reservation if a tribe can prove a historical connection to the land.
Opponents noted that the Department of the Interior has determined on three separate occasions that Scotts Valley lacks the significant historical connection to the Bay Area needed to acquire land eligible for gaming.
“The Windsor parcel does not fall within the Koi Nation’s aboriginal homeland: It lies approximately fifty miles, over winding mountain roads, from the Lake County region” where the Koi Nation has acknowledged that its ancestors had villages and sacred sites along the shores of Clear Lake “since time immemorial,” Lee’s letter explained.
The Scotts Valley project raises similar concerns, the letter said, noting that its aboriginal homeland also is modern-day Lake County, with the Scotts Valley Band lacking the “deep and enduring connection to the relevant territory” necessary under federal rules.
The letter said an 1851 treaty that purported to cede “a vast swath of the North Bay, Sacramento Valley, and Clear Lake regions” — couldn’t be relied upon. “Nineteenth-century treaties were hardly models of respect for tribal sovereignty, and one cannot safely assume that they accurately reflect the boundaries of tribes’ aboriginal homelands.”
Lee continued, “Governor Newsom has deep respect for tribal sovereignty, and he has been proud to restore tribes’ control over lands from which they have been dispossessed. Here, however, he is concerned by the prospect that the Department [of the Interior] might involve the ‘restored lands’ exception to support projects that are focused less on restoring the relevant tribes’ aboriginal homelands, and more on creating new gaming operations in desirable markets.”
The noted Newsom’s concern that the two projects are proceeding in a way that would sidestep the state, ignore the concerns of tribal governments and other local communities, and stretch the restored lands exception beyond its legal limits “while failing to adequately consider whether there might be a better way.
“On behalf of the Governor, I urge the Department not to move forward with these proposed projects,” Lee concluded.
Yocha Dehe’s comments on the environmental assessment will be released on Friday, Aug. 23.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Registrar of Voters has finalized the list of candidates for a host of seats on the boards of county fire, school, water, hospital and other special districts.
The seats that follow will be on the Nov. 5 ballot.
• District 1 Lake County Supervisor: John H. Hess, Lake County Planning Commission member; Helen Owen, rancher and businesswoman.
• Kelseyville Unified School District, three seats, four-year terms: Sabrina Andrus, nonprofit executive director; Mike Brown, retired school superintendent; Mary Beth Mosko, incumbent; Gilbert Rangel, incumbent.
• Konocti Unified School District, two seats, four-year terms: Joan Shelley Mingori, businesswoman; Zabdy Neria, incumbent; Tina Viramontes, city employee.
• Lakeport Unified School District, three vacancies, four-year terms: Daniel Buffalo, incumbent; Catherine “Cat” Dunne, retired teacher; Scott Johnson, school superintendent; Jennifer Richardson, incumbent.
• Middletown Unified School District, two vacancies, four-year terms: Zoi Ann Bracisco, incumbent; Frederic Lahey, retired professor; Annette Lee, college instructor. One vacancy, two-year term: Patricia Pachie, small business owner; Nathan Willis, teacher/union organizer.
• Northshore Fire Protection District, Upper Lake Zone, one vacancy, four-year term: Gary L. Lewis; Walter Sidney Christensen, retired law enforcement.
• Yuba Community College District: Trustee Area No. 7, incumbent, Douglas M. Harris, Jeffrey Lee Dryden, cabinet maker.
The following seats will not be on the ballotas the candidates are running unopposed.
• Anderson Springs Community Services District director, two positions: Carol McDowell and Roger Duke.
• Buckingham Park Water District, two vacancies, four-year terms: Thomas David Brandon, incumbent.
• Butler-Keys Community Services District, three vacancies, four-year terms: James Oliver Burton, retired fire chief, and Frank Gillespie, incumbent.
• Callayomi County Water District, two vacancies, four-year terms: Rosemary Córdova, incumbent.
• Clearlake Oaks County Water District director, three vacancies, four-year terms: James Burton, incumbent; Michael L. Herman, incumbent; William L. McHugh, appointed incumbent.
• Cobb Area County Water District director, two vacancies, four-year terms: Jim Agur, incumbent; Kees Winkelman.
• Hidden Valley Community Services District, three vacancies, four-year terms: James Freeman, incumbent; James “Jim” Lieberman, incumbent; Sean R. Millerick, incumbent. One vacancy, two-year term: Matthew Metcalf, appointed incumbent.
• Kelseyville Fire Protection District director, two vacancies, four-year terms: Steven Brookes, incumbent; Beau-Jean Maddox.
• Kelseyville Unified School District Governing Board: Weston Seifert, two-year unexpired term.
• Konocti County Water District director, two vacancies, four-year terms: Kirsten Heather Priebe, incumbent; Jeffrey L. Stanley, incumbent. Two vacancies, two-year terms: Elvis Cook, appointed incumbent; Nicole J. Mckay, appointed incumbent.
• Lake County Board of Education: Trustee Area No. 1, Aqeela J. El-Amin Bakheit, four-year term; Trustee Area No. 2, Jeff Smart, four-year term; Trustee Area No. 5, Itzia Rico.
• Lake County Fire Protection District director, three vacancies, four-year terms: Michael W. Dean, incumbent; Richard “Bud” Moore, incumbent; Craig James Scoval.
• Northshore Fire Protection District, Clearlake Oaks Zone, one vacancy, four-year term: Lynn M. Ringuette, incumbent.
• Redbud Health Care District director, three vacancies, four-year terms: Zone 1, Suan Carol Burton, incumbent; Zone 3, James E. Scholz, incumbent; Andrew “Lamont” Kucer, incumbent.
• South Lake County Fire Protection District director, three vacancies, four-year terms: Rob Bostock, incumbent; Jim Comisky, incumbent; Madelyn L. Martinelli, incumbent.
• Upper Lake County Water District director, three vacancies, four-year terms: Dawn R. Binns; Jan C. Brelsford; Valerie Duncan, incumbent.
• Upper Lake Unified School District Governing Board, two vacancies, four-year terms: Claudine Pedroncelli, community volunteer; Christian Klier, appointed incumbent.
• Villa blue Estates Water District director, three vacancies, two-year terms: Donna L. Brooks, incumbent; Ann Knudsen, incumbent; Christian Montgomery, incumbent.
“Kyra.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Many dogs are waiting for their new families at Clearlake Animal control this week.
Among the 41 adoptable dogs available this week are several puppies.
This week’s dogs include “Kyra,” a female Labrador retriever mix with a chocolate-colored coat.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Supporters argue AB 2138 would add a new tool to fighting the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis in California.
Native American advocate organizations including Indigenous Justice and Native Sisters Circle gathered Wednesday in Sacramento to urge passage of AB 2138 that would grant peace officer status to tribal law enforcement.
The measure is aimed at increasing public safety on reservations by adding a new tool to confront California’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis.
Assemblymember James C. Ramos, the first and only California Native American elected to the legislature, authored the measure.
AB 2138 sponsors are the Yurok Tribe, California Indian Legal Services and California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The measure received overwhelming bipartisan and unanimous support in the Assembly and Senate. Tribes from across the state have urged the state to grant peace officer status during their annual “Day of Action” as a means to prevent and better investigate MMIP-related cases.
Attorney General Rob Bonta, declared in his sponsorship letter:
“In 1953, the United States government passed Public Law 280 (“PL 280”), which shifted jurisdiction over some crimes occurring on tribal lands from the federal government to certain states, including California. However, PL 280 did not provide funding to the states or the tribes who took responsibility for public safety on tribal lands. Additionally, PL 280 has resulted in significant confusion over who has jurisdiction over certain crimes – the federal government, the state government, or the tribes. This jurisdictional confusion, together with the alarming rise in Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) cases in California, has eroded the trust of many tribal communities in our state’s criminal justice system.
“AB 2138 is a significant step toward ameliorating these problems. With the passage of AB 2138, eligible tribal police officers will be able to enforce California criminal law on tribal lands, for all crimes involving tribal members and non-tribal members alike. This bill empowers tribal governments with the tools they need to protect and serve their communities.”
“The devastating issue of MMIP has caused untold tragedy that often becomes long lingering ripples of grief and further tragedy. We can prevent this tragedy by enabling tribes the means to increase safety on their lands and mitigating the dangerous consequences of federal law PL 280,” Ramos said.
Morning Star Gali, founder of Indigenous Justice and a leading advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People victims and families said, “AB 2138 will lead to better outcomes in MMIP cases, allowing tribal police to act swiftly and effectively. The bill’s data collection and reporting requirements will provide critical insights into the scope of the MMIP crisis and the effectiveness of law enforcement responses.”
“Achieving state peace officer status for our qualified tribal officers has been an ongoing effort dating back to the early 1990s. The passage of AB 2138 will represent a significant step toward realizing this goal which is ultimately about creating safer tribal communities,” said Heather Hostler, executive director of California Indian Legal Services and a bill sponsor.
AB 2138 supporters include Blue Lake Rancheria, California Faculty Association, California Nations Indian Gaming Association, California Tribal Business Alliance, Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, Initiate Justice, Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians, Strong Hearted Native Women’s Coalition Inc., Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, Tejon Indian Tribe and Tule River Tribe.
This week, the nation’s governors called on Congress to replenish funding for the Disaster Relief Fund, or DRF, as soon as legislative work resumes in September.
The current shortfall within the DRF limits the ability of states and territories to mitigate disasters as they continue to evolve, escalate and cause lasting damage.
Without adequate access to funding, states and territories will remain vulnerable, and critical recovery efforts will be hindered.
With historic floods, hail, tornadoes, wildfires and hurricanes causing stress to communities across the country, the governors said Congress must continue to work alongside federal agencies to ensure there is no gap in access to federal support programs for disaster response and recovery.
“We encourage Congress and federal agencies to work together to ensure our states and territories have the necessary resources to protect and rebuild the communities impacted by natural disasters,” the group said.
Founded in 1908, the National Governors Association, or NGA, is the bipartisan organization of the nation’s 55 governors.
Through NGA, governors share best practices, address issues of national and state interest and share innovative solutions that improve state government and support the principles of federalism.
A 3D reconstruction of a spherical colony of 70 choanoflagellates from the newly-named species Barroeca monosierra discovered in Mono Lake. Colonies of these organisms consist of numerous identical cells (cyan), each with flagella (orange) that allow them to propel themselves through the water. This choanoflagellate colony hosts its own microbiome, something never before seen in these organisms. Image credit: Davis Laundon and Pawel Burkhardt, Sars Centre, Norway; Kent McDonald and Nicole King, UC Berkeley. The choanoflagellate — a member of a group that is the closest living relative of all animals — has its own unique microbiome.
BERKELEY, Calif. — Mono Lake in the Eastern Sierra Nevada is known for its towering tufa formations, abundant brine shrimp and black clouds of alkali flies uniquely adapted to the salty, arsenic- and cyanide-laced water.
University of California, Berkeley, researchers have now found another unusual creature lurking in the lake's briny shallows — one that could tell scientists about the origin of animals more than 650 million years ago.
The organism is a choanoflagellate, a microscopic, single-celled form of life that can divide and develop into multicellular colonies in a way that’s similar to how animal embryos form. It’s not a type of animal, however, but a member of a sister group to all animals. And as animals’ closest living relative, the choanoflagellate is a crucial model for the leap from one-celled to multicellular life.
Surprisingly, it harbors its own microbiome, making it the first choanoflagellate known to establish a stable physical relationship with bacteria, instead of solely eating them. As such, it’s one of the simplest organisms known to have a microbiome.
"Very little is known about choanoflagellates, and there are interesting biological phenomena that we can only gain insight into if we understand their ecology," said Nicole King, a UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator who studies choanoflagellates as a model for what early life was like in ancient oceans.
Typically visible only through a microscope, choanoflagellates are often ignored by aquatic biologists, who instead focus on macroscopic animals, photosynthetic algae or bacteria. But their biology and lifestyle can give insight into creatures that existed in the oceans before animals evolved and that eventually gave rise to animals. This species in particular could shed light on the origin of interactions between animals and bacteria that led to the human microbiome.
"Animals evolved in oceans that were filled with bacteria," King said. "If you think about the tree of life, all organisms that are alive now are related to each other through evolutionary time. So if we study organisms that are alive today, then we can reconstruct what happened in the past."
King and her UC Berkeley colleagues described the organism — which they named Barroeca monosierra, after the lake — in a paper published online Aug. 14 in the journal mBio.
A beautiful colony
Nearly 10 years ago, then-UC Berkeley graduate student Daniel Richter came back from a climbing trip in the Eastern Sierra Nevada with a vial of Mono Lake water he'd casually collected along the way. Under the microscope, it was alive with choanoflagellates. Aside from brine shrimp, alkali flies and various species of nematode, few other forms of life have been reported to live in the inhospitable waters of the lake.
"It was just packed full of these big, beautiful colonies of choanoflagellates," King said. "I mean, they were the biggest ones we'd ever seen."
The colonies of what seemed to be close to 100 identical choanoflagellate cells formed a hollow sphere that twirled and spun as each individual cell kicked its flagella.
"One of the things that's interesting about them is that these colonies have a shape similar to the blastula — a hollow ball of cells that forms early in animal development," King said. "We wanted to learn more about it."
At the time, however, King was occupied with other species of choanos, as she calls them, so the Mono Lake choanos languished in the freezer until some students revived and stained them to look at their unusual, doughnut-shaped chromosomes. Surprisingly, there was also DNA inside the hollow colony where there should have been no cells. After further investigation, graduate student Kayley Hake determined that they were bacteria.
"The bacteria were a huge surprise. That just was fascinating," King said.
Hake also detected connective structures, called extracellular matrix, inside the spherical colony that were secreted by the choanos.
Only then did it occur to Hake and King that these might not be the remains of bacteria the choanos ate, but bacteria living and grazing on stuff secreted by the colony.
"No one had ever described a choanoflagellate with a stable physical interaction with bacteria," she said. "In our prior studies, we found that choanos responded to small bacterial molecules that were floating through the water, or [that] the choanos were eating the bacteria, but there was no case where they were doing anything that could potentially be a symbiosis. Or in this case, a microbiome."
King teamed up with Jill Banfield, a pioneer in metagenomics and a UC Berkeley professor of environmental science, policy and management and of earth and planetary science, to determine which bacterial species were in the water and inside the choanos. Metagenomics involves sequencing all the DNA in an environmental sample to reconstruct the genomes of the organisms living there.
After Banfield's lab identified the microbes in Mono Lake water, Hake created DNA probes to determine which ones were also inside the choanos. The bacterial populations were not identical, King said, so evidently some bacteria survive better than others inside the oxygen-starved lumen of the choanoflagellate colony. Hake determined that they were not there accidentally; they were growing and dividing. Perhaps they were escaping the toxic environment of the lake, King mused, or maybe the choanos were farming the bacteria to eat them.
Much of this is speculation, she admits. Future experiments should uncover how the bacteria interact with the choanoflagellates. Past work in her lab has already shown that bacteria act like an aphrodisiac to stimulate mating in choanoflagellates, and that bacteria can stimulate single-celled choanos to aggregate into colonies.
For her, the Mono Lake choanoflagellate will become another model system in which to study evolution, just like the choanos that live in splash pools on the island of Curaçao in the Caribbean — her main focus at the moment — and the choanos in pools at the North and South Poles. It might be a challenge to get more samples from Mono Lake, however. On a recent visit, only six of 100 samples contained these energetic microorganisms.
"I think there's a great deal more that needs to be done on the microbial life of Mono Lake, because it really underpins everything else about the ecosystem," King said. "I'm excited about B. monosierra as a new model for studying interactions between eukaryotes and bacteria. And I hope it tells us something about evolution. But even if it doesn't, I think it's a fascinating phenomenon."
In addition to King, Banfield, Hake and Richter, UC Berkeley co-authors of the paper include former doctoral student Patrick West, electron microscopist Kent McDonald and postdoctoral fellows Josean Reyes-Rivera and Alain Garcia De Las Bayonas. The work is supported by HHMI and the National Science Foundation.
Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.
Dr. David P. Weber, Salisbury University and Jake Bernstein, The Conversation
Banking regulations haven’t caught up with gift cards, which fraudsters are using to steal money from people in ways that are difficult to trace or reverse. The Conversation, CC BY-ND
Wednesday morning, the day before Thanksgiving, Mae awoke, set her hair in curlers and switched on her laptop. The screen froze and a message appeared. It said her Safari web browser had encountered a problem, and a link offered to connect the 83-year-old to the Apple Computer Company. Mae clicked it.
She didn’t know it yet, but Mae, like millions of Americans each year, had fallen into the grip of fraudsters. Over the next 10 hours, the criminals would try several methods to steal her money. The one that worked without a hitch was getting her to buy gift cards. The common cards, from retailers such as Target, Apple and Amazon, are sold on racks in drugstores and supermarkets. They’re better than cash for a fraudster, more portable and just as anonymous. Once criminals have the gift card numbers, they use them to purchase goods online, at stores around the world, or sell or trade them in illicit marketplaces on the dark web, Telegram or Discord.
The drugstore gift card rack used to steal money from Mae.David P. Weber
An estimated US$8 billion is stolen annually from seniors age 60 and older through stranger-perpetrated frauds, according to AARP. Increasingly, gift cards are a leading fraud payment method reported by older adults, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
The investigation shows that federal regulators have consistently failed to protect the public from gift card fraud and have failed to give gift cards consumer protections like those afforded to credit and debit cards. Congress, in turn, has largely deferred to these regulators. Meanwhile, efforts to rein in the industry on the state and federal level have been met with successful opposition from lobbyists and gift card trade groups. When fraud does occur, gift card retailers are often less than helpful in assisting law enforcement in helping to track down the criminals.
One of us learned about Mae’s case in his work as a fraud examiner and has seen dozens of similar cases. Mae, who lives in Maryland, is unwilling to publish her last name for fear of being revictimized, as well as sheer embarrassment, but she still wants people to know the story so they don’t make the same mistakes.
In gift card fraud, everybody but the victim makes money: fraudsters, gift card companies and retailers. The criminals exploit a rapidly evolving payments industry that’s shrouded in secrecy, designed to ensure easy transactions and lacking in consumer protections.
The technology companies that provide the infrastructure that enables the gift card economy are privately held and release little information publicly. They facilitate payments behind the scenes, out of the view of consumers who see only the brand name of the card and the drugstore or supermarket where they buy it. While retailers who sell gift cards could do more to thwart fraud, the secretive technology companies that set up and manage gift cards are best positioned to stop rampant criminality, but they don’t. There’s no legal requirement to do so, and they make money off the crime.
Call this number
When Mae called the number that appeared on her screen, a man answered and identified himself as Mac Morgan, an “Apple high security technician.” He gave her his employee ID number, which she dutifully wrote down. The problem seemed to originate from her bank, he told her. She volunteered that she banked with M&T, a Northeast bank headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y. Call them, he said, and provided a phone number.
The woman who answered said her name was Alivia, from the M&T Bank Fraud Unit. Alivia told Mae that a European pornographer and scammer had tried to gain access to her account and withdraw $20,000 during the night. A hold had been placed on the withdrawal, but Mae needed to come down to the bank and retrieve the money before the fraudsters did.
Anxiety rising in her voice, Mae told the woman she hadn’t even had a cup of coffee yet; she still had curlers in her hair. Alivia advised her to remove the curlers and, soothingly, promised to stay on the phone with Mae through the entire process.
Sophisticated schemes
Gift cards are just the latest in fraudsters’ seemingly unlimited arsenal of tools that help them steal money from people through deceptions like romance scams, fake IRS notices and phony investment schemes. In addition to consumer swindles like the one that targeted Mae, gift cards, including those that are reloadable, have also been hit with an epidemic of card draining, where criminals either steal barcodes from gift cards on the rack or swap in new barcodes they already control.
When consumers put money on a compromised card, the criminals are alerted because they are monitoring the barcodes using automated online account balance inquiries. They can repeatedly check the balances on thousands of barcodes at a time. As soon as money hits a card, the criminals use the account number to purchase items online or in stores, using runners or “mules” to physically go into stores.
Criminals can steal or alter gift card barcodes to compromise the card.David P. Weber
Falling victim to a financial scam ranks second in American fears about criminality, after identity theft, far exceeding concerns about violent crime, according to Gallup. Despite these fears, there doesn’t appear to be an accurate government number on exactly how much financial fraud is taking place. The gift card and reloadable card industry also doesn’t keep data on the amount of money consumers lose through the criminal use of its products.
At the same time, many gift card companies are not publicly traded. As such, they aren’t required to file quarterly or annual financial reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which would indicate the size of the industry and might outline the amount of fraud, among other risks. Consequently, nailing down an exact figure for the total amount of fraud involving gift cards and reloadable cards is challenging.
Yet the vast majority of people who fall victim to financial scams never report their losses to law enforcement. Most victims are too embarrassed or pessimistic about their chances of recouping losses and so don’t complain. And often they are concerned that their adult children, caregivers or authorities such as adult protective services might conclude that guardianship or institutionalization is necessary to protect them. While it is extremely difficult to know how many elders report financial fraud, a 12-year-old study that’s still commonly cited, including by federal authorities, estimates it at 4.2%.
About $550 billion is added onto gift cards annually in the U.S., according to Jordan Hirschfield, a gift card analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research. He estimates that between 1% and 5% of all gift card sales could be fraudulent in some way, but because no one keeps track, it’s difficult to arrive at an exact number. If the 1% to 5% figure is correct, the amount of fraud is between $5.5 billion and $27.5 billion per year.
A victim’s fear bubble
Mae had entered what AARP calls a fear bubble, an induced state of panic that makes rational thought difficult, if not impossible. This is a greater risk for seniors, because as people get older they experience anger and fear more vividly. The fraudsters who manipulate this panic describe putting their victims “under the ether.” Frightened beyond reason, the victim is manipulated into transferring large sums of money to the fraudster to ward off the conjured danger.
Anyone can fall victim. In February, a former New York Times business columnist wrote about losing $50,000 in a fear-induced scam. Mae had graduated summa cum laude from an elite private university. She is a no-nonsense retired nurse and lives independently. Now she was rushing, panicked, to her bank at the direction of a fraudster.
As Mae drove, Alivia advised her to ready a story in case the teller balked at giving her the money. Mae decided to tell them that she needed the $20,000 to buy a used car and it was a matter of urgency.
Frictionless and anonymous
Gift cards have experienced rapid and immense growth because they’re a win-win, an innovative convenience for shoppers and a threefold boon for retailers. The gift card racks are mini billboards for retailers.
A gift card rack at a Target sells dozens of types of gift cards. Some of the cards resemble credit cards, and even carry their logos, but they all lack the regulatory protections of credit cards.The Conversation, CC BY-ND
Consumers commonly spend one- to two-thirds more than the actual value of the card when they use it, said Ben Jackson, chief operating officer for the Innovative Payments Association, one of several trade groups that represent the industry. And sometimes consumers don’t spend the gift cards. Terms and conditions of the gift cards, frequently in small print or available only online, may allow retailers to retain the balance after a minimum of five years. It’s a tidy gift to retailers amounting to billions of dollars.
The National Retail Federation routinely ranks gift cards as the No. 1 thing shoppers plan to buy. “You don’t want friction in your gift giving,” Jackson said.
He has traced the first gift card to a glove company in Oregon in 1908. The company extolled the convenience of this new innovation: “Gift givers need not worry about picking the right size or color glove; give the recipient a card and let them choose for themselves.”
In the modern era, plastic gift cards were created by Neiman Marcus, but movie rental company Blockbuster first displayed the cards for customers. Known as a closed-loop card, it can be spent for goods only from that particular retailer.
In contrast, open-loop gift cards can be spent at multiple retailers and often have a credit card logo from companies such as Visa or Mastercard, but they don’t offer the same protections afforded actual credit cards, such as requiring an ID on file for the card. Some open-loop cards identify as debit cards even though they also lack the fraud protections of bank debit cards. If the money is swindled, there’s no obligation for the company to reimburse the cardholder.
Open-loop cards work everywhere debit and credit cards do and can sometimes be reloaded with funds. Purchasers can pay by cash to remain anonymous. Criminals love them. In the places where fraudsters lurk – on the dark web, which is made up of sites that resemble ordinary websites but are accessible only using special browsers or authorization codes, and on Telegram and Discord messaging apps – open-loop and closed-loop gift cards are offered as payment for everything from payroll to the purchase of equipment needed to perpetrate more frauds.
The first open-loop card originated with retail malls and foreshadowed how the gift card industry would later game regulators. In 2004, Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group and Bank of America created a stored-value card that could be spent at any store in the 159 Simon malls throughout the U.S.
One of many Telegram ads offering gift cards from many different common providers at a deep discount.SOCRadar
The card activation fee was as much as $6.95. Simon also deducted a fee when a card went unused for six months and charged 50 cents each time a customer checked the card balance after the first inquiry. The fees ran counter to the consumer protection laws of some states where Simon operated, and three states sued Simon. But the mall operator successfully contended that because it was working with a national bank, federal law and regulations, which had no restriction on these fees, preempted state law to allow the fees. While the cards failed to stop online shopping from eclipsing the American mall industry, it eventually roused federal lawmakers into limited action.
Meanwhile, another gift card innovation had launched in California. In 2002, an in-house unit of Safeway supermarkets looking to sell nontraditional goods to Safeway customers created the gift card kiosk. It was so successful that a year later the unit became a Safeway subsidiary called Blackhawk Network. By 2007 there were Blackhawk kiosks in 60,000 retail locations, projecting sales of $100 million that year. Seven years later, Safeway spun off Blackhawk as a stand-alone public company.
Blackhawk and its main competitor, Atlanta-based InComm Payments, put cards in drugstores and supermarket chains throughout the U.S. Each card is a separate, private bespoke agreement negotiated between the card owner and the distributor, according to Jackson.
Typically, the distributor negotiates a small discount, usually under 10%, off the card’s face value. The discount is split between the distributor and the store selling the card.
One of many Discord servers offering to buy, sell and trade many brands of gift cards, including Amazon, Apple and Google.SOCRadar
The distributor handles card activation so that a retailer like Target will recognize that the card is active in the available amount. In some cases, the distributor also handles the back-end technology that allows consumers to spend the money loaded on the card.
Starting as a small industry a little more than 20 years ago, the closed- and open-loop gift card business has become a massive enterprise involving hundreds of billions of dollars, a festival of frictionless commerce that is also beloved by criminals for its convenience and anonymity.
Mae gets stubborn
The bank teller tried to dissuade Mae from withdrawing $20,000 in cash. Eventually, the bank manager joined the conversation and suggested she take a cashier’s check instead. Mae insisted that the guy selling her the car had demanded cash. After about 15 minutes, she wore them down. They gave her the cash.
The bank manager followed Mae to her car to ensure she was OK and to try one more time to get her to reconsider. Mae waived the manager off. Once she was alone again, Mae picked up the phone. Alivia had remained on the line the entire time but told Mae to leave her cellphone in the car while she went into the bank.
A patchwork system of help
In Maryland, the banker had no option but to hand Mae her money. That’s not the case in other states. In Florida, a state that contends with elevated incidents of fraud on seniors, the Legislature passed a law in May allowing financial institutions to delay disbursements or transactions of funds to people over 65 if there is a well-founded belief that they are being exploited. In return, the banks receive immunity from any resulting administrative or civil liability.
The delay, which expires after 15 business days, requires that the financial institution launch an immediate review and contact those the account holder has designated as people of confidence. A court may shorten or extend the length of the pause. Anecdotal evidence from law enforcement suggests that even a few hours of delay can pop the fear bubble fraudsters create. As soon as the persuasive ether of the fraudster lifts, most people realize they’ve been scammed. A delay also makes time for the target to talk to someone they trust who might dissuade them from parting with their money.
In New Jersey in 2021, state Sen. Nellie Pou sponsored a bill that proposed a 48-hour delay before using or validating a gift card worth more than $100 and proposed extending the protections to gift cards that credit cards receive under federal laws and regulations: If a consumer reported fraud, the funds would be frozen, and if the fraud investigation were upheld, the money would be returned to the customer. The bill also proposed a fraud incident hotline for consumers, exempted small businesses and levied a $1,000 civil penalty for card issuers that violated its provisions.
The Innovative Payments Association lobbied against the New Jersey bill. The legislation would harm New Jerseyans, it wrote lawmakers, by “discouraging gift card providers to issue and sell such cards in the state.” The association argued that the waiting period “defeats the purpose of having a gift card,” which is to allow the recipient “to go out and get what they want/need immediately.” The legislation passed the state Senate but died in the Assembly and wasn’t reintroduced.
Several states have also passed or are considering laws requiring retailers selling gift cards to post warning signs, including Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, Pennsylvania,Rhode Island and West Virginia, but none go as far as the New Jersey bill.
This gift card display in a Walgreens in Mae’s neighborhood has a sign warning customers not to give gift card numbers to other people. Some stores display warning signs, but some don’t.David P. Weber
Waiting periods and warning signs are not the only tools that gift card companies could use against fraud. The distributors already have a technology in place that would be even more effective: velocity limits.
If unusually large numbers of gift cards are being purchased at a drugstore or supermarket, for instance, a distributor like Blackhawk could freeze the sale and alert the retailer. They have done this on occasion, but our investigation shows this does not happen with consistency. If sale freezes and alerts happened consistently, consumers would be less likely to be reporting on the FTC database large amounts of money lost to gift card scams.
Gift cards could also be required to use geofencing. If a card is purchased in Maryland but redeemed on the same day in California or China, that could be a red flag for fraud because the likelihood that someone like Mae would be able to get gift cards to faraway friends or family so quickly is slim. Geofencing would freeze redemption outside a certain geographical area.
And more simply, retailers could require that gift cards be purchased with a credit or debit card rather than cash to make it easier to reimburse a customer in the event of fraud.
In 2022, around the same time New Jersey was trying to rein in gift card fraud all by itself, Congress passed the Stop Senior Scams Act. The bill created an advisory group of industry members, regulators and law enforcement that is run by the FTC and tasked with studying ways to curtail fraud. Included in the mandate was a focus on technology. The advisory group created a Technology and New Methods Committee subcommittee with about two dozen members, including Blackhawk and the Innovative Payments Association. In the two years since the bill was passed, the main committee has met only twice. Recommendations by federal advisory committees are not binding. Although the Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that committee meetings be open to the public and their records available for public inspection, it’s not a requirement for subcommittees.
The committee is aiming to disrupt fraud, particularly among older adults, by more efficiently sharing information, data and other intelligence, according to committee member Jilenne Gunther, national director of AARP’s public policy institute.
The industry has pushed consumer education as the best response to the gift card fraud epidemic, even as signage and public service announcements have shown questionable effectiveness. “Consumer education … puts the burden of protection on the targets of fraud,” Marti DeLiema, assistant professor of social work at the University of Minnesota, testified at an Elder Justice Coordinating Counsel hearing in 2022. At the same time, “fraud targets are often in states of emotional distress.”
Some retailers are also training their cashiers to be alert to seniors inexplicably buying fistfuls of gift cards, but these efforts are not always standardized across the industry. Expecting a clerk earning minimum wage to prevent a fearful senior from legally buying gift cards is likely unrealistic.
Blackhawk did not respond to multiple requests for interviews and declined to answer emailed questions. InComm Payments declined to make anyone available for an interview and did not answer detailed emailed questions.
In its letter opposing the New Jersey bill the Innovative Payments Association argued that the industry was “highly regulated,” required to adhere to federal requirements and “strict federal anti-money laundering regulations.”
In practice, that’s not the case.
The criminals direct Mae to crypto
Before sending Mae to buy gift cards, the fraudsters tried another scheme. Alivia directed Mae to a Shell gas station with a Cash2Bitcoin ATM inside and told her that if she put her money into crypto it would be safe. Mae had never before seen a Bitcoin ATM. Alivia talked her through registering for an account, including uploading her driver’s license, a know-your-customer requirement that doesn’t exist for gift cards.
You can convert cash to cryptocurrency at Bitcoin automated teller machines.AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey
As Mae fed thousands of dollars into the machine, another elderly woman stood behind her impatiently. I need to get money to send to my nephew, she told Mae. Much later, Mae would realize that the woman was probably being scammed, too. At $15,000, the ATM hit its limit on deposits. The money Mae was feeding into the ATM went flying. She jammed the receipts into her purse and hurriedly gathered cash off the floor.
The fraudsters then sent Mae to the area’s two other crypto ATMs, but neither worked. It was 5 p.m. and getting dark. Mae hadn’t eaten all day. Alivia asked if Cash2Bitcoin had sent her a receipt for the $15,000. No, Mae replied, forgetting she had shoved it into her purse. Alivia told her to call and find out what the holdup was. Mae’s phone conversation with Cash2Bitcoin was concerning enough that the man at the exchange froze Mae’s money.
Stymied, Alivia handed the call off to her “supervisor,” Mike Ross. Faced with a crypto dead end, but unwilling to relinquish a chance at the remaining $5,000, Ross directed Mae to a Rite Aid near her house to buy gift cards.
Loopholes and laggards
Gift card companies can make the claim they are “highly regulated” because of legislation that occurred after the 2008 financial crisis. The uproar after Simon Property Group flouted state consumer protection laws led Congress to pass the Credit CARD Act in 2009. The law eliminated many of the garbage fees on gift cards and prohibited cards from expiring for at least five years. It also encouraged states to legislate their own reforms by allowing state law to preempt federal law. But the law didn’t extend existing credit and debit card consumer fraud protections for gift card purchasers.
As part of the wave of financial reform, Congress also created a single regulator for consumer financial protection: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It removed regulation-writing authority from the Federal Reserve and gave enforcement and rule writing authority solely to the bureau. It also took away examination and enforcement of all nonbank financial products from the Fed, the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Federal consumer protection – bank or nonbank – would ostensibly now be regulated only by this new single regulator.
In the 15 years since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created, there has been a rise in consumer financial products outside of banks, but the new agency hasn’t kept up. As part of the rules it issued in 2016 and 2018, it exempted most gift cards, open- and closed-loop alike, from regulation.
While the bureau declined multiple requests to explain why gift cards were exempted from its consumer protection rules for fraud, it did point to resources including a flowchart showing what types of electronic payment methods would be covered under its rules. The chart, a near-incomprehensible tangle of arrows and scenarios, shows how most prepaid gift cards are exempt from the fraud consumer protection regulations common for debit and credit cards, including all gift cards and branded reloadable cards purchased in retail drugstores and supermarkets. This exemption exists even though these prepaid cards rely on electronic activation and maintenance, which is the purpose of existing laws such as the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.
Page 1 of a five-page flowchart explaining the types of gift cards that are covered by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules. All gift cards and branded reloadable cards purchased in retail drugstores and supermarkets are exempt.Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The FTC’s authority
Aside from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the FTC and the Treasury Department have responsibilities that could protect consumers like Mae from gift card fraud. Yet, to date, their actions concerning gift cards are spotty at best.
The FTC is the original consumer protection agency. It can regulate “unfair or deceptive” acts or practices in commerce and provides annual statistics of consumer reports of fraud in all products and services. It provides advice about avoiding scammers, and consumers can fill out a form and join other tragic stories in a growing database, but there is little consequence for the companies involved. The FTC contends it has jurisdiction to bring enforcement actions against gift card nonbank entities for unfair or deceptive acts or practices, but the last time it appears to have done so was in 2007.
The FTC provided a background interview and sent a follow-up memo, but it declined to answer questions about the differences between its authority and that of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or confirm which agency is the primary federal regulator of gift cards.
More agencies, little oversight
The Treasury could also get involved. Two agencies of the U.S. Department of Treasury tackle fraud that touches on national security, terrorism and transnational gangs. Increasingly, criminals from China, Iran, North Korea, Russia and the occupied areas of Ukraine target Americans with tacit, and sometimes explicit, state support. These Treasury agencies have also largely given gift cards a pass, exempting them from controls in place to combat these crimes, even though there is evidence that the cards are being used by international criminals.
Financial institutions, including banks and businesses such as car dealerships, casinos, antique dealers and money service providers, are required to file the reports. These include money transmitters – companies such as Western Union and MoneyGram – that work through retail establishments such as supermarkets and Walmart to send money overseas or to another city rather than using a bank wire transfer.
Those businesses must obtain personal identification information, such as a Social Security number and driver’s license from the person conducting the transactions, for the report. Financial institutions file millions of reports every year.
In 2011, with gift cards still in their infancy, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a regulation to amend the money service business definition to address prepaid access products such as gift cards.
But despite law enforcement concerns, the agency exempted open-loop cards up to $1,000 that weren’t used internationally and closed-loop gift cards up to $2,000 from the money-laundering regulation. For closed-loop cards, there was no restriction on international use.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also didn’t limit aggregation for gift cards. Banks and money service businesses are generally required to aggregate transactions made on the same day from multiple locations and must report if the total amount goes over $10,000 for the day. For gift cards, however, there is no aggregate tracking requirement, so fraudsters can direct seniors to multiple stores in a day – even stores from the same chain – to buy $2,000 worth of gift cards at each, racking up tens of thousands of dollars.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s rule specifies that “categories of prepaid access products and services were exempted because they pos[ed] lower risks of money laundering and terrorist financing,” despite noting that law enforcement disagreed.
In response to our detailed questions, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network declined to say how many, if any, regulatory examinations it or the IRS on its behalf has conducted of gift card providers. “Any information or statistics that we can share publicly are located on our website,” Financial Crimes Enforcement Network spokesperson Steve Hudak wrote in an email that also included resource links. “FinCEN declines further comment.”
But because gift card purchasers don’t have to show identification and can provide the card number or a text picture of the card to someone overseas, gift card companies can’t prevent sanctioned people, groups or nations from using their products.
Only one enforcement action appears to have been taken by the Office of Foreign Assets Control against a gift card provider.
In 2022, when Tango Card products, now a division of Blackhawk, self-reported that cards had been used to purchase goods or services in malign nations, including Iran, North Korea, Syria and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, the bureau sanctioned the company $116,048.60.
At Rite Aid, Ross instructed Mae to purchase three types of gift cards: two $500 Nordstrom cards, two $500 Target cards and one $200 Macy’s card.
Gift card rack at the Rite Aid where Mae was instructed by a fraudster to buy gift cards and give the fraudster the gift card numbers.David P. Weber
Given the size of the purchase, the Rite Aid cashier called over the manager. Mae lied and said she needed the gift cards for her grandson. Likely due to the $2,000 limit Rite Aid imposed on daily purchases of closed-loop gift cards, the drugstore would sell her only the four Nordstrom and Target cards for a total of $2,000. Back in her car, Mae scratched the back of the cards to reveal the numbers and read them to Ross.
The front and back of a Target gift card. Removing the cardboard tab uncovers a scratch-off area; scratching reveals the card numbers. Once a fraudster has the numbers, the money on the card can be quickly spent online.The Conversation, CC BY-ND
He was about to direct her to the next stop when there was a knock on the car window. It was a police officer. Mae had been scheduled to cook dinner for a gentleman friend who had become worried by her absence and contacted the local police. They’d tracked down her car. Ross told her to get rid of the cop by inventing a story. He’d stay on the line to listen. She rolled down the window and did as Ross instructed, reassuring the officer that all was well, and she’d be home soon.
Gift card rack at the Food Lion where Mae tried to buy gift cards.David P. Weber
When the policeman left, Ross sent Mae to a nearby Food Lion supermarket to buy more gift cards. The Food Lion was close to Mae’s house, and the store manager knew her. He refused to sell her the gift cards. This is a scam, he told her. It was now almost 8 pm. Resigned, Ross instructed her to go home but not tell anyone what had transpired.
The fear bubble lifts
By the time Mae pulled into her driveway, the ether had lifted and she knew she’d been scammed. “It was a big fat light bulb: ‘You’ve been screwed,’” she said.
Mae called M&T and learned there was no open fraud case. She called Target. Only 30 minutes had elapsed since she purchased the gift cards at Rite Aid, but they’d already been spent.
Recent prosecutions of Chinese gift card draining rings have revealed that the criminals employ networks of mules. These low-level employees are already positioned to buy goods in person once gift card numbers are obtained. And there are other avenues to monetize the gift cards besides an army of low-level buyers. On the Russian-owned Telegram app, dozens of gift card marketplaces sell illegally obtained cards. The traffic in illicit gift cards appears to be growing in popularity because it’s possible to move huge sums of money offshore anonymously with little to no regulatory controls.
“The reduced fraud protection makes it easy for cybercriminals to find buyers,” said Ensar Seker, advisory chief information security officer at SOCRadar, a cybersecurity firm that monitors the channels.
The cards are usually sold for 50% to 75% of face value, based on the risk incurred in obtaining them, according to Seker. If cards need to be moved quickly because they were acquired through hacking and likely to be canceled, they’re worth closer to 50%. Cards obtained by fraud are worth closer to 75%, because there is little risk of being caught for using one.
Retailers aren’t required to know who their customers are. So the retailer issuing the card has no idea whether the cardholder is the person who bought it, someone who was gifted the card, a fraudster or someone who purchased it from a fraudster on Telegram or the dark web. Sometimes criminals will report the cards stolen and receive a new number to cover their tracks. Because the retailer doesn’t know who bought the card, it can’t tell that it’s the fraudster making the call.
Increasingly, cryptocurrencies can be traced and recovered, said Seker, but gift cards cannot.
“The most important aspect for the criminal is to stay anonymous and untraceable. Gift cards allow this,” he said.
Epilogue
Investigators tried to pursue the criminals responsible for scamming Mae. Her case was referred to a special elder financial exploitation team. Investigators met with Mae less than a week after the fraud.
The phone numbers the fraudsters used in speaking to Mae were internet lines from a service provider that had little information to offer and denied any responsibility. The phone service had been purchased using an open-loop gift card, so there was no record of who purchased the service.
Mae had thrown out the gift cards but gave the investigators the Rite Aid receipts, which had partial numbers of the gift cards, similar to ATM receipts. The investigators subpoenaed Rite Aid for the full gift card numbers using the postal mailing address the store provided for subpoenas.
After a substantial delay, Rite Aid responded to the subpoena, claiming it couldn’t provide the full card numbers using its point-of-sale records. Investigators later connected with a regional loss prevention manager at a different store who provided the full gift card numbers that Rite Aid corporate headquarters claimed in its subpoena response it didn’t have.
The investigators then subpoenaed Nordstrom and Target. But by that time there was no information left to provide. Store surveillance footage was months gone, overwritten with new footage. The retailers had no records of who had used the cards. So despite immediate action by law enforcement, the criminals had vanished, along with Mae’s $2,000.
Mae got most of her bitcoin money back, thanks to the compliance efforts and fraud freeze that had been placed on her bitcoin account on the day of the fraud.
Even as fraud against the elderly, including through gift cards, continues to grow, it’s primed to get only worse. In 2023, Americans 65 and older represented 17.3% of the population, about 57.8 million people. By 2040, they will be 22% of the population, numbering more than 78 million. By 2060, that number is expected to be 88.8 million.
These seniors will be sitting on nest eggs accrued over a lifetime, and fraudsters want a piece of it.
Mae reported her story to the local police, AARP and the FTC database. “It can happen to anyone,” she said.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — Cal Fire reported that it continues to see success on initial attack and major wildland fires with its fleet of Cal Fire Hawks and contracted night water dropping helicopters.
The agency has added an additional contracted CH47 helicopter from Coulson Aviation and will be conducting night aerial firefighting training over the next several days.
On Saturday, helicopter pilots and crews will participate in night firefighting training exercises over Lake Berryessa in Napa County.
They will practice navigating in challenging visibility, communicating with ground personnel and coordinating with other aircraft.
Residents in the area can expect helicopter activity during nighttime hours. All flights will be conducted in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations and Cal Fire safety protocols.
Cal Fire said its commitment to readiness requires operational specific training.
By conducting exercises at night, pilots and crews gain valuable experience in water dropping, navigation, communication and coordinated operations under night vision goggles.
This training enhances their overall proficiency and ensures a unified, safe response during fire suppression at night.
Cal Fire is committed to minimizing disruption to the surrounding communities.
“We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of the public as we conduct this important training exercise,” the agency said.
To learn more about the Cal Fire Aviation Program, visit the Aviation Program.
The newly opened Marshalls department store in Lakeport, California, on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. LAKEPORT, Calif. — The new Lakeport Marshalls store opened its doors to the public on Thursday, welcoming a steady stream of customers throughout the day.
The store is located in one of three retail spaces in the former Kmart store building at 2017 S. Main St.
Tractor Supply is the other tenant of the space, with a third space still available.
A month ago, Marshalls announced the grand opening for the store, in the works since 2022.
The store offers a variety of items, including clothing, shoes, home decor and furniture, and kitchen supplies.
The city of Lakeport announced the store opening on its Facebook page, sharing pictures of customers lined up for when the doors opened.
Customers reported on Facebook that the store was so busy that they had waited in line for checkout for up to two hours.
By Thursday evening, while the parking lot remained full and the store was busy, the lines had grown smaller.
Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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The John T. Klaus Park property. Map courtesy of the county of Lake. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Community members are invited to take part in a special meeting next week to discuss the design of Lake County’s newest park.
The public outreach meeting for the new John T. Klaus Park will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27, at the East Lake Elementary School cafeteria and gymnasium, located at 13050 High Valley Road in Clearlake Oaks.
The John T. Klaus Park will be located east of Clearlake Oaks along Highway 20, between the quarry and the Moose Lodge.
The 584-acre property — which until recently was home to llamas, horses and ponies that grazed the pastures along the highway — was donated to Lake County.
“It’s amazing,” Deputy Public Services Director Kati Galvani said of the property, which she said is beautiful.
Galvani told Lake County News there are “endless” possibilities for the new park property.
At its meeting on Nov. 1, 2022, the Board of Supervisors approved the property donation and funds to support the project from the John T. Klaus 1994 Trust following a few years of work to get the transfer finalized which had been held up due to the trust’s previous attorney having died.
“I think it's an opportunity that doesn't come along very often,” Public Services Director Lars Ewing told the board at that time, comparing it with the Mount Konocti Park that the county purchased.
Ewing said that, unlike the Mount Konocti Park, the Klaus park comes not just with property but with funding.
Galvani said this week that the Klaus donation specifically requires that the property be used for a park — and that it be named for him — with a youth sporting activity component. Another requirement is that a third of the land at the back of the property be used for a wildlife refuge.
Public Services, which is overseeing the park, has hired a landscape architect to work on the project, Galvani explained.
She said they have a proposed plan informed by what the parks, recreation and trails master plan showed that people want — and what the county needs — in a park facility.
“So now we have this preliminary plan, which is very basic,” she said.
That basic plan will be a topic of discussion at the Aug. 27 meeting, Galvani said.
Galvani said community members are urged to come and share their thoughts on the park and the plan.
“We want them to tell us what they would like to see in a park on that property,” she said, noting, “We just want to do what the people want.”
Galvani visited the park property with county officials and Redwood Audubon members, and said they were in awe of its beauty and the possibilities.
She noted the opportunities for activities like hiking and bird watching.
“It’s beautiful up there,” she said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.