Marilyn W. Thompson

3 weeks ago | postandcourier.com | Hongyu Liu |Marilyn W. Thompson

Free-ranging monkeys may be causing long-term environmental damage on Morgan Island, an isolated barrier island the state owns and has used for decades as a primate breeding ground, according to a new analysis. Fully evaluating any damage will be difficult because the public is barred from the property. Government agencies and private caretakers shield activities on the Beaufort County island, which supplies 500 monkeys per year for federal medical research.

1 month ago | postandcourier.com | Marilyn W. Thompson |Mitchell Black

A federal health agency under pressure to slash its spending has approved another $4.1 million to maintain its monkey breeding colony on an isolated South Carolina barrier island. The disbursement from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease went through in March even as the agency prepared for massive cutbacks. The Trump administration in early April ordered federal health agencies to eliminate billions of dollars in contract spending.

1 month ago | postandcourier.com | Marilyn W. Thompson |Mitchell Black

SPECIAL REPORTMonkey IslandMORGAN ISLAND — Ominous warnings line the channel approaching this remote barrier island in St. Helena Sound. “No Trespassing” signs hang from the trunks of live oak trees against an eroding shoreline. Visitors are not welcome here, although taxpayers paid millions to buy and maintain the property. It’s too dangerous, its mission too secretive to allow people in.

2 months ago | ncronline.org | Marilyn W. Thompson |Katherine Stewart |Michael Sean Winters

Maybe it was unwise to crack open Katherine Stewart's latest treatise, Money, Lies and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy on the day of President Donald Trump's smackdown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. After watching accounts of the Feb. 28 foreign policy debacle, it was clear that American democracy was under a fierce assault that had taken hold more quickly than anyone predicted. We were witnessing its destruction in real time, with no real plan for fighting back.

2 months ago | postandcourier.com | Marilyn W. Thompson |Mitchell Black

A question hangs over the world of health research as the Trump administration slashes government jobs and budgets, including federal funding that leads to the approval of new drugs and medical treatments. What happens to the monkeys? The use of primates for experiments in U.S. laboratories has soared over the past decade as scientists rely on them to test drug safety and study human maladies. They are the closest living relatives to humans.