å§ÑôÊж«·½Ò½Ôº¼¼Êõ±È½Ïרҵ(å§Ñô¶«·½¸¾¿ÆÒ½Ôº×öÈËÁ÷¿Ú±®ºÜ¸ß) (½ñÈÕ¸üÐÂÖÐ)

WASHINGTON (AP) ¡ª Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the West's iconic national parks, as a partial government shutdown left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty."It's a free-for-all," Dakota Snider, 24, who lives and works in Yosemite Valley, said by telephone Monday, as Yosemite National Park officials announced closings of some minimally supervised campgrounds and public areas within the park that are overwhelmed."It's so heartbreaking. There is more trash and human waste and disregard for the rules than I've seen in my four years living here," Snider said.The partial federal government shutdown, now into its 11th day, has forced furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal government employees. This has left many parks without most of the rangers and others who staff campgrounds and otherwise keep parks running.Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administration was leaving parks open to visitors despite the staff furloughs, said John Garder, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association."We're afraid that we're going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts," Garder said. "We're concerned there'll be impacts to visitors' safety.""It's really a nightmare scenario," Garder said.Under the park service's shutdown plan, authorities have to close any area where garbage or other problems become threats to health and safety or to wildlife, spokesman Jeremy Barnum said in an email Monday."At the superintendent's discretion, parks may close grounds/areas with sensitive natural, cultural, historic, or archaeological resources vulnerable to destruction, looting, or other damage that cannot be adequately protected by the excepted law enforcement staff that remain on duty," Barnum said.In the southern Sierra Nevada in Central California, some areas of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks were closed Monday evening. In Sequoia, home to immense and ancient giant sequoias, General Highway was closed because overflowing trash bins were spreading litter and posed a threat to wildlife and the icy, jammed roadway was seeing up to three-hour delays, according to the National Park Service.Also closed was the Grant Tree Trail, a popular hiking spot, because the government shutdown halted maintenance and left the path dangerously slick from ice and snow, with at least one injury reported, the park service said.Campers at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California's deserts were reporting squabbles as different families laid claims to sites, with no rangers on hand to adjudicate, said Ethan Feltges, who operates the Coyote Corner gift shop outside Joshua Tree.Feltges and other business owners around Joshua Tree had stepped into the gap as much as possible, hauling trailers into the park to empty overflowing trash bins and sweeping and stocking restrooms that were still open, Feltges said.Feltges himself had set up a portable toilet at his store to help the visitors still streaming in and out of the park. He was spending his days standing outside his store, offering tips about the park in place of the rangers who normally would be present."The whole community has come together," Feltges said, also by phone. "Everyone loves the park. And there's a lot of businesses that actually need the park."Some visitors have strung Christmas lights in the twisting Joshua trees, many of which are hundreds of years old, the Los Angeles Times reported.Most visitors were being respectful of the desert wilderness and park facilities, Joshua Tree's superintendent, David Smith, said in a statement.But some are seizing on the shortage of park staffers to off-road illegally and otherwise damage the park, as well as relieving themselves in the open, a park statement said. Joshua Tree said it would begin closing some campgrounds for all but day use.At Yosemite, Snider, the local resident, said crowds of visitors were driving into the park to take advantage of free admission, with only a few park rangers working and a limited number of restrooms open.Visitors were allowing their dogs to run off-leash in an area rich with bears and other wildlife, and scattering bags of garbage along the roads, Snider said."You're looking at Yosemite Falls and in front of you is plastic bottles and trash bags," he said.Officials at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado said Monday they were closing restrooms and locking up trash bins in many locations.In Yellowstone National Park, private companies have picked up some of the maintenance normally done by federal workers. The contractors that operate park tours by snowmobile, buses and vans are grooming trails, hauling trash and replacing toilet paper at pit toilets and restrooms along their routes.Nearly all roads inside Yellowstone are normally closed for winter, meaning most visitors at this time of the year access park attractions like Old Faithful or the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone through guides. Those guides are splitting the cost of grooming the trails used by their vehicles to keep their operations going, said Travis Watt, general manager of See Yellowstone Alpen Guides based in West Yellowstone, Montana.The tour companies can likely keep this system going through the entire winter season if they need to, Watt said."It's definitely not our preference ¡ª the park service does a good job doing their thing and we hate to see them out of work," Watt said. "But it's something we can handle."___Gecker reported from San Francisco. Matt Volz contributed from Helena, Montana. 5752

WASHINGTON (AP) ¡ª President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden faced inquisitive voters on separate stages in different cities Thursday night in a substitute for the debate that was meant to be.Here's how some of the rhetoric compared with the facts in the prime-time events and a day of campaigning:ECONOMYTRUMP, answering questions in Miami on NBC: ¡°We had the greatest economy in the history of our country.¡±THE FACTS: The numbers show it wasn¡¯t the greatest in U.S. history.Did the U.S. have the most jobs on record before the pandemic? Sure, the population had grown. The 3.5% unemployment rate before the recession was at a half-century low, but the percentage of people working or searching for jobs was still below a 2000 peak.Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer looked at Trump¡¯s economic growth record this month. Growth under Trump averaged 2.48% annually before the pandemic, only slightly better than the 2.41% gains achieved during Barack Obama¡¯s second term. By contrast, the economic expansion that began in 1982 during Ronald Reagan¡¯s presidency averaged 4.2% a year.So Trump is wrong.___ELECTION FRAUDTRUMP: ¡°When I see thousands of ballots dumped in a garbage can and they happen to have my name on it? I¡¯m not happy about it.¡± ¡ª from Miami.THE FACTS: Nobody has seen that. Contrary to Trump¡¯s repeated, baseless attacks on voting security, voting and election fraud is vanishingly rare. No cases involving thousands of ballots dumped in the trash have been reported in this election.Trump has cited a case of military ballots marked for him being thrown in the trash in Pennsylvania as evidence of a possible plot to steal the election. But he leaves out the details: County election officials say that the seven ballots, along with two unopened ones, were accidentally tossed in an elections office in a Republican-controlled county by a single contract worker and that authorities were swiftly called.The Brennan Center for Justice in 2017 ranked the risk of ballot fraud at 0.00004% to 0.0009%, based on studies of past elections.In the five states that regularly send ballots to all voters, there have been no major cases of fraud or difficulty counting the votes.___CRIMEBIDEN, answering questions in Philadelphia on ABC: ¡°The crime bill itself did not have mandatory sentences, except for two things, it had three strikes and you¡¯re out, which I voted against in the crime bill.¡±THE FACTS: That's misleading. He is understating the impact of the bill and the influence he brought to bear in getting it passed into law.Biden wrote and voted for that sweeping 1994 crime bill, which included money for more prisons, authorized the federal death penalty and called for a mandatory life sentence for three-time violent offenders ¨C the so-called three strikes provision.He did call the three-strikes rule ¡°wacko¡± at one point, even as he was helping to write the bill. Whatever his reservations about certain provisions, he ultimately voted for the legislation, which included the three-strikes rule and has come to be seen in the Black Lives Matter era as a heavy-handed and discriminatory tool of the justice system.___TROOPSBIDEN in Philadelphia, on U.S. troops in Afghanistan: ¡°They have more people there now, by the way, then when I left, when we left in Afghanistan.¡±THE FACTS: Not so.The U.S. now has about 5,000 troops in Afghanistan. The troop level did not dip below 8,400 before President Barack Obama left office. The U.S. had about 8,500 troops in Afghanistan during Trump¡¯s first several months in office.The number of troops in Afghanistan reached 100,000 in 2010, before Obama took office. Obama did withdraw thousands of troops during his two terms, but he was unable to fulfill promises to decrease the number of troops to 5,500 toward the final years of his presidency.___CORONAVIRUSTRUMP: "Just the other day they came out with a statement that 85% of the people that wear masks catch it so ... that¡¯s what I heard and that¡¯s what I saw.¡± ¡ª town-hall event in Miami.TRUMP, on his rallies: ¡°What I do is outside is a big thing. And if you look at those, people, they really are wearing masks. I¡¯ll tell you, I looked last night in Iowa ¡ª there were many, many people wearing masks. But then you see CDC comes out with a statement that 85% of the people wearing masks catch it.¡± ¡ª Fox Business interview.TRUMP, looking out over his crowd: ¡°Look at all the masks. You know, they keep saying, ¡®nobody wears a mask, wear the mask.¡¯ Although then they come out with things today. Did you see CDC? That 85% of the people wearing a mask catch it, OK?¡± ¡ª remarks at rally during the day in Greenville, North Carolina.THE FACTS: He's botching the study's findings, repeatedly. The study cited, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did not find that 85% of mask wearers catch COVID-19. If that were the case, the majority of Americans would be infected.It found something quite different: that 85% of the small group of COVID-19 patients surveyed ¡ª about 150 on this question ¡ª reported they had worn a mask often or always around the time they would have become infected.The group's exposure to potentially infected people in the community varied. Most reported shopping or being in a home with multiple people. But they were twice as likely to have eaten at a restaurant, where masks are set aside for the meal, than were uninfected people in a control group.Most studies have shown that wearing masks reduces the transmission of the virus by blocking respiratory droplets. Several studies have also shown that masks could offer some protection for the people who wear them.The findings were in a CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published last month.___TRUMP, reacting to the news that people associated with the Biden campaign on a recent flight with Harris tested positive for COVID-19: ¡°We extend our best wishes, which is more than they did to me, but that¡¯s OK.¡± ¡ª Greenville rally.THE FACTS: That¡¯s false.Hours after Trump¡¯s early morning announcement on Oct. 2 that he had tested positive, both Biden and Harris sent their wishes for a quick recovery via Twitter.¡°Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery,¡± Biden wrote. ¡°We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.¡±Harris tweeted a similar message ¡°wishing President Trump and the First Lady a full and speedy recovery. We¡¯re keeping them and the entire Trump family in our thoughts.¡±The Biden campaign at the time also announced it would stop running negative ads, with the candidate tweeting that ¡°this cannot be a partisan moment¡± after the news that Trump was going to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment of his coronavirus infection. Biden¡¯s camp resumed the advertising after Trump was released from Walter Reed.At least three people connected to Biden¡¯s campaign have tested positive for the coronavirus, leading the campaign to suspend in-person events for Harris through Monday. 7044

Visitors are now able to enter the White House complex without having their temperatures checked for the first time since mid-March, although several other coronavirus precautions remain in place. Those who come near the president will still undergo temperature checks and testing for the virus. Over the past three months, those seeking to access the complex first had to get their temperatures checked and answer a question about whether they had experienced any symptoms associated with COVID-19. The White House says it is scaling back complex-wide temperature checks now that the District of Columbia is entering phase two of its reopening. 653

Volkswagen has been fined another €800 million (6 million) over its diesel emissions scandal, this time because of failings at its Audi subsidiary.Volkswagen said Tuesday it accepted the fine imposed by German prosecutors, waving its right to appeal. It said the penalty would hit earnings this year."As a negative special item, [it will] reduce the group earnings for fiscal year 2018 accordingly," it said in a statement.The penalty by Munich prosecutors is just the latest consequence of the scandal that emerged in 2015 and initially wiped out billions off the company's value.Volkswagen admitted cheating on clean air rules with software that made emissions look less toxic than they actually were.The fine concludes the Munich prosecutors' investigation into the company. However, probes into executives, including Audi's former CEO Rupert Stadler, continue, the prosecutors said.The €800 million fine comprises a €5 million penalty for administrative offenses, the maximum allowed under German law.On top of that, prosecutors ordered Volkswagen to repay €795 million they said the company made from the cheating. The prosecutors said this included profits from the sales of affected vehicles.In this case, the diesel emissions cheating affected nearly 5 million cars sold by the Volkswagen group in Europe and the United States, prosecutors said. Specifically, it concerned V6 and V8 diesel engines manufactured by Audi and installed in Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche brands, and Audi vehicles equipped with EA 189 and EA 288 engine made by Volkswagen.Shares in Volkswagen (VLKAF) and Audi (AUDVF) were trading higher on Tuesday. Volkswagen stock is down 11 percent so far this year. 1699

WASHINGTON (AP) ¡ª Pfizer and BioNTech will supply the U.S. with an additional 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine under a new agreement.The drugmakers said Wednesday that they expect to deliver all the doses by July 31. Pfizer already has a contract to supply the government with 100 million doses of its vaccine.Watch officials with Operation Warp Speed discuss vaccine distribution:Pfizer¡¯s vaccine was the first to gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration and initial shipments went to states last week.It has now been joined by a vaccine from Moderna, which was developed in closer cooperation with scientists from the National Institutes of Health.A law dating back to the Korean War gives the government authority to direct private companies to produce critical goods in times of national emergency. Called the Defense Production Act, it¡¯s expected to be invoked to help Pfizer secure some raw materials needed for its vaccine.Pfizer already has a contract to supply the government with 100 million doses of its vaccine under Operation Warp Speed, but government officials have said it¡¯s more of an arms-length relationship with the company and they don¡¯t have as much visibility into its operations. 1231

À´Ô´£º×ÊÑô±¨