Steve Russell // Toronto Star via Getty Images

If you’re a typical American, you get home from work and start flipping switches and turning knobs — doing laundry, cooking dinner, watching TV. With so many other folks doing the same, the strain on the electrical grid in residential areas is highest at this time. That demand will only grow as the world moves away from fossil fuels, with more people buying induction stoves, heat pumps, and electric vehicles.

That’s a challenge for utilities, which are already managing creaky grids across the United States, all while trying to meet a growing demand for power, Grist reports. So they’re now trying to turn EVs from a burden into a boon. More and more models, for instance, feature “vehicle-to-grid,” or V2G, capabilities, meaning they can send power to the grid as needed. Others are experimenting with what’s called active managed charging, in which algorithms stagger when EVs charge, instead of them all drawing energy as soon as their owners plug in. The idea is for some people to charge later, but still have a full battery when they leave for work in the morning.

A new report from the Brattle Group, an economic and energy consultancy, done for EnergyHub, which develops such technology, has used real-world data from EV owners in Washington state to demonstrate the potential of this approach, both for utilities and drivers. They found that an active managed charging program saves up to $400 per EV each year, and the vehicles were still always fully charged in the morning. Utilities, too, seem to benefit, as the redistributed demand results in less of a spike in the early evening. That, in turn, would mean that a utility can delay costly upgrades — which they need in order to accommodate increased electrification — saving ratepayers money.

Active managed charging works in conjunction with something called “time of use,” in which a utility charges different rates depending on the time of day. Between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., when demand is high, rates are also high. But after 9 p.m., they fall. EV owners who wait until later in the evening to charge pay less for the same electricity.

Time-of-use pricing discourages energy use when demand is highest, lightening the load and reducing how much electricity utilities need to generate. But there’s nothing stopping everyone from plugging in as soon as cheaper rates kick in at 9 p.m. As EV adoption grows, that coordination problem can create a new spike in demand. “An EV can be on its own twice the peak load of a typical home,” said Akhilesh Ramakrishnan, managing energy associate at the Brattle Group. “You get to the point where they start needing to be managed differently.”

That’s where active managed charging comes in. Using an app, an EV owner indicates when they need their car to be charged, and how much charge their battery needs for the day. (The app also learns over time to predict when a vehicle will unplug.) When they get home at 6

By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — Archaeologists in Spain have uncovered an elephant bone from 2,200 years ago, and they believe it belonged to an animal that served as a “war machine” in an army sent to invade the Roman Republic.

After discovering the ankle bone at the Colina de los Quemados archaeological site in the city of Cordoba in southern Spain, researchers used radiocarbon dating to ascertain that it belonged to an elephant that lived around the early fourth to late third century BC, according to a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Around this time, the city-state of Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, was battling with the Roman Republic for supremacy in the Mediterranean.

The Carthaginians were known to use elephants as “war machines” in their armies, according to the research, and classical accounts suggest the famed commander Hannibal had driven a troop of 37 elephants through modern day Spain and France, ultimately attempting to invade Italy by crossing the Alps during the Second Punic War, which took place from 218 to 201 BC.

The incredible sight of Hannibal’s elephants left its mark on the historical record, but no direct physical evidence of their presence in Western Europe had previously been discovered.

In addition to the radiocarbon dating, which roughly aligns with the timeline of the Second Punic War, researchers said clues to their Hannibal theory also include 12 spherical stone balls used in artillery that they found alongside the bone, which “probably points to a military context.”

Although they acknowledge that the discovery of one bone in isolation does not indicate that the entire animal was at this site, as the bone could have been taken there as a curio or a souvenir, “historical and archaeological record suggest that its association with the events of the Second Punic War, whether direct or indirect, provides the most plausible explanation,” the researchers noted in the study. They cited the presence of projectiles and arrowheads, which may have been left behind following a violent episode.

Prestigious and ‘psychological’ weapons

Battle elephants at this time were “prestige weapons but also psychological weapons,” according to Fernando Quesada-Sanz, the study’s lead author and an archaeologist at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain.

The animals were “very impressive and frightening for troops not accustomed to facing them,” he told CNN in a statement Thursday.

“They were also particularly useful against cavalry and to disorder enemy infantry lines,” Quesada-Sanz added. “They were even used as spearheads to lead attacks against the palisades of temporary enemy fortifications such as campaign camps.”

Quesada-Sanz said that “this is the first time, as far as we know, that the actual remains of one of the elephants in the Carthaginian army has been found in European soil,” adding that it could be part of one of the 21 elephants that classical sources say Hannibal left in Iberia before he started his march to Italy.

“This find might be a wake up call for the study of collections from old excavations kept in museum storerooms in Spain, southern France or even Italy that could conceivably yield more examples,” he said. “Also, bones from future excavations have to be checked carefully.”

Eve MacDonald, an archaeologist and senior lecturer in ancient history at the University of Cardiff, Wales, and author of “Carthage: A New History,” who was not involved in the study, told CNN that the discovery is significant because it finally provides physical evidence for the long-held belief that the Carthaginians introduced elephants to the Iberian Peninsula dur

* WHAT…Dangerous rip currents and breaking waves due to
elevated surf.

* WHERE…Santa Barbara County Southwestern Coast and Santa
Barbara County Southeastern Coast.

* WHEN…Through this evening.

* IMPACTS…There is an increased risk of ocean drowning. Rip
currents can pull swimmers and surfers out to sea. Waves can
wash people off beaches and rocks, and capsize small boats
nearshore.
Remain out of the water due to hazardous swimming conditions, or
stay near occupied lifeguard towers. Rock jetties can be deadly
in such conditions, stay off the rocks.

The post Beach Hazards Statement issued February 20 at 2:18AM PST until February 20 at 10:00PM PST by NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Annie Grayer, Gabe Cohen, Evan Perez, CNN

(CNN) — Lawmakers who oversee the Department of Homeland Security say the agency has repeatedly stymied their requests for information in recent months, with even some Republicans alleging they’ve had phone calls go unanswered and data requests left to languish.

As the Department of Homeland Security has found itself embroiled in controversies across the country over high-profile killings by immigration agents and the resulting bitter policy disputes, lawmakers say they’ve stepped up their efforts to try to get answers for the public. But they’ve often been met with resistance, they said — thwarting their ability to hold anyone accountable.

“I’m not going to sit here on bended knee hoping to God that somebody returns the call,” GOP Rep. Mark Amodei, the Republican who oversees the DHS budget in the House told CNN, after his request to speak with White House Border Czar Tom Homan went unanswered for days.

One Republican staffer told CNN that the stonewalling extends beyond just thorny policy questions about immigration enforcement. Requests to the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the status of federal disaster funding and questions over potential crimes committed by those detained by federal officers have also been met with silence or evasiveness, the staffer said.

The result, the staffer said, is not only that GOP lawmakers can’t properly oversee the agency, they can’t help blunt possibly unfair attacks from their Democratic counterparts.

“It’s really a shame that DHS has taken such an adversarial posture on sharing data. In some areas, like on immigration and the border they have a great story to tell, and we could be helping them tell that story,” the staffer explained. “In other areas where the story is not so good, like FEMA, we could also help. But they choose to go at it alone, so it’s on them to defend, which is hard to do when no one believes a word they say or a number they put out. There is no trust and there is no way to verify.”

Democrats, meanwhile, say they have received virtually no response from their inquiries to DHS. At least 15 letters sent by members of the party to the department have either been ghosted, received a cursory acknowledgement or were given a non-answer, a Homeland Security Committee Democratic aide told CNN. Another Democratic staffer told CNN that when they’ve asked for specific FEMA updates, whether it’s on mitigation projects, staffing plans or briefings on various press releases, they’ve gotten no response.

A DHS spokesperson told CNN the department works through “official channels” and would “not be litigating our relationship” with Capitol Hill through the press. But they also dismissed claims they’ve not engaged with members of Congress.

“Any suggestion that DHS has ‘refused’ to engage with lawmakers is simply false,” the spokesperson said in part, adding that “this administration has been the most transparent administration in history and has spent the last year clearing out congressional correspondence that went unanswered under the last administration.”

Some Republicans told CNN they’ve been able to leverage their personal relationships with Trump administration officials to get their questions answered and others said they had no issues getting quick responses from DHS – “I communicate with them all the time,” GOP Rep. Andy Ogles said. But two top Republican congressman specifically tasked with overseeing DHS are among those who say they’ve run into issues.

Amodei, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, sought to speak directly with Homan about the operation in Minneapolis shortly after federal officers’ fatal encounter with Alex Pretti there, as well as to receive a broader status update on the administration’s deportation efforts.

Amodei’s office put in the request in Janua

By Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN

New York (CNN) — Egg prices have been plummeting.

That’s great news for American shoppers, but bad news for American farmers.

The average price of a dozen eggs at the grocery store is $2.58, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about half of what many consumers were paying a year ago.

Bird flocks have been on the rebound after last year’s avian flu outbreak, but that has farmers suddenly selling at a loss.

“Our farmers have traded one crisis for another,” said Emily Metz, president and CEO of the government-created resource group American Egg Board.

Last winter, the avian flu swept the country, killing 70 million egg-laying birds, according to Metz. Consumer demand held steady as supply dwindled, leading to egg shortages and record prices at the grocery store.

Since then, farmers have worked tirelessly to rebuild their flock and tighten biosecurity with assistance from the US Department of Agriculture. It worked: The supply of eggs has ballooned, and prices fell.

The cost of eggs for consumers is 34% lower than last year, according to January’s consumer price index. But for farmers, they have too many eggs selling at rock bottom prices.

The speed at which the prices of eggs went from record highs to recent lows is “remarkable,” said Mike Puglisi, a second-generation egg farmer.

“We appear to be making more eggs than are needed. We got a little break on the (avian flu) outbreaks so people were able to restock and get our flock size back up,” said Puglisi, who owns Puglisi Egg Farms in the eastern United States.

On average, a farm spends 98 cents to $1.05 to produce a dozen eggs, according to Jada Thompson, an associate professor of agricultural economics at the University of Arkansas. That often doesn’t include operational costs like packaging and transportation, which have risen in the last year.

Meanwhile, wholesale egg prices are trading at 92 cents nationally, according to the USDA, their lowest level in three years.

“Now they’re in a situation where (farmers are) dealing with historic low wholesale prices, which means that they’re producing eggs below the cost of production,” said Metz of the American Egg Board.

Puglisi Egg Farms is a midsized company, producing 486 million eggs a year out of their two farms in Delaware and New Jersey. Puglisi didn’t lose any birds last winter, but he’s still operating at a loss. He says it’s far worse for farmers who lost birds last year.

“It would be tough because you were out of business for that timeframe and now you’re getting back into business just in time to take the losses, which is exactly what I was worried about in 2022 when we got avian flu,” said Puglisi, who lost his entire flock that year. “They could be in precarious position at this point.”

For smaller producers, the one-two punch of lost birds and low prices could put them out of business.

“We’re seeing farmers who are struggling in the market, and if these conditions persist, we will lose family farms. And that will be devastating to our industry,” said Metz.

Fewer farms would swing the pendulum again – back to shortages and higher prices, Thompson said.

“The concern long-term for producers is that, okay, well that company goes out of business, you have less competition. So now we might have shortages of eggs later on,” she said.

An easy fix would be for consumers to just buy more eggs. But many Americans have bought fewer eggs because of high prices and shortages last year.

“The high prices of eggs changed habits for the consumer and the exporters. It will take low prices to get consumers to increase their demand, and that will take time,” said Michael Swanson, the chief agricultural economist at Wells Fargo’s Agri-Food Institute.

To better mitigate the wild swings i