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U.S. NEWS Saturday 15 January 2022
Owners to get $42 million for citrus trees Florida destroyed

By MIKE SCHNEIDER fected tree were destroyed
Associated Press in an effort to stop the dis-
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Six- ease's spread.
teen years after their legal As compensation, the state
battle began, about 18,000 in the 2000s offered Florida
homeowners in central homeowners $100 Walmart
Florida will be paid more gift cards for their first de-
than $42 million collectively stroyed tree and $55 for
by the state of Florida for each additional tree. In
destroying their citrus trees cases where homeowners
during an effort to eradi- resisted, authorities threat-
cate a harmful citrus dis- ened arrest or obtained
ease. warrants to go onto private
The homeowners in Orange property and destroy trees.
County will receive about The Florida Legislature ap-
$700 per healthy tree de- proved payments for the
stroyed as part of an order Orange County homeown-
issued in state court in Or- ers last year. A third-party
lando last month. A judg- administrator will distrib-
ment from a 2014 trial as- ute the checks and track
sessed the value of each down homeowners whose
healthy tree as $344, but addresses are no longer
fees and interests over the Associated Press current.
years doubled the per-tree Tens of thousands of hom-
payment. to eradicate citrus canker, fruit. The lesions leak bacte- Services had argued that eowners in Broward, Lee
More than 60,000 healthy, according to the lawsuit. rial cells that can spread to the homeowners' trees and Palm Beach counties
uninfected trees were de- While unharmful to hu- other trees by wind, rain or were a public nuisance won class action lawsuits
stroyed in Orange County mans, citrus canker can contaminated equipment, and didn't have value against the state over their
between 2002 and 2006 as cause the leaves and fruit according to the U.S. De- worth compensating. Un- destroyed trees, and com-
part of the Florida Depart- of citrus trees to drop pre- partment of Agriculture. der the program, healthy pensations varied by coun-
ment of Agriculture and maturely and create un- The Florida Department of trees that were within 1900 ty. A case in Miami-Dade
Consumer Services' efforts appealing lesions on the Agriculture and Consumer feet (580 meters) of an in- County is still pending.q

White House: Russia prepping pretext

for Ukraine invasion

By A. MADHAN Russian President Vladimir formation by Russia. Sepa-
Associated Press Putin decides he wants to rately, Ukrainian media on
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. move forward with an inva- Friday reported that au-
intelligence officials have sion. “We are concerned thorities believed Russian
determined a Russian ef- that the Russian govern- special services were plan-
fort is underway to create ment is preparing for an in- ning a possible false flag
a pretext for its troops to vasion in Ukraine that may incident to provoke addi-
further invade Ukraine, and result in widespread human tional conflict.
Moscow has already prep- rights violations and war The new U.S. intelligence
ositioned operatives to crimes should diplomacy was unveiled after a series
conduct “a false-flag op- fail to meet their objec- of talks between Russia Associated Press
eration” in eastern Ukraine, tives,” Psaki said. and the U.S. and its Western
according to the White Pentagon spokesman John allies this week in Europe and information opera- by the U.S. in cooperation
House. Kirby described the intel- aimed at heading off the tions” that accuse Ukraine with fascist Ukrainian na-
White House press secre- ligence as “very credible.” escalating crisis made little of prepping for its own tionalists” and promoted
tary Jen Psaki said on Friday A U.S. official, who was not progress. imminent attack against narratives about Crimea’s
the intelligence findings authorized to comment on White House national se- Russian forces in eastern historical ties to Moscow,
show Russia is also laying the intelligence and spoke curity adviser Jake Sullivan Ukraine. according to a report by
the groundwork through on condition of anonym- on Thursday said the U.S. in- He said this is similar to what Stanford University’s Inter-
a social media disinforma- ity, said much of it was telligence community has the Kremlin did in the lead- net Observatory.
tion campaign that frames gleaned from intercepted not made an assessment up to Russia’s 2014 annexa- Efforts to directly influence
Ukraine as an aggressor communications and ob- that the Russians, who tion of Crimea, the Black Ukrainians appear to have
that has been preparing servations of the move- have massed some 100,000 Sea peninsula that had continued during the on-
an imminent attack against ments of people. troops on Ukraine’s border, been under Ukraine’s juris- going conflict in eastern
Russian-backed forces in The U.S. intelligence find- have definitively decided diction since 1954. Ukraine, in which at least
eastern Ukraine. ings, which were declassi- to take a military course of Russia has long been ac- 14,000 people have died.
Psaki charged that Russia fied and shared with U.S. action. cused of using disinforma- The Associated Press re-
has already dispatched allies before being made But Sullivan said Russia is tion as a tactic against ported in 2017 that Ukrai-
operatives trained in urban public, estimate that a mili- laying the groundwork to adversaries in conjunction nian forces in the east were
warfare who could use ex- tary invasion could begin invade under false pretens- with military operations constantly receiving text
plosives to carry out acts of between mid-January and es should Putin decide to and cyberattacks. In 2014, messages warning that
sabotage against Russia’s mid-February. go that route. He said the Russian state media tried to they would be killed and
own proxy forces — blam- Ukraine is also monitoring Russians have been plan- discredit pro-Western pro- their children would be
ing the acts on Ukraine — if the potential use of disin- ning “sabotage activities tests in Kyiv as “fomented made orphans.q