SRN NEWS

Two sons of a man shot by immigration officers in Houston this month testified at a congressional hearing Friday, describing the horror and confusion of learning their father had been killed, and demanding a transparent investigation into how he died and why. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed July 7, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers chased his white work van through the streets, then shot him through the window in front of his work crew, including his brother. Salgado Araujo’s sons read from prepared remarks at a Houston hearing with Democratic members of Congress. The sons’ voices often choked with emotion as they described their father as a humble and hardworking family man. He had lived without legal status in the U.S. for 35 years, ran a homebuilding business and had never been in trouble with the law. “He didn’t need anybody to know his name,” Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Jr. told the hearing, held by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “He worked hard to protect and provide for our family, to put me and my siblings through college. He taught us that good things come to those that work hard.” The Department of Homeland Security said shortly after the shooting that Salgado Araujo had rammed his van into the immigration vehicles chasing him, then “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,” and that the officer fired in self-defense. The officers were not wearing body cameras. At least two of the passengers in the van have disputed the government’s account, saying the officers crashed into the van and were safely on the sides of the vehicle, never in danger of being struck, when the officer fired. All three passengers in the van were arrested and remain in immigration detention. One of them is Salgado Araujo’s brother, Victor, whose account of the killing is not public because his petition for release is sealed. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told the hearing that DHS, which oversees ICE, has ignored his requests for information and evidence, including the name of the officer who fired the fatal shot. Nevertheless, he said, his office was making “significant progress.” He declined to discuss specific evidence or speculate on when his office’s investigation would end. Salgado Araujo’s sons said their father would have never run from officers, who were driving unmarked vehicles, if he’d known who they were. They had talked as a family about what they would do if he encountered ICE, and they said he believed he would find a way to get back home to them. They said he was a man of routine. The day he was killed started as most did: He woke up before dawn, his wife cooked him a hearty breakfast, then he said goodbye to her and their dog. He got into his white van, said a prayer and left before 6 a.m. to pick up his crew. Ronaldo Salgado said his mother called him around 7 a.m. to say something bad had happened. He saw a Facebook post about an encounter with immigration officers and rushed to the scene. He was there for hours, he said, begging officers and neighbors for information, even asking one homeowner to climb onto her roof to survey the scene. Then a Facebook video appeared. “I learned again from a Facebook post that our dad had been shot,” he told the hearing. “Not because I could see him, but because I could hear his voice on videos posted online crying for help.” He rushed to the hospital. More hours passed before Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia demanded answers, and they learned he was dead. Garcia said the Democratic delegation has sent multiple letters to DHS and ICE about the shooting and has received no response. The delegation also invited representatives of the department and the administration to attend the hearing, and they declined. An email sent to DHS by The Associated Press seeking comment Friday was not immediately returned. Lorenzo Jr. called what happened to them “a kafkaesque nightmare.” They said they mourned not only for their father, but also for the families of others killed by immigration officers, including Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old who was shot in Maine days after their dad. The sons called on Congress to make sure justice is served. Lorenzo asked people to imagine what the brothers were experiencing by picturing a loved one “pinned to the ground in pain and yelling out in desperate need of help.” “Picture the anger and helplessness of watching that person bleed out through a video on your phone. What would you do after?” he asked. “How would you cope with the feeling of losing your protector, your role model, your mother’s loving partner, your grandmother’s little boy?” He added, “That feeling you feel right now is only a fraction of what my family and I have felt these past 17 days.” Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Friday, in a race with Abdul El-Sayed that has become a focal point for the party’s fight between its moderate establishment and progressive wings. “As governor, I have one strategy: Get things done,” Whitmer said in a video posted on X. “Just like me, Haley will do whatever it takes to get things done for the people of Michigan.” The announcement came as Whitmer was also expected to attend a campaign event in Detroit with Stevens. Stevens is in a tight race for the Democratic nomination against El-Sayed, a progressive supported by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The winner of the Aug. 4 primary will face Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in November for a critical, battleground Senate seat now held by the retiring two-term Democrat Gary Peters. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

The United States has gradually expanded the scope of its attacks against Iran over the course of two weeks of punishing airstrikes that increasingly resemble the war’s opening salvos. After a brief ceasefire in June following the signing of an interim deal to end the conflict, a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz erupted, shattering the truce and pushing the countries back to the precipice of an all-out war across the Middle East. The U.S. started off with intense waves of strikes on Iran’s navy and coastal defenses earlier this month, aiming to blunt Tehran’s ability to attack ships in the strait vital to world energy supplies. In recent days, the U.S. has expanded its targets, hitting bridges and infrastructure in the south and striking deeper into the center of Iran and the outskirts of its capital, Tehran. Despite its growing intensity and scope, the renewed U.S. aerial campaign is not as fierce in either way as the one at the start of the war, which began on Feb. 28. In just the first 100 hours of the war, the U.S. and Israel hit hundreds of military targets and killed top leaders of Iran, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Iranian Health Ministry says 3,434 people have been killed since the war began, including 55 during the recent escalation. The latest U.S. strikes temporarily disrupted transportation and communications within Iran, and damaged water infrastructure used by thousands of people. The U.S. military has said its recent barrages were aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to threaten vessels in the strait. But Iran hasn’t backed down. It has intensified strikes on ships in the strait and on Gulf countries housing U.S. bases, killing at least four American soldiers and damaging critical infrastructure. Israel has so far not been targeted in this latest round of fighting, and it has not joined the U.S. in launching attacks. Here is a look at what the U.S. has been striking and what it may have achieved: Not long after the countries had reached an interim ceasefire deal, Iran began striking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, triggering tit-for-tat attacks with the U.S. By July 12, the U.S. military intensified its bombing campaign, and a day later, President Donald Trump reimposed a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports. In two days of bombardment, the U.S. military said it struck dozens of targets, including air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone factories and launchers, and small boats. It used precision munitions, naval vessels and, for the first time, one-way attack sea drones. The strikes focused on coastal provinces along the strait and Persian Gulf: Khuzestan, Bushehr and Hormozgan. The city and port of Bandar Abbas, which is on the strait and home to critical naval and trade infrastructure, bore the initial brunt. Strikes also hit key islands in the Gulf — Qeshm, Abu Musa and Kish. Further east, naval and military bases in Sistan and Baluchistan province on the Gulf of Oman have been hit. A flurry of strikes over two days damaged at least six bridges and a tunnel around Bandar Abbas, images on state TV showed. The goal appeared to be to sever the links of the Revolutionary Guard bases there with the rest of the country. Another strike hit a railway junction west of the port city. Residents captured images of traffic jams on some roads following the strikes. Over the past two weeks, other strikes in Bandar Abbas hit the offices of the radio and communications regulatory authority, which manages Iran’s radio-frequency spectrum. For three days, the U.S. hit a maritime communications tower in one of the city’s ports, totally destroying it on July 17. Another communications tower was hit about 120 kilometers (75 miles) down the coast. Strikes also disrupted communications temporarily between the mainland and the islands of Kharg and Qeshm, though by the 10th day of the campaign, Iranian authorities said they had restored connections. A fishmeal production factory was hit in Qeshm. At the northern end of the Persian Gulf, power outages were reported in parts of Khuzestan province after strikes there. Other infrastructure has also been hit, including an agricultural water pumping station in Khuzestan, killing one person, according to local officials. A reported strike on July 18 hit a water desalination plant in Jask, on a peninsula just outside the Strait of Hormuz, destroying the pumping stations and affecting water supply to 10,000 residents nearby, according to Iranian officials. That attack followed an Iranian strike on U.S. bases in Jordan, where at least three soldiers were killed and others were injured. A U.S. strike on a border crossing with Iraq, where hundreds of pilgrims had gathered, killed two people, according to state media. The American military has said it is hitting “logistics infrastructure.” Last week, Trump warned that for every Iranian attack on the strait, a power plant or bridge will be hit. Iranian media have been quick to report that roads and tunnels hit by the Americans were under repair, or that alternative routes were established to connect the south with the rest of the country. By the third day of the reignited conflict, U.S. strikes moved to hit deeper inside Iran. Targets included Revolutionary Guard and military bases believed responsible for attacks on American bases in the Gulf, as well as reported missile production units, military installations and airports used by the Guard. U.S. forces hit a military barracks in the city of Iranshahr in the far southeast of the country, killing seven soldiers and wounding a dozen others, according to Iranian officials. The Iranian military had recently claimed it conducted drone attacks against American bases in the region, including one in Jordan on July 15, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War and the Critical Threats Project. At least two strikes hit a Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force installation in Khuzestan province, also believed to have been involved in attacks on U.S. bases. So far, the Tehran area has only been hit twice, in contrast to the first round of the war, when the capital was pounded by hundreds of strikes, mainly by Israel. A July 19 strike hit the Khojir military complex near Tehran, one of Iran’s main missile factories. A missile site outside the capital was later hit. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia, the world’s largest data center hub, has released a long-delayed study that examined the state’s eastern region groundwater supply and the resource-hungry industry’s possible impact on it, finding declines are likely in a critical aquifer due to population growth and industrial use, and urging stricter regulations. Produced by environmental scientists, the report — which the state for more than six months had refused to release — said regulators should have more authority to reject industrial water withdrawal permits, force entities to examine alternative sources of water and clamp down on users who might be using more water than they should be. The report noted limits around publicly available information on data center water use but did not lay blame with the industry for the concerns it raised about the aquifer. The groundwater supply in Virginia’s populous eastern coastal plain region “is constrained, and current projections indicate declining availability in the near future,” said the report, which Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s office provided to The Associated Press Thursday. Data centers use water, sometimes in large amounts, to cool their servers. Worries about data centers’ impact on the quality and supply of both ground and surface water — and about tech companies’ failures to be as transparent as the public would like — have dogged projects around the country. The issues have become politically explosive heading into the midterm elections. Perhaps nowhere are those topics more resonant than in Virginia, home to hundreds of data centers with more under development and where the sustainability of groundwater, the supply stored naturally under the earth’s surface, in the coastal eastern region has been a long-running concern. A wide range of interest groups had begun to publicly admonish the governor’s administration for withholding the report; those reviewing it Friday said its findings were sobering. “We’re standing on the ledge,” said Jay Ford, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Virginia policy manager. Virginia enacted its first groundwater law in 1973, but legislators acknowledged it was “too permissive” and tightened it in 1992, the report said. The law remains in effect, but the report warns it should be strengthened again. State Sen. Richard Stuart, a conservative Republican who represents Virginia’s coastal Northern Neck region and has made conservation a cornerstone of his legislative work, said he’s been making noise about the issue for at least 15 years. Increasingly, local governments in his district are being told by regulators that they will have to shift to new surface water sources because of the strain on groundwater. He said the water crunch is happening at the same time as many new data centers are coming online across his district. He wanted more specifics so he passed a bill requiring the study. The report found that groundwater withdrawals in the region fell sharply roughly 15 years ago after a paper mill closed, which along with regulatory efforts helped water levels rise in the area’s biggest aquifer. Recently, however, those trends stalled, and levels throughout the aquifer are projected to resume declining, it said. There likely isn’t enough groundwater to sustainably add any big, new industrial user, according to the study. The report suggests the Legislature strengthen regulators’ permitting authority; require applicants who want to tap large volumes of groundwater first examine surface water or water reuse; require better planning for local water use; and beef up funding for water management staffing and equipment. Lawmakers should also weigh in on how they want regulators to prioritize drinking water for the public with current law, which directs them to consider protecting current uses. Stuart said Friday that while he was still processing the more than 100-page report, its summary findings were worrisome, though they will help lawmakers make tough decisions moving forward. “Folks worry about the lack of the ability for growth. A lot of them are talking about industrial and commercial. I’m worried about our citizens having drinking water, and I’m worried about our seafood industry because they need clean water,” he said. The report said most existing and planned data center capacity is located in public water supply service areas that mostly draw from surface water. But it went on to note that no comprehensive public data exists about groundwater-sourced water withdrawals from the facilities. While it’s also not clear exactly how many data centers are under development in the state’s eastern region, 371 are in operation across the state and another 438 are planned, according Cleanview, a company that tracks data centers and other power infrastructure development. The report’s authors performed an analysis to evaluate what hypothetical water withdrawals from a data center would look like and whether they could be permitted. “Under current conditions, it appears unlikely that a data center with evaporative cooling technology (or any comparable water user) would find a reliable, sufficient groundwater supply anywhere” in the region, the report said. Groundwater management and quality as more data centers come online has also been a concern in states including Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Georgia and South Carolina. The state’s delay in issuing the report had raised transparency concerns and questions about its contents, partly because of its connection to data centers. A wide range of advocacy organizations and a committee that advises state regulators on eastern Virginia groundwater issues had begun to raise concerns in June and July about why the report due in January had not yet been made public. Stuart said he had not been able to obtain a copy of it. The AP sought the report under an open records request, and the Department of Environmental Quality withheld it. After AP requested comment for a story about the refusal to release the report, the governor’s office provided a copy late Thursday night. Jack Bledsoe, a spokesperson for Spanberger, who took office in January, attributed delays in the report’s release to a backlog of outstanding items from the previous governor’s administration. “This report represents the most comprehensive analysis of groundwater resources conducted in Virginia history. Governor Spanberger is committed to working with the General Assembly to carefully evaluate its findings, strengthen the Commonwealth’s groundwater management policies, and protect Virginia’s water supply for future generations,” Bledsoe said. ___ Associated Press reporters Michael Phillis in Washington and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

Mayar Sherif continued her recent strong play by saving 11 of 18 break points (61.1%) and posting a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (2), 6-4 victory over Spain’s Paula Badosa on Friday to reach the semifinals of the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open in Germany. Sherif defeated Badosa on Monday in the title match of the Iasi Open in Romania when the Spaniard retired due to a leg injury. This time, they battled for three hours and 26 minutes before the Egyptian put away Badosa, who committed 12 double faults. Sherif next faces fifth-seeded German Tamara Korpatsch, who registered a 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 win over second-seeded Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine. Korpatsch won 10 of 12 second-return points (83.3%). No. 4 Anna Bondar of Hungary knocked off Alina Charaeva of Armenia 6-1, 7-6 (3). Bondar will next face another Armenian in Elina Avanesyan, who won in a walkover when top-seeded Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine withdrew due to an abdominal injury. Prague Open Fifth-seeded Tereza Valentova recovered from a slow start and finished strong to knock off top-seeded Marie Bouzkova 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6) in an all-Czech matchup to advance to the semifinals. Valentova won the 12th game of the third set to force a tiebreaker and then won the last two points to advance. Bouzkova hit four aces but committed six double faults in the two-hour, 44-minute match. Valentova next faces No. 8 Daria Snigur, who rolled to a 6-0, 6-3 win over Thailand’s Lanlana Tararudee. The Ukrainian won 24 of 31 first-serve points (77.4%). No. 2 Barbora Krejcikova defeated fellow Czech Dominika Salkova 6-3, 6-3 in just 79 minutes. She will face Austria’s Lilli Tagger, who recorded a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over No. 3 Czech Sara Bejlek. –Field Level Media Brought to you by www.srnnews.com