AP News in Brief 12-15-19

Feet by the foot: US boots official measurement

WASHINGTON — Change is afoot for the official measuring stick used to size up big places in America.

The reason? There are actually two different definitions of the 12-inch measurement known as a foot.

Some land surveyors use what’s known as the U.S. survey foot. Others use the definition that’s more accepted by the broader world: the international foot.

The difference between them is so tiny that you can’t see it with the naked eye on a 12-inch ruler. But over big distances, it matters. So, to reduce the chance for errors and confusion, the federal government has announced it’s finally giving the boot to the survey foot.

The international foot is the smaller one — adding about an eighth of an inch of difference when measuring a mile. That means the United States is 28.3 feet wider when measured using the international foot instead of the survey foot.

Louisiana sues California over alligator ban

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana is suing the state of California over its decision to ban the import and sale of alligator products, saying the ban will hurt an important Louisiana industry and ultimately could hurt the state’s wetlands.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Louisiana said the economy surrounding alligators has played a key role in bringing back the American alligator population and is an important factor in protecting wetlands and other species besides alligators that depend on the wetlands.

“California has nevertheless attempted to destroy the market for American alligator products notwithstanding the fact that no such alligators live in California,” the lawsuit says.

According to The Times-Picayune/the New Orleans Advocate, California banned alligator skins and meats in the 1970s but repeatedly issued exceptions that allowed sales. The newspaper reports that the most recent exemption expires on Jan. 1 of next year, and this time California’s legislature did not pass another exemption. The newspaper reports the alligator ban was backed by a coalition of animal rights and environmental groups.

Louisiana said in its lawsuit that because most of the state’s coastal habitat is privately owned, the state does not have direct control over how it is managed. But the alligator industry provides economic incentives for landowners to take steps to protect marshlands that serve as habitat for the alligators.

Johnson’s win may deliver Brexit but could risk UK’s breakup

LONDON — Leaving the European Union is not the only split British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has to worry about.

Johnson’s commanding election victory this week may let him fulfill his campaign promise to “get Brexit done,” but it could also imperil the future of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland and Northern Ireland didn’t vote for Brexit, didn’t embrace this week’s Conservative electoral landslide — and now may be drifting permanently away from London.

In a victory speech Friday, Johnson said the election result proved that leaving the EU is “the irrefutable, irresistible, unarguable decision of the British people.”

Arguably, though, it isn’t. It’s the will of the English, who make up 56 million of the U.K.’s 66 million people. During Britain’s 2016 referendum on EU membership, England and much smaller Wales voted to leave bloc; Scotland and Ireland didn’t. In Thursday’s election, England elected 345 Conservative lawmakers — all but 20 of the 365 House of Commons seats Johnson’s party won across the U.K.

In Scotland, 48 of the 59 seats were won by the Scottish National Party, which opposes Brexit and wants Scotland to become independent of the U.K.

Trump impeachment vote underscores a harshly partisan era

WASHINGTON — This coming week’s virtually certain House impeachment of President Donald Trump will underscore how Democrats and Republicans have morphed into fiercely divided camps since lawmakers impeached President Bill Clinton.

Twenty-one years ago this Thursday, a Republican-led House approved two impeachment articles against Democrat Clinton. While that battle was bitterly partisan, it was blurrier than the near party-line votes expected this week when the House, now run by Democrats, is poised to impeach Republican Trump.

Two of the four Clinton impeachment articles were killed — something party leaders today would jump through hoops to avoid for fear of highlighting divisions. All four Clinton articles drew GOP opposition, peaking at 81 on one vote. That’s an unthinkable number of defections today.

“Obviously it was partisan, but it wasn’t as intensely partisan as today is,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., one of four Republicans who opposed all the Clinton impeachment articles and the last remaining member of that group in Congress. “So you could basically argue conscience, you could say you looked at it and didn’t think this was the way to go.”

From wire sources

In the upcoming votes on impeaching Trump, Democrats expect support from all but a few — two to perhaps five — of their members. Republican leaders envision no GOP desertions.

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Reparations mark new front for US colleges tied to slavery

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The promise of reparations to atone for historical ties to slavery has opened new territory in a reckoning at U.S. colleges, which until now have responded with monuments, building name changes and public apologies.

Georgetown University and two theological seminaries have announced funding commitments to benefit descendants of the enslaved people who were sold or toiled to benefit the institutions.

While no other schools have gone so far, the advantages that institutions received from the slavery economy are receiving new attention as Democratic presidential candidates talk about tax credits and other subsidies that nudge the idea of reparations toward the mainstream.

The country has been discussing reparations in one way or another since slavery officially ended in 1865. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first slave, launching the violence afflicted on black people to prop up the Southern economy.

University of Buffalo senior Jeffrey Clinton said he thinks campuses should acknowledge historical ties to slavery but that the federal government should take the lead on an issue that reaches well beyond higher education.

Shooting at suburban Atlanta mall injures 1 as shoppers flee

ATLANTA — A shooting that wounded one person in a mall food court sent suburban Atlanta shoppers fleeing in panic Saturday.

The Cobb County Police Department says the person was wounded at Cumberland Mall after 1 p.m., and that the shooting suspect then ran away. The victim was taken to a hospital, but police didn’t identify the person or describe the extent of the victim’s injuries.

Police said they have identified a suspect and are looking for him.

Three witnesses told The Associated Press they saw a man bleeding on the floor of the mall’s food court after shots were heard. None of the witnesses would identify themselves.

Videos posted online showed people with shopping bags running in all directions from the food court, with some hiding under counters and tables. Shoppers reported that store employees in some cases told them to hide in stockrooms.

Specialist teams hope to recover last 2 volcano victims

WHAKATANE, New Zealand — Specialist teams were due to return to New Zealand’s volcanic White Island on Sunday to resume a land search for the bodies of two victims of an eruption which has now claimed 15 lives.

Two four-person teams wearing protective clothing and using breathing apparatuses were to land on the island by helicopter early morning in the hope of finding the bodies which have not been located since the island erupted Dec. 9.

“They will be wearing the same protective clothing as the eight New Zealand Defence Force personnel who were on the island on Friday,” Police Deputy Commissioner John Tims said. “However, their breathing apparatus will be different, meaning they will only be able to stay on the island for up to 75 minutes.

“We remain committed to finishing the task at hand and returning the two remaining bodies to their loved ones,” he added.

While scientists said the possibility of a second eruption appeared to have receded, White Island remains “highly volatile.”

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How streaming, diversity, #MeToo shaped TV decade of change

LOS ANGELES — “Game of Thrones” was both an unprecedented achievement and old-school role model in the TV decade that’s rolling its final credits.

Installments of the elaborately produced hit were doled out one at a time by an established outlet, premium cable channel HBO. That was standard TV operating procedure until, suddenly, it wasn’t. The new era arrived in 2013 when a full season’s worth of “House of Cards” popped up amid Netflix’s on-demand movies and old TV shows.

The drama’s unexpected home appeared simply to be an option to the 500-channel universe born in the 1990s. But “House of Cards” foreshadowed a streaming gold rush and volume of programming dubbed Peak TV in 2015 — and with no drop in altitude in sight.

The result: Nothing is the same, whether it’s how much television we consume; how and where we do it; who gets to make it, and the level of respect given the creatively emboldened small screen. We don’t just watch TV, we binge it until we’re bleary-eyed if not sated. We still change channels with a remote control, but more often we’re logging in to watch shows on our phones or other devices and on our schedules, not network-dictated appointment TV.

We’re couch potatoes and office and car and everywhere potatoes.