With the official start of free agency four days away and the unofficial launch at midnight tonight, Lions defensive end Cliff Avril is moving closer to becoming former Lions defensive end Cliff Avril.
Avril tells Anwar Richardson of MLive.com that, as of now, the Lions and Avril?s camp aren?t talking.
?We haven?t really been talking, but there?s still a few days,? Avril said. ?Maybe they will make a strong push, or we?ll make a push with them. At the same time, we haven?t really been talking. Last year, I got franchised, and we didn?t start talking to them until four or five days before that deadline. I don?t know if that?s their way of doing things, but we haven?t been talking.?
If Avril plays elsewhere, he?s willing to move to linebacker in a 3-4 defense.? He?s already been linked to the Browns, and we?ve reported that multiple 3-4 teams are interested in Avril.
?I think I can do it,? Avril said. ?I thought I was going to be a 3-4 coming out, obviously. I ended up getting drafted to the Lions at the defensive end position. The weird thing is all the guys out of Purdue from the last few drafts who played end became 3-4 ends. I?m the only one out of all of those guys who played linebacker and became a defensive end. Maybe I?ll join that club, if it?s the case.?
The problem remains that defensive end in a 4-3 often pays more than a 3-4 linebacker. For Avril, though, the real issue will be what any team will pay when it?s time to field offers.
The offers can officially be fielded as of midnight tonight.
CITES: Crucial for conserving sharks and raysPublic release date: 7-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stephen Sautner ssautner@wcs.org 718-220-3682 Wildlife Conservation Society
NEW YORK (March 6, 2013)Government delegates to the 16th meeting of the 178 member States of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) convening in Bangkok, Thailand this week can help conserve some of the world's most threatened sharks and raysancient, cartilaginous fish species that are under severe pressure globally from over-fishing by agreeing to extend CITES measures to these species. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, CITES is crucial for addressing the conservation needs and sustainable use of sharks and rays.
The United States, Brazil, Ecuador, and more than 30 other countries have proposed to list several shark and ray species under CITES, which will help control the largely unregulated international trade in these species and their products. Many shark and ray species are threatened with extinction as a result of directed fishing and unintentional fisheries "bycatch," much of which is driven by the high demand for their fins, meat, gill rakers, used in shark fin soup and other dishes.
"We commend the leadership of the United States and other government sponsors in requesting these essential measures to control and monitor international trade in these shark and ray species, and we implore other governments to vote in their favor," said Dr. Cristin Samper, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "These taxa have suffered alarming declines from unregulated or insufficiently regulated fisheries and are in high demand for international commercial markets. There is a desperate need for trade controls to manage that demand and its impact on these vulnerable fishes."
Proposed for listing on CITES Appendix II, which provides for regulation of international trade, are the oceanic whitetip shark, porbeagle shark, three species of hammerhead shark, and two species of manta ray. Another species, the freshwater sawfish, is proposed for uplisting from Appendix II to Appendix I, which prohibits commercial international trade completely.
The proposals under consideration will significantly increase the number of sharks and rays that are regulated under CITES: currently, only a few of shark and ray speciesthe whale shark, basking shark, great white shark, and seven sawfishesare listed. In order to be adopted, the proposals will need approval from two-thirds of the governments voting.
"CITES listings for these species would help put controls on an international trade that threatens many shark species and the livelihoods that depend on them," said Dr. Elizabeth Bennett, Vice President of WCS's Species Program and leader of the WCS CITES delegation.
Unlike many bony fish species, most cartilaginous fishes are long-lived, late-to-mature, and produce few young, making them vulnerable to over-fishing and their populations slow to recover once depleted.
"Demand for shark finsthe prime ingredient in shark fin soup and gill rakers from manta rays is driving legal and illegal shark and ray fishing beyond what is sustainable, with estimates of tens of millions of animals killed annually to supply these trades, "said Dr. Rachel Graham, Director of WCS's Gulf and Caribbean Sharks and Rays Program. "Listing under CITES will provide a much-needed framework to monitor and regulate these heavily traded and highly sought-after species."
WCS is committed to saving sharks and rays as part of a global commitment to promote recovery of depleted and threatened populations of marine species, halt the decline of fragile marine ecosystems, and improve the livelihoods and resilience of coastal communities throughout the world's oceans.
WCS invests in a diverse array of long-term, seascape-scale conservation strategies across the waters of 20 countries and all five oceans to reverse the decline of marine ecosystems, restore populations of threatened marine species and improve coastal fisheries and livelihoods. We inspire millions to take action for the oceans through the New York Aquarium and all our parks in New York City. To achieve our long-term conservation goals, WCS marine conservationists work with local and national governments, as well as a range of local partners to improve management of coastal fisheries, mitigate key threats to marine species, expand effective marine protected areas, enhance ocean industry sustainability, and increase resilience to climate change.
Collectively, these efforts aim to build broader and deeper public understanding, advance scientific knowledge, and strengthen political commitment to our oceans and the biodiversity and livelihoods they support.
###
Note to Editors:
Deutsche Elasmobranchier-Gesellschaft (DEG), Humane Society International (HSI), Project AWARE Foundation, Shark Advocates International (SAI), the Shark Trust and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), with the support of Oceans 5, are working together to secure CITES listings for shark and ray species at the 16th Conference of Parties in March 2013.
The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild places worldwide. We do so through science, global conservation, education and the management of the world's largest system of urban wildlife parks, led by the flagship Bronx Zoo. Together these activities change attitudes towards nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in harmony. WCS is committed to this mission because it is essential to the integrity of life on Earth. Visit http://www.wcs.org.
Special Note to the Media: If you would like to guide your readers or viewers to a web link where they can make donations in support of helping save wildlife and wild places, please direct them to: http://www.wcs.org/donation
CONTACT: MARY DIXON (1-347-675-2294; mdixon@wcs.org)
STEPHEN SAUTNER: (1-718-220-3682; ssautner@wcs.org)
JOHN DELANEY: (1-718-220-3275; jdelaney@wcs.org)
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
CITES: Crucial for conserving sharks and raysPublic release date: 7-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stephen Sautner ssautner@wcs.org 718-220-3682 Wildlife Conservation Society
NEW YORK (March 6, 2013)Government delegates to the 16th meeting of the 178 member States of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) convening in Bangkok, Thailand this week can help conserve some of the world's most threatened sharks and raysancient, cartilaginous fish species that are under severe pressure globally from over-fishing by agreeing to extend CITES measures to these species. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, CITES is crucial for addressing the conservation needs and sustainable use of sharks and rays.
The United States, Brazil, Ecuador, and more than 30 other countries have proposed to list several shark and ray species under CITES, which will help control the largely unregulated international trade in these species and their products. Many shark and ray species are threatened with extinction as a result of directed fishing and unintentional fisheries "bycatch," much of which is driven by the high demand for their fins, meat, gill rakers, used in shark fin soup and other dishes.
"We commend the leadership of the United States and other government sponsors in requesting these essential measures to control and monitor international trade in these shark and ray species, and we implore other governments to vote in their favor," said Dr. Cristin Samper, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "These taxa have suffered alarming declines from unregulated or insufficiently regulated fisheries and are in high demand for international commercial markets. There is a desperate need for trade controls to manage that demand and its impact on these vulnerable fishes."
Proposed for listing on CITES Appendix II, which provides for regulation of international trade, are the oceanic whitetip shark, porbeagle shark, three species of hammerhead shark, and two species of manta ray. Another species, the freshwater sawfish, is proposed for uplisting from Appendix II to Appendix I, which prohibits commercial international trade completely.
The proposals under consideration will significantly increase the number of sharks and rays that are regulated under CITES: currently, only a few of shark and ray speciesthe whale shark, basking shark, great white shark, and seven sawfishesare listed. In order to be adopted, the proposals will need approval from two-thirds of the governments voting.
"CITES listings for these species would help put controls on an international trade that threatens many shark species and the livelihoods that depend on them," said Dr. Elizabeth Bennett, Vice President of WCS's Species Program and leader of the WCS CITES delegation.
Unlike many bony fish species, most cartilaginous fishes are long-lived, late-to-mature, and produce few young, making them vulnerable to over-fishing and their populations slow to recover once depleted.
"Demand for shark finsthe prime ingredient in shark fin soup and gill rakers from manta rays is driving legal and illegal shark and ray fishing beyond what is sustainable, with estimates of tens of millions of animals killed annually to supply these trades, "said Dr. Rachel Graham, Director of WCS's Gulf and Caribbean Sharks and Rays Program. "Listing under CITES will provide a much-needed framework to monitor and regulate these heavily traded and highly sought-after species."
WCS is committed to saving sharks and rays as part of a global commitment to promote recovery of depleted and threatened populations of marine species, halt the decline of fragile marine ecosystems, and improve the livelihoods and resilience of coastal communities throughout the world's oceans.
WCS invests in a diverse array of long-term, seascape-scale conservation strategies across the waters of 20 countries and all five oceans to reverse the decline of marine ecosystems, restore populations of threatened marine species and improve coastal fisheries and livelihoods. We inspire millions to take action for the oceans through the New York Aquarium and all our parks in New York City. To achieve our long-term conservation goals, WCS marine conservationists work with local and national governments, as well as a range of local partners to improve management of coastal fisheries, mitigate key threats to marine species, expand effective marine protected areas, enhance ocean industry sustainability, and increase resilience to climate change.
Collectively, these efforts aim to build broader and deeper public understanding, advance scientific knowledge, and strengthen political commitment to our oceans and the biodiversity and livelihoods they support.
###
Note to Editors:
Deutsche Elasmobranchier-Gesellschaft (DEG), Humane Society International (HSI), Project AWARE Foundation, Shark Advocates International (SAI), the Shark Trust and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), with the support of Oceans 5, are working together to secure CITES listings for shark and ray species at the 16th Conference of Parties in March 2013.
The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild places worldwide. We do so through science, global conservation, education and the management of the world's largest system of urban wildlife parks, led by the flagship Bronx Zoo. Together these activities change attitudes towards nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in harmony. WCS is committed to this mission because it is essential to the integrity of life on Earth. Visit http://www.wcs.org.
Special Note to the Media: If you would like to guide your readers or viewers to a web link where they can make donations in support of helping save wildlife and wild places, please direct them to: http://www.wcs.org/donation
CONTACT: MARY DIXON (1-347-675-2294; mdixon@wcs.org)
STEPHEN SAUTNER: (1-718-220-3682; ssautner@wcs.org)
JOHN DELANEY: (1-718-220-3275; jdelaney@wcs.org)
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Mar. 6, 2013 ? Blood, paint or ketchup are complex liquids composed of several different components. For the construction of pumps, or the improvement of technical processes scientists and engineers need description models. They make the special properties of such liquids predictable. Researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) and the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) have developed such a model. In the current issue of the journal Physical Review Letters they present it.
The unusual behavior of complex fluids is part of our daily life: cake dough climbs up the stirring bar, ketchup becomes liquid when you shake it. Also technology uses such phenomena: if we add a small amount of long-chained polymer molecules, a pipeline can transport more oil. The polymers reduce the flow resistance. But up to now the origin of these effects was unclear. The engineers had to rely on estimates and lengthy trials.
A team of physicists led by Professor Andreas Bausch, Chair of Cellular Biophysics at TUM now developed a numerical model of such liquids. Experimental heart of the work are a fine flow channel and a micro-camera. Like the camera looking down at the pit lane of Formula 1 races, the scientists monitored the movements of individual polymer molecules in the flow.
From their observations they conducted a theoretical model for the motion of rigid molecules different from the current. In addition, they were able also to provide for colleagues suspected of movement patterns experimental confirmation.
Challenging for theory and experiment
"Due to the incredibly large number of degrees of freedom the study and description of the motion of polymers is a big challenge," says Markus Harasim, one of the two main authors. Even a simple system of water and polymer shows the effects of complex fluids. In order to make the long molecules visible, the physicists marked the polymers with a fluorescent dye. This allowed them to study the movements under various conditions.
To their surprise the mathematical modeling showed, that even the simple model of a stiff rod was suitable as a starting point. Then the researchers refined the model by taking into account the thermal motion, the flexibility of the molecule and the higher flow resistance of a curved polymer. "Since we now know the microscopic mechanisms, we can extend the model to more complex geometries and flows. And thanks to our experimental set-up we should be able to verify our theories," says co-author Bernhard Wunderlich, who is a well known rapper in the hip-hop band "Blumentopf" in his off time.
The work was funded by the German Research Foundation Center's research and the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Technische Universitaet Muenchen.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Markus Harasim, Bernhard Wunderlich, Orit Peleg, Martin Kr?ger, Andreas R. Bausch. Direct Observation of the Dynamics of Semiflexible Polymers in Shear Flow. Physical Review Letters, 2013; 110 (10) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.108302
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
There?s long been a general picture of the climate of the Holocene, the period of Earth history since the last ice age ended around 12,000 years ago. It goes like this: After a sharp stuttery warm-up following that big chill ? to temperatures warmer than today ? the climate cools, with the decline reaching bottom around 200 years ago in the period widely called the ?little ice age.? (A graph produced by Robert Rohde for his Global Warming Art Web site years ago nicely captures the general picture.)
In a new study, researchers from Oregon State University and Harvard have analyzed 11,300 years of data from 73 sites around the world and added more detail to this picture. The work, posted online today, is being published Friday in the journal Science.
While the researchers, led by Shaun Marcott of Oregon State, conclude that the globe?s current average temperature has not exceeded the warmth that persisted for thousands of years after the last ice age ended, they say it will do so in this century under almost every postulated scenario for greenhouse gas emissions.
In a news release, Candace Major, program director for ocean sciences at the National Science Foundation, which paid for the research, said:
The last century stands out as the anomaly in this record of global temperature since the end of the last ice age?. This research shows that we?ve experienced almost the same range of temperature change since the beginning of the industrial revolution as over the previous 11,000 years of Earth history ? but this change happened a lot more quickly.
In sum, the work reveals a fresh, and very long, climate ?hockey stick.?
The hockey stick climate analogy arose from a variety of studies of the last millennium or two of temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere, Arctic and planet. There?s a general pattern of a sharp warming from the 20th century onward. The shaft of the ?stick? has a lot of wiggles and warps and still comes with substantial uncertainty, but the general pattern is well established. The Wikipedia entry is a reasonable starting point for reviewing varied views of this body of science.
This work is complicated, involving lots of statistical methods in extrapolating from scattered sites to a global picture, which means that there?s abundant uncertainty ? and that there will be abundant interpretations. Here you can listen to one of the lead authors, Jeremy Shakun, a visiting postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, discuss reactions from other scientists and answer some questions I raised:
Below, you can also review an e-mail exchange among some climate scientists familiar with the paper. Finally, there?s a second part to my Skype conversation with Shakun in which he turns the tables on his interlocutor, asking me some questions about my view of that state of climate science and the complicated role of scientists thrust into public discussions not only of their work, but the options facing society.
Please read on:
Besides asking some scientists about the quality of the work, I sought their thoughts on its broader meanings, one of which, I proposed, was this:
While folks have long talked of ?abrupt climate change? (as in?NRC reports) as a plausible prospect, this paper builds on the idea that we?ve been in the midst of abrupt climate change since the early 20th century.
Here are a few initial replies (some e-mail shorthand is fixed), starting with a back-and-forth with Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University. (This section is for deep divers; the replies are technical in spots and unavoidably contain references to graphs and other cotent in the paper that is behind the journal?s subscription wall.)
Michael Mann:
This is an important paper. The key take-home conclusion is that the rate and magnitude of recent global warmth appears unprecedented for at least the past 4,000 years and the rate at least the past 11,000. We know that there were periods in the past that were warmer than today, for example the early Cretaceous period 100 million years ago. The real issue, from a climate change impacts point of view, is the rate of change ?because that?s what challenges our adaptive capacity. And this paper suggests that the current rate has no precedent as far back as we can go with any confidence ? 11,000 years arguably, based on this study.
My only real concern is that their data and approach (e.g. the use of pollen records in the higher northern latitudes) seems to emphasize the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, during the summer season. This is an issue because we know there is a substantial long-term natural cooling trend for high-latitude summers because of Earth orbital effects, but the trend is nearly zero in the global annual average. One gets the sense from looking at their reconstruction that there is a very strong imprint of this orbital cooling trend ? stronger than what one would expect for the global annual average.
The interesting thing about that, is that it suggests that the true conclusions might even be stronger than their already quite strong conclusions, regarding the unprecedented nature of recent warming. That is, it may be that you have to go even further back in time to find warmth comparable ? at the global scale ? to what we are seeing today. If you look at their tropical stack for example (Figure 2J) [a particular set of data], the modern warmth is unprecedented for the entire time period (i.e, the past 11,000 years). That?s why I said that there results suggests recent warmth unprecedented for at leaat the past 4,000. It?s possible, given the potential seasonality/latitudinal bias, that there is in fact no precedent over the past 11,000 years (and likely longer, since the preceding glacial period was almost certainly globally cooler than the Holocene) for the warmth we are seeing today. In that case, we likely have to go back to the last interglacial, i.e. the Eemian period (125,000 years ago) for warmth potentially rivaling that of today.
But, again, the take-home conclusion: the rate of warming appears to be unprecedented as far back as the authors are able to go (to the boundary with the last ice age). And the rate of warming appears to have no analog in the past, as far back as the authors are able to go.
My followup question for Mann:
Separate from the potential northern bias, are you confident that jogs similar to the one recorded in the last century (a well-instrumented century) could not be hidden in the ?smear? of millenniums of proxy [indirect] temperature data? (This is where my ignorance of the strengths/weaknesses of these statistical tools forces me to rely on expert judgment.)
Michael Mann:
Regarding the resolution issue, this was my main concern initially when I looked at the paper. But I?m less concerned now that I have read the paper over more carefully, because I think that Figure 1a and 1b give a pretty good sense of what features of higher resolution reconstructions (specifically, our ?08 global reconstruction which is shown) are potentially captured. Based on that comparison, I?m relatively convinced that they have the resolution to capture a century-long warming trend in the past were there one comparable to the recent trend.
In the same e-mail thread, Robert Rohde, the chief data analyst behind the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project (and Global Warming Art, as I noted above), weighed in this way:
I found the Marcott et al. paper interesting and read it with some care. There are many details, such as proxy data locations and the exact method of averaging, that are not presented in the main text of the paper. In all likelihood many of these factors are discussed in the supplemental material, but since I don?t have access to that I can only comment on the parts that I can immediately see.
That caveat aside, I have long believed that the last 10,000 years was a time period ripe for further study, and the authors seem to have approached the problem in much the same way I might have imagined doing it myself. Their results should help provide an important context for understanding the history of climate change.
The Marcott et al. results may refine our understanding the last 10,000 years; however, the broad picture of Holocene climate does not seem to have been significantly changed by their findings. Previous work had already pointed towards a period of early Holocene warmth somewhat higher than recent centuries. Similarly, earlier studies had also revealed some of the same details, such as warming peaking earlier in the South than the North, for reasons likely related to changes in the tilt of Earth?s axis. The scientific community has also known for some time that the predicted future global warming in most climate models (more than 2 degrees C.) would probably be well above the long-term average temperature present at any time during the Holocene.
Hence, the Marcott et al. results are for the most part not surprising, and generally confirm the previous understanding of the Holocene. That said, the details are still important. Having better constraints on the timing and magnitude of past climate changes should ultimately lead to better constraints on climate sensitivity and the role of natural variability in the climate system. Like Crowley, I find the magnitude of estimated warming during the early Holocene to be somewhat larger than I would have expected based on prior work and known forcings, and if that magnitude holds up to further scrutiny then it may offer an important insight into past climate dynamics.
In discussing their result, there is one important limitation that I feel deserves more attention. They rely on proxy data that is widely spaced in time (median sampling interval 120 years) and in many cases may also be subject to significant dating uncertainty. These effects will both tend to blur and obscure high frequency variability. They estimate (page 1, column 3) that only 50% of the variance is preserved at 1,000-year periods. This amount of variance suppression is roughly what you would expect if the underlying annual temperature time series had been smoothed with a 400-year moving average. In essence, their reconstruction appears to tell us about past changes in climate with a resolution of about 400 years. That is more than adequate for gathering insights about millennial scale changes during the last 10,000 years, but it will completely obscure any rapid fluctuations having durations less than a few hundred years. The only time such obscuring might not occur is during the very recent period when dating uncertainty is likely to be low and sample spacing may be very tight.
Because the analysis method and sparse data used in this study will tend to blur out most century-scale changes, we can?t use the analysis of Marcott et al. to draw any firm conclusions about how unique the rapid changes of the twentieth century are compared to the previous 10,000 years. The 20th century may have had uniquely rapid warming, but we would need higher resolution data to draw that conclusion with any certainty. Similarly, one should be careful in comparing recent decades to early parts of their reconstruction, as one can easily fall into the trap of comparing a single year or decade to what is essentially an average of centuries. To their credit Marcott et al. do recognize and address the issue of suppressed high frequency variability at a number of places in their paper.
Ultimately, the Marcott et al. paper is an interesting addition to the study of millennial scale climate variability during the Holocene. Their results are broadly consistent with previous findings, but the details are interesting and likely to be useful in future studies. However, since their methodology suppresses most of the high frequency variability, one needs to be cautious when making comparisons between their reconstruction and relatively rapid events like the global warming of the last century.
Jeremy Shakun responds to some of these points in our Skype chat above. Here?s the second part of our conversation, in which he asks me some good questions about my climate views:
NEW YORK (AP) ? Valerie Harper, who played Rhoda Morgenstern on television's "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and its spinoff, "Rhoda," has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
People magazine reports on its website Wednesday that the 73-year-old actress received the news on Jan. 15. The report says she has as little as three months to live.
Harper tells the magazine in a cover interview: "I don't think of dying. I think of being here now."
Harper's character, Rhoda, was one of television's most beloved sidekicks during the 1970s.
The Associated Press was trying to reach a representative for Harper.
FILE - This Jan. 20, 2007 file photo shows Marco McMillian, 34, a candidate for mayor of Clarksdale, Miss., who was found dead on the Mississippi River levee Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 between Sherard and Rena Lara, Miss. The body of Marco McMillian was beaten and burned, a family member said Monday, March 4, 2013. McMillian's godfather, Carter Womack, said McMillian's family received the information from the Coahoma County coroner. Coroner Scotty Meredith declined to comment Monday. (AP Photo/The Clarksdale Press Register, Troy Catchings, File)
FILE - This Jan. 20, 2007 file photo shows Marco McMillian, 34, a candidate for mayor of Clarksdale, Miss., who was found dead on the Mississippi River levee Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 between Sherard and Rena Lara, Miss. The body of Marco McMillian was beaten and burned, a family member said Monday, March 4, 2013. McMillian's godfather, Carter Womack, said McMillian's family received the information from the Coahoma County coroner. Coroner Scotty Meredith declined to comment Monday. (AP Photo/The Clarksdale Press Register, Troy Catchings, File)
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) ? A Mississippi congressman on Tuesday asked the FBI to review the slaying of an openly gay mayoral candidate to determine if any federal laws might have been violated.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson's district includes Clarksdale, where Marco McMillian was running. McMillian, 34, was found slain last week in a rural area nearby.
Thompson, a Democrat, said Tuesday that he has confidence in the sheriff investigating the death but that he wants the FBI to get involved because that's what McMillian's family wants.
"If another set of eyes looking at it would provide additional information, I think it would be helpful to the McMillian family," Thompson told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
An FBI spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment after hours.
McMillian's campaign had said he was one of the first openly gay, viable candidates for public office in Mississippi.
Coahoma County sheriff's spokesman Will Rooker said the investigation continues and authorities are looking at all possibilities, including whether hate crime laws would apply.
Mississippi's hate crimes law covers acts motivated by bias against a victim's race but not sexual orientation. However, a federal hate crimes law covers bias against sexual orientation. Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the FBI could determine if a hate crimes charge should be considered.
McMillian was black, as is the man charged last week with murder in the case, Lawrence Reed, 22.
The cause of death has not been released. An autopsy was performed, but toxicology tests are pending, and authorities say it could take two weeks to get those results.
In a news release, Thompson said: "The level of violence shown in this incident is unconscionable and the perpetrator of this atrocious act should be held accountable to the full extent of the law."
McMillian's godfather, Carter Womack, said the Coahoma County coroner told family members that someone dragged McMillian's body under a fence and left it near a Mississippi River levee.
The victim's family had said in a statement that the body was "beaten, dragged and burned," leading some to assume it was dragged by a car.
Coahoma County Coroner Scotty Meredith said he doesn't want anyone to make inaccurate assumptions about the death.
He told AP on Tuesday night that McMillian was not dragged by a car, he was dragged out of a vehicle by someone and his body left near the levee. He said the burns were postmortem and in a couple of small places on the body.
"My concern is to determine the manner and cause of death and let law enforcement do their jobs," McMillian said, adding that he wants to help the family in any way he can. "It's all about getting closure for them, and the truth."
Another person with direct knowledge of the investigation confirmed to AP that McMillian's body was bruised and there were burns on at least one area. The person wasn't authorized to publicly comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.
An investigation began Feb. 26 after McMillian's SUV slammed head-on into another vehicle on U.S. Highway 49 near the Coahoma and Tallahatchie county lines.
Reed was driving the car, but McMillian was not in it, authorities say. McMillian's body was found the next day.
Thompson said he has known McMillian for years. Thompson said his daughter and McMillian attended Jackson State University at the same time, and one of his congressional staffers was McMillian's fraternity sponsor.
Thompson told AP: "He was a very talented young man who had a bright future."
AP
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