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2021-08-20 01:54:39+00:00
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2021-08-19 06:00:00
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Outdoor recreation accounted for 2% of Washington's total GDP in 2020, according to a study released this month, while the outdoor recreation industry accounted for 2.8% of total employment and 2.1% of total compensation.
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Outdoor recreation accounted for 2% of Washington’s total gross domestic product in 2020, according to a study released this month, while the outdoor recreation industry accounted for 2.8% of total employment and 2.1% of total compensation.
The study was published by Outdoorsy, an RV rental company using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
It underscores that all types of outdoor recreation increased dramatically in 2020. In fact, 7.1 million more people headed outdoors and overall participation in outdoor recreation surpassed 52% for the first time on record, according to the Outdoor Industry Association.
Washington land managers nod their heads when presented with this data.
But the question remains, will it last? And if it lasts, will it pay?
That’s important for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, which saw a massive increase in fishing and hunting license sales as COVID-19 forced people outside.
Roughly a fourth of WDFW’s budget comes from fishing and hunting license sales. As fewer people hunt and fish in Washington, and nationwide, wildlife agencies have scrambled to find new sources of revenue.
Last year bucked that trend.
From the start of the 2020 licensing year in May through Dec. 31, WDFW sold nearly 45,000 more fishing licenses and 12,000 more hunting licenses than 2019. The number of new license holders – defined as someone who hadn’t purchased one for the previous five years – went up 16% for fishing licenses and almost 40% for hunters.
That will not be the case for 2021, said Morgan Stinson, chief financial officer for the department.
“Now we are far enough along that we are starting to see what I think is a return to the mean,” he said. “It doesn’t look lie this license year is going to be as good.”
Agency staff don’t know how many of the new hunters they will be able to retain, but Stinson isn’t optimistic.
“There is no way that we keep half of the exact people that showed up for the first time,” he said. “We are going to return to the mean. Which is tough.”
Less than 5% of Washingtonians hunt.
The WDFW, which is tasked with protecting, preserving and perpetuating Washington’s wildlife and ecosystems, doesn’t make money off most recreational uses, unless they are hunting or fishing. Hunting and fishing license fees haven’t increased since 2011 nor has the cost of a Discover Pass. As of the 2015-17 biennium, Discover Pass fees accounted for $3.6 million of WDFW’s budget.
Stinson said that calls into question the entire model – known as the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. That model has been largely successful, making once-endangered species, like deer and elk, plentiful. The model, however, largely relies on fishing and hunting license sales to fund state wildlife agencies, intentionally separating politics and biology. That model grew out of the excesses of market hunting and other practices which nearly led to the extinction of now-common species like elk and deer.
“We have this North American model, but it’s old and not keeping up with the relevancy piece of how people are using these lands,” he said.
The WDFW also gets money from two federal excise taxes on ammunition and fishing tackle, the Pittman Robertson and the Dingell–Johnson acts. Stinson said those can be difficult to budget around because of their volatility
“Pittman Robertson is all over the place,” he said. ”Because gun and ammunition sales respond politically.”
How to sustainably grow outdoor recreation in Washington is something Jon Snyder, Gov. Jay Inslee’s policy adviser on outdoor recreation and economic development, thinks about a lot.
“We have to be very deliberate and serious with how we plan and manage outdoor recreation,” he said. “We can’t manage outdoor recreation like its an amenity. Like it’s nice to have. It’s a must-have if your job depends on it. It’s a must-have if your mental health and physical health depends on it.”
The pandemic only “accelerated some trends” Snyder said, including increased permitting on public lands.
“The carrying capacity of our outdoor recreation infrastructure has to be taken into consideration,” he said.
The Great American Outdoors Act (which included permanent funding for The Land and Water Conservation Fund,) was signed into law by President Donald Trump, providing some permanent funding for conservation.
But state wildlife agencies are still left with more work than they can handle. This summer’s wildfires only highlight the importance and challenge of the WDFW’s mandate to protect and perpetuate Washington’s wildlife and ecosystems.
In hopes of broadening support, the WDFW has started actively trying to recruit outdoor enthusiasts from beyond the traditional hunting and fishing population, Stinson said. All in an effort to broaden “our relevancy.”
Correction: Due to a reporter’s error the name of the act signed into law by President Donal Trump was wrong. President Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act.
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www.spokesman.com
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2020 was a banner year for outdoor recreation. Now state managers wonder, will it last? And will it pay?
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/2020-was-a-banner-year-for-outdoor-recreation-now-/
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2021-08-20 02:01:16+00:00
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2021-08-19 08:00:00
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Lucas Brookbank Brown – Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Zola, 22 W. Main Ave. (509) 624-2416. Colby Acuff Band – Singer-songwriter. With Shaiden Hutchman. Wednesday, 7-9 p.m. The Black Diamond, 9614 E. Sprague Ave.
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Too Broke for Sturgis Rally – Three days of live music, dance performances and a beer garden. Visit facebook.com/cruisersbikerbarandbrill for details. Through Saturday. Cruisers, 6105 W. Seltice Way, Post Falls. (208) 773-4706.
Bemiss’ Music Under the Oaks – Family-friendly music by Jerry at Tricks. Friday, 6-8 p.m. Hays Park, 1812 E. Providence Ave. Free.
Collective Soul and Better Than Ezra – Alternative rock, post-grunge. With guest Tonic. Friday, 6 p.m. Northern Quest Resort & Casino, 100 N. Hayford Road, Airway Heights. $39-$89. (509) 481-2800.
Goodnight Suzie – Indie/pop. Friday, 8 p.m. Zola, 22 W. Main Ave. (509) 624-2416.
Evergreen Afrodub Orchestra – Afrobeat/reggae/dub/jazz. With Icky Business. Friday, 8 p.m. Lucky You Lounge, 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. $10. (206) 499-9173.
Dirty Betty – Rock. Friday, 9 p.m. Moose Lounge, 401 E. Sherman Ave., Coeur d’Alene. (208) 664-7901.
Ron Criscione – Folk/rock singer-songwriter. Saturday, 3:30-6:30 p.m. Coeur d’Alene Cellars, 3890 N. Schreiber Way, Coeur d’Alene. (208) 664-2336.
The Turnspit Dogs – Rock/blues. Saturday, 6-8 p.m. Idaho Pour Authority, 203 Cedar St., Sandpoint. (208) 290-2280.
Just Plain Darin – Acoustic pop/rock. Saturday, 6 p.m. Post Falls Brewing Co., 112 N. Spokane St., Post Falls. (208) 773-7301.
Beer Garden Bash – Featuring three tribute bands: Second Sting (Scorpions tribute), Almost Human (KISS tribute) and Lëwd & Crüed (Mötley Crüe tribute). Saturday, 7 p.m. Cruisers, 6105 W. Seltice Way, Post Falls. $20. (208) 773-4706.
Beartooth: The Below Tour – Punk/rock. With Wage War and Dragged Under. Saturday, 7 p.m. Knitting Factory, 919 W. Sprague Ave. $27.50-$30. (866) 468-7623.
Bright Moments – Jazz trio. Saturday, 7-9:30 p.m. Matchwood Brewing Co., 513 Oak St., Sandpoint. (208) 718-2739.
Goodnight Suzie – Indie/pop. Saturday, 8 p.m. Zola, 22 W. Main Ave. (509) 624-2416.
Children of Atom – Stoner rock. With Thunderhound, Phantom 309 and Double Plus Good. Featuring a 1970s/disco costume party. Saturday, 8-11:30 p.m. The Big Dipper, 171 S. Washington St. $8 with costume; $10 no costume. (509) 863-8098.
Kevin Dorin – Singer-songwriter. Saturday, 8 p.m. Eichardt’s Pub and Grill, 212 Cedar St., Sandpoint. (208) 263-4005.
Mama Doll – Indie rock. With Windoe. Saturday, 8 p.m. Lucky You Lounge, 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. $8-$10. (206) 499-9173.
Dirty Betty – Rock. Saturday, 9 p.m. Moose Lounge, 401 E. Sherman Ave., Coeur d’Alene. (208) 664-7901.
B Radicals – Rock/funk. Saturday, 9 p.m. 219 Lounge, 219 N. First Ave., Sandpoint. (208) 263-5673.
Floating Crowbar – Irish/Celtic. With the Haran Irish Dancers. Sunday, 1-4 p.m. Coeur d’Alene City Park, 415 Fort Grounds Drive, Coeur d Alene. Free. (208) 769-2252.
Loose Gazoonz – Rock/classic rock. Sunday, 3-7 p.m. Curley’s Hauser Junction, 26443 W. Highway 53, Hauser. (208) 664-7901.
Kicho – Singer-songwriter. Sunday, 5-8 p.m. Iron Horse Bar and Grill (Spokane Valley), 11105 E. Sprague Ave., Spokane Valley.
Nu Jack City – Funk/soul. Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Arbor Crest Tasting Room, 4705 N. Fruit Hill Road. $15. (509) 747-3903.
Sammy Hagar & the Circle (sold out) – Rock. With Michael Anthony, Jason Bonham and Vic Johnson. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Northern Quest Resort & Casino, 100 N. Hayford Road, Airway Heights. $59-$109. (509) 481-2800.
Chorale Coeur d’Alene Fall 2021 Auditions – Auditions for the fall and Christmas concerts. Those interested are asked to tell about their musical background, interest in the organization and perform a simple 10-minute audition, including vocalizations, sight reading and memorization of short phrases. For more information, visit choralecda.com, e-mail choralecda@gmail.com, and call (208)446-2333. Monday through Thursday. Peace Lutheran Church, 8134 N. Meyer Road, Post Falls. (208) 446-2333.
Music on Mondays Concert Series: Matt Renner Band – Featuring old-time county, bluegrass and Americana music by the Matt Renner Band. Attendees are advised to bring their own chairs and snacks. Monday, 6-7:30 p.m. Coeur d’Alene Library, 702 E. Front Ave., Coeur d’Alene. Free. (208) 769-2315.
Lucas Brookbank Brown – Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Zola, 22 W. Main Ave. (509) 624-2416.
Colby Acuff Band – Singer-songwriter. With Shaiden Hutchman. Wednesday, 7-9 p.m. The Black Diamond, 9614 E. Sprague Ave., Spokane Valley. $5. (509) 891-8357.
John Firshi – Singer-songwriter. Wednesday, 7 p.m. Eichardt’s Pub and Grill, 212 Cedar St., Sandpoint. (208) 263-4005.
Modest Mouse – Indie/alternative. With the Districts. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Knitting Factory, 919 W. Sprague Ave. $49.50. (866) 468-7623.
Eric Engerbretson – Pop/rock, blues, jazz and country. Thursday, 5:30 p.m. Arbor Crest Wine Cellars, 4705 N. Fruit Hill Road, Spokane Valley. $8. (509) 747-3903.
Shawn Stratte – Solo piano. Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Bridgepress Cellars, 39 W. Pacific Ave. (509) 838-7815.
Country Music Night With Last Chance Band – Country. Thursday, 9 p.m. Moose Lounge, 401 E. Sherman Ave., Coeur d’Alene. (208) 664-7901.
Phish – Aug. 27-29. Rock. Reschedule from July 17, 2021. Original tickets still valid. Gorge Amphitheatre, 754 Silica Road NW, George. $78-$387. (509) 785-6262.
Nightshift – Rock. Aug. 27 and 28, 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Moose Lounge, 401 E. Sherman Ave., Coeur d’Alene. (208) 664-7901.
The Coffey Twins – Classic rock and roll. Dinner served at 6:30 p.m.; show begins at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 27 and 28. Circle Moon Theater , 3642 N. SR 211, Newport. $25 dinner and show; $12 show only (adults); $10 show only (seniors ages 55 and older and students). (208) 448-1294.
Kevin Brown & the Beloved Country – Folk/bluegrass. Aug. 27, 5-8 p.m. Big Barn Brewing, 16004 N. Applewood Lane, Mead. Free. (509) 238-2489.
Spotswood Abbey – Pop/soul/funk. Aug. 27, 7 p.m. Bucer’s Coffeehouse Pub, 201 S. Main St., Moscow. (208) 596-0887.
Odyssey – Metal. With Xingaia and Loin Hammer. Aug. 27, 8-11:30 p.m. The Big Dipper, 171 S. Washington St. $7. (509) 863-8098.
Miah Kohal Band – Classic rock/outlaw country. Aug. 27, 9 p.m. 219 Lounge, 219 N. First Ave., Sandpoint. (208) 263-5673.
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www.spokesman.com
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Music calendar: Aug. 20-27
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/music-calendar/
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2021-08-20 02:00:15+00:00
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2021-08-19 09:11:00
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The longtime boyfriend of a Spirit Lake woman has been arrested on suspicion of shooting and killing her.
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The longtime boyfriend of a Spirit Lake woman has been arrested on suspicion of shooting and killing her.
John Dalton, 55, was arrested Wednesday evening on suspicion of the murder of Tina Swor, according to a Kootenai County Sherriff’s Office news release.
Swor, 56, was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds on Monday afternoon, prompting a search for Dalton on Wednesday, according to an earlier release.
Deputies responded to calls that Dalton was walking around in St. Maries in Benewah County around 6 p.m. Wednesday. A Benewah County Sheriff’s deputy detained Dalton.
Officials had considered him armed and dangerous.
Kootenai County sheriffs obtained a search warrant for an unspecified hotel, which led to officers finding “evidence of the crime,” according to the news release.
Dalton was booked into Kootenai County Jail around 3 a.m. Thursday with a pending bond.
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www.spokesman.com
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Kootenai deputies arrest man suspected in Spirit Lake woman's death
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/kootenai-deputies-arrest-man-suspected-of-shooting/
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2021-08-20 02:03:49+00:00
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2021-08-19 05:00:00
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For 40 years and counting, the clatter and click of mahjong tiles has accompanied the conversation of a group of women who started playing the game when they were at-home moms with young children.
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By Cindy Hval For The Spokesman-Review
In this new series, we celebrate special interest groups. Whether you get together to play tennis, board games, take long walks, eat lunch, create art, connect with your neighbors or gather with friends, nothing is too small to celebrate. Please share your story with us by emailing Cindy Hval at dchval@juno.com or call Katharine Kumangai at (509) 459-5389.
For 40 years and counting, the clatter and click of mahjong tiles has accompanied the conversation of a group of women who started playing the game when they were at-home mothers with young children.
Now, most of the women are grandmothers or even great-grandmothers, but their love of mahjong and their connection to each other remains unchanged.
“We all lived in south Spokane and knew each other because of various community activities,” recalled Bobbie McGann. “An older gal wanted to teach us mahjong.”
And the Mahjong Mavens was born.
Every Wednesday morning, eight women would meet and play for hours.
In McGann’s dining room, Marilyn Sandberg smiled.
“We took turns hosting and played from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. when we had to pick up our kids,” she said.
The hostess usually served lunch to the group.
“We played with two tables of four, and we couldn’t wait to get our kids out the door and off to school!” McGann said.
Those kids are all grown and gone, and the Wednesday games are no more.
“We’re all over 80 now, so we don’t play every week anymore,” said McGann. “Instead, every May we gather for a mahjong binge and sleepover.”
They usually meet at someone’s lake house and a boat cruise is always on the books, as well as lunch, dinner and lots of mahjong.
“We stay up late and talk about life,” Sandberg said.
The rummy-like game is played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols, rather than cards. It originated in China but its exact origins are shrouded in myth.
To add excitement, the Mavens play for quarters.
“It takes weeks of repetition to learn the game,” McGann said, bringing out her black and gold velvet bag filled with quarters. “You can’t learn it at one sitting.”
Joan Morris laughed when she saw McGann’s bag.
“I should have brought my bank bag, but I can’t carry it anymore – it’s too heavy.”
Evidently, you can amass a lot of quarters over 40 years.
“It takes about 20 minutes to play a game,” McGann said.
Sandberg chuckled.
“Some people take longer because they think,” she said, prompting laughter among the friends.
As the threesome set up a short game, they talked about the value of having time set aside for connection around a shared passion.
“We raised 20 kids between the eight of us,” said McGann.
Sandberg nodded.
“It takes a mahjong group to raise a family,” she said.
Much has changed for the women over time, prompting new topics of discussion.
“The subject of the conversation changed over the years as we went through our ages and phases,” McGann said. “We’ve been a support group and a sounding board for each other.”
Morris agreed.
“The best part is being with friends,” she said.
In addition to warding off loneliness, McGann said mahjong keeps her memory and her mind sharp.
Though the weekly games are a thing of the past, when asked how long they plan to continue their annual slumber party-mahjong binge, the consensus was clear.
“As long as we can,” Sandberg said. “As long as we can.”
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Special interest group: Mahjong players have been meeting for over four decades
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/special-interest-group-mahjong-players-have-been-m/
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2021-08-20 02:02:48+00:00
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2021-08-19 12:02:00
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After years of squeezing brick-and-mortar retailers, Amazon will soon open its own department stores, with a focus on apparel, electronics and household goods, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
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By Abha Bhattarai and Hamza Shaban Washington Post Washington Post
After years of squeezing brick-and-mortar retailers, Amazon will soon open its own department stores, with a focus on apparel, electronics and household goods, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
An Amazon spokeswoman declined to confirm the news or provide details. “We do not comment on rumors and speculation,” she said in an email.
The e-commerce giant, which last year had $386 billion in sales, has been expanding into physical retail in recent years, opening grocery stores, book shops and specialty pop-ups around the country.
Analysts say its latest foray – while unexpected – provides an opportunity to reach customers in a new way.
“More stores bolster Amazon’s whole ecosystem and flywheel,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, a research and consulting firm that tracks the retail market. “They also allow Amazon to gather data and to understand consumer preferences better – understanding that can, in turn, be used to improve the whole proposition.”
Traditional department stores, he noted, have been declining for years because of a “failure of innovate and adapt.” Stores such as Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Kohl’s, which made up about 15% of retail sales in 1985, now account for less than 3%, Saunders said.
The pandemic has created new challenges for the nation’s department stores, tipping a number of storied chains, including Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney and Lord & Taylor into bankruptcy.
Nearly 200 department stores have permanently closed since last year, and another 800 – or about half the country’s remaining mall-based locations – are expected to shutter by the end of 2025, according to commercial real estate firm Green Street.
But for Amazon, this could be an opportunity to shake things up: Its 30,000-square-foot department stores would be about one-third the size of a traditional mall anchor, mirroring plans by many of the country’s retailers to open smaller, more easily-accessible stores.“If it gets rolled out in a serious way, it is very bad news for traditional department stores,” Saunders said. “The lack of innovation by traditional department stores means their defenses are very weak so the last thing they need is to fend off a new invader to their space.”
Amazon’s reported expansion comes as some retail chains – having survived the financial shock unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic – mount a vigorous comeback.
As many Americans work to reconfigure their social lives in the second year of the pandemic, department stores are cashing in on the increased spending.
The sector, which saw sales plunge more than 40% early last year, is beginning to make up for some of those losses, according to monthly data from the Commerce Department.
On Thursday, the retail chain Kohl’s reported massive earnings results for the second quarter, as compared with the same period last year, during the first summer of the public health crisis.
Revenue soared 31%, to $4.45 billion, as profits swelled by more than 700% to $382 million.
After exceeding expectations, the company is raising its forecast for the year. Kohl’s stock jumped more than 7% in morning trading.
Macy’s, too, is drawing huge gains as customers head back to stores and fill up online shopping carts.
Goods that consumers tended to avoid purchasing during the initial bout of the pandemic, such as denim, luggage and dresses, saw a resurgence this quarter, the retailer said, while items that held strong continue to sell well, like fine jewelry and perfume.
Revenue swelled 59%, to $5.65 billion, compared with the year-ago period, and the company climbed out of a $431 million loss to generate a profit this quarter of $345 million.
Like Kohl’s, Macy’s is also raising its financial outlook, banking on the momentum of an economic recovery.
Macy’s shares surged more than 15% after releasing results.
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www.spokesman.com
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Report: Amazon plans to open department stores
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/report-amazon-plans-to-open-department-stores/
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2021-08-20 01:59:54+00:00
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2021-08-19 09:14:00
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There’s 1:18 remaining in the second quarter. Janis Timma takes a 3-pointer from the right corner. The ball bounces off the front of the rim.Coming full speed from the left wing, as if he’s the only one thinking this shot is going to miss, is Jalen Suggs. He takes off, times the jump perfectly, and throws down the one-handed dunk of the NBA Summer League over an unsuspecting Lamar Stevens.
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By Danny Webster For The Spokesman-Review
LAS VEGAS – There’s 1:18 remaining in the second quarter. Janis Timma takes a 3-pointer from the right corner. The ball bounces off the front of the rim.
Coming full speed from the left wing, as if he’s the only one thinking this shot is going to miss, is Jalen Suggs. He takes off, times the jump perfectly, and throws down the one-handed dunk of the NBA summer league over an unsuspecting Lamar Stevens.
But it was the ensuing inbounds that showed why the Orlando Magic are so high on Suggs, the former Gonzaga star, to take him No. 5 overall in this summer’s NBA Draft. He hustled back down the court to help draw a charge on Cavs guard Isaac Okoro.
Suggs pumped his fist, gave a roar to the crowd and celebrated with his teammates.
It’s those plays and energy that gave the Gonzaga faithful so much to cheer for this past season when the Bulldogs rode the magical wave all the way to the National Championship game. It’s why the 20-year-old was considered a top-5 pick in most mock drafts and could be considered a cornerstone for most teams that need a turnaround desperately.
“It is what I thought it would be. It’s a learning experience. You’ve got to take it for what it is, the goods, bads, ups and downs,” Suggs said. “The big thing is to keep pushing and not get discouraged.”
The Magic hope Suggs is the final piece that will fast-forward their rebuild. But there’s a logjam in the Orlando backcourt that lies in the way of Suggs.
The ideal scenario for the future is to pair Suggs with last year’s first-round pick Cole Anthony, or even former No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz. At shooting guard, seven-year veteran Gary Harris occupies that role. Last year’s 24th overall pick R.J. Hampton is another option in that slot.
Even veteran guard Terrence Ross, who can switch between the two and three, is a presence the Magic value. Ross is Orlando’s returning leading scorer at 15.6 points per game.
“I think I’m just trying to control the pace as best I can,” Suggs said. “Be the leader on the team, offensively and defensively. I think just making it more consistent; I’m getting to my spots. I’ve just got to knock down my shots.
It’s going to be a challenge for new Magic coach Jamahl Mosley and how he deploys all that talent. Suggs has the feel of a prototypical point guard but could transition to shooting guard if given the chance.
“I just think he’s shown he’s not afraid of the moment,” said Mosley. “He’s also willing to trust his teammates in times and make the right plays at times.”
Unfortunately, Suggs’ stint in the summer league came to an end last Friday due to a sprained left thumb. His time with the Orlando summer squad ends by averaging 15.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.7 steals and one block over 2.5 games.
This was Suggs’ first 5-on-5 action since the national title game against Baylor on April 5. It’s been an adjustment for him, and a time to get his feet back under him in a competitive nature.
So far, it’s been a success.
“I think everyone we have on this Summer League roster has been great,” Suggs said. “We’ve done a good job picking each other up. We all talk, we have great communication, we laugh and joke. Things stay pretty light.”
Suggs is going to a situation where the franchise traded two cornerstones last season in Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon. He’s going to be a part of a culture that he hopes to help build and strengthen for years to come.
“I’m just coming in to be myself,” he said. “I hope [the fans] gravitate towards that; my leadership, my positive energy, the way I give it all on the floor each and every night.
“I just hope they gravitate towards that and embrace me the way I’ve embraced their fans so far. Just the amount of support and outpour of love I’ve gotten on social media and from everyone who’s here in Vegas supporting us, it’s been great. I can’t wait to get back to Amway, see the fans in the arena, get to interact with them back at home and give it my all every night.”
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www.spokesman.com
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'It's a learning experience': Jalen Suggs reflects on NBA Summer League
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/its-a-learning-experience-jalen-suggs-reflects-on-/
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2021-08-20 02:06:22+00:00
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2021-08-19 06:18:00
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The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fourth straight time to a pandemic low, the latest sign that America's job market is rebounding from the pandemic recession as employers boost hiring to meet a surge in consumer demand.
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From staff and wire reports
WASHINGTON – The number of U.S. residents seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fourth straight time to a pandemic low, but Spokane County and Washington state both saw small increases.
The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims fell by 29,000 to 348,000. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, also fell – by 19,000, to just below 378,000, also a pandemic low.
In Spokane County, however, new jobless claims increased last week, but continue to remain below pre-pandemic levels, according to data from the Washington state Employment Security Department.
Laid-off workers in the county filed 370 new claims during the week ending Aug. 14, compared with 339 claims filed the week before, the department reported Thursday.
New unemployment claims in the Washington state rose to 5,528 in the week ending Aug. 14, a 2% increase in applications compared with 5,420 from the week before, according to the ESD.
Nationally, the dwindling number of first-time jobless claims has coincided with the widespread administering of vaccines, which has led businesses to reopen or expand their hours and drawn consumers back to shops, restaurants, airports and entertainment venues.
Still, the number of applications remains high by historic standards: Before the pandemic tore through the economy in March 2020, the weekly pace amounted to around 220,000 a week.
And now there is growing concern that the highly contagious delta variant could disrupt the economy’s recovery from last year’s brief but intense recession.
Some economists have already begun to mark down their estimates for growth this quarter as some measures of economic activity, like air travel, have started to weaken.
Filings for unemployment benefits have traditionally been seen as a real-time measure of the job market’s health. But their reliability has deteriorated during the pandemic.
In many states, the weekly figures have been inflated by fraud and by multiple filings from unemployed Americans as they navigate bureaucratic hurdles to try to obtain benefits.
Those complications help explain why the pace of applications remains comparatively high.
By all accounts, the job market has been rebounding with vigor since the pandemic paralyzed economic activity last year and employers slashed more than 22 million jobs.
The United States has since recovered 16.7 million jobs. And employers have added a rising number of jobs for three straight months, including a robust 943,000 in July.
In the meantime, employers have posted a record 10.1 million openings, and many complain that they can’t find enough applicants to fill their open positions.
Last week’s drop in applications for aid was larger than many economists had expected, a sign that the job market’s recovery remains on track for now despite the worries surrounding the spread of the delta variant.
“As life normalizes and the service sector continues to gain momentum (delta variant permitting), we expect initial jobless claims to remain in a downtrend,” Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at the consulting firm Maria Fiorini Ramirez, said in a research note.
Shapiro added that “this report points to a continued rapid pace of job gains since the July employment data were collected.’’
Some employers ascribe their labor shortages to supplemental unemployment benefits from the federal government – including $300 a week on top of regular state aid – for discouraging some of the jobless from seeking work.
In response, many states have withdrawn from the federal programs, which expire nationwide next month anyway.
Economists point to other factors, too, that have kept some people on the sidelines of the job market.
They include difficulty finding or affording child care, fear about becoming infected by the virus at work and the desire of some people to seek better jobs than they had before the pandemic triggered widespread layoffs.
Whatever the causes, the economy remains 5.7 million jobs shy of the number it had in February 2020.
And with the U.S. recording an average of more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases a day – up from fewer than 12,000 in late June – the delta variant is increasingly clouding the outlook for the rest of the year.
Just over 2.8 million people were receiving traditional state jobless benefits in the week of Aug. 7, down by 79,000 from the previous week and the lowest since the pandemic struck.
Including federal benefits, 11.7 million were receiving some type of unemployment benefits in the week of July 31, down from 28.7 million a year earlier.
That drop is a result, in part, of the increased number of people working and no longer receiving jobless aid.
But it also reflects the cancellation in many states of a federal unemployment aid program for the self-employed and a separate program for the long-term jobless.
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U.S. jobless claims hit a pandemic low as hiring strengthens
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2021-08-20 02:07:23+00:00
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2021-08-19 14:03:00
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Although Nick Rolovich wouldn’t say whether he will receive a COVID-19 vaccination, the Washington State football coach told reporters Thursday that he intends to comply with Gov. Jay Inslee’s new state mandate.
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By Colton Clark The Spokesman-Review
PULLMAN – Although Nick Rolovich wouldn’t say whether he will receive a COVID-19 vaccination, the Washington State football coach told reporters Thursday that he intends to comply with Gov. Jay Inslee’s new state mandate.
Inslee announced Wednesday that higher education employees, including athletics staffers, have until Oct. 18 to be fully vaccinated as a condition of employment. Exemptions are limited to medical and religious reasons.
Rolovich was vague the next morning when asked if he will receive a vaccine as a result of the proclamation.
“I plan on following (Inslee’s) mandate, for sure,” he said.
Rolovich did not elaborate on his decision, including whether he might instead seek a religious or medical exemption.
Later in the post-practice media session at Gesa Field, the second-year coach kept mum when asked whether he was waiting for the FDA to approve a vaccine before getting the shot.
“I’m just gonna follow the mandate,” Rolovich said.
He added of his assistant coaches, a few of whom wear masks at practices: “I believe they all plan on following the mandate. It’s what the deal is.”
Face coverings have not been required at practices for vaccinated coaches throughout camp.
Rolovich said he and school administrators did not discuss Inslee’s mandate on Wednesday, but WSU’s head coaches gathered for a meeting, during which “(the mandate) got addressed.”
Rolovich stirred controversy July 21 when he announced via Twitter that he had elected to not receive the vaccine “for reasons which will remain private.”
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Washington State's Rolovich says he will follow state mandate, but keeps mum on vaccination
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/washington-states-rolovich-says-he-will-follow-sta/
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2021-08-20 02:01:06+00:00
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2021-08-19 11:00:00
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Upbeat and Modest Mouse are typically mutually exclusive terms, but what do you expect from a band with album titles such as "Good News for People Who Love Bad News" and "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank."
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Upbeat and Modest Mouse are typically mutually exclusive terms, but what do you expect from a band with album titles such as “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” and “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.” Well, the band, which emerged from Issaquah, Washington, in 1992, is touring behind “The Golden Casket,” which is one of its sunnier albums. The dark, insular songs have been replaced by some tunes that are almost bubbly.
What inspired the brooding singer-songwriter Isaac Brock to lighten up?
“Well, since hopelessness seemed to be such a hot commodity (during the pandemic), I felt it was best not to contribute and focus on the antidote as much as possible,” Brock said via email from his Portland home.
Modest Mouse, which performs Wednesday at the Knitting Factory, impresses with some of its warmest material. The surprising “Lace Up Your Shoes” is a cute song inspired by Brock’s young daughter.
“When we started tracking, (producer) Dave Sardy and I were trying to get the singing and lyrics for a bunch of songs, kind of flitting from one to another. I kept running into a roadblock. They were all trying to be about how much I love my children. I figured out that if I didn’t write an unabashed love song to them that I wasn’t going to get anywhere with any of the others. So, I opened the syrup spigot and let it gush out. It worked.”
A number of edgy singer-songwriters, such as John Lennon and Keith Richards, have written gorgeous songs inspired by their children. The former’s “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy),” is one of the most moving songs written by the maverick Beatle. The latter, who indulged more than any rocker, perhaps save David Crosby, co-wrote the pretty song “Dandelion” about his daughter. Emoting about a child is cool. “We are Between” and “The Sun Hasn’t Left” are a pair of catchy, inspiring songs.
Co-producers Sardy and Jacknife Lee add some sheen to the project, but “The Golden Casket” isn’t slick. It’s arguably the best sounding Modest Mouse album.
“We saw a lot of possibilities with the wide array of interesting processors, plug-ins and magic tricks offered in the computer,” Brock said. “Then we paired them with odd, not necessarily musical sounds from the natural world. We really just got into the weeds with that aspect of recording before we got hung up on turning them into actual songs.”
Lee was late to the game with Modest Mouse, which also includes drummer Jeremiah Green, multi-instrumentalist Tom Peloso, bassist-guitarist Russell Higbee, percussionist Ben Massarella and guitarist Simon O’Connor.
Lee was asked to work on four of the tracks after the album had already been recorded.
“He did an amazing job,” Brock said. “Dave Sardy and the band steered the sonic diversity during the tracking.
“We intentionally started the record with very few pre-prepared songs. We started each track as a sonic collage and then found the shape of the song as the lyrical elements were added.”
There have been rumors that Smiths icon’ Johnny Marr, who recorded with Modest Mouse during the “We Were Dead Before the Ship Sank” sessions in 2007, would be returning to the fold. A reunion isn’t imminent, even though Brock wouldn’t mind playing again with the guitar hero.
“I like to imagine that Johnny and I will write together again, but there’s a good chance that things won’t synchronize in that way again in this lifetime,” he said.
A few years ago I asked Marr if he would reunite the Smiths with enigmatic vocalist Morrissey.
“I would get the group back together as long as Morrissey played the cello,” Marr cracked.
Brock misses Marr’s sharp sense of humor.
“Johnny’s anecdotes are numerous, and they are hilarious,” Brock said. “Smart dude on all levels.”
The same can be said for Brock, who emerged out of poverty on the other side of the state and has become one of the most intriguing, if not prolific, singer-songwriters in alternative rock over the last generation.
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Modest Mouse returns with sunny 'Golden Casket' ahead of Knitting Factory concert
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/modest-mouse-returns-with-sunny-golden-casket-ahea/
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2021-08-20 01:59:44+00:00
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2021-08-19 06:00:00
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It’s early, but fisheries managers are concerned.
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By Eric Barker The Lewiston Tribune
LEWISTON – It’s early, but fisheries managers are concerned.
The 2021 summer steelhead run on the Columbia and Snake rivers started July 1 and is one of the worst on record. Through Monday, 21,892 steelhead had been counted at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and just 494 at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River.
The count on the Columbia is second worst only to 1943 when 20,293 had been recorded passing the dam as of Aug. 16.
“Back then they harvested a large percentage of the steelhead before they hit the dams. One could argue at least for this date, this is the worst steelhead run past the Bonneville area ever,” said Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston.
DuPont said the agency is continuing to monitor counts but not yet ready to change regulations in response to the low numbers. He noted there have been years, such as 2017, when the department reacted to low numbers with regulation changes only to have numbers rise within a matter of days.
“I don’t want to repeat that,” he said. “Likely we will make a decision in mid-August, and the (Idaho Fish and Game) Commission has a meeting in September, and we will present the run data to them.”
The number of steelhead over Lower Granite Dam is so low that making a change to open catch-and-release or harvest seasons now would have little effect. If necessary, Idaho Fish and Game Director Ed Schriever can issue emergency closures before the September meeting, DuPont said.
According to a fact sheet published by fisheries managers from Oregon, Washington and Columbia River Indian tribes, the steelhead run at Bonneville Dam through Aug. 10 was just 19% of the 10-year average for that date.
“That is low, and I think it’s fairly safe to say it’s not going to be good,” DuPont said. “We are just hoping it’s good enough to provide a fishery and maintain the wild runs.”
Anglers are allowed to catch and keep hatchery steelhead during open harvest seasons. Wild Snake River steelhead are protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and can not be harvested.
Typically, 43% of the steelhead run, as measured from July 1 to Oct. 31, passes Bonneville Dam by Aug. 10. DuPont said he hopes this run is late and not just low.
“Things are so hot. We have that in the back of our mind – maybe these fish can sense that and are holding back,” he said.
The Snake, Salmon and Clearwater rivers are open to catch-and-release fishing. A short section of the Clearwater, from its mouth to Memorial Bridge at Lewiston, opened to hatchery steelhead harvest on Aug. 1.
The Snake and Salmon rivers open to harvest on Sept. 1. The Clearwater River upstream of Memorial Bridge opens to harvest on Oct. 15.
The preseason steelhead forecast called for a return of about 96,800 steelhead to Bonneville Dam, including 89,200 A-run and 7,600 B-run fish. The A-run is forecast to include about 27,500 wild fish and the B-run is predicted to include only about 1,000 wild fish.
In 2020, 75,392 A-run, and 32,199 B-run steelhead returned at least as far as a Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. The return was 112% of the preseason forecast and 49% of the 10-year average.
Last year, 59,126 steelhead were counted at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River. That included 20,453 B-run fish and 38,673 A-run fish.
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Idaho official says year’s meager run is arguably the area’s ‘worst ever’
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/idaho-official-says-years-meager-run-is-arguably-t/
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2021-08-20 02:02:07+00:00
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2021-08-19 12:59:00
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The fire that killed two women in a Browne's Addition apartment complex earlier this week is being investigated as a potential arson, according to court documents.
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The fire that killed two women in a Browne’s Addition apartment complex earlier this week is being investigated as a potential arson, according to court documents.
The Tiffany Manor fire also displaced every resident and also spread to a neighboring apartment building after it broke out early Monday.
Investigators wrote in a search warrant filed Thursday that they have not determined whether the fire in Browne’s Addition at Spruce Street and Second Avenue was set on purpose or accident, according to a search warrant filed Thursday.
No one was named as a suspect in the documents, though a witness told detectives he heard an argument around 11 p.m. Sunday between someone he recognized as a tenant and three unfamiliar people.
The 11-unit complex erupted into flames around 2 a.m. Monday. The seemingly spontaneous blaze displaced every resident. The two victims, Sherri L. Vick and Peggie Titus, died of inhaling combustion products, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office.
A tenant told detectives at the scene he heard people arguing outside around 11:30 p.m. Sunday.
Fire investigators continued to collect evidence and any relevant statements Thursday.
The fire was reported about 2:45 a.m. Monday at 2308 W. Second Ave. It quickly spread to the apartment building next door, 2314 W. Second, where all the residents escaped safely.
GoFundMe pages for both Vick and Titus were created by their family members. Vick’s page raised $2,855 as of Thursday afternoon. Titus’s page garnered $5,260.
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www.spokesman.com
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Police investigating deadly Browne's Addition apartment fires as arson, court documents show
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/police-investigating-deadly-brownes-addition-apart/
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2021-08-20 01:54:18+00:00
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2021-08-19 08:00:00
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Virtual Trivia: "Avatar: The Last Airbender" - 2 p.m. Friday, hosted by the Spokane County Library District via Zoom. Open to children ages 10 and older, this trivia night will test your knowledge of all seasons of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “The Legend of Korra.”
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1 “The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook” – 11 a.m. Friday, hosted by the Friends of Manito via Zoom. Master gardener and The Spokesman-Review columnist Susan Mulvihill discusses her book “The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook.” To register, visit thefriendsofmanito.org and click on “The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook” under “Upcoming Events.” Admission: FREE
2 Virtual Trivia: “Avatar: The Last Airbender” – 2 p.m. Friday, hosted by the Spokane County Library District via Zoom. Open to children ages 10 and older, this trivia night will test your knowledge of all seasons of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “The Legend of Korra.” To register, visit scld.org and click on “Events.” Admission: FREE
3 “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” – at dusk Friday, Pavillion Park, 727 N. Molter Road, Liberty Lake. “An ancient prophecy seems to be coming true when a mysterious presence begins stalking the corridors of a school of magic and leaving its victims paralyzed.” Directed by Chris Columbus. Rated PG. 161 minutes. For more information, visit pavillionpark.org. Admission: FREE
4 Bemiss’ Music Under the Oaks – 6 p.m. Friday, Hays Park, 1812 E. Providence Ave. Family-friendly group the Jerry at Tricks will perform a range of country-western and rock and roll tunes. Admission: FREE
5 Shakespeare in the Park – 6:30 p.m. Friday, Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. The Spokane Shakespeare Society presents an outdoor production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” directed by Amanda Cantrell and Jamie Suter. To find the exact location, visit my.spokanecity.org/riverfrontspokane. For more information, visit spokaneshakespearesociety.org and call (509) 625-6601. Admission: FREE
6 Goodnight Suzie – 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Zola, 22 W. Main Ave. Indie pop group Goodnight Suzie visits Zola. This event is for ages 21 and older. For more information, visit zolainspokane.com, and call (509) 624-2416. Admission: FREE
7 Dirty Betty – 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Moose Lounge, 401 E. Sherman Ave, Coeur d’Alene. Rock group Dirty Betty visits the Moose Lounge. This event is for ages 21 and older. For more information, visit Moose Lounge on Facebook. Admission: FREE
8 “Raya and the Last Dragon” – at dusk Saturday, Pavillion Park, 727 N. Molter Road, Liberty Lake. “In a realm known as Kumandra, a reimagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization, a warrior named Raya is determined to find the last dragon.” Directed by Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada. Rated PG. 107 minutes. For more information, visit pavillionpark.org. Admission: FREE
9 The Farm Chicks Vintage and Handmade Fair – 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Spokane County Fair and Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St., Spokane Valley. Returning after last year’s canceled event, the Farm Chicks Vintage and Handmade Fair will feature hundreds of vintage and handmade goods vendors. For information, visit thefarmchicks.com, and call (509) 954-1692. Admission: $10 for adult weekend pass, free for children ages 12 and younger.
10 Floating Crowbar – 1 p.m. Sunday, Coeur d’Alene City Park, 415 Fort Grounds Drive, Coeur d’Alene. Irish/Celtic group Floating Crowbar join the Haran Irish Dancers for an evening of music and dance. For more information, visit cdaid.org/parks. Admission: FREE
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10 under $10 Aug. 20-27 - 'Avatar: The Last Airbender,' Susan Mulvihill, Goodnight Suzie and Dirty Betty
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/10-under-10-aug-20-27-xxxx/
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2021-08-20 01:55:30+00:00
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2021-08-19 08:32:00
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Afghan protesters defied the Taliban for a second day Thursday, waving their national flag in scattered demonstrations, and the fighters again responded violently as they faced down growing challenges to their rule.
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By Ahmad Seir, Rahim Faiez, Kathy Gannon and Jon Gambrell Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan protesters defied the Taliban for a second day Thursday, waving their national flag in scattered demonstrations, and the fighters again responded violently as they faced down growing challenges to their rule.
A U.N. official warned of dire food shortages and experts said the country was severely in need of cash while noting that the Taliban are unlikely to enjoy the generous international aid that the civilian government they dethroned did.
In light of these challenges, the Taliban have moved quickly to suppress any dissent, despite their promises that they have become more moderate since they last ruled Afghanistan with draconian laws. Many fear they will succeed in erasing two decades of efforts to expand women’s and human rights and remake the country.
On Thursday, a procession of cars and people near Kabul’s airport carried long black, red and green banners in honor of the Afghan flag — a banner that is becoming a symbol of defiance. At another protest in Nangarhar province, video posted online showed a bleeding demonstrator with a gunshot wound. Onlookers tried to carry him away.
In Khost province, Taliban authorities instituted a 24-hour curfew Thursday after violently breaking up another protest, according to information obtained by journalists monitoring from abroad. The authorities did not immediately acknowledge the demonstration or the curfew.
Protesters also took the streets in Kunar province, according to witnesses and social media videos that lined up with reporting by The Associated Press.
The demonstrations — which come as Afghans celebrated Independence Day and some commemorated the Shiite Ashoura festival — were a remarkable show of defiance after the Taliban fighters violently dispersed a protest Wednesday. At that rally, in the eastern city of Jalalabad, demonstrators lowered the Taliban’s flag and replace it with Afghanistan’s tricolor. At least one person was killed.
Meanwhile, opposition figures gathering in the last area of the country not under Taliban rule talked of launching an armed resistance under the banner of the Northern Alliance, which allied with the U.S. during the 2001 invasion.
It was not clear how serious a threat they posed given that Taliban fighters overran nearly the entire country in a matter of days with little resistance from Afghan forces.
The Taliban so far have offered no specifics on how they will lead, other than to say they will be guided by Shariah, or Islamic, law. They are in talks with senior officials of previous Afghan governments. But they face an increasingly precarious situation.
“A humanitarian crisis of incredible proportions is unfolding before our eyes,” warned Mary Ellen McGroarty, the head of the U.N.’s World Food Program in Afghanistan.
Beyond the difficulties of bringing in food to the landlocked nation dependent on imports, she said that drought has seen over 40% of the country’s crop lost. Many who fled the Taliban advance now live in parks and open spaces in Kabul.
“This is really Afghanistan’s hour of greatest need, and we urge the international community to stand by the Afghan people at this time,” she said.
Hafiz Ahmad, a shopkeeper in Kabul, said some food has flowed into the capital, but prices have gone up. He hesitated to pass those costs onto his customers but said he had to.
“It is better to have it,” he said. “If there were nothing, then that would be even worse.”
Two of Afghanistan’s key border crossings with Pakistan are now open for trade. However, traders still fear insecurity on the roads and confusion over customs duties that could push them to price their goods higher.
Amid that uncertainty and concerns that the Taliban will reimpose a brutal rule, which included largely confining women to their homes and holding public executions, many Afghans are trying to flee the country.
At Kabul’s international airport, military evacuation flights continued, but access to the airport remained difficult. On Thursday, Taliban fighters fired into the air to try to control the crowds gathered at the airport’s blast walls.
After a chaotic start that saw people rush the runway and cling to a plane taking off, the U.S. military is ramping up evacuations and now has enough aircraft to get 5,000 to 9,000 people out a day, Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor said Thursday.
Overnight, President Joe Biden said that he was committed to keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, even if that means maintaining a military presence there beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal.
In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Biden said he didn’t believe the Taliban had changed.
“I think they’re going through sort of an existential crisis about do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government,” Biden said. “I’m not sure they do.”
Indirectly acknowledging the resistance they face, the Taliban on Thursday asked preachers to urge congregants to remain in the country and counter “negative propaganda” against them.
The Taliban have also urged people to return to work, but most government officials remain in hiding or are themselves attempting to flee.
The head of the country’s Central Bank warned that the supply of physical U.S. dollars is “close to zero,” which will batter the currency, the afghani. The U.S. has apparently frozen the country’s foreign reserves, and the International Monetary Fund cut off access to loans or other resources for now.
“The afghani has been defended by literally planeloads of U.S. dollars landing in Kabul on a very regular basis, sometimes weekly,” said Graeme Smith, a consultant researcher with the Overseas Development Institute. “If the Taliban don’t get cash infusions soon to defend the afghani, I think there’s a real risk of a currency devaluation that makes it hard to buy bread on the streets of Kabul for ordinary people.”
Still, Smith, who has written a book on Afghanistan, said the Taliban likely won’t ask for the same billions in international aid sought by the country’s fallen civilian government — large portions of which were siphoned off by corruption. That could limit the power of the international community’s threat of sanctions.
“You’re much more likely to see the Taliban positioning themselves as sort of gatekeepers to the international community as opposed to coming begging for billions of dollars,” he said.
There has been no armed opposition to the Taliban. But videos from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that allied with the U.S. during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, appear to show potential opposition figures gathering there.
Those figures include members of the deposed government — Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who asserted on Twitter that he is the country’s rightful president, and Defense Minister Gen. Bismillah Mohammadi — as well as Ahmad Massoud, the son of the slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.
In an opinion piece published by The Washington Post, Massoud asked for weapons and aid to fight the Taliban.
“I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father’s footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban,” he wrote.
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Afghans protest Taliban in emerging challenge to their rule
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/afghans-protest-taliban-in-emerging-challenge-to-t/
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2021-08-20 02:00:25+00:00
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2021-08-19 07:23:00
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When Ryan David bought three rental properties back in 2017, he expected the $1,000-a-month he was pocketing after expenses would be regular sources of income well into his retirement years.
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By Michael Casey and Anne D'Innocenzio Associated Press
NEW YORK — When Ryan David bought three rental properties back in 2017, he expected the $1,000-a-month he was pocketing after expenses would be regular sources of income well into his retirement years.
He also was counting on the rent money from the properties in Dupont, Pennsylvania, to help with the cash flow of his business buying and selling distressed properties, launched early last year.
But then the pandemic hit and federal and state authorities imposed moratoriums on evictions. The unpaid rent began to mount.
Then, just when he thought the worst was over, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a new moratorium, lasting until Oct. 3. A federal judge dismissed a legal challenge to the order last week.
David, the father of a 2 1/2-year-old who is expecting another child, fears the $2,000 he’s owed in back rent will quickly climb to thousands more.
The latest moratorium “was the final gut punch,” said the 39-year-old, adding that he now plans to sell the apartments. “I have had this internal struggle going back and forth. I have lost sleep at night, and I have now come up with a decision to sell and walk away.”
Most evictions for unpaid rent have been halted since the early days of the pandemic and there are now more than 15 million people living in households that owe as much as $20 billion in back rent, according to the Aspen Institute.
A majority of single-family rental home owners have been impacted, according to a survey from the National Rental Home Council, and 50% say they have tenants who have missed rent during the pandemic.
Smaller landlords with fewer than four units, who often don’t have the financing of larger property owners, were hit especially hard, with as many as 58% having tenants behind on rent, according to the National Association of Realtors. More than half of back rent is owed to smaller landlords.
Landlords, big and small, are most angry about the moratoriums, which they consider illegal.
Many believe some tenants could have paid rent, if not for the moratorium.
And the $47 billion in federal rental assistance that was supposed to make landlords whole has been slow to materialize. By July, only $3 billion of the first tranche of $25 billion had been distributed.
David points to two tenants who received paychecks throughout the pandemic but didn’t pay rent or bother to file for rental assistance.
Others singled out delinquent tenants who they claimed still managed to drive a luxury car, get food deliveries or go on vacation.
“Without rent, we’re out of business, ” said Gary Zaremba, who sold 40 of his properties in Ohio due to the moratorium and still has a quarter of his tenants in the remaining 100 buildings struggling to pay rent. He has helped some apply for rental assistance, he said.
“It’s like a restaurant that doesn’t have patrons,” he said. “I don’t get the rent. I can’t pay my maintenance staff. I have to lay them off. I can’t fix the buildings and keep them in good repair. So, that means they are going to get even worse off. I can’t pay my taxes.”
Zaremba, who also owns a handful of properties in New York City, sold some of his single-family homes to home buyers and some multi-family commercial apartment buildings to small investors.
Many landlords are saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in lost rent — money that was meant for retirement, a college fund or for their investors, who themselves had sought a safe investment.
They are maxing out credit cards or dipping into savings to pay property taxes, staff salaries, insurance, water bills and maintenance.
“I keep thinking to myself, when does my family get paid?” said Matthew Haines, who owns 253 units with his wife in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and is owed more than $300,000 in back rent. He has referred $250,000 of that to collections.
The couple put in $50,000 of their own money to avoid laying off their seven full-time and three part-time employees.
Haines is also doing repairs like fixing an air conditioning unit or changing a pool light himself to save money.
Their investors, retirees who typically get an annual return of 7% to 9%, got nothing last year on two multifamily apartments and 3% on a third one because of unpaid rent.
“We jumped through hoops to help our residents who were struggling. We have not evicted a single person trying to work with us, even though we have people who owe us seven, eight, nine months of rent,” he said. “We are trying to do the right thing but it’s becoming impossible.”
In upstate New York, Michael Reid sold three of his houses to stem losses — after paying some delinquent tenants thousands of dollars to leave.
Already out more than $100,000 in back rent on 13 of his 31 units and more than $20,000 in unpaid water bills, Reid took out a $90,000 home equity loan on his house so he could pay property taxes and other bills.
On Tuesday, he finally received $9,000 in federal rental assistance, a fraction of what he’s owed.
“I’ve lost an incredible amount of money on top of the rent owed,” said Reid, who also works as a mortgage loan officer, referring to his delinquent tenants in Binghamton and Endicott, New York. “Thank God, my day job pays pretty well.”
Some owners are taking advantage of a red-hot housing market to sell their units to deep-pocketed investors willing to wait out the moratorium or to families who plan to live in them.
Buyers are increasingly out-of-town investors or equity funds, whom critics fear will renovate the properties and market them at much higher prices.
“A lot of landlords are disgusted. They are selling at losses. They are getting out period,” Reid said of the dozens of investors he talks with.
Even those sticking with the property business say the moratorium has forced them to change their operations.
Some are leaving apartments vacant for months at a time, either because they lack the money to renovate or fear being stuck with nonpaying tenants.
Some aren’t buying any new properties as long as the moratorium is in place; others will only buy in wealthier neighborhoods.
Still others are bolstering their screening process and giving extra scrutiny to someone who was unemployed for long stretches during the pandemic or saddled their previous landlord with months of back rent.
“If somebody stiffed their previous landlord out of 12, 15 or 18 months rent, I don’t want to rent to them,” Reid said.
This could result in fewer places to live for low-income tenants facing eviction when the moratorium lifts.
“It makes it worse for everyone. It’s worse for tenants, in particular, because we are going to lose affordable housing,” said Stacey Johnson-Cosby, who with her husband owns 21 units in the Kansas City, Missouri, area.
“The investors are going to come. They are going buy the property, put money into it, renovate it and rent it at a higher amount.”
Rick Martin anguished over just that before selling two of his five buildings in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.
Before that the 62-year-old left most of them vacant due to the moratorium, depriving him of thousands of dollars in rent.
“The minute they enacted the moratorium, that trigged my decision to sell the properties,” Martin said. “I did not want someone moving in whom I could never get rid of if they didn’t pay rent. That would make the financial situation worse.”
Martin said he was torn about the decision to sell to investors. One has turned a building into condos. Another has already doubled the rent on a three-family building.
“Honestly it’s a very difficult decision,” he said. “I want the small property owners to flourish and grow. But because of this moratorium, we are having everything cut out from beneath us.”
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Landlords look for an exit amid federal eviction moratorium
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2021-08-20 02:04:19+00:00
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2021-08-19 10:20:00
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A North Carolina man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck near the U.S. Capitol surrendered to law enforcement after an hourslong standoff Thursday that prompted a massive police response and the evacuations of government buildings in the area.
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By Eric Tucker, Michael Balsamo and Colleen Long Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A North Carolina man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck near the U.S. Capitol surrendered to law enforcement after an hourslong standoff Thursday that prompted a massive police response and the evacuations of government buildings in the area.
Authorities searched the truck in an effort to understand what led the suspect, identified as 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry, to drive onto the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress, make bomb threats to officers and profess a litany of antigovernment grievances as part of a bizarre episode that he live-streamed for a Facebook audience. Police said they did not find a bomb in the vehicle but possible bomb-making materials were collected from it.
The standoff was resolved peacefully after roughly five hours of negotiations, ending when Roseberry crawled out of the truck and was taken into police custody. But even in a city with a long history of dramatic law enforcement encounters outside federal landmarks, this episode was notable for its timing — Washington remains on edge eight months after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — and for the way the suspect harnessed social media to draw attention in real time to his actions.
Authorities who spent hours negotiating with Roseberry — first using a dry erase board and then bringing him a telephone that he refused to use — were digging into his background Thursday afternoon. They did not reveal any details about a motive, and no charges were immediately announced.
Investigators had been speaking with members of Roseberry’s family and learned that his mother had recently died, Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said. “There were other issues he was dealing with,” the chief said, without providing specific details.
But social media appeared to offer its own clues.
As police continued negotiations, video surfaced of Roseberry on Facebook Live inside the truck, which was stuffed with coins and boxes. He threatened explosions, expressed hostility toward President Joe Biden, profanely warned of a “revolution” and laid bare a series of grievances related to U.S. positions on Afghanistan, health care and the military.
Roseberry’s ex-wife, Crystal Roseberry, said she had seen images of the man in the standoff at the Capitol and confirmed to The Associated Press that it was her ex-husband. She said had never known him to have explosives, but he was an avid collector of firearms.
Videos posted to Facebook before the page was taken down appear to show Roseberry at the Nov. 14 Washington rally attended by thousands of Trump supporters to protest what they claimed was a stolen election. One video appears to be filmed by Roseberry as he’s marching with a crowd of hundreds of people carrying American flags and Trump flags and shouting “stop the steal.”
Thursday’s incident began around 9:15 a.m. when a truck drove up the sidewalk outside the library. The driver told the responding officer he had a bomb, and he was holding what the officer believed to be a detonator. The truck had no license plates.
Kelsey Campbell, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison visiting Washington as part of a class trip, said she and another student encountered Roseberry around 9:20 a.m. outside the nearby Supreme Court building. Campbell said he was with his truck, which was parked next to the sidewalk, and was holding a large stack of dollar bills.
“He said, ‘Hey, call the police, tell them to evacuate this street, and I’ll give you all this money,’” Campbell recounted to The AP. “I said, ’No!’ and he threw the money at us and we started running.”
Campbell said she and the other student saw some police officers standing nearby. They told the officers what happened, and the officers then went to confront Roseberry.
The standoff brought the area surrounding the Capitol to a virtual standstill as police emptied buildings and cordoned off streets as a precaution. Congress is in recess this week, but staffers were seen calmly walking out of the area at the direction of authorities.
Police were still searching the vehicle Thursday afternoon and had identified some “concerning” items, like propane containers in the bed of the truck, Manger said. But it wasn’t clear whether Roseberry had any explosives in the vehicle.
“We don’t know if there are any explosives in the vehicle, it’s still an active scene,” Manger said.
The nation’s capital has been tense since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
A day before thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, pipe bombs were left at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee in Washington. No one has been arrested yet for placing the bombs.
The RNC, not far from where the truck was parked Thursday, was also evacuated over the threat. A spokesman for the DNC said its headquarters, which is located farther away from the truck’s location, was put under lockdown, but that lockdown has been lifted.
Thursday’s incident marked the third time in as many weeks that federal and military law enforcement authorities had to respond to attacks or possible threats. Officials are also jittery over a planned rally in September.
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Man surrenders after claiming to have bomb near US Capitol
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2021-08-20 02:02:38+00:00
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2021-08-19 10:38:00
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The day before he was supposed to start fourth grade, Francisco Rosales was admitted to a Dallas hospital with COVID-19, struggling to breathe, with dangerously low oxygen levels and an uncertain outcome.
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By Lindsey Tanner Associated Press
The day before he was supposed to start fourth grade, Francisco Rosales was admitted to a Dallas hospital with COVID-19, struggling to breathe, with dangerously low oxygen levels and an uncertain outcome.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this, thought his frightened mother, Yessica Gonzalez. Francisco was normally healthy and rambunctious. At 9, he was too young to get vaccinated, but most of the family had their shots. She had heard kids rarely got sick from the coronavirus.
But with the highly contagious delta variant spreading across the U.S., children are filling hospital intensive care beds instead of classrooms in record numbers, more even than at the height of the pandemic. Many are too young to get the vaccine, which is available only to those 12 and over.
The surging virus is spreading anxiety and causing turmoil and infighting among parents, administrators and politicians around the U.S., especially in states like Florida and Texas, where Republican governors have barred schools from making youngsters wear masks.
With millions of children returning to classrooms this month, experts say the stakes are unquestionably high.
Very high infection rates in the community “are really causing our children’s hospitals to feel the squeeze,’’ said Dr. Buddy Creech, a Vanderbilt University infectious disease specialist who is a helping lead research on Moderna’s vaccine for children under 12. Creech said those shots probably won’t be available for several months.
“I’m really worried,’’ said Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a pediatrician and public health expert at the University of Florida. “It’s just so disappointing to see those numbers back up again.”
While pediatric COVID-19 hospitalization rates are lower than those for adults, they have surged in recent weeks, reaching 0.41 per 100,000 children ages 0 to 17, compared with 0.31 per 100,000, the previous high set in mid-January, according to an Aug. 13 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health, calls the spike in cases among children “very worrisome.”
He noted that over 400 U.S. children have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. “And right now we have almost 2,000 kids in the hospital, many of them in ICU, some of them under the age of 4,’’ Collins told Fox News on Sunday.
Health experts believe adults who have not gotten their shots are contributing to the surge among grownups and children alike. It has been especially bad in places with lower vaccination rates, such as parts of the South.
While it is clear the delta variant is much more contagious than the original version, scientists are not yet able to say with any certainty whether it makes people more severely ill or whether youngsters are especially vulnerable to it.
As experts work to answer those questions, many hospitals are reeling. Those in Texas are among the hardest hit. On Tuesday, they reported 196 children being treated with confirmed COVID-19. That compares with 163 during the previous peak, in December.
At Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, the nation’s largest pediatric hospital, the number of youngsters treated for COVID-19 is at an all-time high, said Dr. Jim Versalovic, interim pediatrician-in-chief. In recent weeks, the vast majority have had delta infections, and most patients 12 and up have not had shots, he said.
“It is spreading like wildfire across our communities,’’ he said.
At times this month, his hospital system has diagnosed 200 children with COVID-19 a day, with about 6% of them needing hospital care. On some days, the number of children in the hospital with COVID-19 has exceeded 45.
Versalovic said he suspects hospitalizations of children are up simply because so many are getting infected, not because the delta variant makes people more seriously ill.
At Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, where Francisco is being treated, the number of patients with COVID-19 climbed from 10 during the week of July 4 to 29 during the week of Aug. 8.
Francisco is improving and expected to recover, but his mother is worried and is considering home-schooling him. The virus “is really dangerous,” she said.
The delta surge is yet another test for the nation’s schools, which are dealing with students who fell behind academically as a result of remote learning or developed mental health problems from the upheaval.
Outbreaks have already occurred at reopened schools in the South that are facing resistance to mask-wearing.
In Texas, some school administrators are mandating masks in defiance of the governor and state Supreme Court. Among them is Michael Hinojosa of the Dallas school system, one of the state’s largest districts.
“This delta variant is different, and the numbers are really significant in the county,’’ he said. “We’re going to continue our mask mandate to keep students safe, to keep parents safe, to keep families safe and most importantly our teachers, who are on those front lines.’’
Although dozens of students and staff have already been sickened by the virus since the Dallas district’s 180 schools began reopening on Aug. 5, the numbers are far lower than when in-person learning resumed in the spring, Hinojosa said.
Knowing the toll the pandemic has taken on children, Hinojosa is determined to keep his schools open.
“We know they’ve been scarred by it,” he said. “That’s why they need to be back with their friends and teachers.’’
In DeSoto, a Dallas suburb, schools are also requiring masks, and Superintendent D’Andre Weaver said there has been no pushback from parents, perhaps, he added, because many are Black and know their community was hit hard earlier in the pandemic. Some considered keeping their children home because of the governor’s opposition to school mask requirements, Weaver said.
As a parent and an administrator, Weaver said the delta surge “is a major concern, it’s a major frustration. It’s a big fear.’’
His own two girls started first and second grade this week, and the first thing he has been asking when he picks them up after school is “How do you feel? Do you have a sore throat?” Weaver said. “I know many parents are in the same boat.’’
While he knows many children suffered during virtual learning last year, Weaver said, ‘’We have no choice but to prepare that as an option.’
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Record delta wave hits kids, raises fear as US schools open
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2021-08-20 02:03:08+00:00
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2021-08-19 18:03:00
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Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats performed at the Pavilion at Riverfront on Sunday night welcomed by triple-digit weather and a crowd of nearly 4,000 concertgoers. The concert kicked off with an opening set by Mathew Vasquez of Delta Spirit.
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By Shafiq Moltafet The Spokesman Review
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats headlined the Pavilion at Riverfront on Sunday night.
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats performed at the Pavilion at Riverfront on Sunday night welcomed by triple-digit weather and a crowd of nearly 4,000 concertgoers.
The concert kicked off with an opening set by Matthew Vasquez and his band Delta Spirit, an indie-rock group based in San Diego.
The crowd blanketed nearly all of the grass with picnic chairs and beach towels as they waited for the main show.
Around 8 p.m., Rateliff took the stage with his hit “Hey Mama” from his 2018 album “Tearing at the Seams.” The Denver-based singer displayed his wildly soulful voice that matched the instrumentation of his band.
Playing alongside band members Joseph Pope on bass, Mark Shusterman on keyboard, Luke Mossman on guitar, Patrick Meese on drums and Scott Frock on trumpet, Rateliff made sure to keep the crowd on its toes, changing the pace of the concert with every few songs.
The concert scene made perfect for tipsy guests who absorbed the beats and joined in the rock and for those preferring the tempo at a distance.
Outside the concert, vendors kept ground for hours as concertgoers rushed to quench their thirst during the warm night. At one point, Rateliff took aim at the heat, which he deemed unexpected from the Inland Northwest and compared it to Colorado.
During the last hit, concertgoers stood up to show appreciation and give support to Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats.
A mix of traditional soul, robust country and blues, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats rose to fame in 2015 after the release of their debut self-titled album.
Now with more than 2 million monthly Spotify listeners, Rateliff has become known as “a local folk pop hero,” according to the New York Times.
Earlier this year, Rateliff made his debut with a heartfelt performance on “Saturday Night Live” nearly one year after the release of “And It’s Still Alright,” which received critical acclaim.
The record debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Americana/Folk chart, landed at No. 2 on the Current Rock chart and remained at No. 1 on the Americana Albums Chart for eight consecutive weeks.
Shafiq Moltafet is a high school summer intern, and he begins his senior year at Mead High School in the fall. Moltafet can be reached at (509) 459-5150 or at shafiqm@spokesman.com. Moltafet’s reporting is being funded by a grant from Bank of America.
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Review: Nathaniel Rateliff brings the heat amid the heat at Pavilion at Riverfront
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2021-08-20 01:56:21+00:00
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2021-08-19 08:09:00
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SAO JOAO DA BARRA, Brazil – Decades ago, Júlia María de Assis thought someday she would take over the hotel her father had begun building in Atafona, a seaside district in Brazil’s northern Rio de Janeiro state.
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By Diarlei Rodrigues and Marcelo Silva De Sousa Associated Press
SAO JOAO DA BARRA, Brazil – Decades ago, Júlia María de Assis thought someday she would take over the hotel her father had begun building in Atafona, a seaside district in Brazil’s northern Rio de Janeiro state.
But the very attraction that drew the tourists to Atafona – the sea – became its foe. Advancing water put the hotel’s construction on hold until, 13 years ago, the ocean’s force finally tore it down. Almost 500 other buildings have succumbed, too.
“It was going to be 48 suites – a big hotel that never started operations,” said de Assis, 51, standing beside rubble that once composed her family’s dream. “Even though the hotel’s structure was strong, every time the waves hit the building they damaged it and, finally, it collapsed.”
As a result of human action, over the past half-century the Atlantic Ocean has been relentlessly consuming Atafona, part of the Sao Joao da Barra municipality that is 155 miles from Rio de Janeiro’s capital and home to 36,000 people. Due to climate change, there is little hope for a solution. Instead, Atafona will slip into the sea.
The Paraiba do Sul River, which originates in neighboring Sao Paulo state, brings sediment and sand to Atafona where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Its flow was mostly diverted in the 1950s to provide water to the growing capital, which weakened Atafona’s natural barrier to the ocean, said Pedro de Araújo, materials technology professor at the Fluminense Federal Institute.
“Less land sediment and sand that stabilized the coast made it so the sea is eating away at the city,” said de Araújo, who is pursuing a doctorate analyzing river erosion and seeking to model what that will mean for its delta going forward. He estimates that the river has one-third of its original flow.
Deforestation of mangroves in recent decades also left Atafona more vulnerable, de Araújo said. The sea’s average position moves some 16 feet inland every year, according to the professor.
“Sometimes the water comes up to my knees. My biggest fear is that one day it will take my hut,” fisherwoman Vanesa Gomes Barreto, 35, said at the stall where she sells her catch. “There was a chapel here, a bakery. It was a very large city, of which only a piece remains. The sea swallowed everything, even my childhood.”
Specialists have evaluated possible solutions, such as construction of artificial barriers or depositing vast quantities of sand, but none appears effective enough to halt the ocean’s advance. Global sea level rise due to melting ice means destruction will continue, and at a faster rate, de Araújo said.
People often ask de Assis, who thought she would inherit a hotel, if her city’s reversal of fortunes saddens her. She said she is grateful she was born in Atafona, but that humans need to respect nature.
“I feel nostalgic for the house where I spent summers,” she said, and pointed to the sea. “It’s at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.”
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Brazil city district slowly slipping into sea after river diverted
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2021-08-20 01:55:10+00:00
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2021-08-19 08:50:00
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BOSTON – More than three centuries after a Massachusetts woman was wrongly convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death, she’s finally on the verge of being exonerated – thanks to a curious eighth-grade civics class.
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By William J. Kole Associated Press
BOSTON – More than three centuries after a Massachusetts woman was wrongly convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death, she’s finally on the verge of being exonerated – thanks to a curious eighth-grade civics class.
State Sen. Diana DiZoglio, a Democrat from Methuen, has introduced legislation to clear the name of Elizabeth Johnson Jr., who was condemned in 1693 at the height of the Salem Witch Trials but never executed.
DiZoglio said she was inspired by sleuthing done by a group of 13- and 14-year-olds at North Andover Middle School. Civics teacher Carrie LaPierre’s students painstakingly researched Johnson and the steps that would need to be taken to make sure she was formally pardoned.
“It is important that we work to correct history,” DiZoglio said Wednesday. “We will never be able to change what happened to these victims, but at the very least, we can set the record straight.”
If lawmakers approve the measure, Johnson will be the last accused witch to be cleared, according to Witches of Massachusetts Bay, a group devoted to the history and lore of the 17th-century witch hunts.
Twenty people from Salem and neighboring towns were killed and hundreds of others accused during a frenzy of Puritan injustice that began in 1692, stoked by superstition, fear of disease and strangers, scapegoating and petty jealousies. Nineteen were hanged, and one man was crushed to death by rocks.
In the 328 years that have ensued, dozens of suspects officially were cleared, including Johnson’s own mother, the daughter of a minister whose conviction eventually was reversed. But for some reason, Johnson’s name wasn’t included in various legislative attempts to set the record straight.
Johnson was 22 when she was caught up in the hysteria of the witch trials and sentenced to hang. It never happened: Then-Gov. William Phips threw out her punishment as the magnitude of the gross miscarriages of justice in Salem sank in.
But because she wasn’t among those whose convictions were formally set aside, hers still technically stands.
“It showed how superstitious people still were after the witch trials,” said Artem Likhanov, 14, a rising high school freshman who participated in the school project. “It’s not like after it ended people didn’t believe in witches anymore. They still thought she was a witch and they wouldn’t exonerate her.”
DiZoglio’s bill would tweak 1957 legislation, amended in 2001, to include Johnson among others who were pardoned after being wrongly accused and convicted of witchcraft.
“Why Elizabeth was not exonerated is unclear, but no action was ever taken on her behalf by the General Assembly or the courts,” DiZoglio said. “Possibly because she was neither a wife nor a mother, she was not considered worthy of having her name cleared. And because she never had children, there is no group of descendants acting on her behalf.”
In 2017, officials unveiled a semi-circular stone wall memorial inscribed with the names of people hanged at a site in Salem known as Proctor’s Ledge. It was funded in part by donations from descendants of those accused of being witches.
LaPierre said some of her students initially were ambivalent about the effort to exonerate Johnson because they launched it before the 2020 presidential election and at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging.
“Some of the conversation was, ‘Why are we doing this? She’s dead. Isn’t there more important stuff going on in the world?’ ” she said.
“But they came around to the idea that it’s important that in some small way we could do this one thing.”
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8th-graders lead effort to pardon wrongly convicted 'witch'
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2021-08-20 01:58:03+00:00
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2021-08-19 04:00:00
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Five Spokane-area businesses have made Inc. magazine’s annual list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the nation.
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Five Spokane-area businesses have made Inc. magazine’s annual list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the nation.
Companies on the Inc. 5000 list, released Tuesday, are ranked by the percentage of revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
To qualify, companies were required to be privately-held and independent as of Dec. 31 and to have generated minimum revenue of $100,000 in 2017 and $2 million in 2020.
Spiceology was the fastest-growing Spokane-area company on the Inc. 5000 list for the second year in a row, ranking 903 with a three-year revenue growth of 537%. Last year, it ranked 1,081 with a three-year revenue growth of 423%.
The company, founded in 2013 by executive chef Pete Taylor and food blogger Heather Scholten of Farmgirl Gourmet, sells more than 300 spices, salts, blends and herbs, as well as fruit and vegetable powders, according to its website.
“What started with a humble farmers market beginning is now a company beloved and trusted by chefs, home cooks, grocers and retailers across the nation,” Chip Overstreet, CEO of Spiceology, said in a statement. “We focus on flavor and innovation, and we’re bringing the magic back into a very tired category that’s sorely in need of a fresh alternative.”
The announcement follows the company’s expansion this year into a new production facility at Playfair Commerce Park and collaborations with New Belgium Brewing, MeatEater and Chef Chad White, among others.
Spiceology also added four new consumer-chosen blends to its salt-free line in support of the National Kidney Foundation and the American Heart Association’s ‘Life is Why’ campaign.
Professional Realty Services International, which is headquartered in Spokane, was the second fastest-growing local company ranking 2,116th on the Inc. 5000 list with a three-year growth of 206%.
Other local companies on the list include Northwest Trustee & Management Services, Mainstream Plumbing & Heating and Genetic Veterinary Services, which does business as Paw Print Genetics.
The companies on the Inc. 5000 list have been competitive within their markets and proved to be resilient given challenges brought forth by the pandemic, Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc., said in a statement.
The average median three-year growth rate for the 5,000 companies soared to 543% and median revenue was $11.1 million, according to Inc. Magazine.
“The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled,” Omelianuk said. “Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we’ve lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.”
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Five Spokane-area companies make Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies nationwide
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2021-08-20 02:08:04+00:00
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2021-08-19 18:00:00
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The Whitworth football team opened preseason practices this month with plenty of faces, many of them familiar.
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By Dan Thompson For The Spokesman-Review
The Whitworth football team opened preseason practices this month with plenty of faces, many of them familiar.
The Pirates return 21 starters from the team that went 4-0 last spring, and on a sunny, clear Wednesday morning this week, the roster of 130 spread out for drills on fields behind the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
“This is football. This is what people come to play college football for, for fall training camp,” senior safety BJ Mullin said. “This is football again.”
On Sept. 3, Whitworth is scheduled to begin its season at home against Carnegie-Mellon in a nonconference Division III matchup. The Pirates are hoping to build on the momentum from last spring, when they steamrolled Northwest Conference foes Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran twice each by a combined score of 167-51.
“Our mindset is, it’s fall training camp: How can we get better?” said Rod Sandberg, Whitworth’s head coach since the 2014 season. “How can we reach our full potential? … Spring was a great springboard into fall, but now it’s fall training camp. We gotta get ready for a season. (We) gotta get ready for Game 1.”
The Pirates are plenty experienced, with a secondary that returns four senior starters, including Colten Chelin, who has been a staple in the lineup since his freshman season. The continuity, with Bryce Hornbeck and Jacob Hogger also back in the secondary, will make the group more adaptable, Mullin said.
“Right away we’re in early installs,” he said. “All the experienced DBs, they know what’s going in, so we can add on more quicker, we can do more. We can be more versatile.”
Senior quarterback Jaedyn Prewitt is throwing to a group of receivers he knows well from last spring when he started all four games, but he’s doing so now in his third offensive system in three seasons. New coordinator Matt Troxel took over for Ian Kolste after the spring season. Kolste had replaced Alan Stanfield from the season before.
Troxel, a Lake City High School graduate who then played at Montana, has coached at various levels of football, including stops at Idaho State, Idaho and Oregon State.
“All of them were different,” senior receiver Jerusalem To’oto’o said of the three coordinators. “They had their own style of how they coached the game. I think what’s different from this one than the other ones is it’s more complex, more details on routes.”
Sandberg, who is 51-14 as Whitworth’s coach, pointed out that in previous seasons when coordinators changed, on either side of the ball, the Pirates got better. So he doesn’t expect this transition to be any different.
“Anytime you have change, it’s an opportunity to evaluate what you’re doing. (Troxel) brings new ideas, new energy,” Sandberg said. “Old players can’t just (say), ‘Oh, I know this.’ They are on a high sense of alert. They’re listening and soaking it in. So I think there’s a lot of advantages.”
After playing as juniors during the spring, many of the current seniors, including Mullin and Prewitt, expect to take advantage of the extra COVID-19 year of eligibility granted by the NCAA and to play in 2022.
There are also seven players for whom 2020 would have been their final year, yet they stuck around for this 2021 campaign. Mullin said their presence is just another motivator to maximize this preseason and the full schedule of games to follow.
“There’s seven guys that stayed, and it makes it extra special for them,” Mullin said. “A lot of them had, at the end of the year, unfinished business. With the COVID year, they didn’t get the full season they wanted.
“They came back with a purpose, and we’re gonna fulfill that purpose this year: win a Northwest Conference championship and go further.”
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2021-08-20 01:58:53+00:00
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2021-08-19 09:07:00
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Federal regulators sharpened their antitrust attack against Facebook on Thursday, filing a revised version of their complaint alleging that the social network giant has abused its market power to suppress competition.
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By Marcy Gordon Associated Press Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have sharpened their antitrust attack against Facebook, alleging in a revised complaint Thursday that the social network giant pursued a laser-focused strategy to “buy or bury” rivals to suppress competition.
It is the Federal Trade Commission’s second run at the company.
A federal judge in June dismissed antitrust lawsuits brought against Facebook by the agency and a broad coalition of state attorneys general that were among multiplying efforts by federal and state regulators to rein in tech titans’ market power.
The FTC again is seeking remedies that could include a forced spinoff of Facebook’s popular Instagram and WhatsApp messaging services, or a restructuring of the company.
The agency’s lawsuit last December alleged Facebook engaged in a “systematic strategy” to eliminate its competition, including by purchasing smaller up-and-coming rivals like Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
Facebook said the FTC was attempting to revive a meritless lawsuit and said it will vigorously defend itself against what it said is an effort to rewrite antitrust laws.
“There was no valid claim that Facebook was a monopolist – and that has not changed,” the company based in Menlo Park, California, said in a prepared statement. “Our acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were reviewed and cleared many years ago, and our platform policies were lawful.”
The new FTC complaint lays out a detailed history of Facebook’s conduct, particularly since the arrival of mobile devices like smartphones in the 2010s, and the rise of innovative rivals.
Separately, the agency dismissed a request from Facebook that FTC Chair Lina Khan – an outspoken critic of Big Tech appointed in June by President Joe Biden – step aside in this case because of her past public statements.
Facebook says Khan’s criticism of its market power when she was an academic and the legal director of an anti-monopoly think tank, and her more recent work on a congressional investigation, make it impossible for her to be impartial.
The FTC’s general counsel’s office reviewed the petition and dismissed the request on grounds that the company’s due-process rights will be fully protected in the federal court proceeding.
Without Khan’s vote, the FTC’s case against Facebook could have stalled by splitting the vote between the four other commissioners – two Democrats and two Republicans.
The vote to file the amended complaint was 3-2, with the two Republicans voting against it.
Consumer advocates applauded the FTC’s decision to refile the antitrust complaint against the social media company with nearly 3 billion global users that they have long accused of wielding monopoly power and undertaking anticompetitive acquisitions.
“Facebook is one of the worst offenders, and it’s long past time for this company to be broken up,” Alex Harmon, competition policy advocate for Public Citizen, said in a statement.
Harmon and other advocates said, however, that the regulators need support from Congress to update antitrust laws that have been weakened and make cases like the FTC’s against Facebook difficult.
An ambitious, bipartisan package of legislation to overhaul the antitrust laws, which could point toward breaking up Facebook as well as Google, Amazon and Apple, was approved by the House Judiciary Committee in June and sent to the full House.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled in June that the FTC’s original lawsuit was “legally insufficient” and didn’t provide enough evidence to prove that Facebook was a monopoly. He dismissed the states’ separate complaint outright.
But his ruling only dismissed the FTC’s complaint but not the case, giving the agency a chance to file a revised complaint.
In the new filing, the FTC laid out a detailed analysis to substantiate its monopoly power claim.
“Direct evidence, including historical events and market realities” confirms the allegation, the complaint says. The harm to consumers from the lack of competition “is particularly severe,” it says.
Some of the material meant to show dominant market share is redacted in the public version of the filing, including internal Facebook emails.
The agency made its case anew Thursday as Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple fall under extreme scrutiny and legislative pressure from the FTC, the Justice Department, European regulators, lawmakers in Congress and state legislatures.
Most recently, Biden last month issued a sweeping executive order to stanch anticompetitive conduct in U.S. industry, including a call for federal regulators to give closer scrutiny to mergers proposed by the tech giants.
Last October the Trump Justice Department, joined by about a dozen states, brought a landmark antitrust suit against Google, accusing the company of using its dominance in online search to stifle competition and innovation at the expense of consumers.
As it stands, the case isn’t scheduled to go to trial in federal court for nearly three years.
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Government sharpens antitrust attack against Facebook with filing
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2021-08-20 02:00:56+00:00
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2021-08-19 15:43:00
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The Seattle Mariners swept the Texas Rangers 9-8, despite a ninth inning implosion from the team's bullpen that blew a 7-2 lead and forced extra-innings.
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By Ryan Divish Seattle Times
ARLINGTON, Texas – Sweeping a three-game series against any team in Major League Baseball, regardless of its record, isn’t and shouldn’t be an expected outcome.
Though one could argue that the Texas Rangers are rolling out a roster that barely passes the qualifications of being a legitimate MLB team since the trade deadline, earning the whispered nickname “The Round Rock Rangers” – referencing their Triple-A affiliate – from various folks around baseball.
Still, given the array of variables that go into winning one MLB game on a given day, beating a team, even one that is highly inexperienced at almost every position, for three consecutive days is difficult. That’s what the Mariners did in a 9-8 extra-innings win on Thursday.
“To sweep any team in this league, it is a challenge,” M’s manager Scott Servais said Thursday morning, not knowing what would transpire in the hours that followed. “We typically play a lot of close games, when you play that many close games, your margin for error is so small, it is difficult to sweep someone. But that doesn’t mean that to change our mindset coming into the ballpark today, that’s the goal.”
On Thursday, at least for eight innings, the Mariners weren’t in a close game. They had scored more runs than the previous two games combined and were cruising toward that sweep.
But when the relief duo of Anthony Misiewicz and Diego Castillo decided to set fire to their team’s five-run lead in the ninth inning, the Mariners somehow found themselves headed into extras.
After working so hard to gain ground in the wild-card race, another disappointing walk-off loss at Globe Life Park loomed for the Mariners.
An awful baserunning mistake in the 10th inning by the Rangers, however, and Ty France’s two-run homer in the 11th inning, gave the Mariners a 9-8 victory and their needed three-game sweep of Texas.
Right-hander Paul Sewald, who was pitching for a third straight day for the first time this season, allowed a run in the bottom of the 11th but secured his sixth save when Jake Fraley ran down a deep drive at the wall in center for the final out.
Seattle has won eight of its past 10 games, dating back to the final game of the previous road trip – a 2-0 victory at Yankee Stadium. The Mariners improved to 66-56. The 10 games above .500 is the high-water mark of the season.
The Mariners rolled into the ninth inning with a comfortable 7-2 lead, having scored six runs in the first two inning off Rangers starter Spencer Howard. Kyle Seager’s RBI double highlighted the two-run first while Mitch Haniger’s three-run homer was part of a four-run second.
In those two innings, the Mariners equaled the amount of runs they’d scored in the previous two games. It was also more runs than they had scored in 14 of their past 15 games.
Combine that with another solid start from Chris Flexen, who pitched seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits with a walk and five strikeouts for his 12th quality start (six-plus innings pitched and three runs or fewer allowed) this season and the Mariners seemed poised for a comfortable win.
But Misiewicz didn’t get an out, allowing three consecutive hits, and Castillo allowed a run to score on a wild pitch and served up three-run homer to Jason Martin that tied the game in the ninth.
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Mariners overcome bullpen implosion in 11-inning win at Rangers
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2021-08-20 01:58:23+00:00
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2021-08-19 05:00:00
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Two years.
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This column reflects the opinion of the writer. To learn about the differences between a news story and an opinion column, click here .
Two years.
That’s how long it’s been since we’ve enjoyed live music.
We couldn’t have known that the Aug. 24, 2019, Sammy Hagar concert at Northern Quest would mark the beginning of our live-performance desert, as a global pandemic wiped clean our event calendars.
Thursday night the first drop of musical rain fell for us as Billy Idol wowed a sold-out crowd at Northern Quest.
Sporting more leather jackets than a motorcycle club, Idol and his amazing band brought back my high school memories with a vengeance and reminded me just how much I’ve missed the joy of live music.
Black leather isn’t really my thing, but if I could rock it when I’m 65, the way Idol does, I might reconsider.
After glancing around the dancing crowd, Derek nixed that idea.
“I’m pretty sure Billy’s the only one who can squeeze his 60+ body into his ‘80s clothes and look OK.”
Actually, when Idol first broke into the music scene with Generation X, I was still in middle school wearing culottes with matching vests, handmade by my mother. So, yeah, I was definitely more One Hundred Dorks than “One Hundred Punks.”
By the time he launched his solo career, I was more than ready to give a “Rebel Yell.” Uh, as long as I kept the volume down, so my mom didn’t know I was listening to the “devil’s music.”
One afternoon I thought I was home alone and blasted “White Wedding” on MTV. Let’s just say Mom didn’t believe me when I told her the song was about every girl’s dream wedding.
“Why is he wearing more makeup than the bride?” she asked. “And why isn’t he wearing a shirt?”
Speaking of, evidently, Idol hasn’t added many shirts to his wardrobe since the 1980s. That delighted the Thursday night crowd when he showed off his still youthful abs and flexed his biceps to the accompaniment of the screams of his enthusiastic fans. Out of deference to my husband, I clapped politely and did my screaming on the inside.
His music probably doesn’t make sense to everyone. After all the lyrics to his version of Tommy James’ “Mony Mony” are still pretty incomprehensible.
“Cause you make me feel (like a pony)
So good (like a pony)
So good (like a pony)
So good (Mony Mony)”
Even so, it’s impossible not to dance a bit when that song plays on the oldies station. Yes, I’ve made peace with the fact my high school soundtrack has been relegated to the oldie channels, or worse played in supermarkets and on elevators.
By the way, Idol is a grandparent now, just like many of us who came of age during his prime.
That’s not to say his work is dated. At the concert, he sang his recently released “Bitter Taste.” Recorded during the pandemic, the song reflects on his near-fatal 1990 motorcycle accident.
“Hello, goodbye
There’s a million ways to die
Should’ve left me way back
Should’ve left me way back
By the roadside.”
The contemplative song gave way to more upbeat tunes like “Rebel Yell,” and he ended the show with “White Wedding.”
All in all, Idol’s concert was a fun return to all the things we’ve missed during the pandemic, and it sounded a hopeful note that better days are still to come.
Share your concert memories.
We want to hear about your most memorable concert experience. Who was the band or artist and where was the venue? How old were you, and what made it so memorable? Send an email to Cindy Hval at dchval@juno.com and include your phone number as she may share your story in an upcoming column.
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Front Porch: With a rebel yell for better days
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2021-08-20 01:59:14+00:00
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2021-08-19 08:42:55
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A GRIP ON SPORTS • With one swipe of his pen Wednesday afternoon, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee took WSU athletic director Pat Chun and president Kirk Schulz off a hook from which they have been dangling for four weeks. Allowed Chun and Schulz to breath again. Removed the onus from their backs. Put it on his own, where it joins about 100 others.
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A GRIP ON SPORTS • With one swipe of his pen Wednesday afternoon, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee took WSU athletic director Pat Chun and president Kirk Schulz off a hook from which they have been dangling for four weeks. Allowed Chun and Schulz to breath again. Removed the onus from their backs. Put it on his own, where it joins about 100 others.
•••••••
• Ever since Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich made it clear in late July he wasn’t vaccinated against COVID-19, and he didn’t plan to be vaccinated, the Cougar athletic hierarchy has faced a barrage of criticism.
The pro-vaccination folks were outraged. The anti-vaccination folks were outraged about the outrage. The national media shared its outrage. So did the local media. Heck, probably folks who couldn’t find Pullman on a clearly labeled map of Whitman County expressed some sort of outrage.
Right in the middle of all this stood Schulz and Chun. The former trying to keep his university running and open in the middle of a seemingly never-ending pandemic. The latter, already dealing with a deficit that even Elon Musk would have trouble covering, just trying to keep the football program afloat. And to justify his decision to bring Rolovich on board in the first place.
Chun faced the epitome of Star Trek’s “Kobayashi Maru.” A no-win scenario.
Let his hand-picked coach skate, even with strict protocols in place, and a majority of Cougar fans were going to be ticked. Come down hard on Rolovich and an even more vocal minority was going to kick and scream.
Either way, donations could suffer. And the bottom line is always aptly named, even in cases like this in which the health of students may be at stake.
Think Rolovich’s public declaration doesn’t impact the direction of the program? Washington State, according to Jon Wilner’s research, is lagging the rest of the conference in the percentage of people in the program vaccinated. If the guy in charge isn’t willing to follow common sense, why should the people in whom he is in charge do it?
Sooner or later something would have to be done.
Turns out, waiting was Chun’s best alternative. Time, circumstances and the fast-spreading delta variant took control of his decision. Well, all that and Inslee.
The governor, faced with exploding hospitalizations throughout the state, had to act to stem the rising tide.
He tried persuasion. That was doomed from the start. Those who haven’t been vaccinated thus far are either dead set against it or have professed a desire to wait for the CDC to issue its final stamp of approval.
He mandated vaccines for state workers under his direct control. More persuasion for others. But the numbers of folks sick with COVID-19, a huge majority of which have yet to be vaccinated, didn’t stop ballooning. So on Wednesday the governor expanded his statewide vaccination mandate to all levels of education employees, with few exceptions.
And lifted Chun’s burden.
Unless Rolovich has a “legitimate medical reason” or a “sincerely held religious belief” – if either is true and nothing has been said thus far, it would be the worst public relations failure in the school’s history – for not being vaccinated, he will have to make a decision. Either take the shots or be subject to dismissal.
It will be the state making the final decision on his employment concerning this mandate, not the WSU president or its athletic director. And it would be hard to fathom how the governor’s office could justify allowing its highest-paid employee to defy the order and still keep his job. Not if Inslee wants to keep his credibility.
There is no doubt it’s troubling that the battle against COVID-19 has come to this. It shouldn’t be this way. We should be looking back at the virus. We shouldn’t have to wonder what the future holds. And yet here we are.
After the governor’s pronouncement Wednesday, Nick Rolovich faces a choice. He’s not alone in that. Many people in education, health care and other areas of employment face the same one. It’s just none, individually, are as visible as Washington State’s football coach.
And none have more to lose.
•••
WSU: Of course Colton Clark has coverage of the governor’s mandate in today’s S-R. But that’s not all. He also has this notebook from the 11th day of practice. And, no, a decision hasn’t been made about who starts at quarterback. … We mentioned this above. Jon Wilner has a look at vaccination rates around the conference. He also has a stock report. … Jim Moore, writing in the News Tribune, addresses the Rolovich vaccination situation. … So do others. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college sports, John Canzano has some thoughts about vaccinations as it relates to fans. He thinks it is time for colleges to ban the unvaccinated from games. … What’s been going on at Washington? A lot actually. Especially with the inside linebackers. … A lot was certainly going on in 1991. … Oregon will rely on young wide receivers to start the season. … Oregon State has done a great job of keeping its offensive line healthy and productive. … Colorado may have a new starter at right tackle. … Utah is known as a defense-first school. And a lot of that has roots in history. As well as a history of great safeties. … UCLA starts a week earlier than most of the Pac-12. Masks will be needed to watch in person. … USC has another talented young tight end. … Don’t ask about Arizona State’s problems with the NCAA. … You also won’t get an answer if you ask who Arizona is going to start at quarterback. And you don’t have to wear masks at games.
Gonzaga: Drew Timme seems like the most obvious Zag to cash in on NIL. And he’s teamed up with someone from his past to get that done. Theo Lawson has all the particulars in this story.
EWU: The Eagles held their first official scrimmage Wednesday and Dan Thompson and Colin Mulvany were there. Dan has the story and Colin the photo report. If you are want to know without hitting the links, the offense dominated. … Larry Weir’s latest Press Box podcast focuses on conference football news. … Around the Big Sky, another preseason All-American team is out. … Montana State is replacing is specialists. … Weber State doesn’t have that problem at linebacker. … A couple of Northern Arizona players have known each other for a long time. … Yes it is.
Preps: Football practice began yesterday in Washington and it began with decent weather. Whether that will last is the big question. Anyhow, Dave Nichols has coverage of the first day of the 2021 season.
Indians: Dave also headed out to Avista Stadium, where the smoke postponed Tuesday night’s game. No such problem Wednesday. But the Hillsboro hitters had huge problems with the Indians’ pitching. Dave has the story of Spokane’s 5-0 win.
Mariners: Pitching was also once again the story for the Mariners. Marco Gonzales once again was spot-on, literally, making all the pitches he needed to in the M’s 3-1 win. At nine games over .500 (tying the season’s best), Seattle is three games out of the second wild-card spot. … Paul Sewald has emerged as one of the Mariners best bullpen options. … You can make your spring plans now.
Seahawks: Now that Jamal Adams is back practicing, Duane Brown is next up, right? Russell Wilson sure wants something done in that regard. The quarterback has mended his fences with the offensive line but he needs Brown protecting his blind side.
Sounders: Seattle rested much of its top talent and still found a way to defeat Dallas on the road, 1-0. Raul Ruidiaz scored the only goal about a second after subbing in during the second half.
Storm: With its two top stars sitting again, Seattle lost another game, this one 83-79 at New York.
•••
• I’m 100 percent sure you know how I feel about the COVID-19 vaccine. And, yes, it colors how I view the virus’ impact on everything related to sports. Of course, that’s what this column is for. I share my views. It’s so sad we’ve somehow lost trust in institutions that are made up of people who dedicate their entire career to making others’ lives better. Right now I’m referring to the medical community, who not only saw a pandemic coming, they got ready for it, worked unceasingly to prepare a vaccine and dedicated hours treating those impacted by the virus, all with the idea at some point we could get it under control, in this country at least. All that work has been undermined. And such issues like what Washington State football faces surfaced when they never should have. It’s sad. Exhausting. And such a waste. Until later …
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A Grip on Sports: Inslee's vaccination mandate changes the conversation around WSU
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2021-08-20 02:04:50+00:00
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2021-08-19 04:00:00
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In the midst of a brutal month for school administrators, Kyle Rydell has maintained his sense of perspective.
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In the midst of a brutal month for school administrators, Kyle Rydell has maintained his sense of perspective.
Rydell, superintendent of the West Valley School District, is dealing with the same challenges as his colleagues around the state.
On top of concerns over critical race theory and sex education, superintendents are getting squeezed from every side over mask and vaccine mandates issued by Gov. Jay Inslee.
More uncertainty lies ahead: How many teachers will balk at the vaccine mandate, and how many parents will follow through with threats to home school or enroll their children in private schools?
“But the thing I look forward to, is what’s changed in the last 18 months,” Rydell said.
Rydell noted that in March 2020, schools reacted to the nascent threat of COVID-19 by abruptly shutting down schools and sending kids home.
Eighteen months later, kids will be back in class full time – albeit with masks – despite sharply rising COVID cases locally and everywhere else.
“There are some obstacles, but ultimately, having our kids back full-time is the most important thing,” Rydell said.
Districts have spent most of July walking a tightrope over Inslee’s mask mandate. Issued on July 28, it had led to anti-mask protests at almost every school district – 150 people last week in Spokane, another throng at Liberty this week and several dozen at Central Valley on Wednesday.
Another two dozen showed up at the West Valley school board meeting this week.
It didn’t matter that State Superintendent Chris Reykdal had already provided district’s with ample political cover, in the form of a threat to withhold funding for districts who defied the mandate.
During a board meeting last week, Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Adam Swinyard explained to anti-mask parents that the district could lose most of its funding.
A man in the audience answered instantly.
“How much will you lose if we pull our kids?” the man said.
Then came Wednesday’s news from Olympia: Most school employees must be vaccinated by Oct. 18 or lose their jobs. The mandate extends to public and private K-12 schools, most child care and early learning centers.
Exemptions will be allowed on medical and religious grounds. As of Thursday, the state superintendent’s office hadn’t released details on how those exemptions will be handled.
“We are waiting right now to see what that exemption looks like,” said Robert Roettger, superintendent of the Cheney School District. “Then we will communicate that to our staff.”
It’s unclear when the state will clarify the language around exemptions, but with school only a few weeks away, the stakes are high. Looser requirements might defeat the purpose of the vaccine mandate, while overly stringent requirements might force some teachers to resign.
“It is too early to comment now on the potential impacts for staffing,” Mead Superintendent Shawn Woodward said in a statement Thursday. “We expect that there may be some, but we don’t know to what extent.”
Officials at the Central Valley School District and Spokane Public Schools did not reply to requests for comment. However, Spokane has been adding staff in recent weeks as it seeks to open the year with smaller class sizes, especially at the K-3 level.
While the national and state teachers’ unions offered support of the vaccine mandate, local leaders have been silent.
Last week, Spokane Education Association President Jeremy Shay said he was opposed to a vaccine mandate for teachers and staff.
Shay declined to comment Thursday on the issue.
Meanwhile, Rydell was preparing for the best.
This week, West Valley is holding its annual KickStart event – a hands-on event that’s designed to build anticipation for the new school year. Because of the pandemic, that didn’t happen a year ago.
“Everyone is ready to have their kids back in school,” Rydell said.
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Superintendents caught in the middle of new COVID mandates
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2021-08-20 02:03:59+00:00
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2021-08-19 04:00:00
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The Spokane Public Facilities District has partnered with Levy, a Chicago-based hospitality company, to create a new dining experience at local event venues.
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The Spokane Public Facilities District has partnered with Levy, a Chicago-based hospitality company, to create a new dining experience at local event venues.
The district and Levy created Urban Falls Kitchen, which will oversee all aspects of food and beverage services.
It will include catering at large events hosted by Spokane Convention Center, pre-event and intermission hospitality at First Interstate Center for the Arts and concessions at the Spokane Arena and the Podium.
Urban Falls Kitchen will focus on “sustainability, local ingredients and the culinary creativity of the Spokane community,” according to a news release.
“We see this partnership with Levy as a great opportunity to give guests a full and enriching Spokane experience,” Public Facilities District CEO Stephanie Curran said in a statement. “Our local farmers and businesses benefit, and our guests get a more personal taste of the Spokane region’s flavor profile.”
Food and beverage services are funded by Levy and has no impact on taxpayers, according to the district.
Under the agreement, the district will collect 20% of revenue from Levy’s catering services and 42% of revenue from alcohol and concession sales, Curran said.
The district’s venues have been shut down for nearly 16 months due to the pandemic.
It’s looking forward to reopening all of its venues by mid-October, depending upon what occurs in the future with statewide mandates, Curran added.
Levy’s portfolio includes restaurants, convention centers, zoos, cultural institutions, theaters and sports and entertainment venues, including Lumen Field in Seattle and Providence Park in Portland.
Levy also has provided food and beverage services for such events as the Super Bowl, the Grammy Awards, the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and the Kentucky Derby.
“Urban Falls Kitchen represents our shared mission to welcome and celebrate the best restaurants, culinarians and ingredients of the Pacific Northwest throughout each venue,” Andy Lansing, Levy president and CEO, said in a statement.
“Guests will see and taste a difference, and we’re incredibly honored to come to the table with SPFD to bring it all together.”
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Spokane Public Facilities District partners with Chicago-based Levy for food and beverage services
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/spokane-public-facilities-district-partners-with-c/
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2021-08-20 01:59:04+00:00
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2021-08-19 16:30:00
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With a knockout cast that includes Hugh Jackman, Thandiwe Newton and Rebecca Ferguson, promising writer-director-producer Lisa Joy making her feature debu and a neat sci-fi concept, “Reminiscence” has all the ingredients for electrifying summer entertainment.
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By Pat Padua Special to the Washington Post
Running time/rating: 1:56, PG-13. At theaters; also available on HBO Max. Contains strong violence, including torture, drug material throughout, sexual situations and some strong language.
With a knockout cast that includes Hugh Jackman, Thandiwe Newton and Rebecca Ferguson, a promising writer-director-producer in “Westworld” showrunner Lisa Joy making her feature debut and a neat sci-fi concept, “Reminiscence” has all the ingredients for electrifying summer entertainment.
But despite its considerable star power and impressive set pieces, the sprawling meditation on memory is simply an attractive mess. In a futuristic Miami whose coastline has sunk under rising tides, Jackman’s Nick runs an unusual business, with the help of an assistant (Newton): He sells the past.
Nick’s regular customers know the drill: Get in a water tank and put on a headset, and you can relive your most cherished memories. Since this retrieved content is projected in a life-size hologram, your hosts can watch, too, and they keep files of this content for easy reference.
Of all the memory-recovering joints in all the sunken cities of the world she could have walked into, the mysterious, beautiful Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) walks into this one. She claims she needs the service to help her find her car keys – but is there something else she’s looking for?
Joy’s script uses its heady premise to play with chronology; just when you think you’re watching a scene in real time, Nick emerges from his own water tank with a jolt; he’s been obsessively replaying his own data – featuring Mae, who had a whirlwind romance with Nick, but one day just disappeared.
It’s not a bad setup, however much it touches on “La Jetée,” “Vertigo,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and other memory-themed films. But the hard-boiled dystopia is overwrought, with Nick’s narration waxing purple at times. Every extracted moment, he says, is “a bead on the necklace of time.” (If you forget it the first time, don’t worry, they will recover it for you.)
It’s difficult to take your eyes off this cast, but even Hollywood’s hottest talent can’t quite sell an overripe neo-noir that plays like a TV pilot. So it’s kind of a relief when, after a corny, atmospheric first act, “Reminiscence” turns into a sci-fi action movie populated with colorful bad guys such as New Orleans underworld leader Saint Joe (Daniel Wu) and corrupt cop Cyrus Booth (Cliff Curtis). This criminal setting provides for a terrific fight scene and gives Newton’s character a chance to break out of her sidekick role.
Unfortunately, “Reminiscence” takes too many detours. For every scene that works – and there are plenty – there’s one that goes off the rails. (Speaking of which, it’s curious how, in this apocalyptic metropolis, there seems to be a fairly reliable commuter train.)
The cast keeps us interested but not enough. By the end, the echoes of “Blade Runner” that keep piling up culminate in one ridiculous recollection. You’ll remember “Reminiscence,” all right, but as much for what doesn’t work as for what does.
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Great cast, neat concept, promising director, but 'Reminiscence' is a good-looking mess
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2021-08-20 02:04:29+00:00
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2021-08-19 08:54:00
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Stocks wobbled between small gains and losses in midday trading Thursday, as gains from technology stocks were kept in check by banks and energy companies slipping.
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By Damian J. Troise Associated Press
Wall Street closed out another choppy day of trading Thursday, leaving the major stock indexes on pace for a weekly loss.
The S&P 500 managed a 0.1% gain after having been down 0.7% in the early going.
The Nasdaq composite also recovered to eke out 0.1% gain, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%.
Small-companies fell broadly. A late-afternoon rally in technology stocks helped offset some of the losses in energy companies, banks and other sectors.
Prices for oil and other commodities also fell, pulling mining and energy stocks lower.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.25%.
Investors continued to size up quarterly report cards from retailers.
Macy’s posted its second-biggest single-day gain as traders cheered the department store chain’s latest results.
Much of the market’s choppiness, especially in the S&P 500, is due to investors trying to position themselves as they gauge the pace of the recovery and how it will benefit different sectors of the economy.
“One of the challenges right now is we’re getting some degree of a mixed message about what is working and what’s not,” said Eric Freedman, chief investment officer at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
The market first has to gauge the near-term prospects for the economy as COVID-19 remains a threat, Freedman said.
At the same time, investors have to also focus on what the economy looks like after the virus recedes or when the world learns to live with the virus in a different way.
“There’s going to be a lot of fits and starts,” he said.
The S&P 500 added 5.53 points to 4,405.80. The Dow fell 66.57 points to 34,894.12.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 15.87 points to 14,541.79.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 26.36 points, or1.2%, to 2,132.42.
The broader market has been losing ground overall since the benchmark S&P 500 reached another record high on Monday.
It’s now within 1.7% of that record and on pace for its first weekly loss in three weeks.
The Dow, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 are also down for the week.
Technology companies made broad gains, including 4% for chipmaker Nvidia after it reported strong financial results, but those gains were outweighed by a slide in financial and industrial stocks.
Companies that rely on consumer spending also weighed heavily on the market. Energy stocks took the heaviest losses in the S&P 500 as energy prices fell.
Commodities fell broadly, with everything from oil to agricultural commodities to metals moving lower. Copper prices fell 1.9%, while the price of U.S. crude oil closed 2.7% lower.
The drop in commodities prices dragged down oil companies and those who extract raw materials for industrial uses.
Miner Freeport-McMoRan, Devon Energy and Occidental Petroleum fell 3% or more.
The volatility in the commodities markets is notable because investors have been acutely focused on inflation as the global economy emerges from the pandemic.
Earlier this year prices for basic materials like lumber and copper and gasoline were all rising steadily and several high multi-year highs.
Most of those gains have now been erased with declines in recent weeks.
Investors got a bit of positive economic news when the Labor Department reported another weekly drop in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits.
Claims fell 29,000 to 348,000 last week, a pandemic low. The four-week average fell 19,000 to just below 378,000, also a pandemic low.
While stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 are now down roughly 1.4% this week, fund managers do not expect much volatility this month as investors will have little data to work with and earnings season is now mostly over.
August also tends to be a popular month for investors to take their vacations, so trading is typically slower. September tends to be a much more volatile month once Wall Street is back to work.
Government bond yields fell. The 10-year Treasury note traded at a yield of 1.25%, down from 1.27% the day before.
Robinhood sank 10.3% as traders worried that the booming growth at the popular online brokerage app could slow down.
Macy’s soared 19.6% after issuing a strong forecast and reporting earnings that were far bigger than analysts were expecting.
That nearly matched the biggest percentage gain the stock had in its history, which came on May 27, 2020.
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Stocks wobble as commodity prices fall; Macy's climbs
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2021-08-20 02:05:00+00:00
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2021-08-19 11:49:00
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This week, the wireless carrier T-Mobile confirmed reports of a major data breach in which hackers obtained personal information belonging to more than 40 million past, present and potential customers.
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By Chris Velazco Washington Post
This week, the wireless carrier T-Mobile confirmed reports of a major data breach in which hackers obtained personal information belonging to more than 40 million past, present and potential customers.
For some people, that means their full names, date of birth, social security numbers and even information from their driver’s licenses are being shopped around online in exchange for a few bitcoin.
Unfortunately, dealing with data breaches is nothing new for the company — or its customers.
For those keeping count, this is the fifth such incident the wireless carrier has suffered in the past three years, but according to Allie Mellen, a security and risk analyst at Forrester Research, this is “the worst breach they’ve had so far.”
T-Mobile declined to comment on what other types of data could have been accessed during the breach, how many people had all of their sensitive information taken, or whether it has started notifying affected individuals, but it did encourage customers to visit a new webpage meant to help secure those people against “cybersecurity threats.”
The company’s suggestions are a start, but if you’re concerned that your time with T-Mobile — past or present — has left your personal information vulnerable, here are a few things you should consider doing right now.
Change your password and PIN
T-Mobile suggests you do this, and the experts we talked to agree — changing your account password and PIN should be one of the first things you do.
That’s because the personal information made available through the data breach can give an attacker almost everything they need to gain access to your T-Mobile account. (This is especially true for 850,000 of the company’s prepaid phone customers, who had their account PINs leaked alongside their names and phone numbers.)
And once an attacker has access to one of your accounts, more are likely to follow.
“The data that identity thieves want today tends more often than not to be log—ins and passwords,” said James E. Lee, chief operating officer at the Identity Theft Resource Center. “They want credentials, because that’s what they can use to break into other systems.”
Freeze your credit
Some of the deeply personal data made available through this data breach could be a gold mine for attackers who want to make use of your credit.
That’s why personal finance and identity theft expert Adam Levin says affected customers should freeze their credit reports.
You’ll have to contact each of the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — with your requests, but freezing your credit is completely free, doesn’t affect your credit score, and prevents anyone with your personal information (including you) from opening new lines of credit without securely “thawing” everything first.
Lee couldn’t agree more, noting that freezing your credit is “the most important thing you can do that is preventative” and that there’s little downside to it.
To learn more or to get started freezing your credit reports, check out the Equifax, Experian and TransUnion websites.
Rethink two—factor authentication
If you’re even mildly security—conscious, you might already have two-factor authentication enabled on some of your online accounts — and that’s good thinking.
Here’s the rub, though: If you’re concerned your data has been compromised as part of this breach, it might be time to rethink how you use 2FA.
Let’s say an attacker manages to obtain your name, date of birth and social security number — if they luck out and find your address and reused password in other data dumps, that might be enough to give them access to your T-Mobile account.
If that happens, you could be vulnerable to what’s called a SIM-swap attack, in which the hacker manages to switch control of your phone number to a phone they control.
That’s definitely bad, but what could make it worse is if the verification codes sent by services like Amazon, Twitter and many banks are delivered via text message. In that case, the keys to your online kingdom could be ferried straight to someone else.
One possible fix: Lee suggests using whenever possible authenticator apps from companies like Google and Microsoft that live directly on your phone.
“Just having the text or the email that goes to the device is not as secure as having that authenticator app,” he said. “We always recommend to consumers that they use that, and to businesses that they offer that.”
T-Mobile’s investigation is only really getting started. But hopefully the company’s next updates will give us all a better sense of the attack’s scope, and how best to respond.
With any luck, T-Mobile will also get around to answering some lingering questions.
Here’s one that still hasn’t been answered: The first Motherboard story that highlighted the breach noted that the hacker(s) had obtained IMEI numbers — long strings of digits unique to each phone sold — in addition to the rest of the personal information we’ve discussed so far.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile’s statements don’t mention them at all.
So were they leaked or not? This matters quite a bit, because IMEI numbers can be blacklisted if the device they’re attached to is reported stolen.
Theoretically, that means an attacker might be able to at least temporarily prevent you from using your phone by using other leaked information to access your account and reporting your IMEI as lost.
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T-Mobile users have options to deal with breach
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/t-mobile-users-have-options-to-deal-with-breach/
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2021-08-20 01:59:24+00:00
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2021-08-19 09:38:00
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Tourists and servers alike dance atop tables and in the aisles at one restaurant on the “Redneck Riviera,” a beloved stretch of towns along the northern Gulf Coast where beaches, bars and stores are packed. Yet just a few miles away, a hospital is running out of critical care beds, its rooms full of unvaccinated people fighting for their lives.
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By Jay Reeves Associated Press
GULF SHORES, Ala. — Tourists and servers alike dance atop tables and in the aisles at one restaurant on the “Redneck Riviera,” a beloved stretch of towns along the northern Gulf Coast where beaches, bars and stores are packed. Yet just a few miles away, a hospital is running out of critical care beds, its rooms full of unvaccinated people fighting for their lives.
On maps that show virus “hot spots” in red, this part of the U.S. coast is glowing like a bad sunburn. And a summer of booming tourism that followed the lockdowns and travel restrictions of 2020 is making the turn toward fall with only a few signs of slowing down.
Health officials believe the spike is due to a combination of some of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates, unabated tourism, a disregard for basic health precautions and the region’s carefree lifestyle, all combining at a time when the mutated virus is more contagious than ever and conservative states are balking at new health restrictions.
On a recent afternoon, one shopper after another walked through the mouth of a giant, fake shark into a Gulf Shores souvenir shop. Mini-golf courses, bars, go-kart tracks, hotels and condominium towers were full. The National Shrimp Festival, which draws as many as 250,000 people to the Alabama coast, is set for October despite the COVID-19 explosion.
Inside The Hangout restaurant, where dancing on tables is encouraged, “Cotton Eye Joe” received a raucous reception from the largely unmasked customers.
“Where did you come from, where did you go? / Where did you come from, Cotton Eye Joe?” the speakers blared.
The revelry came as just 12 miles to the north, South Baldwin Regional Medical Center was treating more than three dozen COVID-19 patients, nearly 90% of whom weren’t vaccinated, said spokesperson Taylor Lewis.
“After Memorial Day it was, ‘Everything is back to normal, go to the beach, take off your mask,’” said Dr. Bert Eichold, the chief public health official of Mobile County, just west of Gulf Shores. Mobile County’s COVID-19 positivity rate has skyrocketed to nearly 30%, and the county has the most new cases in the state.
Lisa Hastings, a Louisiana native and nurse visiting the Alabama coast with her two sisters, looked at the situation in two ways. She was a little unsettled by the wide-open scene from a professional standpoint, but she also doesn’t hold it against anyone who wants to get out and have fun, vaccinated or not.
“I think people are kind of over being afraid and so they’ve got to live their lives,” said Hastings, who is vaccinated. Nearby, a tourist from Illinois railed that the pandemic is fake and vaccinations are just another method of government control.
Some have decided against both getting vaccinated and wearing face masks, choosing instead to party without precautions at places like the Flora-Bama, a massive beachfront bar on the Alabama-Florida line. There, bands play to big crowds fueled by alcoholic drinks including the sugary Bushwacker, a coastal favorite.
Lulu’s, a popular Gulf Shores restaurant owned by Lucy Buffett, the sister of singer Jimmy Buffett, is among those that recently had to shut down for a week because the virus was racing through workers.
At The Dock, a beachfront restaurant that serves cold beer and seafood beside the public beach in Pensacola Beach, Florida, manager Justin Smith said the tourist season has been busy and his staff has managed to stay healthy, at least so far. While more vaccinations could help, Smith said he’d never require his staff to get inoculated.
“I’ve been here 18 years. It ain’t gonna happen,” he said.
Outbreaks caused by the coronavirus are threatening to overwhelm the region’s health care system and traditions. Panama City Beach, Florida, cited the pandemic in canceling an annual country music festival set for early September, and New Orleans has clamped down on mask-wearing and called off multiple events.
While urging people to get vaccinated, state leaders including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey have resisted imposing new restrictions, even as hospital beds fill up. On Monday, officials said 1,560 patients needed intensive care treatment in Alabama, where hospitals have just 1,562 ICU beds.
Hospital executives joined together in Pensacola last week to plead for more vaccinations while also knocking down false rumors about vaccines and masks. In an area dominated by Christian conservatives, Mayor Grover C. Robinson IV made a direct appeal for churchgoers to get shots.
“Two of our hospitals are Christian affiliated,” he said. “One of the first things it says all throughout the Bible is, ‘Do not be afraid.’”
More people are getting initial vaccine doses than a few weeks ago, but it hasn’t been enough so far to stop the spread of COVID-19. Of 11 coastal counties in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, Okaloosa County in Florida has the region’s highest share of fully vaccinated residents at 41.3%, statistics show. Many are around one-third, and all are below the national average of nearly 51%.
Natalie Fox, a nursing executive with USA Health in Mobile, said medical workers are tired after more than a year of fighting the pandemic. Still, people sick with COVID-19 — the vast majority of them unvaccinated — keep arriving.
“We’re kind of getting patients from all over because everybody’s dealing with this increased strain,” she said.
It didn’t take a mandate for Rhonda Landrum, a 50-year-old health care worker from near Mobile, to get a shot recently after watching all three of her unvaccinated daughters contract COVID-19. People aren’t taking the pandemic seriously, she said, and it’s just not safe to be out in public without the vaccine.
“I won’t travel nowhere,” she said. “I stay home.”
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Gulf Coast's beloved 'Redneck Riviera' now a virus hotspot
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2021-08-20 01:54:49+00:00
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2021-08-19 13:00:00
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Much has been made of how Nirvana's "Nevermind" changed the course of music and pop culture when the game-changing album dropped in September 1991. However, the prior month, hip hop was revolutionized by Cypress Hill's daring self-titled eponymous album.
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Much has been made of how Nirvana’s “Nevermind” changed the course of music and pop culture when the game-changing album dropped in September 1991. However, the prior month, hip hop was revolutionized by Cypress Hill’s daring self-titled eponymous album. The slow, trippy beats, bizarre samples and noises and MC B Real’s quirky nasal delivery are just some of the reasons the album is worth celebrating 30 years after it dropped.
“1991 was a special year for music,” MC Sen Dog, aka Senen Reyes, said while calling from Las Vegas. “It was an amazing year not just for us during our rookie season but in general. The great Nirvana changed a lot of things. There was something in the water with all of these great bands, and Cypress was right in the middle of it.”
That’s no exaggeration since Cypress Hill, along with the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy, were among the three hip-hop acts who crossed over with alternative fans. By the time 1993’s powerful “Black Sunday” was released, Cypress Hill was performing before some of the most diverse crowds – hip hop, alternative, Black, white and Latino – in the industry.
“We were always an inclusive group,” Reyes said. “Our music is for everybody.” The seeds were planted with Cypress Hill’s first album. “How I Could Just Kill a Man” and “Hand on the Pump” remain potent and relevant. Expect those songs to be delivered when Cypress Hill focuses on its initial release when performing Saturday at the Pavilion at Riverfront. “We’re looking forward to revisiting that album since it’s exactly 30 years out,” Reyes said.
It’s uncertain how the Los Angeles-based act, who on this tour includes DJ Muggs and percussionist Eric Bobo, will offer the tracks. Will Cypress Hill play the album front to back or even include each cut in its set? “We’re still uncertain about how we’re going to go with it, but you will hear plenty of the songs from the first album,” Reyes said.
Much of the lyrical content is pro-marijuana. Cypress Hill has always been one of the most vocal recording artists who pushed to legalize cannabis. Washington and a number of states have done just that, and those born well after the year that punk broke may not understand how much of a limb Cypress Hill went out on during its salad days.
“It was a big deal,” Reyes said. “Nobody rapped about what we were rapping about. I remember when Muggs told me that he wanted B Real and me to be the Cheech and Chong of hip hop. I was concerned because I thought we would get blackballed or banned.” Instead, Cypress Hill was embraced by music fans. “I was so glad about their acceptance since what we did was so outlaw,” Reyes said.
“But we stuck to our guns throughout the whole journey. We came up with something as rebellious as NWA and Public Enemy, but we were on our own tip. But it wasn’t to get attention. We had an important message. Back in the day, we would read High Times magazine, and we were down with their take on cannabis and hemp and the environment and pollution. We wanted to change the world.”
Much is different today, and Reyes is surprised how many states have legalized cannabis (18 states and the District of Columbia). “It’s what we fought for our whole lives, but I’ll be honest,” Reyes said. “I never thought you could walk into a dispensary and order some joints just like you could go to a convenience store and buy beer.”
“It was such an uphill battle, but it has finally happened in some places, but there are still places that it’s not legal, and that’s terrible,” he continued. “There is so much good that comes from cannabis. We’re not done fighting for legalization. I’m hoping that someday soon that cannabis is legal in all 50 states.” In the meantime, Cypress Hill will tour behind its debut album.
“I’m looking forward to getting out there and playing those songs,” Reyes said. “So many fans have often told me that our first album is their favorite, which is amazing. We also can’t wait to get out and play anything since like everybody else we haven’t played in a long time due to the pandemic. But we’re excited about playing Spokane.
“It’s so beautiful there, and the Pacific Northwest reminds me of how special 1991 was. I was listening to all of those bands from Seattle like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. When our first album came out, it just timed out for us since we released an album in the right time and place. I remember how devoted we were to that album. We were more devoted to those songs than we were to girlfriends. We focused on it, and it paid off.”
Cypress Hill has enough tracks for a new album, which is scheduled for a 2022 release. Reyes isn’t sure if unreleased material will be previewed when the group returns to Spokane on Saturday night. “That’s up in the air,” Reyes said. “You’ll have to see what we’ll do, so come check us out. It’s an exciting time for us.
“Aside from our next album, there will be a Cypress Hill documentary, which will be out around April of 2022. It’s a look back at Cypress, but we’re also moving forward, which is amazing. If you told us in 1991 that we would still be together and that marijuana would be legal in some states, that would have made us very happy.”
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30 years of Cypress Hill: Hip-hop revolutionaries, at Pavilion at Riverfront on Saturday, dropped debut album three decades ago
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2021-08-20 02:07:02+00:00
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2021-08-19 14:44:00
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Spokane County
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From staff reports
Spokane County
Marriage licenses
Andrew R. Botterbusch and Emily R. Baldwin, both of Moscow.
Todd M. Fayant and Xandria D. Brixey, both of Spokane.
Joshua J. Morris and Cara L. Nickolaus, both of Spokane.
Chad M. Anderson and Gloria A. Jolley, both of Spokane.
Tyler W. Tipke and Ashley B. Garland, both of Spokane Valley.
Bailey T. Weir and Hollie T. Blue, both of Spokane.
Cody J. Link and Mary K. Howerton, both of Richland.
Austin G. Mead and Torri L. Pownall, both of Spokane.
Brian B. Havens and Danielle R. Gwinn, both of Spokane.
Christopher J. Crawley and Jessica N. Leavitt, both of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Tieler J. Walker and Jessica L. Higginson, both of Spokane Valley.
Michael R. Johnson and Diane R. Berg, both of Liberty Lake.
Andrew P. O’Connor Reid and Chanel C. Winters, both of Spokane.
Michael T. Ruby and Michaila J. Powell, both of Spokane.
Nathan J. Archer, of Cheney and Abigail J. Moody, of Medical Lake.
In the courts
Superior courts
New suits
Sandra Rasmussen v. Farrar Brothers LLC, et al., property damages.
Delbert Carman v. Tyson Carman, seeking quiet title.
Paul Mitchell, et al., v. Allstate Insurance Company, complaint for damages.
American Express National Bank v. Darin Dietz, money claimed owed.
American Express National Bank v. Kari Adeoye, money claimed owed.
Mark Thulean v. Allstate Fire and Casualty, seeking damages for injuries from a vehicle collision.
Goldman Sachs Bank USA v. James Murray, money claimed owed.
American Express National Bank v. Don Palmanteer, money claimed owed.
Discover Bank v. Jessica L. Krebs, money claimed owed.
Marriage dissolutions granted
Andre, Katherine A. R and Cobb, Evan L.
Criminal sentencings
Judge Harold D. Clarke III
Scott A. Schroeder, 34; 60 months in prison with credit for time served to be determined, 12 months probation, after pleading guilty to second-degree burglary-domestic violence, two counts of fourth-degree assault-domestic violence and two counts of violation of order.
Devon P. Boeving, 28; 50 days in jail with credit given for 50 days served, after pleading guilty to third-degree retail theft with special/extenuating circumstances.
Judge Tony D. Hazel
Stormie Heltsley, 25; 42 days in jail, after pleading guilty to attempt to elude a police vehicle.
Municipal and District courts
Only fines of $500 or more included unless a jail sentence is given.
Judge Mary C. Logan
Justin W. Dennis-Kentner, 40; one day in jail, hit/run unattended property and reckless driving.
Judge Kristin C. O’Sullivan
Casey D. Thompson, 25; eight days in jail, obstructing officer and second-degree trespass premises.
Judge Patrick T. Johnson
Joshua W. Covey, 26; $1,245.50 fine, 90 days in jail with credit given for one day served, 24 months probation, driving while intoxicated.
Judge Richard M. Leland
Eva L. Payne, 60; $750 fine, 12 months probation, driving while intoxicated amended to reckless driving.
Cody W. Reynolds, 34; $990.50 fine, one day in jail with credit given for one day served, 12 months probation, driving while intoxicated.
Matthew J. Tysor, 41; $750 fine, one day in jail with credit given for one day served, 24 months probation, driving while intoxicated amended to reckless driving.
Judge Donna Wilson
Joshua I. Armstrong, 42; six days in jail with credit given for six days served, 24 months probation, fourth-degree assault.
Lenetta M. Moses, 24; one day in jail with credit given for one day served, 24 months probation, no-contact/protection order violation.
Merajildo R. Reyna Jr., 54; 11 days in jail with credit given for 11 days served, 24 months probation, no-contact/protection order violation.
Dayna M. Baer, 38; $15 fine, three days in jail with credit given for three days served, 12 months probation, no-contact/protection order violation.
Anthony A. Brown, 24; 31 days in jail with credit given for 31 days served, 24 months probation, fourth-degree assault.
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Washington records
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2021-08-20 02:03:28+00:00
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2021-08-19 11:13:00
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Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU) is one of the leading manufacturers of DRAM (dynamic random access memory) products used in consumer PCs and mobile devices, and its products are increasingly being used in cloud server, industrial and other enterprise markets. DRAM makes up nearly three-quarters of Micron’s total revenue.
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Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU) is one of the leading manufacturers of DRAM (dynamic random access memory) products used in consumer PCs and mobile devices, and its products are increasingly being used in cloud server, industrial and other enterprise markets. DRAM makes up nearly three-quarters of Micron’s total revenue.
Micron is also a leading supplier of the NAND flash storage devices used in solid-state drives (SSDs), which make up 24% of its business.
Micron’s business is cyclical, and its prices rise and fall depending on supply and demand. During the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra cited “strong demand across almost all end markets,” including PC, data center, smartphone and 5G.
Mehrotra said Micron has so much automotive demand it can’t keep up, and also pointed to strong demand in industrial markets.
A semiconductor shortage is causing demand to exceed supply right now, and this could last into calendar year 2022.
But even when the supply shortage is eventually resolved, Mehrotra expects demand to increase further.
Micron has been a volatile stock in the past, but its stock has grown by more than 1,000% over the last decade.
Given frequent swings in memory pricing, this is one stock you want to get right when you buy shares.
With Micron’s forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio recently near 7, this seems a promising time for long-term investors to buy.
Ask the Fool
Q: What’s the “Internet of Things”? – C.D., Odessa, Texas
A: You may have noticed that nowadays, many “smart” things are connected to the internet, and they’re often controllable by apps on your phone.
That’s the Internet of Things (IoT).
Your doorbell, for example, might be connected to your home Wi-Fi network, allowing you to monitor and respond to it from anywhere. You may be able to turn lights on and off and adjust your thermostat via the internet, too, thanks to connected devices, and your watch may also be transmitting fitness information wirelessly.
Even refrigerators and washing machines are part of the IoT now.
The IoT potentially encompasses just about any object that can be connected to the internet in order to be controlled or to transmit information.
Q: How can I tell if a company pays a dividend? – G.N., Bay City, Michigan
A: The best way is just to call the company, ask for the Investor Relations department, and inquire about dividend payments.
It’s even easier to look up the company in online stock listings, which typically include any dividend and, if one is paid, the current dividend yield – but note that these sites may not have the most recent information.
A company’s dividend yield is more informative than its dividend amount, as it allows you to compare different companies’ payouts in an apples-to-apples fashion.
The yield is the percentage of the current stock price being paid out annually in dividends.
It’s calculated by dividing four quarters’ worth of dividend payments by the current stock price.
So a company paying $0.50 quarterly ($2 per year) and trading at $40 per share would have a yield of 5% ($2 divided by $40).
My dumbest investment
I bought shares of Rite Aid just prior to the announcement that it would merge with Walgreens.
One day it was up by 35%, and I just stared at it in wonder. I didn’t sell and didn’t place a stop-loss order to protect the gain.
I watched it go way back down to below the announced acquisition price.
I figured it would be easy money to buy and hold for a month or two until the acquisition closed, so I added significantly to my position.
Well, the acquisition ran into trouble, the price was lowered, and the merger didn’t happen. I ended with a 70%-plus loss on the largest single stock in my portfolio.
Lessons learned: 1) Don’t step in front of a steamroller to pick up a dime. 2) If a stock jumps up 40% in one day, don’t think twice: Sell it, take the money and run. – C.D., online
The Fool responds: It’s never worth risking death-by-steamroller for a dime. But do think twice before selling a winning stock, as the best companies (and their stocks) will keep growing over time.
The planned merger between Rite Aid (which was struggling) and Walgreens Boots Alliance faced significant criticism, and many expected the Federal Trade Commission to reject it. So the deal was changed, with Walgreens buying roughly half of Rite Aid’s stores for $5.2 billion.
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Semiconductor shortage leads to high demand for Micron
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2021-08-20 02:00:45+00:00
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2021-08-19 11:00:00
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Surveying today’s most popular music, one notes that first-person confessional lyrics are by far the most common. From hip-hop and rock to indie, the audience and artist most often assume that the narrative voice of the song is the artist singing it.
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By Julien A. Luebbers For The Spokesman-Review
Surveying today’s most popular music, one notes that first-person confessional lyrics are by far the most common. From hip-hop and rock to indie, the audience and artist most often assume that the narrative voice of the song is the artist singing it.
There are counterexamples to this trend, writers who favor the old ways: songs that upon their musical bones carry narrative stories and tales, whether they be a contemporary love song or mourning of a sailor’s widow. Mark Houston is one such writer, and his debut album, “The Coast,” which was released just over a month ago, demonstrates it track after track.
“Thematically, a lot of the songs are written from a storyteller’s perspective,” Houston said. “Each song is kind of a story about a fictional character. The album’s almost like a storybook.”
And that is certainly the impression one gets while listening to “The Coast,” which in 11 tracks includes inspiring pick-me-up songs, adventuresome narratives and more.
All the songs exude the same imagination: the stories carefully crafted for your interpretation. There may be story in the lyrics, but the real story is what you make in your mind.
“I try to keep it open, so that people can kind of make their own meaning out of it,” Houston said.
“I hope that when people listen to it, they’re able to kind of let their imagination go.” Take the lines from “A Lonesome Sailor’s Song,” a folksy track about a sailor’s longing for his dead lover: “Well I turned my head / Only for a moment / And the waves, they threw you overboard.”
The lines are like an outline, or sketch, but with help from the music, the listener fills them in with lavish detail. “A Lonesome Sailor’s Song” is also a good example of the album’s greatest musical strength.
Though Houston works primarily with guitar and vocals, he has brought in many other parts to fill out the album’s sound. In “Sailor’s Song,” the violin adds a time-worn tone, which contrasts heavily with the driving drums.
Houston has been a fixture of the local scene since he relocated to Spokane for college in the early 20-teens. But after years of sitting on his pile of songs, he finally decided that it was time to head into the studio and get himself a record. He brought his home-recorded guitar and vocal tracks to local studio Amplified Wax, and with the help of James Hill, turned those rough cuts into the polished result that is “The Coast.”
“When I decided I wanted to record it, I’d had so many ideas, there was just a backlog,” Houston said.
The process of narrowing down his life of songwriting into one record meant an eclectic set of sounds.
“I feel like you can hear the variance in the songs,” he said.
While the album is rooted in the steadily rocking acoustic guitar and finger-style folk, it comes to life with the range – in both composition and sonics – that Houston strives for.
“The Watcher,” for example, another vividly narrative piece, opens softly but by the end has developed a real rock feel, pushing the drums, guitar and swaying vocals to a fine energetic point. But the track retains its character and sound through the transformation. The expansions in instrumentation remain rooted in the acoustic guitar and vocals.
“I like to call it organic soundscapes mixed with thoughtful storytelling,” Houston said of his work.
With “The Watcher,” that “organic” sound is on full display. It feels as though the songs just came to be. They reveal a facile elegance that does not let on the laborious writing and technical work that went into their creation.
With “The Coast” out on all streaming platforms, Houston plans to play shows throughout the Northwest this fall, including in Spokane. The details aren’t set yet, but “it’s gonna be five of us live. So it still gives us lots of room to play with all the tracks.”
It also makes more of a dynamic onstage performance. Stream “The Coast” now wherever you stream music, and follow @MarkCHouston on Instagram for updates.
Julien A. Luebbers can be reached at julien.luebbers@gmail.com.
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Local Music Spotlight: Mark Houston’s stellar debut album ‘The Coast’ is ‘like a storybook’
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2021-08-20 01:57:42+00:00
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2021-08-19 00:00:00
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The August 11 District 81 School Board meeting took community comments on mask mandates and the proposed equity policies. Passionate citizens shared concerns that this equity policy masked a darker agenda of critical race theory, a theory espousing race as THE overarching human characteristic.
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The August 11 District 81 School Board meeting took community comments on mask mandates and the proposed equity policies. Passionate citizens shared concerns that this equity policy masked a darker agenda of critical race theory, a theory espousing race as THE overarching human characteristic.
Toward the end of the meeting, board member (Nikki) Lockwood shared the positive things the equity plan can achieve for students. She spoke of the needs/struggles and successes of her autistic daughter. She also described the successes of her other daughter without disability.
Lockwood stated that even though she, herself, is Mexican, this daughter passes for white, is bubbly and sparkly and has lots of white friends. A woman sitting directly behind me said, “they are just kids, not white kids.” Lockwood responded testily that she is a board member and cannot be interrupted, shutting down the discussions.
Lockwood’s words and demeanor reveal her view of life through the narrow lens of skin color. Who can trust a board member like that? All the nice words in this equity policy can’t mask that it is race-based and divisive. Skin color is not our defining characteristic. Our kids deserve to know that, no matter what color they are.
Brad Cossette
Spokane
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"Equity policy" still divisive
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/equity-policy-still-divisive/
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2021-08-20 02:06:11+00:00
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2021-08-19 07:51:00
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Toyota is scaling back production in North America and Japan as the surging coronavirus pandemic in Southeast Asia and elsewhere crimps supplies.
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By Yuri Kageyama Associated Press Associated Press
TOKYO – Toyota is scaling back production in North America and Japan as the surging coronavirus pandemic in Southeast Asia and elsewhere crimps supplies.
Japan’s top automaker said Thursday that it will cut back production at home by 40%, affecting 14 auto assembly plants in the country.
In North America, Toyota said it expects August production to be slashed by 60,000 to 90,000 vehicles.
A representative from Toyota said that output fluctuates month to month, but that it would equate to a production cut of between 40% and 60%.
“Due to COVID-19 and unexpected events with our supply chain, Toyota is experiencing additional shortages that will affect production at most of our North American plants,” the company said in a prepared statement Thursday.
“While the situation remains fluid and complex, our manufacturing and supply chain teams have worked diligently to develop countermeasures to minimize the impact on production.”
The company said production cuts in North America are not expected to have an impact on staffing levels.
In Japan, production will halt completely next month at some plants and partly at others, affecting a wide range of models, including the Corolla subcompact, Prius hybrid and Land Cruiser sport utility vehicle.
Global production for September will decline by 360,000 vehicles, according to Toyota Motor Corp. But it stuck to its annual forecast to produce 9.3 million vehicles, as coronavirus risks were figured in.
Of the lost production out of Japan, 140,000 vehicles are for Japan and 220,000 for overseas, with 80,000 in the U.S., 40,000 in Europe, 80,000 in China, 8,000 in the rest of Asia and about 10,000 in other regions.
Toyota had already announced smaller production cuts for July and August in Japan.
“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers and suppliers due to these changes,” Toyota said.
A shortage of the computer chips used widely in vehicles has been problematic for months as the world appeared to emerge from the pandemic and demand surged.
Toyota had not been hit as hard as some other major automakers, and now the spread of the delta variant has introduced new complications.
David Leggett, auto analyst at GlobalData, said auto demand is now down in Vietnam, and sales have already been hurt in some markets for all manufacturers.
“The pandemic is clearly far from over and appears, as far as the auto industry’s recovery path is concerned, to have a sting in the tail,” he said.
Toyota has held up relatively well amid the pandemic, racking up a record profit for the April-June quarter at about $8 billion, an increase of more than fivefold from the same period the previous year.
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Under delta variant, supply chain strains, Toyota slashes production
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2021-08-20 01:57:01+00:00
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2021-08-19 06:00:00
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As public health officials struggle to convince the broader public to get vaccinated for COVID-19, they’ve found some success locally in homeless shelters.
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As public health officials struggle to convince the broader public to get vaccinated for COVID-19, they’ve found some success locally in homeless shelters.
In fact, vaccination rates inside Spokane homeless shelters have at times exceeded that of the county.
More than six months into the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, just 57% of eligible county residents 12 and older have initiated vaccination. But inside the House of Charity this month, 69% of beds have been occupied by people who were fully vaccinated.
Health officials and shelter operators have leaned on the data to help gauge the risk shelters face from COVID-19 outbreaks and focus their vaccination efforts.
They attribute the relatively high rates to the Spokane Regional Health District’s early and targeted efforts to offer vaccines in shelters, as well as an openness among shelter clients to get the shot.
“What is surprising to most folks is that just like any other segment of our culture, people at HOC take great pride in being part of an HOC family,” said Dena Carr, the shelter’s manager. “They really are persuaded to do what’s best for their family.”
The health district’s homeless outreach team has been eager to help, holding more than 100 clinics for people experiencing homelessness and administering 1,504 doses of the vaccine since they became available.
Tracking the data
How does the health district know the vaccination rate inside a shelter?
With a little help from the city of Spokane, according to Kylie Kingsbury, the health district’s homeless outreach coordinator.
The city manages a Community Management Information System, which allows organizations and service providers to share information and track data related to homelessness and housing.
The health district asked the system’s outgoing administrator, David Lewis, if the city could begin tracking vaccination status among shelter guests. Lewis and his team quickly built the tool into the system, Kingsbury said.
The health district has been able to track everyone it has vaccinated at its 144 clinics in shelters, as well as those who have been vaccinated by CHAS. It can also pull information from the Washington State Immunization Information System.
With that data, health district staff have tracked what percentage of a shelter’s guests have been vaccinated in any given month.
The data helps give health officials a “helpful tool in gauging where we are and protection levels in a shelter,” Kingsbury said, especially as the delta variant surges into the Spokane region.
Because shelter residency is inherently impermanent, the vaccination rate can fluctuate. For example, the vaccination rate at the Hope House women’s shelter was 63% in July, but has dropped to 48% in August. That’s useful information to health officials, who now know they have more work to do.
The data also allows health officials to focus their efforts on people they know are staying in a shelter every night. The team identified people who were regularly staying at House of Charity but had yet to be vaccinated.
Of the seven people they were able to have conversations with about the vaccine, Kingsbury said six agreed to get it. Some people simply needed the vaccine offered to them, while others had a list of questions.
“We can do incredibly targeted outreach,” Kingsbury said.
The system allows health officials to also view who has received only a single dose of the vaccine and requires a second, preventing them from slipping through the cracks.
House of vaccination
The House of Charity, a shelter operated by Catholic Charities, has been a consistent leader in the vaccination efforts.
The shelter has been offering guests small incentives for COVID-aware behavior throughout the pandemic. Trading in a used mask for a new one was rewarded with an ice pop last summer, for example.
The initial offer for vaccination was a simple cup of hot cocoa, said House of Charity’s Carr, the shelter’s manager.
That shelter guests were so willing to get the vaccine is likely due to a number of factors.
When COVID-19 outbreaks occurred during spikes in the pandemic, Carr noted that people had to watch as their friends and family tested positive and were forced into isolation – making the consequences of the disease very tangible.
Shelter guests also simply wanted to do what was best for those around them, Carr said. It also helped that shelter staff were vaccinated at the same clinics.
“It was kind of a good leveler – we’re all doing this together and making this decision together,” Carr said.
Carr also gave health district staff credit for their work with the homeless population.
“Watching them work is really an exercise in harm reduction and communicating to people where they’re at, in a way that really alleviates a lot of the concern or anxieties that people feel,” Carr said.
While COVID-19 has been resurgent in local shelters, House of Charity has so far avoided any major outbreaks that have forced it to stop accepting new people inside.
Several shelters have experienced COVID-19 outbreaks in recent weeks.
The delta variant is significantly more transmissible than previous iterations of the coronavirus, leading to spread among the unvaccinated and even breakthrough cases in people who are vaccinated.
As is the case across the broader community, symptoms in vaccinated people have tended to be less severe than in those who are unvaccinated, according to local health officials. Given that proven effectiveness, Kingsbury said, the health district is continuing to encourage vaccination.
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Coordinated effort helps vaccinate Spokane's homeless
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/coordinated-effort-helps-vaccinate-spokanes-homele/
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2021-08-20 01:57:12+00:00
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2021-08-19 10:55:00
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The county's video system for public hearings is essentially a mess.
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The video and audio equipment in the Spokane County commissioners’ public hearing room in the bottom of the public works building is bad.
Jared Webley, Spokane County’s spokesperson, has to manage the video and audio in the public hearing room. It’s an extremely outdated system, he said. The recording equipment is more than 20 years old.
Videos are often grainy and audio quality is staticy. Meetings in the commissioners’ public hearing room have been recorded on CDs. Webley has to reformat the recordings in order to disseminate the meetings.
“That took an hour or two just to reformat,” Webley said.
But the caliber of the equipment in the public hearing room should change soon. The county is spending more than $90,000 to upgrade its audio and video setup.
“My goal and the commissioners’ goal is to hopefully have this by the end of the year,” Webley said.
Buying audio and visual equipment has been a challenge during the pandemic, with thousands of local governments and businesses all looking to upgrade their livestreaming capabilities simultaneously. If it weren’t for the high demand, the county could have outfitted the public hearing room with new gear a while ago, Webley said.
It might not seem like a big deal to have amateur-looking meeting videos, Webley said. But he emphasized the current setup is simply inadequate for the 21st century, and Spokane County residents deserve better video quality.
“Right now we barely have the ability in that room to conduct virtual meetings,” Webley said. “We wanted the ability … to livestream meetings like the city of Spokane does.”
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County commissioners' public hearing chambers getting $90,000 tech upgrade
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2021-08-20 01:55:50+00:00
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2021-08-19 14:58:00
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Amtrak is resuming Coast Starlight service between Los Angeles and Seattle on Aug. 23.
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Amtrak is resuming Coast Starlight service between Los Angeles and Seattle on Aug. 23.
Service on the Coast Starlight route was suspended for several weeks due to wildfire damage in Northern California, according to the company.
Coast Starlight is widely regarded as one of the most spectacular of all train routes with scenery that includes peaks of the Cascade Range and Mount Shasta, lush forests and long stretches of the Pacific Ocean, Amtrak said in a release.
The new Coast Starlight schedule has been updated on all Amtrak reservation systems, including Amtrak.com and the Amtrak app.
Spokane’s Auto Ramp Services purchased
Professional Transportation Inc. has acquired Spokane-based Auto Ramp Services Inc. in an effort to diversify and expand service offerings to its railroad clients.
Professional Transportation Inc., headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, provides ground transportation services nationwide to companies in the railroad, mining and energy industries.
Auto Ramp Services provides auto loading and unloading, and gate administration services to the railroad industry in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana and Washington.
“The acquisition by PTI is an excellent alignment of our business with an existing and well-respected supplier to the nation’s rail industry,” ARS’s CEO and owner Jack Haley said in a statement.
“It also serves to protect our employees as I transition to retirement and provides them a bright future with PTI.”
The transaction closed Aug. 6., according to a company release. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Wall Street trading choppy, markets finish mostly down
Wall Street closed out another choppy day of trading Thursday, leaving the major stock indexes on pace for a weekly loss.
The S&P 500 managed a 0.1% gain after having been down 0.7% in the early going.
The Nasdaq composite also recovered to eke out 0.1% gain, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%.
Small companies fell broadly. A late-afternoon rally in technology stocks helped offset some of the losses in energy companies, banks and other sectors.
Prices for oil and other commodities also fell, pulling mining and energy stocks lower.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.25%.
Investors continued to size up quarterly report cards from retailers.
Macy’s posted its second-biggest single-day gain as traders cheered the department store chain’s latest results.
Much of the market’s choppiness, especially in the S&P 500, is due to investors trying to position themselves as they gauge the pace of the recovery and how it will benefit different sectors of the economy.
The market first has to gauge the near-term prospects for the economy as COVID-19 remains a threat, Freedman said.
At the same time, investors have to also focus on what the economy looks like after the virus recedes or when the world learns to live with the virus in a different way.
The S&P 500 added 5.53 points to 4,405.80. The Dow fell 66.57 points to 34,894.12.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 15.87 points to 14,541.79.
From staff and wire reportsThe Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 26.36 points, or1.2%, to 2,132.42.
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Amtrak resuming Coast Starlight service
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2021-08-20 02:05:10+00:00
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2021-08-19 09:58:00
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Tensions have been growing in Haiti over the slow pace of aid reaching victims of a powerful weekend earthquake that killed more than 2,100 people and was trailed by the drenching rain of Tropical Storm Grace.
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By Mark Stevenson and Evens Sanon Associated Press
LES CAYES, Haiti — Tensions have been growing in Haiti over the slow pace of aid reaching victims of a powerful weekend earthquake that killed more than 2,100 people and was trailed by the drenching rain of Tropical Storm Grace.
Aid has trickled in, but distributing food and getting urgent medical care to those in need is another matter amid the deep poverty, insecurity and lack of basic infrastructure that characterized Haiti before the back-to-back disasters.
A major hospital in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where injured from the earthquake zone in the southwestern peninsula were being sent, was closed Thursday for a two-day shutdown to protest the kidnapping of two doctors, including one of the country’s few orthopedic surgeons.
The abductions dealt a major blow to attempts to control criminal violence that has threatened disaster response efforts in Port-au-Prince.
The tension is increasingly evident in the area hit hardest by Saturday’s quake. At the small airport in the southwestern town of Les Cayes, people thronged a perimeter fence Wednesday as aid was loaded into trucks and police fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of young men.
Angry crowds also massed at collapsed buildings in the city, demanding tarps to create temporary shelters after Grace’s heavy rain.
Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency late Wednesday raised the number of deaths from the earthquake to 2,189 and said 12,268 people were injured. Dozens are still missing.
The magnitude 7.2 earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and damaged more than 12,000, leaving about 30,000 families homeless, according to official estimates. Schools, offices and churches also were demolished or badly damaged.
One of the first food deliveries by local authorities — a couple dozen boxes of rice and pre-measured, bagged meal kits — reached a tent encampment set up in one of the poorest areas of Les Cayes, where most of the one-story, cinderblock, tin-roofed homes were damaged or destroyed.
But the shipment was clearly insufficient for the hundreds who have lived under tents and tarps for days.
“It’s not enough, but we’ll do everything we can to make sure everybody gets at least something,” said Vladimir Martino, a camp resident who took charge of the distribution.
Gerda Francoise, 24, was one of dozens who lined up in the wilting heat for food. “I don’t know what I’m going to get, but I need something to take back to my tent,” said Francoise. “I have a child.”
International aid workers said hospitals in the worst-hit areas are mostly incapacitated, requiring many to be moved to the capital for treatment. But reaching Port-au-Prince from the southwest is difficult under normal conditions because of poor roads and gangs along the route.
Even with a supposed gang truce following the earthquake, kidnapping remains a threat — underscored by the seizure of the two doctors working at the private Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where about 50 quake victims were being treated.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry said Wednesday his administration will try not to “repeat history on the mismanagement and coordination of aid,” a reference to the chaos after the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, when the government and international partners struggled to channel help to the needy amid the widespread destruction and misery.
Meanwhile, the Core Group, a coalition of key international diplomats from the U.S. and other nations that monitors Haiti, said in a statement that its members are “resolutely committed to working alongside national and local authorities to ensure that impacted people and areas receive adequate assistance as soon as possible.”
Distributing the aid to the thousands left homeless will be challenging.
“We are planning a meeting to start clearing all of the sites that were destroyed, because that will give the owner of that site at least the chance to build something temporary, out of wood, to live on that site,” said Serge Chery, head of civil defense for the Southern Province, which covers Les Cayes. “It will be easier to distribute aid if people are living at their addresses, rather than in a tent.”
Chery said an estimated 300 people are still missing.
While some officials have suggested an end to the search phase so that heavy machinery can clear the rubble, Henry appeared unwilling to move to that stage.
“Some of our citizens are still under the debris. We have teams of foreigners and Haitians working on it,” he said.
He also appealed for unity.
“We have to put our heads together to rebuild Haiti,” Henry said. “The country is physically and mentally destroyed.”
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www.spokesman.com
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Tensions grow in Haiti over slow pace of aid after quake
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/tensions-grow-in-haiti-over-slow-pace-of-aid-after/
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[] |
2021-08-20 02:08:14+00:00
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2021-08-19 10:16:00
|
Washington State University’s Max Sekulic is having a summer to remember. Sekulic won the Northwest Open, one of six PGA Pacific Northwest Section’s majors, closing with a 10-under 62 Wednesday at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla.
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spokesman.com%2Fstories%2F2021%2Faug%2F19%2Fwsus-max-sekulic-wins-northwest-open%2F.json
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en
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Washington State University’s Max Sekulic is having a summer to remember.
Sekulic won the Northwest Open, one of six PGA Pacific Northwest Section majors, closing with a 10-under 62 Wednesday at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla.
Sekulic broke the tournament record with a 23-under 193 in the 54-hole event for a four-shot victory over Derek Berg, a teaching pro at the Pacific Northwest Golf Academy in Issaquah, Washington. The previous 54-hole record was Derek Barron’s 199 in 2015 at Wine Valley.
Sekulic, who transferred to WSU from Grand Canyon, had two eagles on front-nine par 5s and made the turn in 6-under 30. The native of Canada added four more birdies on the back side.
In 54 holes, Sekulic made 20 birdies, three eagles, one bogey and one double bogey.
Sekulic was low amateur and second overall at the Rosauers Open Invitational at Indian Canyon in July. He won the Canadian Amateur earlier this month. He also competed in the U.S. Amateur, but didn’t qualify for match play.
Mead’s Mularski, Martinsen fall in amateur
Mead High’s Taylor Mularski won two matches at the Pacific Northwest Golf Association’s Junior Girls Amateur before falling to top-seeded Kennedy Knox in Thursday’s semifinals at Palouse Ridge in Pullman.
Mularski, who tied for third in the 36-hole qualifying, opened match play with a 2&1 victory over Mercer Island’s Elle Evans and a 4&3 win over Brooke Patterson, of Eagle, Idaho.
Mead’s Caden Martinsen lost in Thursday’s quarterfinals of the Junior Boys Amateur.
Martinsen won a pair of matches 1-up Wednesday at Palouse Ridge before falling 7&6 to second-seeded Collin Hodgkinson, of Beaverton, Oregon.
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www.spokesman.com
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WSU's Max Sekulic wins Northwest Open
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/wsus-max-sekulic-wins-northwest-open/
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[] |
2021-08-20 02:05:51+00:00
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2021-08-19 00:00:00
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Foreseeable. Predictable. Indefensible. And unjustifiable. What happened this week in Afghanistan with the thoughtless, haphazard withdrawal of American troops and support from the country has created horrific images that rival the abandonment of personnel in Vietnam 50 years ago.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spokesman.com%2Fstories%2F2021%2Faug%2F19%2Fthis-biden%2F.json
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en
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Foreseeable. Predictable. Indefensible. And unjustifiable. What happened this week in Afghanistan with the thoughtless, haphazard withdrawal of American troops and support from the country has created horrific images that rival the abandonment of personnel in Vietnam 50 years ago.
The luckiest Afghanistan people who were allied with America are no longer living. Those still alive are terrified and have little hope of avoiding a brutal death at the hands of the Taliban. The image of people falling from aircraft as a consequence of their desperate attempt to escape a ruthless foe will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Biden remains clueless about the damage and deaths he caused. This violence could have been prevented through a planned, coordinated effort to provide safe haven to those considered friends. But it wasn’t. This debacle is squarely on Biden, and those who support him.
Dave McCann
Spokane
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www.spokesman.com
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This is on Biden
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/this-biden/
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[] |
2021-08-20 02:00:35+00:00
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2021-08-19 17:00:00
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If you are immunocompromised, you should get your third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine when you can, doctors say.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spokesman.com%2Fstories%2F2021%2Faug%2F19%2Flocal-doctors-recommend-third-doses-of-covid-19-va%2F.json
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en
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If you are immunocompromised, you should get your third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine when you can, doctors say.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized third doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for those who are moderately to severely immunocompromised. This includes people being treated for cancer, organ and stem cell transplant recipients, those taking high-dose corticosteroids, HIV patients and patients with moderate to severe immunodeficiency.
The hope is that a third dose will boost the immune response in people who are most vulnerable to adverse effects should they contract COVID-19 .
Studies of people with specific conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19 found that the two-dose mRNA vaccines might not have produced high enough antibody levels to fight off the virus. One study of more than 600 transplant patients found that just 54% of those who were fully vaccinated developed antibodies.
Limited studies so far show that a third dose might boost those low antibody levels in these patients, but countries like France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Israel also plan to authorize third doses for similar patients populations.
The pandemic has been more risky for patients with underlying health conditions, and that reality persists today, with the fast-spreading delta variant causing a surge in cases and hospitalizations state and nationwide.
Immunocompromised patients can receive a third dose as soon as four weeks after their second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccine.
Those who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine are not included in the third dose recommendation yet, as the CDC weighs data on the effectiveness of a second dose .
Dr. Arvind Chaudhry, the director of Summit Cancer Centers, said their phones have been ringing off the hook with patients trying to get their third dose. Chaudhry recommends it, noting that some cancer patients have tested positive for the virus, despite being fully vaccinated.
“There is an actual need for the shot,” Chaudhry said.
Breakthrough cases, while rare, are increasingly common with the delta variant circulating, and patients who are immunocompromised or with underlying health conditions are at higher risk for this.
There have been 5,879 breakthroughs statewide as of Aug. 11, including 380 in Spokane County alone. So while rare, the risk is still there. So more, more that 8.3 million doses of vaccine have been given statewide.
The hope is that a third dose will offer enough protection to keep immunocompromised patients out of the hospital should they test positive for the virus.
One study found that 40 to 44% of breakthrough cases who are hospitalized are also immunocompromised, according to an analysis presented to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The third dose is different than a booster dose, according to the CDC, which might become available later this fall to all fully vaccinated people when vaccines have potentially waned in effectiveness.
Vaccination is very effective at keeping people out of the hospital with COVID-19, even with the delta variant on the rise. In recent weeks, more than 90% of those people hospitalized with the virus in Spokane County have not been vaccinated against the virus, according to the health district.
With the vast majority of breakthrough cases, while they might bring symptoms, they are not requiring hospitalization.
At Cancer Care Northwest, most patients were eager to get vaccinated and now get their third dose, said Dr. Hakan Kaya, a medical oncologist .
Some cancer patients, like those with leukemia or other blood cancers, have already stressed immune systems. For other cancer patients, chemotherapy and radiation can weaken the immune system too, Kaya said.
Vaccines are available at most pharmacies, some grocery stores and many health care providers throughout the county.
The best way to protect immunocompromised individuals beyond their own third doses is for the community at large to get more vaccinated against the virus and help reduce virus transmission.
As Kaya noted, one of his patients is at much higher risk even walking into a grocery store or an environment where not everyone is vaccinated than someone with no underlying medical conditions. Vaccination then, is the way to protect the most vulnerable.
“Not receiving a vaccine is actually putting other people’s lives at risk, especially my patients,” Kaya said.
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www.spokesman.com
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Local doctors recommend third doses of COVID-19 vaccine for immunocompromised patients
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https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/19/local-doctors-recommend-third-doses-of-covid-19-va/
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|||||
[
"Marion Rae"
] |
2021-08-20 02:20:02+00:00
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2021-08-20 02:10:05
|
Stockland's shopping malls and offices have lost value and income on rent holidays and lockdowns, but a solid profit reflects sturdy home sales and logistics.
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https%3A%2F%2Fthewest.com.au%2Fbusiness%2Fstockland-posts-mega-profit-despite-covid-c-3732456.json
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en
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Property developer Stockland has posted a $1.1 billion net profit on Australia's home buying frenzy and demand for pandemic-era logistics.
Shopping malls and offices have lost value and income from rent holidays amid lockdowns.
But there is strong demand for more industrial precincts and warehouses to fix any supply chain woes and support online business growth.
Chief Financial Officer Tarun Gupta, once Lend Lease's bean counter, said on Friday he is looking at a $33 billion development pipeline across the group.
Some $5.5 billion for the logistics division includes Melbourne Business Park, Truganina, Altona and Cranbourne West in Victoria, and Macquarie Park, Gregory Hills and the Leppington Business Park in NSW.
Projects ready to start development include Carole Park and Yatala assets in Queensland.
Stockland is also eyeing residential land purchases in Sydney, Southeast Queensland and Melbourne.
Retirement sales delivered record sales growth, with settlements up 22 per cent.
Residential sales volumes rose more than 50 per cent in 2020/21 to 7700 lots, buoyed by ongoing low interest rates and buyer fear of missing out.
There is "strong momentum" continuing this year in home sales, the company said.
Stockland will distribute 24.6 cents per security, up 2.1 per cent on a year earlier, on August 31.
Guidance for 2022 is 34.6-35.6 cents per security.
The outlook across the group assumes COVID-19 restrictions end in calendar 2021 and the vaccination rollout continues steadily.
The return to profit followed a $21 million net loss a year ago.
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thewest.com.au
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Stockland posts mega-profit despite COVID
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https://thewest.com.au/business/stockland-posts-mega-profit-despite-covid-c-3732456
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[] |
2021-08-20 02:20:41+00:00
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2021-08-20 02:11:08
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NSW has recorded 644 new local cases of COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour reporting period, up to 8pm on Thursday.
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https%3A%2F%2Fthewest.com.au%2Fnews%2Fcoronavirus%2Fcovid-19s-impact-on-nsw-by-the-numbers-c-3732475.json
|
en
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THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK IN NSW:
* New locally-acquired cases: 642 (down 39 on prior 24-hour period)
* Other local cases: Two (acquired in ACT but isolating in NSW)
* Cases with isolation status under investigation: 506
* In hotel quarantine: Two (-1)
* Total for outbreak (since June 16): 10,582
* Total in NSW for entire COVID-19 pandemic: 16,164
* In hospital: 470 (-4)
* In intensive care: 80 (-2)
* Ventilated: 27 (+2)
* Deaths in current outbreak: 65 (+4)
* Deaths in NSW for entire pandemic: 121
* Tests conducted (over 24-hour reporting period): 127,590
* Vaccinations in NSW (on Wednesday): 132,439
* Total vaccinations administered in NSW (as of Wednesday): 5,518,435
* Vaccination coverage in NSW (aged 16 and over, as of Wednesday): 55.23 per cent have had at least one dose, 29.32 are fully vaccinated.
* Borders: Greater Sydney residents are not permitted to visit regional NSW unless for essential activity, and cannot freely enter any other Australian state or territory. Regional NSW residents are also barred from freely entering other states or territories, with limited exceptions.
Restrictions and hotspots: www.health.nsw.gov.au
Workplace support: https://business.gov.au
Financial support: Services Australia and Service NSW
Mental health support: Lifeline 13 11 14, beyondblue 1300 22 4636, Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)
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thewest.com.au
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COVID-19's impact on NSW by the numbers
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https://thewest.com.au/news/coronavirus/covid-19s-impact-on-nsw-by-the-numbers-c-3732475
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|||||
[
"Ethan James"
] |
2021-08-20 02:20:54+00:00
|
2021-08-20 02:02:58
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Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has released the state government's lockdown plans in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak.
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https%3A%2F%2Fthewest.com.au%2Fnews%2Fcoronavirus%2Ftasmania-shares-lockdown-contingency-plan-c-3732376.json
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en
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Tasmania has taken the step of releasing its coronavirus lockdown plan, should an outbreak force the island state to implement tough measures.
While mainland states and territories have jumped in and out of lockdowns during the pandemic, Tasmania hasn't imposed such restrictions since a deadly cluster in the northwest early last year.
The state has recorded just one COVID-19 case in 2021, a NSW traveller who recorded a positive test in early August while in quarantine.
Premier Peter Gutwein said the state would aim to act "short and sharp" in the event of a lockdown.
"We are doing everything we possibly can to make sure we don't go into lockdown," he said on Friday.
"The plan is to provide information, so people can prepare themselves should we unfortunately need to do that."
The state government has outlined proposed restrictions and face mask wearing guidelines after calls from the business community for greater information.
"Since the beginning of last year when we had the northwest outbreak, we are the only jurisdiction in the country that has not had to go into lockdown," Mr Gutwein said.
"That has raised questions in minds about what it might look like if we need to go there again."
Mr Gutwein indicated Tasmania had learnt from outbreaks of the Delta virus strain on the mainland.
Tasmania is closed to New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, Darwin and Katherine, New Zealand and people who've visited high-risk premises in Queensland.
Tasmania's peak tourism body has called for a system where only vaccinated people can visit the state.
Tasmania is part of a working group with Victoria and the NT which is examining the potential for vaccine passport channels.
"Every person needs to have had the opportunity to be vaccinated before we start thinking about what exemptions might be," Mr Gutwein said.
"Once we pass that threshold, I think there should be some benefits from being fully vaccinated."
Nearly 55 per cent of Tasmanians have had their first COVID-19 vaccine dose and almost 34 per cent are fully vaccinated.
|
thewest.com.au
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Tasmania shares lockdown contingency plan
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https://thewest.com.au/news/coronavirus/tasmania-shares-lockdown-contingency-plan-c-3732376
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|||||
[
"The West Australian"
] |
2021-08-20 02:20:21+00:00
|
2021-08-20 02:03:00
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While half of Aussie cat owners admit skipping regular health checks, there are some symptoms you shouldn’t ignore.
|
https%3A%2F%2Fthewest.com.au%2Flifestyle%2Fhome-decorating%2Fhow-to-tell-if-your-cat-needs-to-see-a-vet-ng-b881972401z.json
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en
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While no one likes taking their beloved to the vet, new research has found half of Australian cat owners admitted they avoid taking their pet for regular check-ups.
A recent survey by pet food company Royal Canin found one-in-two Australian cats does not undergo regular routine health checks, with owners instead waiting until an issue or emergency arises.
The study showed almost a quarter of cat owners said visiting the vet was a stressful experience, with 8 per cent blaming simply getting their furry friend into its carrier in the first place, and 66 per cent saying they would visit the vet more often if it was easier to do so.
Then there’s the fact that cats are more likely than dogs to mask the symptoms of pain or illness — which Royal Canin veterinarian Dr Chantelle McGowan warns can lead to potentially serious health issues going undetected.
“Cats are masters at hiding pain and illness and many pet owners do not spot the signs that something could be wrong, and this leads to health issues being undiagnosed and untreated for long periods of time,” Dr McGowan says.
Perth Cat Hospital’s Dr Martine Van Boeijen, a veterinarian who specialises in feline medicine, agrees that cats tend to show more subtle symptoms than their canine counterparts.
“Signs of illness may include a slight change in behaviour or sleeping patterns, increased hiding behaviours and changes in their appetite or their toileting habits,” she says. “Some unwell cats may start toileting outside of their litter box.”
Even common issues such as dental disease can often go unnoticed, even when the animal is in significant pain. “Most cats with dental disease will still continue to eat well, leaving their owners unaware that their cat is suffering,” she says.
“Arthritis is another cause of chronic pain that can be easily missed by even the most observant cat owners.
“Other common conditions that cats may hide the symptoms of include chronic pancreatitis, heart disease, and urinary tract problems such as cystitis and kidney disease.”
Dr Van Boeijen says all cats need regular veterinary checks to help ensure they’re happy and healthy.
“The frequency of the feline health check will depend on the cat’s age and if they have any underlying health concerns, however, the general recommendation is at least annually for cats up to seven years of age, and at least twice yearly for cats over seven years of age,” she says. “The health check will include a full physical examination by your vet in addition to some routine laboratory tests such as blood and urine testing, and blood pressure assessment for older cats.
“Each healthcare plan should be tailored to each individual cat’s own circumstances.”
Some of the warning signs your cat may be unwell
-“Cats with dental disease may make unusual head or jaw movements while eating, or they may flick their food about, and they can start to become fussy with certain foods or textures of food,” Dr Van Boeijen says.
-“Signs such as abnormal litter box behaviour, repeated vomiting, fatigue, change in appetite, weight loss, frequent hairballs and behavioural changes can all be signs that there may be an underlying health issue in your cat that needs treatment by a veterinarian,” Dr McGowan says.
“Cats with joint pain may show a decreased ability to jump up or down from a height, show reluctance to play with their toys, sleep more and be reluctant to walk up and down stairs,” Dr Van Boeijen says. “They may also develop some matting on their coat as they cannot groom themselves properly.”
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thewest.com.au
|
How to tell if your cat needs to see a vet
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https://thewest.com.au/lifestyle/home-decorating/how-to-tell-if-your-cat-needs-to-see-a-vet-ng-b881972401z
|
|||||
[
"Anna Harrington"
] |
2021-08-20 02:22:02+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:34:23
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Geelong are prepared to go head-to-head with Melbourne's array of midfield guns when they face off in a huge AFL top-two clash.
|
https%3A%2F%2Fthewest.com.au%2Fsport%2Fafl%2Fcats-ready-to-face-dees-on-ball-guns-c-3732112.json
|
en
|
Geelong are set to back their on-ball division to go toe-to-toe with Melbourne's star-studded midfield in their AFL top-of-the-ladder clash.
The midfield duel will be front and centre of Saturday night's high-stakes match at GMHBA Stadium, where the minor premiership is on the line.
The Demons thumped Geelong around the ball when they last met back in round four, with Christian Petracca dominating and Max Gawn dictating terms in the ruck.
Geelong coach Chris Scott noted the Cats had been without Patrick Dangerfield or Jeremy Cameron that day and had improved significantly since.
"It doesn't matter who you have - you've got to play extremely well to at least break even with those guys (Melbourne's midfield)," he said.
"Gawn is a star and then their ground level players have come on as well, with (Jack) Viney coming back into the team they've got some real depth in there as well
"It's not just Petracca or (Clayton) Oliver, it's the depth of their overall midfield that can be hard to combat. So that's going to be a key part of the game.
"How are we gonna do it? We've got to work through that a little bit ... but we do tend to back in our guys.
"Because if we become too negative and focus on the strengths of the opposition, we run the risk of forgetting about how good (Cam) Guthrie, Dangerfield, (Joel) Selwood, (Brandan) Parfitt and (Sam) Menegola and those guys can be."
The Demons have regained key defender Steven May and forward Tom McDonald, while Viney returns from suspension.
Gryan Miers, Gary Rohan and Tom Atkins return for Geelong.
Due to Tom Stewart's absence, Scott said it was "logical" to suggest Mark Blicavs would spend more time down back, especially in his 200th game this week, to counter Melbourne's height in attack.
Scott was adamant the Cats wouldn't hold too much back against the Demons, preferring to use the crunch clash as on opportunity to work on key parts of their game.
"We certainly won't be doing anything that suggests to our players that we can take liberties and muck around with the way we want to play - the stakes are too high in terms of improving our game," he said.
"After this game we're not going to have many chances in the heat of an AFL game to iron out any chinks."
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thewest.com.au
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Cats ready to face Dees' on-ball guns
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https://thewest.com.au/sport/afl/cats-ready-to-face-dees-on-ball-guns-c-3732112
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[
"Sangmi Cha"
] |
2021-08-20 02:20:47+00:00
|
2021-08-20 02:01:55
|
Social distancing curbs have been extended in South Korea as it battles its fourth wave of COVID-19, but fully vaccinated people will get some freedoms.
|
https%3A%2F%2Fthewest.com.au%2Fnews%2Fcoronavirus%2Fskorea-gives-fully-vaccinated-some-leeway-c-3732362.json
|
en
|
South Korea has extended its social distancing curbs for two weeks to ward off a surge in coronavirus cases, while allowing vaccinated people some latitude, its prime minister says.
The country's fourth COVID-19 wave has shown few signs of abating six weeks after the toughest level four distancing rules, which include a ban on gatherings of more than two people after 6pm, were imposed in the greater Seoul area.
South Korea reported 2052 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, 2,001 of which were locally acquired, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency data showed.
As part of the extended restrictions, authorities will require restaurants and cafes in the metropolitan area to close an hour earlier at 9pm until September 5, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a COVID response meeting on Friday.
In the same region, though previously only two people could gather after 6pm, one or two other fully vaccinated people can now join them, 14 days after their last shot, Kim said.
These incentives have been put in place to encourage vaccinations and to boost the economy, especially businesses such as restaurants and cafes that have been hit hardest by prolonged measures.
South Korea has given 48.3 per cent of its 52 million population at least one vaccine dose, and 21.6 per cent are fully vaccinated. It aims to fully immunise 70 per cent by October.
The KDCA has registered a total of 232,859 infections since the pandemic started, with 2197 deaths.
|
thewest.com.au
|
S.Korea gives fully vaccinated some leeway
|
https://thewest.com.au/news/coronavirus/skorea-gives-fully-vaccinated-some-leeway-c-3732362
|
|||||
[] |
2021-08-20 02:21:56+00:00
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2021-08-20 01:51:38
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Ismail Sabri Yaakob is poised to get the king's assent to become Malaysia's new prime minister, succeeding Muhyiddin Yassin, who lost support from his alliance.
|
https%3A%2F%2Fthewest.com.au%2Fpolitics%2Fmalaysias-king-expected-to-name-new-pm-c-3732281.json
|
en
|
Malaysia's King Al-Sultan Abdullah is expected to announce the appointment of the country's new prime minister following a meeting with other royal rulers.
The conference of royals, comprising the Southeast Asian nation's nine sultans, including the king, will meet at 2.30pm (1630 AEST) on Friday.
Ismail Sabri Yaakob is poised to succeed Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister after the latter stepped down on Monday conceding he had lost support from his parliamentary alliance.
Muhyiddin's resignation ended a troubled 17 months in office, in which he was routinely plagued by infighting within his ruling alliance while battling rising COVID-19 infections and a dampened economy.
If confirmed, Ismail Sabri's appointment would mark the return of his party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), to the premiership, three years after it lost an election due to corruption allegations, mostly linked to the multibillion-dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Malaysia's king was tasked to appoint the new premier by determining the MP most likely to gain support from a majority of parliamentarians, after elections were ruled out due to the pandemic.
Ismail Sabri, 61, who was Muhyiddin's deputy from rival party UMNO, emerged as the top candidate after securing the backing of Muhyiddin's coalition.
Muhyiddin, now serving as caretaker PM, said his alliance's support was conditional on Ismail Sabri ensuring the new cabinet members were free from graft charges.
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thewest.com.au
|
Malaysia's king expected to name new PM
|
https://thewest.com.au/politics/malaysias-king-expected-to-name-new-pm-c-3732281
|
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[
"Edward Scown",
"The West Australian"
] |
2021-08-20 02:21:01+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:04:00
|
The Shire of Mingenew this week unanimously adopted an exemption from planning approvals for those putting up temporary housing in the wake of Cyclone Seroja.
|
https%3A%2F%2Fthewest.com.au%2Fnews%2Fgeraldton-guardian%2Fmingenew-shire-passes-planning-exemption-for-cyclone-affected-housing-ng-b881970887z.json
|
en
|
In the four months since cyclone Seroja battered homes throughout the Mid West, the need for temporary housing has not diminished.
Scores of houses remain uninhabitable as their owners struggle with insurance companies to begin repairs. In the meantime, those affected must be housed some-where, often in temporary structures or caravans.
The Shire of Mingenew this week adopted a relief measure — an exemption from the approvals process for those seeking temporary housing on their properties.
It is modelled on a similar plan which the Shire of Northampton implemented in May.
Under normal circumstances, adding such a structure for longer than two weeks would require planning permission, which can be a lengthy process.
The successful applicant will be permitted to place a temporary structure, such as a donga, shed or caravan on their property for up to 12 months before being required to submit a development application.
Shire chief executive Nils Hay said there were 29 people in his shire who were displaced by Seroja, most of whom lived on farms.
“It’s really impacted our rural community,” he said.
“Most of those people have found other accommodation or are staying with family… but some of those arrangements aren’t ideal for 12 months.”
With a labour and materials shortage plaguing the region, Mr Hay said the recovery would be “as long as a piece of string”.
While he did not see the proposal as a silver bullet, he hoped it would remove one of the many hoops Seroja victims were still having to jump through.
“People who are rebuilding have better things to do than deal with red tape,” he said.
|
thewest.com.au
|
Mingenew Shire passes planning exemption for cyclone affected housing
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https://thewest.com.au/news/geraldton-guardian/mingenew-shire-passes-planning-exemption-for-cyclone-affected-housing-ng-b881970887z
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[
"Pamela Whaley"
] |
2021-08-20 02:22:15+00:00
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2021-08-20 01:38:26
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Brad Arthur is grappling to find answers to Parramatta's shocking run of NRL form, giving players an extra day off to sweat on the humiliating loss to Manly.
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Brad Arthur gave Parramatta players an extra day off to stew on their humiliating loss to Manly this week while doing some soul searching for answers he may never find.
A 56-10 loss to the Sea Eagles on Saturday night exacerbated an already horror run of form for the Eels, who have dropped from second on the ladder in round 10 to sixth with just four wins from their past 11 games.
The past fortnight in particular has been their worst in defence since 1995 after conceding 96 points against the Sea Eagles and South Sydney (40-12).
Predictably, the rapid decline of one of the premiership hopefuls over the past month has sparked speculation of in-fighting within the group in their Queensland base.
Desperate to turn around a four-game losing streak against North Queensland on Saturday night, Arthur said he can no longer over examine what has gone wrong in camp but instead is focusing on what they can do right.
"It might be 10 different people with different opinions on what's going wrong," he said on Friday.
"I could sit here for the next three months trying to work out if we've done too much, or have we not done enough?
"Do all the players get along, do they not get along? Are we in the bubble or are we not?
"I'm never going to get to the bottom of that.
"What I do know is we're not playing well enough.
"Every team has to go through the same situation that we're in.
"We've tried to make improvements along the way with what we're doing and there's been some adjustments this week to see if we can't get a change of response."
Grappling for answers, the coach gave players an extra day off on Tuesday.
It was to have a two-fold effect; to let them think longer about the loss to Manly and also to ease the mental fatigue that can dog a team under siege.
"Sometimes it's easier for them to get over it if I address it straight away but I let them get away from the footy a bit and have a think about it themselves," he said.
"We came back in on the Wednesday and we were honest with our appraisal of the game and what we need to work on moving forward."
A sharp turn around is needed to ease pressure on Arthur's job, too, with games against Melbourne and Penrith to come before finals.
"It needs to be individual accountability starting with me and then working our way through the playing roster," Arthur said.
"Sometimes the more you look at it, it can have a detrimental effect.
"We've focused on, when we're winning, what does it look like, what do we do really good and we need to get back to that.
"We know when we're losing what it looks and feels like, and we don't want to feel that."
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thewest.com.au
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Arthur switches routine to spark Eels form
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2021-08-20 02:02:53+00:00
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2021-08-20 00:00:00
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WCCH held news conference about the As hospitals are reaching full capacity, local health officials at West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital made an urgent plea for more people to get the vaccine at a news conference Thursday.seriousness of Covid-19.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kplctv.com%2F2021%2F08%2F20%2Fwest-calcasieu-cameron-hospital-officials-we-need-your-help-we-need-it-now%2F.json
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Sulphur, LA (KPLC) - As hospitals are reaching full capacity, local health officials at West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital made an urgent plea for more people to get the vaccine at a news conference Thursday.
“We need your help, and we need it now,” hospital CEO Janie Fruge said.
Fruge said it’s been an 18-month-long battle for those at the frontlines of this pandemic, and the news conference was an effort to be transparent with the community about just how much COVID-19 has affected the hospital.
“Yet, this team continues to show up strong and ready to care for others,” Fruge said.
Like most hospitals, West Calcasieu Cameron is at capacity.
“Seventy percent have COVID right now, which is the highest we’ve ever seen it. It’s very alarming,” Dr. Ashley Mullins said.
Dr. Mullins is just one of the health leaders who spoke Thursday. She said the hospital’s ICU beds are all taken by COVID patients.
“We love our patients and want to take care of them, but we want to keep them out of the beds,” Dr. Mullins said. “We want to keep them from being here, hospitalized, and not with their families. We want to keep them safe and healthy.”
Many health officials said the only way this gets better is if people get the vaccine. Doctors have repeatedly cited studies saying the vaccines are safe, and Dr. Kelly Fuqua said she understands patients who are concerned but it’s time to act.
“Our most effective and valuable tool in this process is prevention. And vaccination is a crucial piece in prevention,” Dr. Fuqua said. “Today, over four billion doses have been given around the world. And that’s a lot of powerful data and information speaking to the safety of this vaccine.”
The conference was interrupted by a Code Blue call as health leaders were discussing the seriousness of the virus during this fourth surge.
To watch the full news conference, click HERE.
Copyright 2021 KPLC. All rights reserved.
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West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital officials: ‘We need your help, and we need it now’
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2021-08-20 02:02:46+00:00
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2021-08-20 00:00:00
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It all started just after 9 a.m. Thursday when police say the man parked his car on the sidewalk just outside of the Library of Congress’ Jefferson Building.
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WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - A North Carolina man is in custody after police say he drove to Washington, D.C. and put parts of nation’s capital on lockdown by telling police he had a bomb.
The Gray Television Washington News Bureau was there when the truck that police say belongs to Floyd Ray Roseberry was towed away, hours after the standoff began.
It all started just after 9 a.m. Thursday when they say Roseberry parked his car on the sidewalk just outside of the Library of Congress’ Jefferson Building.
“The driver of the truck told the responding officer on the scene that he had a bomb,” explained Chief Tom Manger of the U.S. Capitol Police.
Law enforcement then evacuated the Jefferson Building and Cannon House Office Building. People in a second library building, the Madison Building, were told to shelter in place.
Roseberry posted a video on Facebook where he was seen holding what looks like a large canister. In the video, Roseberry also talked about wanting President Biden and other Democrats to leave office. He claimed that he wasn’t working alone and that there were four other explosive devices placed around Washington, D.C. Police say they found no evidence to support that claim.
After about a five-hour standoff, Roseberry gave himself up to police.
“We tried to negotiate with Mr. Roseberry,” explained Manger. “We first started doing that with a whiteboard writing messages back and forth...He got out of the vehicle and surrendered, and the tactical units that were close by took him into custody.”
Most lawmakers were not on Capitol Hill as it is August recess, so most of the people affected by the lockdown and evacuations where Capitol Hill or Library of Congress staff.
This is the second major security event to happen near the Capitol since the Jan. 6 riots. In April, a man drove into a Capitol barricade, then stabbed two officers before being fatally shot. Capitol Police Officer Billy Evans lost his life in that attack.
Capitol Police say investigators are working closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia to determine charges.
Copyright 2021 Gray DC. All rights reserved.
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Hours-long standoff at Library of Congress ends after N.C. man surrenders
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https://www.kplctv.com/2021/08/20/hours-long-standoff-library-congress-ends-after-nc-man-surrenders/
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[
"Ashley Oliver"
] |
2021-08-20 02:20:36+00:00
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2021-08-20 01:58:49
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Nearly 95 percent of Georgia’s eligible voters are registered to vote, according to federal data released this week.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2F2020-election%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Freport-nearly-all-of-georgias-eligible-voters-are-registered-to-vote%2F.json
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Nearly 95 percent of Georgia’s eligible voters are registered to vote, according to federal data released this week.
The data, compiled by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), shows a voter registration rate increase of 7.5 percent over 2018 and 18.7 percent over 2016. The EAC’s report estimates nearly 7.5 million Georgians are eligible to vote and that nearly 7.2 million of them are actively registered as of the 2020 election.
The report comes after Georgia took the national spotlight in the months following the 2020 election. The contentious battleground state flipped blue in the 2020 presidential race by a razor-thin margin of about 12,000 votes, and then two Democrats were narrowly elected to the U.S. Senate in Georgia in a stunning pair of runoff races in January.
Those results — in conjunction with the state loosening its voting laws last year in response to coronavirus — prompted widespread concerns in the Peach State that alleged voter fraud or reckless election administration had impacted the election.
Gov. Brian Kemp (R) was the first governor to address election integrity concerns — which were swirling in multiple battleground states at the time — by signing an overhaul bill in March aimed, he said, at making it “easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
The bill, named the Election Integrity Act of 2021, was met with a barrage of attacks from Democrats and big-name corporations in the state — like Major League Baseball and Coca-Cola — who broadly accused Kemp of instituting voting laws that perpetuated perceived voter suppression. The bill, among its many provisions, tightened the process of voting by absentee ballot and called for redistribution of ballot boxes based on voter registration data.
Georgia’s 95 percent figure in the EAC’s report, though calculated before the bill’s signing, is one of the highest registration rates in the country.
Democrat activist Stacey Abrams, perhaps the most prominent claimant of voter suppression since her narrow loss to Kemp in 2018, shared the new statistic by retweeting her former campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo, who celebrated the number:
This is evidence of the work of so many organizers, canvassers, leaders, thinkers, organizations across the state and certainly my friend @nseufot and the team at @NewGAProject! But the even better news is– no one is letting their foot off the gas. https://t.co/6SKAVj3eAj — Lauren Groh-Wargo (@gwlauren) August 19, 2021
Abrams, despite the substantial voter registration rate growth, has repeatedly charged that voter suppression exists in Georgia and founded the voting rights group Fair Fight Action in 2018 after her gubernatorial loss in response to her concerns about the issue. Groh-Wargo serves as the CEO of Fair Fight.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution observed that automatic registration at driver’s license offices contributed greatly to the increase, as that registration method produced about 67 percent of the new voters.
The actual rate, for states across the board, could be lower as the report calculated the total “citizen voting-age population” based off of 2019 survey data, which was the most recent data available for that portion of the calculation.
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com.
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Report: Nearly All of Georgia’s Eligible Voters Are Registered to Vote
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https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2021/08/19/report-nearly-all-of-georgias-eligible-voters-are-registered-to-vote/
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[
"John Binder"
] |
2021-08-20 01:50:48+00:00
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2021-08-19 22:21:42
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A Texas judge has struck down Biden's "sanctuary country" orders that released into the U.S. countless criminal illegal aliens.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Ftexas-judge-blocks-bidens-sanctuary-country-orders-for-illegal-aliens%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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A Texas judge has struck down President Joe Biden’s enforcement orders for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, commonly known as “sanctuary country” orders, that released into the United States countless criminal illegal aliens from local, state, and federal custody.
In a ruling on Thursday, Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary nationwide injunction sought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) that prevents the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from implementing the orders that have kept many criminal illegal aliens in the U.S. since Biden took office.
In February, the orders instructed ICE agents not to arrest and deport illegal aliens who had not been identified as terrorists, gang members, or were not recently convicted of an aggravated felony in the U.S.
As a result, illegal aliens charged and convicted of child sex crimes, armed robbery, drunk driving, burglary, cocaine trafficking, grand theft auto, heroin trafficking, credit card fraud, money laundering, and other crimes have been released into American communities rather than being turned over to ICE agents for arrest and deportation.
Tipton’s ruling, though, blocks DHS from continuing to implement the orders:
Although this case involves many issues of administrative and immigration law, its core concerns whether the Executive Branch may implement a policy that directly conflicts with laws that Congress enacted. The answer is no. In the end, through all their detailed explanations of the Executive’s seemingly unending discretion, the Government substantially undervalues the People’s grant of “legislative Powers” to Congress. [Emphasis added] Because the States have demonstrated that there is a substantial likelihood that portions of the Memoranda direct Executive Branch officials to act in a way that is contrary to Sections 1226(c) and 1231(a)(2), those sections of the Memoranda cannot stand and are hereby enjoined. Additionally, the Court enjoins the sections of the Memoranda described above because the States have demonstrated a substantial likelihood that the policy concerning detention of certain aliens set forth in the Memoranda is arbitrary and capricious under the [Administrative Procedure Act] APA and the Memoranda fail to comply with the APA’s notice and comment requirement. [Emphasis added] … This Preliminary Injunction is granted on a nationwide basis and prohibits enforcement and implementation in every place the Government has jurisdiction to enforce and implement the January 20 and February 18 Memoranda. [Emphasis added]
In addition, Tipton orders the Biden administration to provide a monthly report on the number of illegal aliens who were released into the U.S. the previous month after ICE agents did not detain them.
The court asks for each illegal aliens’ name, the crime they are charged and were detained for, as well as the reason that they were not detained by ICE agents and the ICE official who made the decision not to detain them.
Tipton orders the nationwide preliminary injunction to remain in effect pending a final resolution in the case “or until a further Order from this Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, or the United States Supreme Court.”
The case is Texas v. U.S., No. 6:21-cv-00016 in United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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Texas Judge Blocks Biden's 'Sanctuary Country' Orders for Illegal Aliens
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/texas-judge-blocks-bidens-sanctuary-country-orders-for-illegal-aliens/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"Ben Whedon"
] |
2021-08-20 01:50:17+00:00
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2021-08-19 23:12:46
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Pakistan has played a critical role over many years in helping China suppress the Uyghur expat community within its borders.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fasia%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fpakistan-chinas-uyghur-genocide%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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Pakistan has played a critical role over many years in helping China suppress the Uyghur expat community within its borders, according to an August report from the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) and the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs.
Beijing is currently orchestrating a genocide against the ethnic group in its northwestern Xinjiang province.
Bradley Jardine, director of research at Oxus, blasted the government of Pakistan’s Islamist prime minister, Imran Khan, for its involvement, saying, “it is urgent that the international community recognise that Imran Khan has not only been silent on the plight of the Uyghurs, but that his government has been fully complicit in China’s crackdown.”
The August report, published prior to the Taliban’s conquest of Kabul, outlines efforts by Chinese neighbors Afghanistan and Pakistan to repatriate the Uyghurs living within their borders to China. While many of these nations have formal extradition treaties with Beijing, and return China’s political targets through those conventional channels, Beijing’s methods to track its dissidents are often less direct. Digital surveillance, separating families at border checkpoints, funding “educational” operations for Uyghur expats to indoctrinate them, threatening relatives still in the country, are just some of the methods the report details by which China oppresses Uyghurs beyond the national borders.
The joint report heavily emphasizes Chinese efforts in Pakistan, dividing the communist regime’s anti-Uyghur operations in the country into four distinct phases beginning in 1991. The first of these, 1991-2001, was marked by the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Muslim, Turkic nations to Xinjiang’s West. Pakistan arrested or deported 27 Uyghurs to China during this period.
From 2001-2008, with the outbreak of the War on Terror, China reportedly coaxed the Pakistanis into handing over or detaining another 17 under security pretenses. The third phase, 2009-2014, saw an escalation of Chinese efforts and the surrender or arrest of yet another 16. The current phase has been marked by a dramatic increase in extra-legal repression while official diplomatic efforts have thus far seen yet 16 more Uyghurs arrested or deported.
Pakistan is closely allied to the Communist Party of China. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) forms a critical component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s investment scheme to expand its influence in developing nations. Beijing aims to restore the Silk Road trading network between Asia and western Europe by offering high-interest loans to developing nations to build infrastructure and requiring them to hire Chinese companies for the projects. When the debtor nation defaults on the loan, China seizes control of the project.
Both Pakistan and China share borders with war-torn Afghanistan and mutual rival India, making Islamabad’s cooperation a necessity for Beijing. Pakistan’s Islamist prime minister, Imran Khan, took power in 2018. Reports at first indicated his government was concerned Islamabad could not handle the onerous Chinese loans it had taken out for BRI projects, though Khan has yet to make any public statements to that effect and the country remains a committed member of the initiative.
Khan, an adamant proponent of political Islam who has called for global blasphemy laws against criticizing the religion, publicly rejected the reports of Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang this year. Khan’s phrasing indicated the merits of the Chinese denials were not his primary motivation.
“Because of our extreme proximity and relationship with China, we actually accept the Chinese version,” he said before blasting the Western world as “hypocritical” for highlighting the issue. “There are much worse human rights violations taking place in other parts of the world such as in occupied Kashmir.”
In Khan’s own backyard, however, the Ex-Chinese Association, a state-supported organization, is reportedly funding schools in Uyghur neighborhoods, teaching them Mandarin, and working to instill loyalty to Beijing, even as the Uyghurs living in Pakistan would technically owe loyalty to Islamabad.
The Chinese Communist Party is conducting a genocide of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, known as East Turkestan among the natives who consider the Han Chinese invaders. The United States believes Beijing has detained up to 3 million Uyghurs, as well as members of other Muslim-majority ethnic groups such as the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, in its elaborate network of over 1,200 concentration camps.
Escapees from these facilities tell of egregious human rights violations, many of which directly target the ethnic group’s ability to sustain itself, such as forced sterilization and abortion. This comes alongside communist indoctrination, compulsory education in and use of Mandarin, forced labor, brutal torture, and systemic rape.
China acknowledges the existence of these camps but labels them “vocational training” centers. The official Party line insists the Uyghurs need such “training” to effectively participate in the Chinese economy and would otherwise become prime targets for jihadist recruitment. “Graduates” of these camps often become slave laborers in Han Chinese-majority areas far from their homeland. Beijing has moved to silence Uyghurs highlighting the genocide and denounced camp survivors as “actors” working against the regime.
Xinjiang, in China’s far West, has been part of various Chinese realms historically, including the Hang and Tang dynasties, though their control of the area was both tenuous and intermittent. Mandarin is not indigenous to the region nor is Chinese culture. The Uyghur lands did not become a permanent part of the Chinese state until the Qing acquisition of Xinjiang in the 1700s. The Qing, however, were a Manchurian dynasty, not ethnic Han Chinese.
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Pakistan Complicit in China's Uyghur Genocide
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https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2021/08/19/pakistan-chinas-uyghur-genocide/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"Jacob Bliss"
] |
2021-08-20 01:50:30+00:00
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2021-08-19 23:17:59
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Three Senators, who all received the Chinese coronavirus vaccine, announced Thursday they tested positive for the virus.
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Three Senators, who all received the Chinese coronavirus vaccine, announced Thursday they tested positive for the virus after experiencing “mild symptoms.”
Senate Democrat caucus members John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Angus King (I-ME), as well as Republican Sen. Roger Wicker (MS), are the latest to contract the virus since Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced he tested positive after attending an event with several other senators on Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) houseboat.
Hickenlooper’s office released a statement saying the senator received a positive Chinese coronavirus test “after experiencing mild symptoms.” Hickenlooper said he’s “feeling much better and will continue to isolate at the direction of the Congressional Attending Physician,” adding, he is grateful to have gotten the vaccine and encouraging others to get it.
In a lengthy statement, King said he tested positive for Chinese coronavirus Thursday morning after taking the test as a precaution after “feeling mildly feverish” on Wednesday. Since the virus hit the nation’s shores last year, he tried to take all the necessary precautions and have a “work-from-home mindset.”
“I will keep everyone posted in the days ahead of the healing process, but I urge everyone to remain vigilant, follow the guidance from health professionals, and get vaccinated if you haven’t been,” he added.
Wicker, in a statement, also said the senator tested positive for the Chinese coronavirus. Wicker said after having “mild symptoms,” he “immediately” sought out a test. “Senator Wicker is fully vaccinated against [Chinese coronavirus] COVID-19, is in good health, and is being treated by his Tupelo-based physician,” the statement added. “He is isolating, and everyone with whom Senator Wicker has come in close contact recently has been notified.”
Breitbart News reached out to each office to determine if the senators were in attendance at Manchin’s houseboat; Wicker and King both responded saying they were not, Hickenlooper’s office did not respond.
Manchin’s office also did not respond to questions about if any of the senators were on his boathouse or if his office would provide a list of all attendees.
Follow Jacob Bliss on Twitter @jacobmbliss.
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Three Senators Test Positive for Coronavirus After Receiving Vaccine Jabs
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/three-senators-test-positive-for-coronavirus-after-receiving-vaccine-jabs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"Jacob Bliss"
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2021-08-20 02:21:07+00:00
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2021-08-20 01:28:45
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Rep. Claudia Tenney said she will draft legislation that will prohibit the U.S. government from charging Americans for evacuation flights.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fgop-claudia-tenney-drafts-legislation-to-ban-u-s-government-from-charging-americans-for-evacuation-flights%2F.json
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Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) announced Thursday she will draft legislation that will prohibit the United States government from charging Americans for flights to evacuate Afghanistan after President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal.
The congresswoman said she is drafting the legislation after reports have shown Americans are now being asked to pay for their flights. U.S. officials previously said that emergency flights out of Afghanistan would be free.
“I was horrified to learn that the U.S. government may be charging American citizens outrageous sums for evacuation flights out of Afghanistan. This is adding insult to injury for those American citizens desperately trying to flee the Taliban,” Tenney said in a statement.
The congresswoman added that she is “drafting legislation to make sure American citizens are not charged a dime for a lifesaving flight out of the country.”
Tenney said there is an “obligation” to make sure all American citizens come home and to “do whatever it takes to achieve this critical mission.”
The congresswoman’s press release noted that she sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and, while on the committee, has “been an outspoken critic of President Biden’s Afghanistan policy.”
On Thursday, she reaffirmed her call for Biden to resign from office over his gross mishandling of the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan and his inability to “effectively execute his duties as Commander-in-Chief.”
Tenney mentioned a Politico report in her statement that said people in Kabul are claiming they have to pay for flights out of the country despite U.S. officials telling “NatSec Daily and others that evacuation flights from Kabul will be free”:
Even though U.S. officials tell NatSec Daily and others that evacuation flights from Kabul will be free, people trying to catch a plane in the Afghan capital say differently. One person said State Department staff were seeking large payments — up to $2,000 — from American passengers and even more from non-U.S. citizens.
The report even noted that a spokesperson for the State Department did not deny the claims.
“U.S. law requires that evacuation assistance to private U.S. citizens or third country nationals be provided ‘on a reimbursable basis to the maximum extent practicable,'” the spokesman said. “The situation is extremely fluid, and we are working to overcome obstacles as they arise.”
Follow Jacob Bliss on Twitter @jacobmbliss.
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Tenney Drafting Leg to Prohibit US from Charging Americans to Evac Flights
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/gop-claudia-tenney-drafts-legislation-to-ban-u-s-government-from-charging-americans-for-evacuation-flights/
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[
"Jacob Bliss"
] |
2021-08-20 02:20:48+00:00
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2021-08-20 01:54:44
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A bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to Joe Biden calling for him to "immediately evacuate" Afghan allies who helped U.S. forces.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fbipartisan-majority-senators-call-biden-immediately-evacuate-afghans-helped-u-s%2F.json
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A bipartisan majority of senators sent a letter to President Joe Biden calling on him to “immediately evacuate” Afghan allies who helped the United States while the military was in the country.
Led by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the group asked Biden to pull out the Afghan allies using the “recently-passed legislation amending the process and eligibility for the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV).”
The group noted that those who helped the U.S. put their lives at risk and face “increased danger at the hands of the Taliban that has sworn retribution.”
Following the September 11 terrorist attack, the group added that the mission was to safeguard the “American homeland from terrorist attacks, eliminated Osama bin Laden, and delivered freedom and education to a generation of Afghan women and children.”
This was from the help of the Afghans, who fought alongside the military. By doing so, the Afghans’ lives are at stake with the departure of the U.S. forces.
The group continued:
The Taliban’s rapid ascendancy across Afghanistan and takeover of Kabul should not cause us to break our promise to the Afghans who helped us operate over the past twenty years and are counting on us for assistance. American inaction would ensure they become refugees or prime targets for Taliban retribution. Specifically, we urge continued coordination between the Departments of State and Defense to secure and hold Hamid Karzai International Airport, including to allow for the continuation of military flights and the resumption of commercial and charter flights. We also urge your Administration to assist with the passage of individuals to the airport to safety – both those within Kabul and those outside of the capital – as well as to consider cases where Afghans fleeing quickly may not have been able to collect or gather appropriate documents.
The group added that the “extensive changes to the SIV program” were done with broad bipartisan support to protect the Afghan allies. “We did so with the goal of improving the process for applicants while maintaining our national security,” they added.
They emphasized that since the legislation was signed into law three weeks ago, they are now asking the Biden administration to move “quickly to ensure it is properly and fully implemented ensuring applicants and their families can get out of harm’s way.”
Follow Jacob Bliss on Twitter @jacobmbliss.
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55 Senators Ask Biden to Immediately Evacuate Afghans Who Helped U.S.
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/bipartisan-majority-senators-call-biden-immediately-evacuate-afghans-helped-u-s/
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[
"John Binder"
] |
2021-08-20 02:20:42+00:00
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2021-08-20 00:49:39
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A total of ten Republican governors thus far have asked President Joe Biden's administration to resettle Afghans in their states.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2F10-gop-governors-ask-joe-biden-to-resettle-afghans-states%2F.json
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Ten Republican governors thus far have asked President Joe Biden’s administration to resettle Afghans in their states as the State Department plans to bring thousands to the United States for permanent resettlement.
As U.S. Special Forces withdraw from Afghanistan, the Biden administration has vowed to bring to the U.S. at least 22,000 Afghans via the refugee resettlement program. On Thursday, though, refugee contractors stated the number of Afghans looking to resettle in the U.S. is between 100,000 to 300,000.
Most of the Afghans include those who are being fast-tracked for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) — reserved for interpreters and their family members who worked with the American military during the Afghanistan war.
In addition, Biden’s State Department has created the P-2 visa for Afghans who are not eligible for SIVs but who say they worked for military contractors and organizations in coordination with the American military.
Without a clear total bound for resettlement and a detailed vetting process, ten Republican governors have asked the Biden administration to resettle Afghans in their states.
Thus far, they include:
South Carolina’s Henry McMaster
Maryland’s Larry Hogan
Massachusetts’ Charlie Baker
Utah’s Spencer Cox
Georgia’s Brian Kemp
Arkansas’ Asa Hutchinson
Arizona’s Doug Ducey
Iowa’s Kim Reynolds
Oklahoma’s Kevin Stitts
Vermont’s Phil Scott
“We are eager to continue that practice and assist with the resettlement of individuals and families fleeing Afghanistan, especially those who valiantly helped U.S. troops, diplomats, journalists, and other civilians over the past 20 years,” Cox said in a statement.
Kemp suggested in a statement that he is open to resettling Afghans in Georgia, stating, “it is vitally important to keep those who partnered with American armed forces over the last 20 years safe from harm.”
Hogan, in a statement, said more refugee resettlement in Maryland “is the least we can do” to help Afghans, while Baker said in a statement that Massachusetts is looking to resettle refugees “seeking safety and peace in America.”
Massachusetts is ready to assist Afghan refugees seeking safety and peace in America. (2/2) — Charlie Baker (@MassGovernor) August 17, 2021
On Thursday, Hutchinson said during a press conference Arkansas “would welcome” Afghans “as part of the other states that are welcoming those that need a place of refuge.”
(2/2) Today I announced my support for receiving Afghan refugees into Arkansas who have supported our men & women in uniform for nearly 20 years. We have a responsibility to these heroes & their families & we want to do our part to help America remain that shining city on a hill. — Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) August 19, 2021
Reynolds, joined by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), told local media that she would “work with [the Iowa Bureau of Refugee Services] to … make sure we have a process in place and we have families and homes for them to go.”
“We want to be a partner. We want them here, and we want them to know that. And we’ll work through those processes whatever they may be, but definitely we can handle that,” Reynolds said.
Ducey, with Arizona’s Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers (R), cited Bible verses in a statement that urged Biden to resettle Afghans in Arizona:
In Ephesians 2:19 the Bible states, “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God.” … When they have been cleared for entry into the United States for their service to our military, we are ready to welcome them and help them settle into their new home in the land of the free.
The ten Republican governors join Democrat Govs. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Jared Polis (D-CO), J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), and Ralph Northam (D-VA), among others, in asking the Biden administration to resettle Afghans in their states.
As Breitbart News reported, states, counties, and local communities no longer have veto power over refugee resettlement. Former President Trump had signed an executive order in 2019 granting states and local jurisdictions the power to refuse refugees, but Biden, in February, rescinded the order.
Over the last 20 years, nearly a million refugees have been resettled in the nation — more than double the residents living in Miami, Florida, and it would be the equivalent of annually adding the population of Pensacola, Florida.
Refugee resettlement costs American taxpayers nearly $9 billion every five years, according to research, and each refugee costs taxpayers about $133,000 over the course of their lifetime. Within five years, an estimated 16 percent of all refugees admitted will need housing assistance paid for by taxpayers.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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10 GOP Governors Ask Joe Biden to Resettle Afghans in Their States
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/10-gop-governors-ask-joe-biden-to-resettle-afghans-states/
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[
"Edwin Mora"
] |
2021-08-20 01:50:42+00:00
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2021-08-19 23:22:37
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Secretary of State Blinken was wrong about a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan being unlikely after the withdrawal of all foreign forces.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fantony-blinken-delusional-about-u-s-withdrawal-insisting-taliban-takeover-unlikely-as-jihadis-declared-victory%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was consistently wrong about the outcome of the unconditional withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan, insisting that a Taliban takeover was “highly unlikely” Sunday, as the jihadis swept into Kabul after the collapse of the government.
Blinken was incorrect when he asserted that the unconditional U.S. withdrawal, a concession long sought by the Taliban, would not result in the fall of Afghanistan.
Secretary Blinken assured that the fall of Afghanistan after the departure of U.S.-led NATO troops was a far-fetched notion, even as the Taliban seized territory and U.S. intelligence warnings months before the withdrawal ultimately determined the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and military was probable.
Even the State Department’s own intelligence and research division described the failure of the Afghan forces to prevent the Taliban from conquering territory as a red flag, noting that the deteriorating security conditions could result in the collapse of the Kabul government, the New York Times learned from unnamed Biden administration officials.
Blinken defended Biden’s withdrawal plan to the bitter end. Contradicting his own department’s intelligence, Blinken provided an optimistic assessment even as the Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after the collapse of the Afghan government and declared victory.
“The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” Blinken told CNN Sunday.
A day after the Taliban entered Kabul, Drew Holden, a freelance commentary writer, noted that Blinken has consistently been wrong about what the complete U.S. military withdrawal would mean for Afghanistan and the American embassy personnel.
Holden wrote on Twitter thread:
One of the most consistently wrong people is Antony Blinken, Biden’s Secretary of State. He said of the withdrawal: “as the United States begins withdrawing our troops, we will use our civilian and economic assistance to advance a just and durable peace for Afghanistan.” … In April, while visiting Afghanistan, Blinken told Afghan President Ashraf [Ghani] – who has since fled the country – that Blinken was there to “demonstrate literally, by our presence, that we have an enduring and ongoing commitment to Afghanistan.” … I’m…not sure that one came to pass. But perhaps Blinken’s worst prediction was from June where he said the US withdrawal wouldn’t lead to “some kind of immediate deterioration in the situation” that could happen “from a Friday to a Monday.”
In April, while visiting Afghanistan, Blinken told Afghan President Ashraf Gandhi – who has since fled the country – that Blinken was there to “demonstrate literally, by our presence, that we have an enduring and ongoing commitment to Afghanistan.” pic.twitter.com/wdFSBRaxxG — Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) August 17, 2021
There were a lot of bad predictions about the Taliban. In April, US Envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad told lawmakers that the new Taliban would behave better because “international recognition” would prove an incentive. Doesn’t look like it. pic.twitter.com/bKDkojdukm — Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) August 17, 2021
CNN noted that President Biden declared last month, “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
Then the network asked Blinken, “how did President Biden get this so wrong?”
Blinken changed the subject, saying it was appropriate for the U.S. military to pull out because it had accomplished its mission.
“The objective that we set, bringing those who attacked us to justice, making sure that they couldn’t attack us again from Afghanistan – we’ve succeeded in that mission, and in fact, we succeeded a while ago,” he said.
The thousands of Americans and Afghan allies who remain stranded in Kabul, partly because the Taliban has blocked nearly all roads to the U.S.-controlled airport that provides the only way out, suggest the mission is not over.
Biden deployed 6,000 troops, an increase from the 2,500 there before the withdrawal, to help rescue the Afghan allies and the estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Americans stranded in Afghanistan.
Despite the reports of Taliban checkpoints, Blinken told NBC News Sunday:
We’ve been very clear with the Taliban that any effort on their part to interrupt our operations, to attack our forces, to attack our personnel, would be met with a very strong, decisive response. And that’s exactly why the President sent 5,000 forces in to assure that we can proceed in a safe and orderly manner. And so far, that’s what’s happened.
During the same interview, the secretary conceded that the Biden administration knew that the Taliban was strong enough for a takeover, claiming that it was already for any contingencies, citing the deployments of the 6,000 troops. However, conditions on the ground suggest the Biden administration was ill-prepared for the Taliban marching into Kabul
Blinken said:
We’ve known all along that the Taliban was at its strongest position in terms of its strength since 2001, when we came to office. That was the fact. And we’ve said all along, including back then, that there was a real chance that the Taliban would make significant gains throughout Afghanistan.
He shifted blame for the rapid deterioration of Afghanistan away from the withdrawal plan, and to the inability of the Afghan security forces to secure their country despite the billions of dollars the U.S. spent on training and equipping them.
Like Biden, Blinken appears to stand by the administration’s withdrawal decision.
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Blinken's Optimism About U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan Contradicted State Department Intel
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/antony-blinken-delusional-about-u-s-withdrawal-insisting-taliban-takeover-unlikely-as-jihadis-declared-victory/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"John Hayward"
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2021-08-20 01:51:06+00:00
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2021-08-19 22:03:58
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) blocks Afghanistan from accessing $460 million in emergency monetary reserves.
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Wednesday that it will block Afghanistan from accessing $460 million in emergency monetary reserves that were scheduled to be disbursed next week.
The IMF said it took the action at the urging of the U.S. government, which does not want the Taliban to gain control of those funds.
“As is always the case, the IMF is guided by the views of the international community. There is currently a lack of clarity within the international community regarding recognition of a government in Afghanistan, as a consequence of which the country cannot access SDRs or other IMF resources,” said IMF spokesman Gerry Rice.
The suspended Special Drawing Rights (SDR) for Afghanistan were part of the IMF’s program to pump $650 billion in liquidity into the pandemic-ravaged global economy. Afghanistan, one of the IMF’s 190 member nations, was due to get its proportional 0.07 percent share of the $650 billion total.
The socialist regime of dictator Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, and the military junta in Myanmar, are also blocked from accessing their SDRs because they lack the necessary international recognition as legitimate governments.
A group of Republican House members wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday and asked her to use America’s leverage with the IMF to keep its monetary reserves out of Taliban hands.
“The potential of the SDR allocation to provide nearly half a billion dollars in unconditional liquidity to a regime with a history of supporting terrorist actions against the United States and her allies is extremely concerning,” wrote the GOP group, led by Rep. French Hill (R-AR).
“Since 2020, we have raised concerns over the potential for vast sums to flow to evil regimes through an SDR allocation. We have also warned about the risks of an allocation in the absence of binding accountability mechanisms,” they noted.
The Republican congressmen noted that billions of IMF dollars are still slated for “state sponsors of terror, like Iran and Syria, and oppressive regimes such as China, Russia, and Belarus.”
The Treasury Department told Congress over the weekend that the Taliban would not be able to access $9 billion in foreign currency reserves held by the Afghan central bank outside the country. Administration officials confirmed the freeze in statements to the media Tuesday.
The IMF action is premised on the Taliban lacking international recognition as the government of Afghanistan, so if international recognition is forced by powerful allies of the Taliban such as China and Russia, the money spigot could conceivably open.
“We can say the accessible funds to the Taliban are perhaps 0.1 to 0.2 percent of Afghanistan’s total international reserves. Not much,” Afghan central bank chief Ajmal Ahmady said Wednesday. Ahmady fled the country aboard a military aircraft Sunday.
Ahmady predicted to the BBC that Afghanistan’s “economic situation will deteriorate” as international financial aid declines, inflation rises, and the currency depreciates. Afghanistan’s currency has already fallen to record lows now that shipments of dollars into the banks have been suspended.
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IMF Blocks Afghanistan’s Access to Monetary Reserves at U.S. Urging
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[
"Gabrielle Reyes"
] |
2021-08-20 01:51:25+00:00
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2021-08-19 22:59:49
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Al-Qaeda in Yemen congratulated the Taliban on Wednesday for its successful takeover of Afghanistan earlier this week.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fmiddle-east%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fal-qaeda-yemen-vows-continued-jihad-after-taliban-victory%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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Al-Qaeda in Yemen congratulated the Taliban terror group on Wednesday for its successful takeover of Afghanistan this week, vowing to continue its own jihad on the Arabian Peninsula.
“This victory and empowerment reveals to us that jihad and fighting represent the (Islamic law)-based, legal, and realistic way to restore rights (and) expel the invaders and occupiers,” Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said in a statement issued August 18, according to the SITE Intelligence group, a global terrorism monitor.
“On Sunday [August 15] AQAP fighters in Yemen’s central governorate of Bayda and southern province of Shabwa celebrated the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan with fireworks and by firing gunshots in the air,” local residents told Agence France-Presse this week.
Both AQAP and the Taliban are terrorist organizations based on Sunni Islam. The two groups have maintained close ties over the past two decades. The Taliban seized Kabul on August 15, quickly ousting the Afghan national capital’s U.S.-backed, democratic government from power. AQAP referred to the Taliban’s toppling of democracy in Kabul in its Wednesday press release.
“As for the game of democracy and working with simple pacifism, it is a deceptive mirage, a fleeting shadow, and a vicious circle that starts with a zero and ends with it,” the group, which is active primarily in Yemen, said.
Al-Qaeda’s statement condemning democratic systems of government came two days after the Taliban confirmed it would rule Afghanistan through an administration based on Islamic law, or sharia.
New 2-page statement from #AlQaeda in #Yemen congratulates #Taliban on victory in #Afghanistan. #AQAP concludes that this:
– Heralds wider triumphs & a new era of Islamic rule
– Proves #jihad is the way to achieve goals
– Reveals the “democracy game” & peaceful means as a mirage pic.twitter.com/4zyOEu6Btv — Elisabeth Kendall (@Dr_E_Kendall) August 19, 2021
“There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country,” Waheedullah Hashimi, a senior Taliban commander, told Reuters on August 17. “We will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear [sic]. It is sharia law and that is it.”
Hashimi told Reuters he would join a meeting of Taliban leaders later this week in which the commanders plan to discuss “issues of governance.”
The U.S. government accused the Taliban of sheltering al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s previous rule over the country from 1996-2001. Washington cited Al-Qaeda’s alleged presence within Afghanistan to justify the U.S. invasion of the country in the fall of 2001, following Al-Qaeda’s jihadist attacks on America on September 11 of that same year.
Washington considers AQAP to be the most dangerous branch of Al-Qaeda’s global terror network. The U.S. military has carried out drone strikes against AQAP fighters in Yemen since 2001. The administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that it “conducted a counterterrorism operation in Yemen that successfully eliminated Qasim al-Rimi, a founder and the leader of al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),” in January 2020. Al-Rimi is believed to have been killed via drone strike, though the Trump administration did not disclose specific details of his death.
Trump’s administration worked towards establishing peace between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government in Kabul throughout 2020, continuing the efforts through the end of Trump’s presidency in January 2021. Washington established the peace process by agreeing to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan and end America’s nearly 20-year-long military occupation of the country, but only if the Taliban also agreed to cut ties with al-Qaeda. AQAP’s statement on Wednesday expressing support for the Taliban’s ouster of Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government suggests al-Qaeda remains closely linked to the Afghan-based terror group.
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Al-Qaeda in Yemen Vows Continued Jihad After Taliban Victory
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https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2021/08/19/al-qaeda-yemen-vows-continued-jihad-after-taliban-victory/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"Ian Hanchett"
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2021-08-20 01:50:54+00:00
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2021-08-19 23:10:43
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On Thursday's broadcast of CNN's "Situation Room," Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer said that a State Department cable that was first | Clips
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fclips%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fdeputy-nsa-finer-cable-warning-of-afghanistan-collapse-reflects-what-weve-said-that-nobody-got-it-exactly-right%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer said that a State Department cable that was first reported on by The Wall Street Journal warning about a rapid collapse of Afghanistan’s government after the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country “reflects what we’ve said all along, which is nobody had this exactly right in predicting the government and army of Afghanistan were going to collapse in a matter of days.”
Finer said, “I’ll let the State Department speak to the details of the dissent cable, but I will mention a few key points. One is that the cable, as I understand it, predicted the potential fall of the Afghan government in the aftermath of a U.S. troop drawdown on August 31. Obviously, that all happened even more quickly than the cable — which was quite concerned about this possibility — projected. The second thing the cable asked for was evacuation flights by the U.S. government of Special Immigrant Visa applicants, Afghans who worked alongside our mission in Afghanistan. They asked for those to begin by August 1. We began those flights in July. And so, look, I think what we’ve said all along is that when we are assessing the situation in Afghanistan, we take a number of inputs. We get intelligence. We get diplomatic reporting from our embassies in the field. We read open-source reporting and watch the reports of our news organizations like CNN and we make the best assessment that we can. And I think the cable reflects what we’ve said all along, which is nobody had this exactly right in predicting the government and army of Afghanistan were going to collapse in a matter of days.”
He added that while “a degree of turbulence” is unavoidable when a country collapses like Afghanistan did, “we had a plan in place for this eventuality.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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Cable Warning of Afghanistan Collapse 'Reflects What We've Said' That Nobody Got It 'Exactly Right'
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https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/08/19/deputy-nsa-finer-cable-warning-of-afghanistan-collapse-reflects-what-weve-said-that-nobody-got-it-exactly-right/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"John Binder"
] |
2021-08-20 01:51:12+00:00
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2021-08-19 23:31:24
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Biden may balloon the number of Afghans that are set to be resettled across the United States following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fbiden-ensures-states-cities-have-no-veto-power-over-afghan-refugees%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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President Joe Biden’s administration may balloon the number of Afghans set to be resettled across the United States following the withdrawal of U.S. Armed Forces from Afghanistan.
Days ago, Pentagon officials stated up to 22,000 Afghans — mostly applying for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) and the newly-created P-2 visa — would be arriving at three military bases: Fort Lee in Virginia, Fort Bliss in Texas, and Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.
On Thursday, though, refugee resettlement agencies told the Washington Post the number of Afghans “seeking evacuation through a U.S. visa program” is closer to 100,000 and could be as high as 300,000.
Biden has already allocated an additional $500 million to resettle Afghans.
Regardless, Biden has ensured that states and local jurisdictions will not have any say in whether Afghans are resettled in their communities.
In September 2019, former President Trump issued an executive order that gave state governors, county officials, and local governments the power to veto refugee resettlement in their communities. The order was a major win for activists, specifically in Tennessee, who had fought the Obama administration for its dumping of refugees across the state without any input from the governor, mayors, and local citizens.
By January 2020, a federal judge granted a nationwide preliminary injunction — requested by refugee contractors who sued over Trump’s order — that stripped states and local jurisdictions of their veto power until the case was settled.
In early February 2020, Biden rescinded Trump’s order.
Then, in January, a panel of three judges on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, two liberals appointed by President Obama and one liberal appointed by President Clinton, upheld the previous court decision that banned implementation of Trump’s order.
Republican attorneys general have yet to file a lawsuit against Biden for his rescinding of Trump’s order, seemingly the only route through the courts that could reverse the move and give veto power back to states and local jurisdictions over refugee resettlement.
Over the last 20 years, nearly a million refugees have been resettled in the nation — more than double that of residents living in Miami, Florida, and it would be the equivalent of annually adding the population of Pensacola, Florida.
Refugee resettlement costs American taxpayers nearly $9 billion every five years, according to research, and each refugee costs taxpayers about $133,000 over the course of their lifetime. Within five years, an estimated 16 percent of all refugees admitted will need housing assistance paid for by taxpayers.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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Biden Ensures States, Cities Have No Veto Power Over Afghan Refugees
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/biden-ensures-states-cities-have-no-veto-power-over-afghan-refugees/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"John Hayward"
] |
2021-08-20 01:51:19+00:00
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2021-08-19 22:34:11
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Chinese state media admits China's blossoming ties with the Taliban are aimed at getting control of Afghanistan's mineral wealth.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fnational-security%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fchina-taliban-afghanistans-minerals%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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In the course of hectoring the United States for its “bungled and embarrassing withdraw from Afghanistan” on Thursday, China’s state-run Global Times admitted Beijing has a rapacious interest in Afghanistan’s vast rare-earths mineral resources and snarled it was none of America’s business if China makes deals with the Taliban to get what it wants.
The Global Times accused the U.S. of profiteering from Afghanistan for the past twenty years, without offering any theories on where all the plunder might have gone, and claimed America is only worried about China going after those mineral resources because the U.S. is jealous:
Rare-earth metals in Afghanistan were estimated to be worth anywhere between $1 trillion and $3 trillion in 2020. China may “align itself with Taliban and try to exploit Afghanistan’s rare-earth metals,” US media outlet CNBC reported on Tuesday, citing an investment analyst’s so-called “warning.” The US has spent 20 years on its “anti-terror war” in Afghanistan, investing a huge amount of resources to support the government. It’s not hard to imagine that there are huge economic considerations behind this. Over the past two decades, US firms have enjoyed privileges in exploiting rare resources in Afghanistan. The US troops’ withdrawal and the drastic change in Afghanistan’s situation is undoubtedly a heavy blow to US economic interests in Afghanistan and the wider region. With many US businesses leaving due to losing their protection, the US may instead choose to obstruct future cooperation between Afghanistan and other countries. We cannot rule out the possibility that the US could launch its notorious sanction measures again to protect its economic interests in the region after US troops’ withdrawal. However, the US is in no position to meddle with any potential cooperation between China and Afghanistan, including on rare earths. The so-called “warnings” in the CNBC report show that American firms doing business in Afghanistan are dissatisfied with Washington’s hasty evacuation and therefore the loss of their “privileges,” and it also reveals the US’ fear of possible advancement for China with regard to the rare-earth sector. After all, China has a much better track record in successfully cooperating with developing countries around the world.
One reason China’s propagandists are so peeved at the CNBC report mentioned above is that one of its contributors, AllianceBernstein director of emerging market debt Shamaila Khan, said it was a “very dangerous proposition for the world” to let the Taliban (and, by extension, its new best friends in Beijing) control those much-needed minerals.
“It should be an international initiative to make sure that if any country is agreeing to exploit its minerals on behalf of the Taliban, to only do it under strict humanitarian conditions where human rights, and rights for women are preserved in the situation,” Khan said.
China is reliably enraged by discussions of its human rights abuses and rejects all Western efforts to hold it, or its allies, to high standards. Chinese propagandists portray the international human rights establishment as a scam designed to keep developing nations from reaching their full potential.
The Global Times added that China is skilled at mining rare earths and desperately needs them to fuel its industrial growth, so the civilized world should withhold its criticisms of whatever deals Beijing strikes with the Taliban to exploit those resources – or to preserve its massive existing investments in Afghanistan, such as the $4.2 billion Anyak copper mine, the China National Petroleum Corporation’s oil projects, $550 million in annual bilateral trade, and $630 billion in infrastructure projects.
“As the largest neighbor of Afghanistan, China is a vigorous partner for the war-battered country to get its economy back on track, given China’s experience and capability in related areas, such as agriculture and industrial infrastructure,” the Chinese Communist newspaper lectured. “By sharp contrast, U.S.-led predatory resource exploitation in the country has not delivered tangible benefit to ordinary Afghan people or benefits to the nation’s economic growth.”
India’s Business Standard noted on Thursday the rare earths China desires “are a key component for a host of advanced technologies like iPhones and hi-tech missile guidance systems,” as well as “rechargeable batteries for electric and hybrid cars, advanced ceramics, computers, DVD players, wind turbines, catalysts in cars and oil refineries, monitors, televisions, lighting, lasers, fiber optics, superconductors and glass polishing.”
The Business Standard observed that China is already the world’s top supplier of rare earths and controls about two-thirds of the global supply, so seizing Afghanistan’s minerals will help Beijing preserve its monopolistic position by making it harder for other countries to decouple from Chinese supply lines.
Afghanistan could become an especially important source of lithium, which is crucial for building electric car batteries. The largest established reserves of lithium are in Bolivia, but the U.S. government believes Afghanistan could have even more if enough security and political stability is given to explore the country’s mineral resources.
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China Admits Taliban Ties Aimed at Getting Afghanistan’s $3 Trillion in Rare Earths
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https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2021/08/19/china-taliban-afghanistans-minerals/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"Amy Furr"
] |
2021-08-20 01:51:43+00:00
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2021-08-19 22:47:10
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A woman named Khatera who claimed to have been brutalized by the Taliban said in their eyes, "women are not living, breathing human beings."
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A 33-year-old woman named Khatera who claimed to have been brutalized by the Taliban said in their eyes, “women are not living, breathing human beings, but merely some meat and flesh to be battered.”
She was shot by the insurgents in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province in 2020 and her eyes were gouged out. Khatera has been living with her husband and child while undergoing treatment in Delhi since November, News18 reported Monday.
“It was her father, a former Taliban fighter, who conspired the attack on her, she told News18 in Delhi on Sunday,” the outlet continued:
Khatera, a former police personnel, was brutalised by the Taliban last year in October when she was two months pregnant. On her way back home from work, she was accosted by three Taliban fighters who checked her ID first, then shot her multiple times. She took eight bullets in her upper body and indiscriminate knife injuries all over. The Taliban pierced her eyes with knives after she fell unconscious and left her to die.
She also described what the militant group has reportedly done to other women. Khatera claimed:
They (Taliban) first torture us (women) and then discard our bodies to show as specimen of punishment. Sometimes our bodies are fed to dogs. I was lucky that I survived it. One has to live in Afghanistan under the Taliban to even imagine what hell has befallen on the women, children and minorities there.
Afghan mom blinded by Taliban claims they feed women's bodies to dogs https://t.co/phnM2L5da0 pic.twitter.com/Bx55p2pfP8 — New York Post (@nypost) August 19, 2021
Speaking about the horrifying incident, Khatera noted it was possible for her to move to Kabul then go to Delhi for treatment because she had the money.
But, “This fortune is not available for all. Women and anyone who disobeys the Taliban die in the streets,” she stated.
A group of women in Kabul, Afghanistan, held a protest Tuesday to demand the radical Islamist Taliban respect their rights, Breitbart News reported.
However, Taliban leader Waheedullah Hashimi stated Thursday, the group would not implement democracy in Afghanistan because its culture and Islamic sharia law did not support such a political system.
“There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country. We will not discuss what type of political system we should apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is sharia law and that is it,” he said.
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'Sometimes Our Bodies Are Fed to Dogs'
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https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2021/08/19/female-taliban-victim-bodies-dogs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"Robert Kraychik"
] |
2021-08-20 01:50:24+00:00
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2021-08-19 23:49:41
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Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) said the CDC's "guidance" for masking children to prevent COVID-19 transmission is unsupported by scientific data.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fradio%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fexclusive-rep-greg-murphy-no-science-behind-mask-mandates-for-children%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC), a physician specializing in urology, told Breitbart News on Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “guidance” for masking children to prevent coronavirus transmission is unsupported by scientific analysis or data.
The CDC, headed by Dr. Rochelle Wolensky, advises vaccinations and masking for children as part of its “Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools.”
Marlow asked, “We know that kids are not good vectors of [the virus]. Second of all, they don’t keep the masks on, anyway, and these claws masks are not doing much of anything. Why [is the CDC] still insisting that we do this?”
Murphy described the CDC’s recommendation for masking children as a performative measure for government to appear active.
“It’s just that you’ve got to do something — not that it’s the right thing to do, not that there’s science behind it — but you have to do something,” he replied. “I agree [with you] wholeheartedly. Three-year-olds, they don’t keep their masks on. They’re these little cloth masks. They don’t do anything in that population, because that population is much less infectious.”
He continued, “It goes back to the sense of we’re doing something, and that’s what the right thing to do is, and I just don’t go by that science. I wish I could say this particular intervention led to this good result, but the science tells us that that’s just not true.”
Mask mandates are ineffective in terms of reducing coronavirus transmission, Murphy remarked.
He said, “If you look at the data and [remain] dispassionate towards it … I could send you a chart that shows … [in] states that had mask mandates and states without mask mandates, the infectivity curves were identical.”
The CDC is continuing its recommendations for indoor masking for both vaccinated and unvaccinated persons. The government agency states, “CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with layered prevention strategies in place.”
Murphy remarked, “The CDC came out with a mask recommendation weeks ago because of an unpublished study from India, so they didn’t share with that with us.” He added, “I’ve not read the data myself, because to my knowledge [the CDC has] not cited it.”
Murphy said exposure to the coronavirus is an inevitability for all people and that its mutations suggest a synthetic origin.
He stated, “There are three types of people in this entire world — those who’ve had COVID; those who had the vaccine; and those who will get COVID — just because this virus now has mutated to such an infectious variant, and again, that can tell you why that this [virus] didn’t come out of pure nature. Because viruses just don’t mutate this quickly, at least that’s what my virology friends tell me.”
“It’s just a matter of time [before] people get exposed to this. That’s just what the data says,” he concluded.
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Rep. Greg Murphy: No Science Behind Mask Mandates for Kids
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https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2021/08/19/exclusive-rep-greg-murphy-no-science-behind-mask-mandates-for-children/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"Gabrielle Reyes"
] |
2021-08-20 01:50:11+00:00
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2021-08-19 22:09:11
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Police in China's Hunan province are investigating a woman for assaulting a government worker over a vaccine passport.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fasia%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Freport-chinese-woman-attacks-regime-worker-over-vaccine-passport%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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Police in east-central China’s Henan province said Wednesday they were investigating a 60-year-old woman for allegedly assaulting a government worker after he asked her to present a Chinese coronavirus “vaccine passport” before entering a building this week.
The woman “slapped an anti-epidemic worker after she was asked to register her health code” to enter a building in the northwestern Henan city of Jiaozuo on August 16, according to China’s state-run Global Times.
A woman in Henan slapped an anti-epidemic worker after she was asked to scan a health code when entering a building. Local police are investigating the case. https://t.co/DDcKCf0H31 pic.twitter.com/CyXslTsSp5 — Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 18, 2021
A video reportedly surfaced on Chinese government-controlled social media on Monday showing the woman trying to hit the government worker with her handbag “several times” after he asked her to scan a health code via a Chinese government smartphone app before he would allow her entry to the building. The government worker “managed to dodge it [the woman’s purse] a few times, but she eventually hit him,” the Global Times detailed.
“Property management of the building said on Tuesday [August 17] that they called the police, who confirmed the case but refused to reveal further details,” the newspaper reported.
A similar incident took place also on August 16 in Beijing, when a resident of the city surnamed Li “refused to scan a health code when entering a building,” according to the Global Times. The person reportedly “insulted and pushed around” the government health worker who asked for a health code. Police in Beijing’s Dongcheng district said Wednesday they had “detained Li for causing bad social influence.”
China’s health code app is part of a “common process” in the country that allows government authorities to easily track Chinese coronavirus cases and close contacts, according to the Global Times. China’s ruling Communist Party (CCP) currently requires people to present a health code via a government-approved app on their personal smartphones before they are allowed entry to public spaces due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. The app shows an individual’s health status, including whether the person has received a Chinese coronavirus vaccination and, if so, how many doses. It also conveys Chinese coronavirus test results. Additional information, such as a person’s national I.D. number, may be registered through a code on the app. This data allows the CCP to monitor a citizen’s movement by mapping out his or her registered visits to public spaces.
The health code scanning system employed by China is often referred to informally as a “vaccine passport” and has been mandated by a number of other countries to pressure their populations into receiving Chinese coronavirus vaccinations during the ongoing pandemic. The vaccine passport system has faced a tremendous backlash worldwide for its violation of a person’s civil liberties, including individual rights to privacy and bodily integrity.
China’s vaccine passports are an extension of a pre-existing “social credit” system used by the CCP to assign citizens numerical scores based on how well or poorly they follow the party’s mandates. People risk a lower social credit score through actions as seemingly mundane as jaywalking or expressing criticism of the Chinese government online. A person’s score drops even lower if he or she commits more serious offenses or crimes. A low social credit score restricts an individual’s ability to take certain actions such as purchasing airline tickets, acquiring property, or taking out loans.
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Report: Chinese Woman Attacks Regime Worker over Vaccine Passport
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https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2021/08/19/report-chinese-woman-attacks-regime-worker-over-vaccine-passport/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"John Binder"
] |
2021-08-20 02:21:13+00:00
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2021-08-20 01:13:56
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A previously deported illegal alien has been accused of assaulting a Florida High Patrol officer, according to local police.
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A previously deported illegal alien has been accused of assaulting a Florida High Patrol officer, according to local police.
Audain Perez-Vasquez, an 18-year-old illegal alien, was arrested and charged this week after police say he crashed his vehicle, got into a physical altercation with an officer, and fled into a wooded area.
Perez-Vasquez, police said, had crashed his vehicle on a highway in Orange County, Florida, when a Florida Highway Patrol officer approached him. At that point, police said Perez-Vasquez got into a fight with the officer and assaulted him before fleeing to nearby woods off the highway.
That is when officers set up a police perimeter while a K-9 unit and helicopter were deployed to search the area. Florida Highway Patrol officials said Perez-Vasquez, while fleeing, had tried to steal a golf cart from a residential property.
Officers and the K-9 unit eventually located Perez-Vasquez and he was bit before being taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for the dog bite.
An Orange County K-9 located Perez-Vasquez hiding under bushes and he was subsequently bit. The suspect was then arrested and taken to the hospital for the dog bite. The officer whom Perez-Vasquez is accused of assaulting was taken to the hospital for minor injuries.
“It’s very scary. I was glad my kids were at school the whole time and I had my doors locked all day,” an eyewitness said of the incident.
Perez-Vasquez, who was deported from the United States three years ago, has been charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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www.breitbart.com
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Previously Deported Illegal Alien Accused of Assaulting Florida Officer
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/previously-deported-illegal-alien-accused-of-assaulting-florida-officer/
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[
"Michael Patrick Leahy"
] |
2021-08-20 02:21:01+00:00
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2021-08-20 01:10:32
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Georgia's State Election Board to review election irregularities that took place in Fulton County during the November 2020 election. | 2020
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Georgia’s State Election Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to authorize the establishment of a three person panel to review election irregularities that took place in Fulton County during the November 2020 election.
Should the panel determine that Fulton County did not handle the administration of the 2020 election properly, the Secretary of State’s office is empowered to take over election administration duties in that county. Such a decision could come before the end of 2021 and in time for the 2022 midterm elections.
Georgia’s “Election Integrity Act of 2021,” signed into law in March of this year by Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), provides the legal authority to the Secretary of State’s office to take over the election administration responsibilities for any county that is found to have consistently implemented poor election procedures.
Just The News reported:
The vote authorizes a bipartisan, three-person panel to investigate Fulton County, home to Atlanta and a deeply blue base of voters. Republicans, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, had urged the board to take the action. If the investigative panels confirms irregularities, the elections board could replace the county’s board of registration and elections with it own administrator. The action came after Just the News used open records requests to document widespread irregularities in Fulton County, including a 29-page memo documenting double scanning of ballots, insecure transportation of ballots and possible violations of voter privacy.
“I have been saying for a long time that the state needs the authority to step in when counties have consistently failed their voters,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R-GA) said in a statement released by the State Election Board after the vote on Wednesday.
“I’m pleased that the state finally has that authority and that the State Election Board has taken the first step today. I’m confident that the performance review team will do a good job, and I hope Fulton will cooperate with this process,” Raffensperger added.
“Wednesday’s appointment was triggered by letters from Fulton Republican legislators who requested the review,” the statement from the State Election Board noted:
The law requires the panel make a written report to the State Election Board. After that report is submitted, the Board will determine if further action is required. The performance review panel is made up of Stephen Day, a Gwinnett County Elections Board member; Rickey Kittle, Catoosa County Elections Board chairman; and Ryan Germany, general counsel to the Secretary of State’s office.
Raffensperger, who on November 20 certified Joe Biden as the winner of Georgia’s 16 Electoral College votes by a margin of 12,000 votes over Donald Trump out of five million votes cast in the state, has come under intense criticism for his handling of the November 2020 election. In June, “The Georgia Republican Party censured Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday for ‘dereliction of his constitutional duty’,” as Breitbart News reported.
The censure resolution stated that Raffensperger had failed to do his duty, including:
Entering into the Compromise Settlement Agreement and Release, which changed Georgia’s absentee voting procedures outside the Constitutionally prescribed format set forth in Georgia law.
Undermining the security of our elections by allowing mass mailings of absentee applications by his office and third parties which created opportunities for fraud and overwhelmed election offices; rendering accurate signature matching nearly impossible; allowing ballot drop boxes without proper chain of custody; and ignoring sworn affidavits and evidence of voter fraud; and
In December, Breitbart News reported that “Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has no idea how many of the 1.3 million absentee ballots counted in the state in the November 3 general election were delivered by mail and how many were collected and delivered from the 300 absentee ballot drop boxes he and the Georgia State Election Board approved for use in the election.”
In June, Breitbart News reported:
Two Mark Zuckerberg-funded nonprofits combined to spend $51 million in the state of Georgia on the November 3, 2020 general election and the January 5, 2021 U.S. Senate runoff elections in that state, according to two separate reports: one published by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), and the second published by one of the Zuckerberg-funded nonprofits. . . The Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) spent $31 million in 40 counties in the November 3, 2020 general election, and an additional $14.5 million in 15 counties for the January 5, 2021 runoff election, according to a May 2021 report from the FGA. Another Zuckerberg-funded group, the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), provided more than $5.5 million in funding for the November 3, 2020 general election directly to the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, according to a March 2021 CEIR report: Georgia used CEIR grant funds in both the November general election and January runoff election to encourage voters to apply for a ballot online. This approach sped up the process for both voters and election officials while also making it easier to track application status. Georgia also used the funds to counteract disinformation, issuing public service announcements warning voters of disinformation and encouraging them to report fraud to the Secretary of State hotline. (emphasis added) The two Zuckerberg-funded nonprofits spent four times more per Georgia resident than they did per resident of the other 49 states combined –$4.76 per resident of Georgia ($51 million/10.7 million residents), compared to $1.15 per resident of all 49 other states combined ($368 million/323.4 million residents).
The conduct of Fulton County officials in the November 2020 election has also been controversial, as Breitbart News reported in December:
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted to accept a $6.3 million grant from the Mark-Zuckerberg funded Center for Technology and Civic Life “Safe Elections” project at a September 2, 2020 board meeting. It proceeded without asking a single question about the name of the group providing the funding, the origin of the funding, or the details of what the funding would be used for. . . Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron told the Fulton County Board of Commissioners how he was able to secure the grant for the county, but failed to mention the name of the funding group–CTCL–or the fact they had only one day earlier, on September 1, received a $250 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, to fund the Fulton County grant. “I went this summer and sought some grant funding, which the BOC approved today for over $6.3 million, and we’ve also received $5 million in COVID funding. And then with the $3.5 million soundings request today, that totals $14.5 million more in additional investments for we’re going to be — we were able to secure a lot of new polling places for, if we clean them afterwards, we got tech-support at all voting locations, postage and absentee ballots that we have to mail out,” Barron told the Fulton County Board of Commissioners at their September 2, 2020 board meeting. Here are the summary budget details of the proposal Baron sent to the CTCL on August 18, which they accepted and the Fulton County Board of Commissioners approved on September 2: Absentee Ballot Assembly and Processing Equipment $1,448,026
Early Voting Sites and Ballot Drop-off Options $937,710
In-person Voting at Polling Places on Election Day $3,923,700
Total $6,309,436
In February, the Fulton County Board of Elections voted to fire Barron, but later that month the Fulton County Commission gave him a temporary reprieve.
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Georgia Begins Process for State Takeover of Fulton County Elections
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/georgia-election-board-votes-to-begin-review-could-result-in-takeover-of-fulton-countys-elections/
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[
"Frances Martel"
] |
2021-08-20 01:51:00+00:00
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2021-08-19 21:45:31
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A female Afghan journalist denounced Thursday that Taliban jihadists are banning women from leaving their homes.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fasia%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fwomen-journalist-taliban-banning-women-from-going-outside%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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A female Afghan journalist denounced Thursday that, despite assurances to the international community that they would allow women to work, Taliban jihadists are banning women from leaving their homes in Kabul and personally banned her from doing her job.
Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) anchor Shabnam Khan Dawran denounced the jihadist regime, in power since its takeover of Kabul on Sunday, for denying her access to the RTA headquarters on the grounds that she is a woman.
“I wanted to return to work, but unfortunately they did not allow me to work. They told me that the regime has changed and you cannot work,” said Dawran said, according to Afghan cable news network Tolo News, where Dawran once worked.
Taliban didn't allow my ex-colleague here in @TOLOnews and famous anchor of the State-owned @rtapashto Shabnam Dawran to start her work today.
" Despite wearing a hijab & carrying correct ID, I was told by Taliban: The regime has changed. Go home"#Afghanistan #Talban pic.twitter.com/rXK7LWvddX — Miraqa Popal (@MiraqaPopal) August 18, 2021
The Taliban also appear to have taken over RTA’s television broadcast, replacing its regular programming with radical Islamist propaganda. An RTA journalist identified as “Khadija” confirmed the move to Tolo.
“There has been a change in the programs, they broadcast their desired programs, there are no female presenters and female journalists,” Khadija reportedly said. The journalist also added that the Taliban also banned Khadija from entering the offices and that the two were some of several reporters and other journalists prevented from entering the RTA headquarters.
Dawran appears to have responded to the ban by going on a tour of Indian media, contacting multiple Indian news networks via phone to denounce the Taliban for banning her from her job. In an interview with India’s Times Now, she stated that the crackdown was not limited to female journalists, but women in general.
The Taliban, she said “are imposing their strict rules in Afghanistan. Women are not allowed to do outdoor activities.”
#Listen | ‘Taliban are imposing their strict rules in Afghanistan. Women are not allowed to do outdoor activities’: Shabnam Dawran, Afghan Journalist, tells TIMES NOW. pic.twitter.com/4By6yd3qtn — TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) August 19, 2021
Reports from Kabul indicate that the streets are largely devoid of women, though it remains unclear if women are staying home out of fear, actively being trapping in their homes, or a mixture of both. Taliban jihadis have vandalized the many images of women’s faces throughout the capital in advertisements and billboards, which women have taken as a clear threat to their wellbeing.
Dawran’s testimony contradicts the many assurances from Taliban spokesmen since their ascent to power in the capital this weekend that they would respect women’s rights – though always caveated as only those rights granted by the Taliban’s interpretation of sharia, or the Islamic law. During a press conference designed for an international audience Tuesday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid addressed women’s rights on several occasions, and in one case took a question from a woman journalist.
“The issue of women is very important. The Islamic Emirate is committed to the rights of women within the framework of Sharia. Our sisters, our men have the same rights; they will be able to benefit from their rights,” Mujahid claimed. “They are going to be working with us, shoulder to shoulder with us. The international community, if they have concerns, we would like to assure them that there’s not going to be any discrimination against women, but of course within the frameworks that we have.”
When asked directly about women’s rights in practicing journalism, Mujahid was less clear.
“Just wait and see what the future government is going to say,” he responded. “Our laws, when it comes to media and other essentials are going to be such that everybody should be able to work but within the framework of the Islamic Sharia laws.”
Widespread reports from Kabul indicate that the Taliban is persecuting both men and women in journalism. Tolo News itself reported a visit from Taliban “inspectors” Monday, who confiscated all weapons on the premises and claimed they were there to “keep the compound safe.”
Taliban entered the TOLOnews compound in Kabul, checked the weapons of the security staff, collected govt-issued weapons, agreed to keep the compound safe. #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/LhuMI7Z90u — TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) August 16, 2021
The German media organization Deutsche Welle denounced the Taliban for home invasions against at least three of its journalists in Afghanistan and the murder of a relative of another.
“The Taliban have raided the homes of at least three DW journalists, Nematullah Hemat of the private television station Ghargasht TV is believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban,” the outlet reported, “and Toofan Omar, the head of the private radio station Paktia Ghag Radio, was, according to government officials, targeted and shot dead by Taliban fighters.”
Taliban jihadists have also harassed CNN journalist Clarissa Ward, reporting from Kabul. She has managed to continue conducting journalism at press time, asserting Taliban leaders have granted CNN special permissions, but expressed concerns that these may soon be revoked.
Shots ring out behind @clarissaward – as she stands less than 200 yards from the entrance of the Kabul airport. "It's definitely chaotic, she says. "It's definitely dangerous." pic.twitter.com/3iNgULO0fO — Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 18, 2021
Afghanistan’s Khaama Press reported Thursday that the Taliban used Kabul’s mosques to announce a strict curfew, banning people from leaving their homes after 9 p.m.
“Members of the Afghanistan Islamic Emirate [the formal name for the Taliban] have announced the curfew in every mosque of Kabul and have shared their contact numbers in case people need help after the banned time,” Khaama reported. “The members have also been busy arresting thieves in the city and are punishing them differently which has been appreciated by the citizens.”
Khaama also noted that the Taliban have not announced a reinstatement of the strict dress code that existed when it last controlled the country in 2001, which bans “wearing jeans by boys and girls.” They have also not banned music, but Afghans are notably abstaining from listening to music anyway out of fear.
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Afghan Journalist: Taliban Banning Women from Going Outside
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[] |
2021-08-20 02:21:19+00:00
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2021-08-20 02:06:07
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge sided with Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer on Thursday and denied a five-year restraining order requested
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fsports%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fjudge-denies-woman-restraining-order-against-dodgers-bauer%2F.json
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge sided with Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer on Thursday and denied a five-year restraining order requested by a woman who said he choked her into unconsciousness and punched her repeatedly during two sexual encounters.
In denying the civil domestic violence restraining order after a four-day hearing, Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman said that according to the 27-year-old San Diego woman’s testimony, Bauer honored her boundaries when she set them. And she said Bauer couldn’t know the boundaries she didn’t express to him.
“We consider in a sexual encounter that when a woman says no she should be believed,” Gould-Saltman said, “so what should we do when she says yes?”
The woman’s attorney, Lisa Helfend Meyer, said in her closing arguments that Bauer was a “monster” who far exceeded what the woman consented to, especially in punching her in the face and vagina and leaving serious bruising that was captured in photographs. Bauer also did things that the woman couldn’t consent to because she had been choked unconscious, including, according to her testimony, having anal sex with her while she was out, Meyer said.
FILE-In this June 6, 2021, file photo, Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer delivers in the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves in Atlanta. An attorney for Bauer told a judge that the Dodgers pitcher had every reason to believe that a woman wanted the rough treatment he gave her in two sexual encounters that led to her seeking a five-year restraining order against him. Lawyer Shawn Holley made the argument at a hearing Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)
“Let me be clear, the injuries as shown in the photographs are terrible,” said the judge, who issued her decision about five minutes after closing arguments were completed. However, she added, in her communications with Bauer the woman “was not ambiguous about wanting rough sex in the parties’ first encounter, and wanting rougher sex in the second encounter.”
Bauer had no visible reaction in court to the decision.
“We are grateful to the Los Angeles Superior Court for denying this request,” his lawyer Shawn Holley said outside the courthouse as he stood silently at her side. “We had expected this outcome since the petition was filed in June.”
It was a victory for Bauer in his public fight to clear his name, but serious hurdles remain, including a criminal investigation by police in Pasadena, California, and a probe by Major League Baseball.
“Allegations made against Trevor Bauer continue to be investigated by MLB’s Department of Investigations (DOI) under our Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy,” the league said in a statement after the decision. “We will comment further at the appropriate time.”
MLB put Bauer on paid administrative leave on July 2, and has extended the status through Aug. 27.
The judge cited the criminal investigation earlier Thursday in allowing Bauer to remain off the witness stand at the hearing, after the woman’s attorneys called him to testify.
Bauer said “yes, your honor” when Gould-Saltman asked if he intended to follow his lawyer’s advice and invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.
That was the only time he spoke during the four-day hearing.
FILE – In this June 28, 2021, file photo, Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer throws against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning of a baseball game, in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles judge sided with Bauer on Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021, and denied a restraining order to a woman who said he choked her into unconsciousness and punched her repeatedly during two sexual encounters. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
The woman took the stand for three days of dramatic and emotional testimony, crying frequently as she recounted how her excitement and emotional connection with Bauer turned into pain, confusion and fear after the two meetings in April and May.
“I felt like my soul left my body, and I was terrified,” she said. “I couldn’t fight back.”
At one point she wrapped her own hair around her neck as she sat on the witness stand, to show how she said Bauer had choked her.
Meyer, who had no comment outside court after the decision, said during her closing argument that she applauded her client for being “able to stand up to this monster and do the right thing.” She added that in her testimony she “revealed Trevor Bauer for who he really is, for all the world to see.”
But Holley said in her own closing that the purpose of the kind of order the woman sought is not to bring justice or publicly expose a person’s behavior, but to prevent future domestic violence and keep the two people involved apart.
“There is no one on the planet who would believe that there is any possibility that in this life or the next one, on this planet or another, that these two people will ever be in any kind of sexual relationship again,” Holley said.
The judge agreed, saying that Bauer did nothing to pursue or threaten the woman after the second and final time they met in person.
Holley focused throughout the week on messages the woman sent to Bauer between the two meetings.
“She says it was a ‘game changer’ when she was choked out,” Holley said during her closing argument. “She said ‘get a couple of slaps in there.’ She said ‘I’ve never been more turned on in my life.’ She said, ‘Give me all the pain.’”
“She wonders if it is her fault,” Holley said. “And she is right to wonder that.”
The judge cited the messages in her decision, and said the woman’s petition for the restraining order, which did not include them, was “materially misleading.”
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault.
Earlier this year, after winning his first Cy Young with the Cincinnati Reds last season, Bauer agreed to a $102 million, three-year contract to join his hometown Dodgers.
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Judge Denies Woman Restraining Order Against Dodgers’ Bauer
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https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2021/08/19/judge-denies-woman-restraining-order-against-dodgers-bauer/
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[
"Joshua Klein"
] |
2021-08-20 02:20:55+00:00
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2021-08-20 01:51:46
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John McCain warned colleagues of an “unqualified” and “dangerous” Antony Blinken for his desire to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fflashback-john-mccain-warned-of-unqualified-antony-blinken-dangerous-to-america%2F.json
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A recently resurfaced video showing late Senator John McCain warning colleagues of an “unqualified” and “dangerous” Antony Blinken, who served as deputy national security advisor under President Barack Obama at the time, specifically blasting Blinken’s desire to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
The nearly two-minute clip, which comprises excerpts from December 2014, depicts McCain approaching the Senate floor to oppose Blinken’s nomination as deputy secretary of state.
In December 2014, John McCain came down to the Senate floor to warn his colleagues about Anthony Blinken. And Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/3gP1hvKshj — POLARIS (@polarisnatsec) August 17, 2021
“Madam President, I rise to discuss my opposition to the pending vote concerning Mr. Anthony ‘Tony’ Blinken, who is not only unqualified, but, in fact, in my view, one of the worst selections of a very bad lot that this president has chosen,” McCain began.
“I hope that many of my colleagues will understand that not often do I come to the floor to oppose a nomination of the president of the United States because I believe that elections have consequences,” he continued.
McCain is also seen slamming Blinken, deeming the then-deputy national security advisor a danger to the United States.
“In this case, this individual has actually been dangerous to America and to the young men and women who are fighting and serving it,” he said.
McCain also noted Blinken’s role in “conceptualizing and furthering” a failed foreign policy.
“U.S. foreign policy is in shambles,” he said. “It’s at best a strategic, and at worst, anti-strategic.”
Quoting Blinken himself, McCain then described his concerns that the then-Obama official would push for a complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, leading to a “replay” of war-scarred Iraq:
“I’ll move on to Afghanistan. Mr. Blinken said, ‘We’ve been very clear, we’ve been consistent. The war will be concluded by the end of 2014. We have a timetable and that timetable will not change.’ This is why I’m so worried about him being in the position that he’s in because if they stick to that timetable, I am telling my colleagues that we will see the replay of Iraq all over again. We must leave a stabilizing force behind of a few thousand troops or we will see again what we saw in Iraq.”
Seven years after McCain’s opposition to Blinken’s nomination, the latter serves as Secretary of State, with many claiming the events from this week proved the necessity of McCain’s warning.
Blinken has come under fire from critics in recent days for the country’s lack of preparation and foresight when withdrawing troops this week that saw the Taliban’s rapid reconquest of Afghanistan.
On Thursday, a classified State Department memo from last month was revealed to have warned Blinken and other top officials of a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan following a U.S. troop withdrawal, indicating that the Biden administration was well aware of the strong possibility of the collapse of Kabul that occurred earlier this week.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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John McCain Warned of Antony Blinken
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/flashback-john-mccain-warned-of-unqualified-antony-blinken-dangerous-to-america/
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[
"Joshua Caplan"
] |
2021-08-20 01:50:36+00:00
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2021-08-19 22:15:59
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The State Department is charging Americans stranded in Afghanistan to be evacuated from Kabul's chief airport, according to a report.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fclaim-biden-admin-charging-americans-up-to-2000-per-evacuation-from-kabul%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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President Joe Biden’s State Department is said to be charging Americans stranded in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to be evacuated from Kabul’s chief airport.
Politico reports:
Even though U.S. officials tell NatSec Daily and others that evacuation flights from Kabul will be free, people trying to catch a plane in the Afghan capital say differently. One person said State Department staff were seeking large payments — up to $2,000 — from American passengers and even more from non-U.S. citizens. When we relayed what this person told us to the State Department, a spokesperson didn’t deny that this is happening. “U.S. law requires that evacuation assistance to private U.S. citizens or third country nationals be provided ‘on a reimbursable basis to the maximum extent practicable.’ The situation is extremely fluid, and we are working to overcome obstacles as they arise,” the spokesperson said.
The report comes as global outrage continues over Biden’s botched withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. The administration has been hit with blistering condemnation because of its inability to pin down the exact number or Americans stranded in the war-torn country or guarantee their safety as they attempt to make their way to the airport for evacuation.
Earlier Thursday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby conceded he couldn’t provide an exact number of stranded Americans.
White House officials stated Tuesday that the “self-identified” figure is roughly 11,000, while media outlets have suggested the number is up to 40,000.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that the military will evacuate individuals “until the clock runs out or we run out of capacity,” sparking concerns regarding whether the Biden administration may end up leaving some American citizens behind:
And quite frankly, we’re not close to where we want to be in terms of getting the numbers through. We’re going to work that 24 hours per day, seven days a week. And we’re going to get everyone that we can possibly evacuate, evacuated. And I’ll do that as long as we possibly can, until the clock runs out or we run out of capability.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called for Biden to expand the U.S. military’s perimeter at the airport in order to assist Americans who may be unable to reach it for evacuation due to the Taliban presence.
Cotton, who served in Afghanistan with a Provincial Reconstruction Team, said in a statement:
President Biden’s ill-planned, chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan has stranded thousands of American citizens behind enemy lines, turning them in effect into hostages of the Taliban. Instead of ordering rescue missions to save our people, as our allies have done, the Biden administration is relying on the Taliban’s good graces to ensure the safety of our citizens. As a result, terrified Americans are being forced to run a gauntlet of armed terrorist checkpoints to reach the safety of Kabul airport. My office has received numerous reports of American citizens and Afghan allies being harassed, beaten, and abused by Taliban thugs. These reports are in addition to the televised scenes of chaos at the airport perimeter.
“This catastrophe of the president’s making must come to an end,” he continued. “It’s time for President Biden to authorize the military to stop this rolling humiliation, expand the perimeter at Kabul airport, and rescue Americans trapped behind enemy lines. Anything less amounts to an abandonment of our fellow Americans and a shameful abdication of duty in a moment of crisis.”
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Biden Admin Charging Americans Up to $2000 Per Evacuation
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/claim-biden-admin-charging-americans-up-to-2000-per-evacuation-from-kabul/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"Wendell Husebø"
] |
2021-08-20 01:51:37+00:00
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2021-08-19 20:13:18
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Former President Donald Trump explained how President Joe Biden should have conducted the Afghan withdrawal: get all Americans out first.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fdonald-trump-explains-correct-withdrawal-tactics-get-all-americans-out-first%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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Former President Donald Trump explained in a statement Thursday the order in which President Joe Biden should have conducted the Afghan withdrawal: get all Americans out first.
“First you bring out all of the American citizens. Then you bring out ALL equipment. Then you bomb the bases into smithereens,” Trump’s statement said. “AND THEN YOU BRING OUT THE MILITARY.”
“You don’t do it in reverse order like Biden and our woke Generals did. No chaos, no death—they wouldn’t even know we left!” said Trump.
Trump’s critique of Biden’s withdrawal underpins the unknown amount of Americans still trapped in the collapsed country since Sunday. Estimates have ranged from 10,000 to 40,000, with the Associated Press reporting Thursday 15,000 Americans are stranded. The United States has evacuated only about 2,900 Americans since Sunday. Russia has offered to evacuate Afghans.
Breitbart News reported Wednesday the U.S. embassy in Kabul announced a “first come, first serve basis” for flights out of the country at the airport surrounded by the Taliban. “Please be advised that a significant number of individuals have registered and space on these flights is available on a first come, first serve basis,” the notice reads. “You may be required to wait at the airport for a significant amount of time until space is available.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has stated nearly 4,500 American troops are protecting the airport, while the State Department evacuates those trapped amid the chaos and increased brutalization by the Taliban within the country: An Afghan man sent me this video which he said was raked outside Kabul airport today. How are Americans and Afghans supposed to get through this? pic.twitter.com/PjRTvof5p5 — Jeff Schogol (@JeffSchogol) August 19, 2021 The New York Times reported Thursday Taliban terrorists are “intensifying” their searches for individuals “they believe worked with U.S. and NATO forces, including among the crowds of Afghans at Kabul’s airport.” The Taliban has said it will “kill or arrest their family members if they cannot find them” Meanwhile, a Washington Post columnist tweeted that Biden left so much military equipment behind in the country that he gave the Taliban an air force:
"Among the items seized by the Taliban are Black Hawk helicopters and A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft." Great, we gave the Taliban an air force.https://t.co/cn6bhfDHRc — Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 19, 2021
From 2003-2019, the American taxpayer sent the following to Afghanistan:
75,898 vehicles
599,690 weapons
162,643 pieces of communications equipment
208 aircraft
6,191 pieces of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance equipment
7,035 machine guns
4,702 Humvees
20,040 hand grenades
2,520 bombs
1,394 grenade launchers.
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Get Americans Out First
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/19/donald-trump-explains-correct-withdrawal-tactics-get-all-americans-out-first/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"Paul Bois"
] |
2021-08-20 01:51:31+00:00
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2021-08-19 22:33:55
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken was warned that Kabul would fall into Taliban hands by the August 31 troop withdrawal deadline.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fnational-security%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Freport-state-department-memo-warned-of-afghanistan-collapse-back-in-july%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bbreitbart%2B%2528Breitbart%2BNews%2529.json
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en
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A classified State Department cable from July suggests that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was warned that Kabul would fall into Taliban hands by the August 31 troop withdrawal deadline, a report from the Wall Street Journal on Thursday revealed’
The Wall Street Journal reported:
About two dozen State Department officials serving at the embassy in Kabul sent an internal memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and another top State Department official last month warning of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the Aug. 31 troop withdrawal deadline, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the cable.
Sent via the State Department’s confidential dissent channel, the memo warned that the Taliban would quickly gain control of Afghanistan and “offered recommendations on ways to mitigate the crisis and speed up an evacuation.”
The WSJ continued:
The cable, dated July 13, also called for the State Department to use tougher language in describing the atrocities being committed by the Taliban. The classified cable represents the clearest evidence yet that the administration had been warned by its own officials on the ground that the Taliban’s advance was imminent and Afghanistan’s military may be unable to stop it.
On July 8, just five days prior to this memo warning of an Afghanistan collapse, President Biden expressly said that Kabul would not be another repeat of Saigon in 1975.
“Mr. President, some Vietnamese veterans see echoes of their experience in this withdrawal in Afghanistan. Do you see any parallels between this withdrawal and what happened in Vietnam?” Biden was asked on July 8. Biden replied:
None whatsoever. Zero. What you had is you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our embassy — six, if I’m not mistaken. The Taliban is not the South — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.
At this stage, it remains unclear whether this intelligence made it to the president’s desk or if Blinken acted on it. But this new revelation contradicts several public statements from Biden himself and other administration officials, including notably Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who this week said no such intelligence existed. Given the dire timeline laid out in this memo, it also raises questions about why Biden would take a vacation when he did at Camp David – the presidential retreat at which he was vacationing when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.
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State Department Memo Warned of Afghanistan Collapse in July
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https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2021/08/19/report-state-department-memo-warned-of-afghanistan-collapse-back-in-july/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
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[
"Terry Wallace",
"Eric Gay",
"Paul Wiseman"
] |
2021-08-20 02:02:52+00:00
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2021-08-19 21:50:00
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The Texas Supreme Court has declined to block restraining orders against Gov. Greg Abbott's mask mandate ban.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.charlotteobserver.com%2Fnews%2Farticle253621543.html.json
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Students and parents gather outside the Governor's Mansion to urge Gov. Greg Abbott to drop his opposition to public school mask mandates, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, in Austin, Texas. The Texas Supreme Court has blocked mask mandates ordered by two of the nation’s largest counties that defied Republican Gov. Greg Abbott as COVID-19 cases surge. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) AP
The Texas Supreme Court declined Thursday to block restraining orders against Gov. Greg Abbott’s mask mandate ban.
The justices remanded Attorney General Ken Paxton’s appeal to the 3rd Texas Court of Appeal in Austin for a hearing. The court did not issue an opinion for its decision.
The move came the same day that the Texas Education Agency suspended enforcement of the state’s public school systems of Abbott’s ban on mask mandates has been dropped, for now, the Texas Education Agency said Thursday.
In a public health guidance letter, the TEA said enforcement was being dropped because of ongoing court challenges to the ban. The letter said the new guidance is effective immediately and further guidance will be issued once the litigations are resolved.
In an emergency order issued last month, Abbott reaffirmed his ban on mask mandates by any government entity, although federal agencies have mandated masks in their facilities. The governor and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have said they would sue any entity that does not comply with the emergency order. No such lawsuit has been filed. The Texas Supreme Court had upheld the ban in a previous decision, but that did not stop dozens of entities from imposing mask mandates.
Afternoon Observer Everything you need to know about the day's news in Charlotte, direct to your inbox Monday-Friday. Recaptcha SIGN UP This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The Supreme Court ruling came in some of those cases filed in state district court in Austin. Several South Texas school districts along with the state’s most populous county won temporary legal victories on Friday as they seek to override Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates, which they argued is making the COVID-19 pandemic worse.
Before she granted the temporary restraining orders, state District Judge Jan Soifer said she was troubled that Abbott’s executive order was “prohibiting a requirement that the schools and the local authorities and the people who generally Texas relies on to make decisions for its citizens think are necessary.”
The TEA letter recommended public school systems consult local public health officials and legal counsel before making final decisions. It also requires districts to notify their teachers, staff members and families if a test confirms a COVID-19 case in a classroom or extracurricular activity. The state previously only recommended such notification.
The TEA guidance was issued in the wake of multiple court challenges mounted by parents, advocates for disabled children and local governments and school boards. Seven counties and 48 school districts have implemented mask mandates, Abbott’s ban notwithstanding.
As of Aug. 8, the most recent total available from the Texas Department of State Health Services, 829 students and 872 staff members had tested positive for COVID-19. On Monday, the Iraan-Sheffield Independent School District in West Texas closed its schools for two weeks so students and staff could quarantine due to COVID-19.
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The push for masking and social distancing came as the number of COVID-19 cases continued to soar across Texas, largely because of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. The rolling seven-day average of daily new cases in Texas was 16,000 on Tuesday, compared to 1,495 on June 30, according to Johns Hopkins University research data. Texas COVID-19 hospitalizations have reached levels not seen since late January with 12,705 hospitalized on Wednesday, state health officials reported.
As hospitals beds fill, especially in intensive care units, Abbott directed the Texas Department of State Health Services to use staffing agencies to import medical personnel from out-of-state to supplement the COVID-19 operations of Texas health care facilities. He stuck to his mask-mandate ban, nonetheless.
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www.charlotteobserver.com
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State Supreme Court declines to hold up mask mandate ban | Charlotte Observer
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https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/article253621543.html
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[
"Mark Kennedy",
"Greg Allen",
"Marc Gustafson"
] |
2021-08-20 02:02:46+00:00
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2021-08-19 21:48:00
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The Rolling Stones are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their album “Tattoo You” with a remastered collection that includes nine previously unreleased tracks.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.charlotteobserver.com%2Fentertainment%2Fmusic-news-reviews%2Farticle253599383.html.json
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en
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FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2019 file photo, Ronnie Wood, from left, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones perform in East Rutherford, N.J. The Rolling Stones are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their album “Tattoo You” with a remastered collection that includes nine previously unreleased tracks. The newly-remastered 11-track album is out on Oct. 22. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP, File) Greg Allen/Invision/AP
The Rolling Stones are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their album “Tattoo You” with a remastered collection that includes nine previously unreleased tracks.
The newly-remastered 11-track album is out on Oct. 22, including songs “Hang Fire,” “Waiting on a Friend” and the opening track, “Start Me Up.” The deluxe formats will also include the albums “Lost & Found: Rarities” and the 26-track “Still Life: Wembley Stadium 1982.”
The “Lost & Found: Rarities” album includes the original “Living in the Heart of Love,” a version of Jimmy Reed's “Shame, Shame, Shame,” a cover of Dobie Gray’s soulful “Drift Away” and a reggae-tinged version of “Start Me Up.”
The release comes as the rockers prepare 13 new dates on their “No Filter” tour in the United States. The new itinerary starts Sept. 26 in St. Louis and extends into November.
Released on Aug. 24, 1981, “Tattoo You” was a collage of songs from the band's sessions stretching back several years.
Afternoon Observer Everything you need to know about the day's news in Charlotte, direct to your inbox Monday-Friday. Recaptcha SIGN UP This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The Grammy-nominated “Tattoo You” remains the last Stones album to hit No.1 in the U.S. charts, peaking at the top spot on Sept. 19 and remaining there for some 10 weeks.
The Rolling Stones received their first Grammy nomination for album of the year for “Some Girls” in 1978. The band’s albums also include “Beggars Banquet” in 1968, “Let It Bleed” in 1969, “Sticky Fingers” in 1971 and “Exile on Main St.” in 1972. Their singles “Honky Tonk Women” and ”(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
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www.charlotteobserver.com
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Rolling Stones honor album ‘Tattoo You’ with 9 new tunes | Charlotte Observer
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https://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article253599383.html
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[
"The Associated Press",
"Matt Strasen"
] |
2021-08-20 02:02:59+00:00
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2021-08-19 21:07:00
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Raúl Ruidíaz scored his MLS-leading 14th goal of the season and the Seattle Sounders beat FC Dallas 1-0 on Wednesday night.
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.charlotteobserver.com%2Fsports%2Farticle253594934.html.json
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en
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Seattle Sounders midfielder Jimmy Medranda (94) gets to a header in front of FC Dallas forward Jader Obrian (7) in the second half during an MLS soccer match, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021 in Frisco, Texas. (AP Photo/Matt Strasen) AP
Raúl Ruidíaz scored his MLS-leading 14th goal of the season and the Seattle Sounders beat FC Dallas 1-0 on Wednesday night.
Seattle (11-3-6) is unbeaten in its last three games — following a stretch of four losses in five games — and moved a point ahead of Sporting Kansas City atop the Western Conference standings with 39 points .
Ruidíaz had a shot blocked by defender Nkosi Tafari but the rebound went directly back to Ruidíaz, who chipped a shot off the crossbar, then the post and into the net in the 63rd minute.
Dallas (5-9-6) has lost back-to-back games for just the second time this season.
|
www.charlotteobserver.com
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Ruidíaz scores to help Sounders beat FC Dallas 1-0 | Charlotte Observer
|
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/article253594934.html
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[
"Adolfo Flores",
"Buzzfeed News Reporter"
] |
2021-08-20 01:49:14+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:29:11
|
“Then to have this traumatic experience of being essentially arrested by ICE and then put in an orange jumpsuit in a detention facility or jail — talk about layers of trauma."
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeednews.com%2Farticle%2Fadolfoflores%2Ffamily-separations-teens-age-out-ice.json
|
en
|
"These individuals are considered to be traumatized and the Task Force is providing reunification and other support services," DHS said in a statement.
The Department of Homeland Security said children who were separated under the zero tolerance policy and aged out of shelters for unaccompanied minors could request for humanitarian parole to come back to the US if they were deported; their parents and immediate household members are also allowed to do so. If they are still in the US, the task force is working on a system that would provide access to parole in place for the same three-year period.
BuzzFeed News’ discovery of the five teens’ cases comes as the Biden administration tries to undo some of the harm caused by the Trump White House when it separated thousands of children from their parents at the border. As part of those efforts, Biden created a family reunification task force, charged with identifying children who were separated during the Trump administration and attempting to reunite them with their parents. Some of these separated families in recent months have been allowed to reunite in the US under a humanitarian parole, which lasts three years, and have been given access to mental health services. They're also eligible for work authorization.
"Then to have this traumatic experience of being essentially arrested by ICE and then put in an orange jumpsuit in a detention facility or jail — talk about layers of trauma," Melloy Goettel told BuzzFeed News. "It wasn't just that single traumatic act of family separation; there were so many ripple effects that came after it, and this is one of them."
These five cases stand out because of the added trauma they likely experienced after being separated from their parents, said Kate Melloy Goettel, legal director of litigation at the American Immigration Council.
While some immigrant children who arrive without their parent or legal guardian end up being sent to ICE detention facilities if they age out of the shelters for minors run by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, these five teens did not come to the US alone. Under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy, immigrants caught crossing the border were charged with illegal entry; if they were traveling with kids, they were separated while the adults faced the charges in federal court. The 3,913 children were taken from their families, listed as unaccompanied minors, and sent to HHS custody. Ultimately, in the cases of these five teenagers, they were then sent to ICE detention.
Two teens were sent to the Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Los Fresnos, Texas, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Three of them were sent to a detention facility in Houston. The records didn't provide any additional information on who they were or what happened to the teens after they were sent to ICE detention.
At least five teenagers who were separated from their parents at the US–Mexico border by the Trump administration were taken from children’s shelters and sent to jail-like ICE facilities for adults shortly after turning 18, according to public records obtained by BuzzFeed News.
Melloy Goettel, who was one of the attorneys who filed a case against the US in 2018 for its practice of sending teens to ICE custody when they aged out of children’s shelters, said she's skeptical that only five teenagers separated from their families under zero tolerance were later sent to ICE detention centers. The lawsuit made clear the government kept poor records, she said.
"We learned that between 2016 and 2018 about one-third of age-outs were not tracked," Melloy Goettel said. "Meaning there is no record of what happened after they aged out of ORR custody; we don't know whether they were sent to ICE custody or released to a sponsor."
Court documents show that in June 2018, during the height of the Trump administration's family separations, 154 immigrant children in ORR custody were reported to have turned 18, and roughly 128 of those teens were sent to ICE detention.
In addition to the five teens who were sent to ICE detention, five others who aged out of ORR's shelters were not, according to records obtained by BuzzFeed News. Two were released on bond, one on their own, and two have "departure" listed as the reason for their release. The two released on "departure" appear to have been deported to Guatemala.
DHS's family reunification task force has also said the government's poor record-keeping of who was separated made their efforts more difficult.
A DHS spokesperson said that when unaccompanied children turn 18 and are still in the care of ORR, federal law requires they be transferred to ICE to determine whether they belong in custody. Under the law, ICE also has to consider placing the 18-year-old in the least restrictive setting, which could mean a sponsor, shelter, or releasing them on their own.
In 2018, however, the government was taken to court by immigrant teenagers over the practice, with attorneys including Melloy Goettel accusing immigration authorities of not placing them in the least restrictive setting available — in violation, they said, of a provision of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. Attorneys representing the teens said ICE automatically placed many immigrants who age out of the shelters into adult detention without even considering putting them in a less restrictive setting.
Last summer, a judge agreed with the immigrant children and found that ICE officers frequently failed to inquire about other options for teenagers who age out of ORR custody. US District Judge Rudolph Contreras said that not only did ICE not train its employees on proper decision-making for these cases, but it gave officers guidance that was contrary to what the law requires them to do. This left the choice about whether to even consider placing the teens somewhere other than adult detention up to ICE officers.
"Many officers choose not to take these steps, with the result that in many of ICE’s largest field offices, age-outs are detained nearly automatically," Contreras said. "In the most extreme cases, this means that ICE field officers refuse to release age-outs to organizational sponsors who have said they would be happy to take them in or to eighteen-year-olds’ own parents living in the United States."
Attorneys for the teens and the government are still in court fighting over how to create a better system for teens who age out of ORR's shelters.
Dr. Julie Linton, cochair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Immigrant Child and Family Health, said being sent from a shelter to an adult ICE facility can be extremely traumatizing and detrimental to a teenager's health.
"Detention facilities under the jurisdiction of ICE are known to be traumatic for people of any age, but it can be particularly traumatic to an 18-year-old," Linton told BuzzFeed News. “There is no arbitrary age by which a child suddenly becomes an adult.”
There's no difference between someone who is 18 and someone who is 17 years and 364 days old, Linton said, adding that the human brain is still developing up until a person’s mid-20s.
Coming face-to-face with the US immigration system can be severely painful and builds on trauma that children experience before even reaching the border, Linton said. Children leaving their countries to head to the US have likely seen or experienced trauma back home, she said, and are further exposed to suffering on the journey to the border.
"Then they're retraumatized again, beginning with conditions in CBP and then again in the case of separated kids, which was perhaps the most egregious thing that has ever occurred in my lifetime," Linton told BuzzFeed News. "For the children who were then sent to adult detention facilities as a final trauma, the compounding trauma is perhaps the greatest risk for long-term mental health risks in a child."
Linton said in the short term, children traumatized by detention can experience appetite loss, changes in sleep, and even bed-wetting. Children can become withdrawn or regress in their ability to speak as well as develop depression and anxiety. One study has shown a link between adverse childhood experiences with long-term health problems, such as cancer, heart disease, and liver disease, she said.
"It's certainly not difficult to surmise that being placed in an adult detention facility as an 18-year-old would be traumatic," Linton said. "Many of us in the immigration policy space have made a very clear connection between the adverse study and immigration detention."
|
www.buzzfeednews.com
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At Least Five Of The Children Who Were Taken From Their Parents At The Border Were Sent To ICE Detention When They Turned 18
|
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/family-separations-teens-age-out-ice
|
|||||
[
"Zoe Tillman",
"Sarah Mimms",
"Buzzfeed News Reporter"
] |
2021-08-20 01:49:20+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:26:34
|
Douglas Jensen was released from jail in July. The government says he violated his release conditions within the month by accessing the internet.
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeednews.com%2Farticle%2Fzoetillman%2Fcapitol-riot-defendant-internet-jail-mike-lindell.json
|
en
|
WASHINGTON — Prosecutors want alleged Capitol rioter Douglas Jensen sent back to jail, accusing him in a new filing Thursday night of committing “egregious” violations of his pretrial release conditions not only by repeatedly accessing the internet, but also by doing so specifically to watch election fraud conspiracy theory videos.
Jensen had been in jail for months following his arrest in January in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection. He’s accused of leading a mob of rioters who chased US Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman through the Capitol, and of carrying a knife in his pocket at the time. In July, however, a judge agreed to release him over the government’s objection, imposing a strict set of conditions that Jensen had to follow if he wanted to go home.
Those conditions included a prohibition on using devices with internet access, including cell phones. But according to the government, 30 days after he was released from jail, a court officer assigned to check on him arrived at his house and found Jensen in his garage listening to news on a WiFi-connected iPhone through the video platform Rumble. The government didn’t say what exactly Jensen was listening to, but included a link to a Washington Post article that described how the site was popular among conservatives.
More than that, though, the government described how Jensen also eventually admitted to the pretrial services officer that he’d spent two days watching a “cyber symposium” hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, one of the most prominent and prolific proponents of the election fraud conspiracy theories and lies that fueled the Jan. 6 riots.
Jensen was a self-described follower of the QAnon collective delusion, a fact that the government focused on in arguing to keep him behind bars. His lawyer had countered that Jensen realized the error of his ways after six months in jail, writing in June that “he feels deceived, recognizing that he bought into a pack of lies.”
|
www.buzzfeednews.com
|
A Jan. 6 Defendant Could Go To Jail For Streaming
|
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/capitol-riot-defendant-internet-jail-mike-lindell
|
|||||
[] |
2021-08-20 01:49:34+00:00
|
2021-08-19 16:00:00
|
Shenandoah's evening forecast: A few clouds from time to time. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. The forecast is showing
|
https%3A%2F%2Fvalleynewstoday.com%2Fweather%2Faug-19-2021-evening-weather-update-for-shenandoah%2Farticle_0a7d83f5-5f2f-57bc-8515-8b9dd0c735f5.html.json
|
en
|
Shenandoah's evening forecast: A few clouds from time to time. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. The forecast is showing a hot day in Shenandoah Friday. It should reach a balmy 88 degrees. Expect a drastic drop in temperatures though, with a low reaching 62 degrees. Expect periods of sun and clouds. Models are showing a 23% chance of rain tomorrow. Keep an umbrella handy, just in case! The sunshine will be intense Friday; high UV indexes are forecasted. Be careful outside, especially during late morning through mid-afternoon. If your shadow is shorter than you, seek shade and wear protective clothing and generously apply sunscreen on exposed skin. Breezy conditions can be anticipated, with forecast models showing 17 mph wind conditions coming up from the south. This report is created automatically with weather data provided by TownNews.com. Stay in the know. Visit valleynewstoday.com for local news and weather.
|
valleynewstoday.com
|
Aug. 19, 2021 evening weather update for Shenandoah
|
https://valleynewstoday.com/weather/aug-19-2021-evening-weather-update-for-shenandoah/article_0a7d83f5-5f2f-57bc-8515-8b9dd0c735f5.html
|
|||||
[
"Ken Ritter",
"Associated Press",
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:10:14+00:00
|
2021-08-20 00:39:11
|
LAS VEGAS (AP) — In a court ruling with potentially broad implications for U.S....
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Farticle%2FUS-judge-in-Nevada-Felony-deportation-law-16399346.php.json
|
en
|
LAS VEGAS (AP) — In a court ruling with potentially broad implications for U.S. immigration cases, a federal judge in Nevada found that a criminal law that dates to 1929 and makes it a felony for a person who has been deported to return to the United States is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Miranda Du in Reno, in an order issued Wednesday, found the law widely known as Section 1326 is based on “racist, nativist roots” and discriminates against Mexican and Latinx people in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment.
“Anybody who works in federal courts knows the statute,” Franny Forsman, retired longtime chief of the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Nevada, said Thursday. “There really are a large number of cases that have been brought over the years under that section. They’re mostly public defender cases.”
Section 1326 of the Immigration and Nationality Act makes it a crime for a person to enter the U.S. if they have been denied admission, deported or removed. It was enacted in 1952 using language from the Undesirable Aliens Act passed by Congress in 1929. Penalties were stiffened five times between 1988 and 1996 to increase its deterrent value.
Forsman said she expected the government will appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
But Julian Castro, secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Biden Administration, tweeted that he doubted the Justice Department would want to defend a law with “an incredibly racist history.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Christopher Chiou and an aide did not immediately respond to messages about the ruling.
Forsman called Du’s order groundbreaking for its thoroughness. Du, a Vietnamese immigrant, was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama and sworn in in 2012.
“I think it will have implications because it’s going to be difficult to get around her reasoning,” Forsman said of the court order. “It’s a little hard to get around a statute that was called the ‘Wetback Act’ by the people enacting it.” The derogatory term often refers to Mexican migrants who have entered the country illegally, but it's also used to disparage all Hispanics.
Du said she considered written and oral arguments and expert testimony about the legislative history of the law from professors Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien of San Diego State University and Kelly Lytle Hernández of the University of California, Los Angeles.
“Importantly, the government does not dispute that Section 1326 bears more heavily on Mexican and Latinx individuals,” the judge said in her 43-page order dismissing the June 2020 criminal indictment of Gustavo Carrillo-Lopez.
Carrillo-Lopez was arrested in Nevada in 2019 after having been deported in 1999 and again in 2012, according to prosecutors. His federal public defender, Lauren Gorman in Reno, did not immediately respond Thursday to an email.
The judge said she saw no publicly available data about the national origin of people prosecuted under Section 1326, but cited U.S. Border Patrol statistics showing that more than 97% of people apprehended at the border in 2000 were of Mexican decent, 86% in 2005, and 87% in 2010.
“The government argues that the stated impact is ‘a product of geography, not discrimination,’ and that the statistics are rather a feature of Mexico’s proximity to the United States, the history of Mexican employment patterns and the socio-political and economic factors that drive migration,” Du wrote. “The court is not persuaded.”
|
www.thetelegraph.com
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US judge in Nevada: Felony deportation law unconstitutional
|
https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/US-judge-in-Nevada-Felony-deportation-law-16399346.php
|
|||||
[
"Beth Harris",
"Ap Sports Writer",
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:10:26+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:23:42
|
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mookie Betts says he’s feeling “really, really good” and is...
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fsports%2Farticle%2FBetts-feeling-really-good-eyes-return-soon-to-16399396.php.json
|
en
|
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mookie Betts says he’s feeling “really, really good” and is eager to return soon to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup from a stint on the injured list with right hip inflammation.
The All-Star outfielder has been on the IL since Aug. 8. He was diagnosed with a bone spur in his hip and recently received a second cortisone injection.
“It's the first time I've felt normal in a long time,” Betts said Thursday after a workout on the field before the Dodgers hosted the New York Mets. “There's no pain at all. Hopefully, I can stay on this path.”
Betts said his hip had been bothering him since the start of spring training in February. He described the pain as being so intense that it “locked me up pretty good.”
“I hope it just can get through the season and let it heal and not have to worry about it anymore,” he said.
Manager Dave Roberts said Betts could potentially return as early as next week. The Dodgers visit NL West rival San Diego for a three-game series starting Tuesday and return home next Friday to host Colorado. Roberts said Betts would decide whether or not he needs a rehab assignment first.
“Maybe just a couple at-bats and we'll go from there,” Betts said. “I would like to at least get hot, then cool off, then get hot and get back running around just to make sure. I don’t want to go out there and have to come out of the game.”
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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www.thetelegraph.com
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Betts feeling 'really good,' eyes return soon to Dodgers
|
https://www.thetelegraph.com/sports/article/Betts-feeling-really-good-eyes-return-soon-to-16399396.php
|
|||||
[
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:09:55+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:16:36
|
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The former school resource officer accused of hiding...
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Farticle%2FJudge-School-officer-who-hid-during-shooting-16399388.php.json
|
en
|
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The former school resource officer accused of hiding during a South Florida school shooting that left 17 people dead will have to convince a jury that he wasn't criminally negligent, a judge ruled Thursday.
Broward Circuit Judge Martin Fein declined to dismiss the child negligence charges against former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson, the Sun Sentinel reported.
Peterson, 58, had worked as a school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Nikolas Cruz, who was 19 at the time of the February 2018 shooting, has been charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder.
Prosecutors have said that Peterson failed to come to the rescue as Cruz was making his way through the school’s hallways. The law that Peterson is accused of breaking specifically applies to caregivers, but defense attorneys argued during a hearing Wednesday that a law enforcement officer doesn’t fit the legal definition of a caregiver.
Prosecutors are arguing that school resources officers are inherently different from other law enforcement officers and should be considered caregivers.
Fein ruled that a jury can decide whether a school resource officer should be considered a caregiver and noted that a jury instruction will be included to that effect.
Cruz faces the death penalty if convicted in the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre in which 17 people were slain and 17 others were wounded. Cruz’s lawyers have said he would plead guilty in exchange for a life prison sentence, but prosecutors are insisting that his fate be decided by a jury trial.
|
www.thetelegraph.com
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Judge: School officer who hid during shooting facing charges
|
https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Judge-School-officer-who-hid-during-shooting-16399388.php
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|||||
[
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:09:18+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:24:44
|
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Two teenagers were facing murder charges for a street-racing...
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Farticle%2F2-teens-facing-murder-charges-for-deadly-16399395.php.json
|
en
|
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Two teenagers were facing murder charges for a street-racing crash that killed three people and critically injured a fourth in a Los Angeles suburb, authorities said Thursday.
Hamlet Aghajanyan, 19, of Burbank and a 17-year-old boy were taken into custody Thursday, police said.
Aghajanyan has been charged by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office with three counts of murder and one count of reckless driving, Burbank police said in a statement. He remained jailed on a $6 million bond.
The other youth, whose name wasn't released, was at a juvenile detention facility and prosecutors will determine whether to charge him with murder and reckless driving, police said.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the two had legal representation.
Authorities contend that Aghajanyan was driving a Kia and racing the other boy's Mercedes-Benz on Aug. 3 in Burbank when the Kia broad-sided a Volkswagen that was trying to make a turn.
The impact tore the Volkswagen in half and flung three people from the car. Killed at the scene were Jaiden Johnson, 20, of Burbank; Natalee Moghaddam, 19, of Calabasas and Cerain Baker, 21, the son of actor and comedian Tony Baker.
A fourth person in the car was hospitalized with critical injuries.
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www.thetelegraph.com
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2 teens facing murder charges for deadly street-racing crash
|
https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/2-teens-facing-murder-charges-for-deadly-16399395.php
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|||||
[
"Mark Thiessen",
"Associated Press",
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:10:01+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:29:19
|
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Law enforcement officials have completed their investigation...
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Farticle%2FProsecutors-vet-US-Senate-candidate-s-fishing-16399413.php.json
|
en
|
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Law enforcement officials have completed their investigation into whether a U.S. Senate candidate and former State of Alaska official illegally obtained a fishing license for a sportfishing event two years ago and turned it over to a special prosecutorial branch of the Department of Law, an official said Thursday.
Kelly Tshibaka, a former commissioner in the state Department of Administration and a Republican candidate for Senate, received the license during an event on the Kenai River in 2019.
Records show she received the permit in August 2019, eight months after she moved to Alaska to take the commissioner’s job, the Anchorage Daily News has reported. To obtain a resident fishing license, state law says the person must have lived in the state for 12 consecutive months before applying for a license.
Tshibaka signed the license application, acknowledging she had read the rules for residency. She also indicated on the license that she was a resident for 15 years, 8 months.
A person could be fined up to $300 for knowingly violating the law on fishing licenses, a misdemeanor.
“After a thorough investigation by the Alaska Wildlife Troopers into the media reports regarding Mrs. Tshibaka the investigation has been completed and will now be reviewed by the Alaska Department of Law’s Office of Special Prosecutions,” Department of Public Safety spokesperson Austin McDaniel said in an email to The Associated Press.
When asked if it were unusual to involve the special office, he said in a follow-up email that law enforcement regularly works with prosecutors when building cases.
“Due to the circumstances involved with this investigation, the Alaska Wildlife Troopers requested an independent review of the case by the legal experts at the Alaska Department of Law,” McDaniel said.
Tim Murtaugh, a senior adviser to Tshibaka’s campaign, said she attended the 2019 Kenai River Classic in her capacity as commissioner.
He said her confirmation hearings were public and it was well-known she had just returned to the state.
“The event organizers asked if she had a current fishing license, and when she said she didn’t, they issued her one,” Murtaugh said in an email to the AP.
“The form was filled in for a license that expired after one day, going from August 22nd to the 23rd, which is only available to non-residents. This shows clear intent to purchase a non-resident license, not a resident license,” he said.
Tshibaka announced her resignation from the state on March 29, the same day she said she would challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Murkowski, who was critical of former President Donald Trump, was censured by the Alaska Republican Party, which later endorsed Tshibaka in the race. Trump also has endorsed Tshibaka.
Murkowski has not announced whether she will seek reelection next year. However, last month Kevin Sweeney, a consultant to Murkowski’s campaign, said she had raised about $1.15 million in the second quarter of this year and had $2.3 million on hand.
That, Sweeney said, “strongly positions” Murkowski for a reelection bid.
Murkowski on Monday declined to discuss reelection plans.
__
Associated Press journalist Becky Bohrer in Juneau contributed to this report.
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www.thetelegraph.com
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Prosecutors vet US Senate candidate's fishing license case
|
https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Prosecutors-vet-US-Senate-candidate-s-fishing-16399413.php
|
|||||
[
"Doug Feinberg",
"Ap Basketball Writer",
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:10:08+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:08:45
|
NEW YORK (AP) — The Seattle Storm are heading to the White House to celebrate their...
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Farticle%2FSeattle-Storm-to-visit-White-House-celebrate-16399372.php.json
|
en
|
NEW YORK (AP) — The Seattle Storm are heading to the White House to celebrate their 2020 WNBA championship.
The team was formally invited by President Joe Biden to visit Monday afternoon. The Storm play at the Washington Mystics on Sunday.
“I think for a very long time, up until 2016, going to the White House was an honor. It wasn't necessarily political. It was to meet the president of the United States. The person who holds that office acknowledging your team's success,” said Seattle guard Sue Bird, who will be making her third trip to meet a president. “It was an incredible honor. Even when you watch a movie like ‘Forrest Gump,’ I'm dating myself a little bit, you understand in that movie what an incredible honor it was. It wasn't political. I think that all shifted in 2016.”
With former president Donald Trump out of office, Bird said she was happy to be going back. Many WNBA players including Bird have been outspoken in their embrace of social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter, which Trump characterized as violent, radical ideology. Trump was also critical of Bird's fiancee, U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe.
“Now that it's back in a place where it's considered an honor and you're recognized by the highest office in the country is exciting, it's fun,” Bird said. “It's not just about meeting the president or hopefully the vice president is there. It's about the whole experience of being in the White House. Having a day that's about your team and celebrating what you've accomplished.”
In addition to her two previous White House visits, Bird has been invited three other times after winning championships — once with UConn and twice with the Storm — but couldn't attend.
The Storm, who have won four titles, will be joined by the team's ownership group and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. The team last visited the White House in 2011.
No NBA or WNBA team has visited the White House since the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 — Barack Obama's last year in office.
___
More AP women's basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
|
www.thetelegraph.com
|
Seattle Storm to visit White House, celebrate 2020 title
|
https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Seattle-Storm-to-visit-White-House-celebrate-16399372.php
|
|||||
[
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:10:33+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:19:37
|
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — DeWanna Bonner scored a season-high 31 points and grabbed 11...
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fsports%2Farticle%2FBonner-s-31-points-11-rebounds-lead-Sun-past-16399391.php.json
|
en
|
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — DeWanna Bonner scored a season-high 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as the Connecticut Sun beat the Minnesota Lynx 82-71 on Thursday night.
Bonner made 10 of 11 free throws — and Connecticut went 23 for 25 from the line — to help reach 30 points for the first time this season. It was her fifth double-double.
Jonquel Jones added 20 points and seven rebounds for Connecticut (17-6) despite being in foul trouble. The Sun turned it over 17 times but outrebounded the Lynx 31-23.
Sylvia Fowles led Minnesota (13-9) with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Layshia Clarendon added 15 points and Napheesa Collier scored 11.
Connecticut continues its five-game homestand on Tuesday against Las Vegas in a battle for sole possession of first place. Minnesota lost back-to-back games against Connecticut following an eight-game winning streak.
___
More AP women’s basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
|
www.thetelegraph.com
|
Bonner's 31 points, 11 rebounds lead Sun past Lynx 82-71
|
https://www.thetelegraph.com/sports/article/Bonner-s-31-points-11-rebounds-lead-Sun-past-16399391.php
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[
"Kathleen Ronayne",
"Michael R. Blood",
"Associated Press",
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:09:49+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:46:09
|
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The former fiancee of Larry Elder said Thursday that the...
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Farticle%2FElder-denies-showing-gun-to-woman-during-domestic-16399362.php.json
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en
|
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The former fiancee of Larry Elder said Thursday that the conservative radio talk show host now running for governor in California showed her a gun during a heated argument in 2015.
Elder, widely seen as the leader in the Republican field running to replace Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in next month's recall election, issued a statement saying “I have never brandished a gun at anyone." Elder, who is seeking to become California's first Black governor, noted that he grew up in South Los Angeles, an area with high violent crime.
“I know exactly how destructive this type of behavior is,” he said.
Alexandra Datig's accusation, first reported by Politico, comes with less than four weeks until the Sept. 14 election and at a time when mail-in ballots already have arrived at voters' homes. Elder said he intended to “stay focused on the issues” that inspired the recall drive by Republicans upset with Newsom's progressive policies and handling of the pandemic.
Datig, 51 and a longtime Los Angeles resident, said she worked on Elder's show and they lived together during their 18-month romantic relationship from 2013 to 2015,. A letter and other records provided by Datig to The Associated Press – including an April 6, 2015, email in which she wrote about the collapse of their engagement — sketched a portrait of an emotionally abusive relationship in which Elder routinely was using medicinal marijuana to excess.
Datig claims Elder was high during the 2015 argument and went to a cabinet where he kept his gun “and made sure it was in my view.”
“He did not point it at me, but he wanted to make sure that I knew that he was checking" to see it was loaded, she told the AP.
Threatening another person with a firearm could be a criminal offense but Datig said she never reported it to police.
Elder did not specifically address that claim about cannabis use in questions submitted to his campaign by AP. His statement in response to Datig’s claims of abuse referred broadly to “salacious allegations.”
“People do not get into public life precisely because of this type of politics of personal destruction. I am not going to dignify this with a response — it’s beneath me,” Elder wrote. A short time later he tweeted: “They’re coming at me with every dirty trick because they know what’s coming on September 14."
Datig supports one of Elder’s Republican rivals, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. Earlier this week Faulconer began targeting Elder for criticism and specifically questioning his attitudes about women, noting among other things that Elder had written that employers should be able to ask women if and when they plan to get pregnant.
“Larry Elder doesn’t have the judgment or character to lead our state,” Faulconer said in response to Datig’s allegations.
Another Republican in the race, state Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, said in a statement that he found Datig's claims disturbing.
“I believe that any woman who comes forward deserves to be heard, and Ms. Datig’s deeply troubling account should be treated with the utmost seriousness. Mr. Elder should be given every opportunity to respond,” he said.
Elder entered the race in July and Datig said she waited until now to come forward because she initially didn't think he would be competitive.
“I didn’t take it seriously but when Larry started to trend and become the frontrunner, I became extremely concerned,” she said.
The documents provided by Datig described months of emotional distress from the unraveling romantic and business relationship. “I feel trapped and afraid,” she wrote in the mail.
Datig also provided the AP with a copy of a confidentiality agreement she signed in 2014 barring her from speaking about the “personal and business affairs” of Elder and his business, Laurence A. Elder & Associates, Inc. She said she was breaking it to go public with her accusations.
A March 31, 2015, letter from her attorney to Elder asked for $6,000 in monthly support for Datig for one year, to cover expenses including rent, car and health care costs. She also asked for $195,000 for public relations, marketing and other services she said she provided for his show.
The two ultimately signed an agreement on April 13, 2015, for Elder to pay Datig $20,000 and cover the cost of her $5,000 legal retainer and $185 to dry clean her wedding dress. Elder agreed he and his assistant would sign a nondisclosure agreement regarding anything to do with Datig, that he would write her a letter of recommendation for her work product, and that they two would “halt mutual insults."
Datig refers to herself as a sex trafficking survivor and has publicly disclosed working for so-called former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, who was convicted in the mid-1990s of running a high-priced call-girl ring, a conviction that was later overturned. Fleiss was later sentenced to federal prison for cheating on her taxes and laundering call-girl profits. In a 2013 interview with KCAL-TV, Datig described becoming an informant on Fleiss.
__
Ronayne reported from Sacramento.
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www.thetelegraph.com
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Elder denies showing gun to woman during domestic argument
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https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Elder-denies-showing-gun-to-woman-during-domestic-16399362.php
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[
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:09:37+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:37:53
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Tucson police say charges are pending against the impaired driver of a vehicle that hit a...
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Farticle%2FCharges-pending-in-Tucson-pedestrian-fatal-in-16399421.php.json
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Tucson police say charges are pending against the impaired driver of a vehicle that hit a pedestrian in a convenience store parking lot who later died from his injuries.
Police identified the victim of Tuesday night's collision at a Circle K on East Grant Road as 29-year-old David Lamberto.
An initial investigation determined that Lamberto had been sitting, squatting and acting erratically in the parking lot before he was struck at about 8:30 p.m., police said in a statement Thursday.
The blue 2007 Ford 500 hit him when it turned into the parking lot and proceeded to drag him as it pulled into a parking lot.
Lamberto was taken to Banner University Medical Center where he later died.
Police at the scene determined the driver was impaired at the time, police said.
Investigators say the driver's impairment and the pedestrian's erratic behavior are major contributing factors in the collision.
The driver's name has not been released.
“The investigation is ongoing and charges are pending at this time,” police said Thursday.
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www.thetelegraph.com
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Charges pending in Tucson pedestrian fatal in parking lot
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https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Charges-pending-in-Tucson-pedestrian-fatal-in-16399421.php
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[
"The Associated Press",
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:10:57+00:00
|
2021-08-20 01:13:59
|
A look at what’s happening around the majors on Friday:
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fsports%2Farticle%2FLEADING-OFF-Ohtani-road-show-to-Cleveland-16399387.php.json
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en
|
A look at what’s happening around the majors on Friday:
___
WHAT WILL SHOHEI DO NEXT?
The Shohei Ohtani road show heads to Cleveland after the two-way superstar thrilled opposing crowds in Detroit.
Ohtani’s Los Angeles Angels — whose playoff chances are slim at one game over .500 — will play two games at the Indians' home ballpark before both teams head to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for the Little League Classic on Sunday night.
After that, LA travels to Baltimore for a three-game series against the major league-worst Orioles that’s expected to include Ohtani’s next mound start — perhaps a rare opportunity for Baltimore fans to feel some buzz.
Against Detroit, Ohtani had his longest mound start of the season, winning his fourth consecutive start with an eight-inning performance on Wednesday night. He also hit a towering, 430-foot homer — his major league-leading 40th of the season — that Tigers fans waiting for Miguel Cabrera to hit No. 500 couldn't help but admire.
Ohtani followed it up with a 2-for-3 day as the Angels rallied from an eight-run deficit to beat the Tigers on Thursday.
OPTIMISM IN HOUSTON
Astros manager Dusty Baker has reasons to feel good about his AL West-leading club even after an uninspired seven-game trip.
Houston went 3-4 on the road against the Angels and Royals and begins a weeklong homestand on Friday by hosting division rival Seattle. The Astros lead Oakland by 2 1/2 games, which hasn't escaped Baker's notice.
“I’ve been scoreboard watching every day,” Baker said. “Scoreboard watching is something I do between innings when I’m not thinking about what to do. We’re just looking forward to the finish line. We have a ways to go, and we haven’t played our best ball yet.”
One thing that's making Baker sanguine about the future is having Aledmys Díaz in the lineup. Díaz went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs, including the go-ahead single in the 10th inning of a 6-3 win at Kansas City on Thursday.
“You can tell what (Díaz) means to this club (by looking at) the six weeks he was out,” Baker said.
SUB-BASEMENT
The major league-worst Baltimore Orioles haven't even come within two runs of a win in the past week.
The Orioles dropped their 15th straight game on Thursday, falling 7-2 to the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays. And most of them haven't been close.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Orioles are the first team since 1900 to lose 15 straight games by multiple runs. The closest Baltimore got was a 6-4 loss to Detroit on Aug. 12.
The Orioles have been outscored 138-42 during the skid, allowing an average of 9.2 runs per game.
After dropping four at Tampa Bay by scores of 9-2, 10-0, 8-4 and 7-2, Baltimore hosts another first-place team for a three-game series this weekend: NL-East winning Atlanta.
The Arizona Diamondbacks had the worst record in the majors for much of the season, but Baltimore now owns that distinction. Arizona is coming off a three-game sweep of Philadelphia and has won six of seven overall.
OCTOBER PREVIEW
Brandon Lowe knows this weekend may not be the last time the Rays face the Chicago White Sox in 2021.
The AL Central leaders visit the AL East leaders for a three-game series starting Friday.
“This is going to be kind of what we’re looking at postseason-wise, I feel like,” Lowe said. “You know the White Sox are going to make it, we feel like we’re going to make it. I think the games are going to be a little bit tougher, it’s going to be a little bit lower-scoring ballgames but it’s going to be a hard-fought battle for the whole series.”
Tampa Bay has won 11 of 14, and perhaps a playoff preview could lure a few more fans to Tropicana Field. In their four-game sweep of Baltimore, the Rays drew a total of 22,754 paying customers — an average of 5,689 per game.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
|
www.thetelegraph.com
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LEADING OFF: Ohtani road show to Cleveland; Astros optimism
|
https://www.thetelegraph.com/sports/article/LEADING-OFF-Ohtani-road-show-to-Cleveland-16399387.php
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|||||
[
"Yuri Kageyama",
"Associated Press",
"Written By"
] |
2021-08-20 02:09:00+00:00
|
2021-08-20 00:52:10
|
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese actor Sonny Chiba, who wowed the world with his martial arts...
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetelegraph.com%2Fentertainment%2Farticle%2FJapanese-martial-artist-film-star-Sonny-Chiba-16399345.php.json
|
en
|
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese actor Sonny Chiba, who wowed the world with his martial arts skills in more than 100 films, including “Kill Bill,” has died. He was 82.
Chiba, known in Japan as Shinichi Chiba, died late Thursday in a hospital near Tokyo where he had been treated for COVID-19 since Aug. 8, Tokyo-based Astraia, his management office, said in a statement Friday. It said he had not been vaccinated.
Chiba rose to stardom in Japan in the 1960s, portraying samurai, fighters and police detectives, the anguished so-called “anti-heroes” trying to survive in a violent world. He did many of the stunt scenes himself.
His overseas career took off after his 1970s Japanese film “The Street Fighter” proved popular in the U.S.
American director Quentin Tarantino listed the work as among his “grindhouse,” or low-budget kitsch cinema, favorites.
Tarantino cast Chiba in the role of Hattori Hanzo, a master swordsmith in “Kill Bill.”
Chiba appeared in the 1991 Hollywood film “Aces,” directed by John Glen, as well as in Hong Kong movies.
Chiba’s career also got a boost from the global boom in kung fu films, set off by Chinese legend Bruce Lee, although critics say Chiba tended to exhibit a dirtier, thug-like fighting style than Lee.
“A true action legend. Your films are eternal and your energy an inspiration. #SonnyChiba #RIP,” American actor Lewis Tan said on Twitter.
New York-based writer and director Ted Geoghegan called him “the great Sonny Chiba.”
“Watch one of his films today,” Geoghegan tweeted, followed by images of a fist and a broken heart.
Other fans mournfully filled Twitter threads with clips of his movies and photos.
Born in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, Chiba studied at Nippon Sport Science University trained in various martials arts, earning a fourth-degree black belt in karate.
Chiba set up Japan Action Club in 1980, to develop a younger generation of actors, including protege Hiroyuki Sanada, who is among Hollywood’s most coveted Japanese actors, landing roles in “The Last Samurai” and “Rush Hour 3.”
Chiba is survived by his three children, Juri Manase, Mackenyu Arata and Gordon Maeda, all actors. A wake was canceled as a pandemic measure, and funeral arrangements were still undecided, his office said.
___
Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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www.thetelegraph.com
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Japanese martial artist film star Sonny Chiba dies at 82
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https://www.thetelegraph.com/entertainment/article/Japanese-martial-artist-film-star-Sonny-Chiba-16399345.php
|
|||||
[
"Emily Deciccio"
] |
2021-08-20 01:45:09+00:00
|
2021-08-20 00:38:10
|
Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku explains why a recent nuclear fusion test at a national lab was a "giant step toward the holy grail of energy research."
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2021%2F08%2F19%2Fmichio-kaku-calls-nuclear-fusion-test-at-national-lab-giant-step-toward-the-holy-grail-of-energy-research-.html.json
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en
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Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku lauded a recent nuclear fusion experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
"This is a giant step toward the holy grail of energy research," said Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City College and City University of New York. "To hit break-even, to extract more energy than you put in, and this could eventually become a game-changer."
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced a key achievement in nuclear fusion that it had, back on Aug. 8, been able to produce 1.3 megajoules of energy at its National Ignition Facility, albeit very briefly. Kaku told CNBC's "The News with Shepard Smith" that the achievement was a giant step towards clean energy.
"A fusion reactor is carbon neutral, it does not create carbon dioxide, it does not create copious quantities of nuclear waste that you find in fission plants with uranium, it does not melt down," said the author of "The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything." "The fuel is sea water, hydrogen from seawater could be the basic fuel."
Fusion, the lesser known and opposite reaction to nuclear fission, is when two atoms slam together to form a heavier atom and release energy. It is the way the sun makes energy.
Kaku explained some of the drawbacks to nuclear fusion and why it's not currently an easily accessible source of energy.
"It turns out that when you heat hydrogen to tens of millions of degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of the sun, things become unstable, and that's why this reaction took place over a hundred trillionth of a second, just a snap of the finger, so in other words, we want to have a continuous stream of energy, not bursts of energy, like we found here," Kaku said.
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www.cnbc.com
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Michio Kaku calls nuclear fusion test at national lab ‘giant step toward the holy grail of energy research’
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https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/19/michio-kaku-calls-nuclear-fusion-test-at-national-lab-giant-step-toward-the-holy-grail-of-energy-research-.html
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[] |
2021-08-20 01:45:17+00:00
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2021-08-20 00:00:00
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It all started just after 9 a.m. Thursday when police say the man parked his car on the sidewalk just outside of the Library of Congress’ Jefferson Building.
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackhillsfox.com%2F2021%2F08%2F20%2Fhours-long-standoff-library-congress-ends-after-nc-man-surrenders%2F.json
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en
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WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - A North Carolina man is in custody after police say he drove to Washington, D.C. and put parts of nation’s capital on lockdown by telling police he had a bomb.
The Gray Television Washington News Bureau was there when the truck that police say belongs to Floyd Ray Roseberry was towed away, hours after the standoff began.
It all started just after 9 a.m. Thursday when they say Roseberry parked his car on the sidewalk just outside of the Library of Congress’ Jefferson Building.
“The driver of the truck told the responding officer on the scene that he had a bomb,” explained Chief Tom Manger of the U.S. Capitol Police.
Law enforcement then evacuated the Jefferson Building and Cannon House Office Building. People in a second library building, the Madison Building, were told to shelter in place.
Roseberry posted a video on Facebook where he was seen holding what looks like a large canister. In the video, Roseberry also talked about wanting President Biden and other Democrats to leave office. He claimed that he wasn’t working alone and that there were four other explosive devices placed around Washington, D.C. Police say they found no evidence to support that claim.
After about a five-hour standoff, Roseberry gave himself up to police.
“We tried to negotiate with Mr. Roseberry,” explained Manger. “We first started doing that with a whiteboard writing messages back and forth...He got out of the vehicle and surrendered, and the tactical units that were close by took him into custody.”
Most lawmakers were not on Capitol Hill as it is August recess, so most of the people affected by the lockdown and evacuations where Capitol Hill or Library of Congress staff.
This is the second major security event to happen near the Capitol since the Jan. 6 riots. In April, a man drove into a Capitol barricade, then stabbed two officers before being fatally shot. Capitol Police Officer Billy Evans lost his life in that attack.
Capitol Police say investigators are working closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia to determine charges.
Copyright 2021 Gray DC. All rights reserved.
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Hours-long standoff at Library of Congress ends after N.C. man surrenders
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https://www.blackhillsfox.com/2021/08/20/hours-long-standoff-library-congress-ends-after-nc-man-surrenders/
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[
"Free Press Staff"
] |
2021-08-20 01:50:24+00:00
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2021-08-18 11:30:00
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Queen’s Park is drawing a line in the sand, implementing COVID-19 mandates in the health-care and education sector ahead of the return to school.
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.woodstocksentinelreview.com%2Fnews%2Flocal-news%2Fwhat-local-officials-say-about-new-covid-mandate-for-schools-health-care%2Fwcm%2F2b3221cf-265c-4354-9c2d-99e80f28dd8f.json
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en
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Queen’s Park is drawing a line in the sand, implementing COVID-19 mandates in the health-care and education sector ahead of the return to school.
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Article content
The province is requiring staff at hospitals and home care providers to be fully immunized against COVID-19, provide a medical reason for not being vaccinated or complete an education session on vaccination and complete regular rapid testing.
We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Try refreshing your browser. What local officials say about new COVID mandate for schools, health care Back to video
Staff in publicly funded schools and child-care centres will have to disclose their vaccination status. Education staff who are unvaccinated will be required to complete rapid COVID-19 tests regularly.
London-area education and health leaders applauded the Ontario’s latest move in the face of a fourth wave of COVID-19, and are awaiting further direction from the province.
What they said:
“It is widely accepted by public health experts that vaccination is a key measure to reduce the spread of COVID-19, along with wearing masks, physical distancing and hand hygiene. . . . I am in complete support of ensuring that every adult who works in the public education sector is fully vaccinated.”
– Mark Fisher, director of education, Thames Valley District school board
“We’re three weeks away from the opening of schools. We’re awaiting a policy from the Ministry of Education on this, which will then be the framework for what the local school boards work out. That, I imagine, is going to take a little bit of time and time really is of the essence at this point. . . . It’s important that every effort be made to build a wall around the children who cannot be vaccinated yet. . . . I think we’re moving in the right direction, but I think we probably needed to move here quicker.”
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www.woodstocksentinelreview.com
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What local officials say about new COVID mandate for schools, health care
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https://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/news/local-news/what-local-officials-say-about-new-covid-mandate-for-schools-health-care/wcm/2b3221cf-265c-4354-9c2d-99e80f28dd8f
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[
"Calvi Leon"
] |
2021-08-20 01:50:11+00:00
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2021-08-17 18:06:00
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The duo behind a planned documentary about human and sex trafficking hopes to shed light on the “invisible crime” that happens along Highway 401 through…
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.woodstocksentinelreview.com%2Fnews%2Flocal-news%2Fdark-highway-duo-eyes-documentary-on-401-corridor-sex-trafficking%2Fwcm%2Ffc5512b3-e5cd-4139-8778-bd96a586818b.json
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The duo behind a planned documentary about human and sex trafficking hopes to shed light on the “invisible crime” that happens along Highway 401 through Southwestern Ontario.
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Article content
The corridor is full of “hot spots” for sex trafficking in Ontario, said Anna Jane Edmonds, producer and director of the proposed film, called Dark Highway.
We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Try refreshing your browser. 'Dark Highway': Duo eyes documentary on 401-corridor sex trafficking Back to video
The documentary, to be produced by Ballinran Entertainment, is in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for full production costs, Edmonds, a graduate of Western University, said. She wants the film to educate viewers about the realities of children and women lured into trafficking and to inform the public how to help.
“It’s about showing all of the sinister things happening along the highway that we’re normally using to travel to see our grandparents or our children, and to go into the city or to school,” said Andrea O’Shea, co-producer of the film and supervising producer at Ballinran, a Stratford-base film production company.
“We really just want to show the average Ontario family what to look out for in the dangers that are happening.”
Human trafficking — defined as the exploitation of people through force, fraud or coercion — is most common along corridors, including Highway 401, according to a study by the Centre to End Human Trafficking.
The study found sex traffickers use the routes to make the most profit, avoid police detection and keep their victims isolated.
“It’s a very Canadian problem,” Edmonds said. The average age of sex trafficking victims in Ontario is 13, and the average victim makes a trafficker $280,000 each year, she added.
“The piece of information that continues to rattle in the back of my brain is that it takes, on average, adults in the household two years to find out that there’s a victim in their home.”
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www.woodstocksentinelreview.com
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'Dark Highway': Duo eyes documentary on 401-corridor sex trafficking
|
https://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/news/local-news/dark-highway-duo-eyes-documentary-on-401-corridor-sex-trafficking/wcm/fc5512b3-e5cd-4139-8778-bd96a586818b
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