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‘Horrible conditions’: Nearly 30 dogs found dead in freezers; dog rescue owner charged
HAMILTON, Ohio (Gray News) - The owner of a dog rescue in Ohio is facing multiple charges after deputies found animals in unlivable conditions.
Authorities said deputy dog wardens were called to two properties in Butler County regarding a complaint this week.
The team found at least 30 deceased dogs on the properties along with about 90 living animals in “the most horrible conditions they have ever seen.”
According to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, Rhonda Murphy, the owner of the properties, was operating a rescue under the name Helping Hands for Furry Paws.
When deputies and investigators searched the structures, multiple dogs’ bodies were found in refrigerators and freezers, with some of the coolers not working.
Other deceased canines were also found on the property, including puppies.
According to investigators, a garage housed about 25 living dogs, but they were kept in cages, some together, with no air conditioning or ventilation in the room. Temperatures were measured to be about 89 degrees inside.
Numerous animals were found without access to food or water, including a mother dog and her eight puppies.
Deputies said the odor was so strong that it burned their eyes and took away their breath as they checked the property.
Additionally, 11 more dogs were found in the main house living in the same deplorable conditions as others found on the property.
“Conditions were so horrendous that dog wardens had to leave the structure numerous times to catch their breath,” the sheriff’s office said.
All dogs were seized from the properties.
Authorities said Murphy is facing dozens of misdemeanor and felony charges that include neglect and cruelty to animals.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wafb.com/2023/07/28/horrible-conditions-nearly-30-dogs-found-dead-freezers-dog-rescue-owner-charged/ | 2023-07-28T23:23:59 | 1 | https://www.wafb.com/2023/07/28/horrible-conditions-nearly-30-dogs-found-dead-freezers-dog-rescue-owner-charged/ |
Arthur Rinderknech vs. Jurij Rodionov: Prediction and Match Betting Odds | ATP Challenger Zug, Switzerland Men Singles 2023
Arthur Rinderknech will meet Jurij Rodionov in the ATP Challenger Zug, Switzerland Men Singles 2023 semifinals on Saturday, July 29.
Compared to the underdog Rodionov (+110), Rinderknech is the favorite (-155) to advance to the final.
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Arthur Rinderknech vs. Jurij Rodionov Match Information
- Tournament: The ATP Challenger Zug, Switzerland Men Singles 2023
- Round: Semifinals
- Date: Saturday, July 29
- Venue: Tennisclub Zug
- Location: Zug, Switzerland
- Court Surface: Clay
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Arthur Rinderknech vs. Jurij Rodionov Prediction and Odds
Based on the moneyline in this match, Arthur Rinderknech has a 60.8% chance to win.
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Arthur Rinderknech vs. Jurij Rodionov Trends and Insights
- In the quarterfinals on Friday, Rinderknech took down Adrian Andreev 6-2, 6-2.
- Rodionov will look to stay on track after a 6-3, 7-5 victory over No. 158-ranked Zizou Bergs in the quarterfinals on Friday.
- Rinderknech has played 25.1 games per match (23.6 in best-of-three matches) in his 46 matches over the past 12 months (across all court surfaces).
- Rinderknech has played seven matches on clay over the past year, and 26.6 games per match (22.0 in best-of-three matches).
- Rodionov has played 24 matches in the past year across all court surfaces, averaging 23.0 games per match (22.9 in best-of-three matches) and winning 48.8% of those games.
- Rodionov has averaged 23.8 games per match (23.6 in best-of-three matches) and 9.5 games per set in 16 matches on clay courts in the past 12 months.
- In two head-to-head meetings, Rinderknech and Rodionov have split 1-1. Rodionov came out on top in their most recent clash on February 11, 2023, winning 7-6, 6-1.
- In terms of sets, Rodionov has taken three versus Rinderknech (60.0%), while Rinderknech has captured two.
- Rodionov has bettered Rinderknech in 24 of 44 total games between them, good for a 54.5% winning percentage.
- In their two matches against each other, Rinderknech and Rodionov are averaging 22.0 games and 2.5 sets.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wafb.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/arthur-rinderknech-vs-jurij-rodionov-tennis-prediction-betting-odds-atp-challenger-zug-switzerland-men-singles-2023/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:00 | 0 | https://www.wafb.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/arthur-rinderknech-vs-jurij-rodionov-tennis-prediction-betting-odds-atp-challenger-zug-switzerland-men-singles-2023/ |
OCEAN PARKWAY, N.Y. (PIX11) — The case of an Asian male who was found dead, dressed in women’s clothing on Ocean Parkway, is getting a closer look now that architect Rex Heuermann has been accused of killing three of the “Gilgo Four.”
The first victims discovered in the Long Island Serial Killer investigation were females.
The young Asian man, known as John Doe, was found in April 2011, about a half-mile east of the Gilgo Four in Oak Beach. He was located closer to them than where the other six additional victims were eventually found.
A law enforcement source told PIX11 News this week that the male victim’s head had been crushed, leading some to theorize this was a crime of rage. Director Josh Zeman, who produced a series about the Gilgo Beach investigation called “The Killing Season,” believes the killer might have felt duped.
“He had been tricked, basically,” Zeman speculated. “Picking up someone he thought was an Asian woman, discovering it was an Asian man, and then rage sets in and he beats this individual to death.”
Zeman said when he heard Heuermann had been arrested in connection with the Gilgo Four, which involved three victims being wrapped in camouflage burlap, he thought another killer might be responsible for some of the other remains found on Ocean Parkway.
But when Zeman read about one of the Google searches prosecutors said came from Heuermann’s computer, his assessment changed.
“It said Asian twink,” Zeman noted. “And I didn’t know what that was, but I found out it was a perversion for liking porn about effeminate Asian men.”
Zeman said he is changing his theory on the Gilgo Beach investigation.
“We’re probably just dealing with one individual,” Zeman said. “One killer for all of them, and he probably just switched his M.O.”
Heuermann, a married father of two from Massapequa Park, pleaded not guilty two weeks ago to the three murders he was charged with.
Heuermann will return to court next week when prosecutors are expected to hand over some “discovery” material — important evidence — to his defense team. | https://pix11.com/news/local-news/theories-surrounding-asian-victim-found-near-gilgo-four/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:00 | 1 | https://pix11.com/news/local-news/theories-surrounding-asian-victim-found-near-gilgo-four/ |
These 5 Local Markets Are Some Of The Best In New Jersey
Grocery Shopping is always a pain, whether you're just running in for creamer in the morning, or doing a full grocery run.
You have to find parking, fight the crowds, hope what you need is in stock, and then fight your way up to the checkout.
Is there any way to make grocery shopping any more enjoyable?
I think there is, and it's a pretty simple solution; shop at local markets and local grocery stores.
You still have to deal with crowds, however, I always find it more fun to grocery shop at a little mom-and-pop-owned shop.
One I really enjoy swinging by is Lasolas Market near Normandy Beach.
They have a great selection of produce and also make really good sandwiches to go, which is a plus.
Of course, Joe Leone's may be one of the most popular local Italian markets by the Jersey Shore, especially if you're looking for fresh pasta.
But there are so many other places worth checking out, some of them you may have never even heard of.
These Are The 5 Best Local Markets In New Jersey
According to the pros at Only In Your State, these little specialty markets are among the absolute best in New Jersey.
Mitsuwa is the largest Japanese market on the East Coast that offers a great selection of Japanese specialties as well as a food court.
Kolos in Lakewood has an amazing selection of deli meats, cookies, and European Style Sausages.
Aisle One in Passaic is not only the biggest Kosher market in the Garden State but is also home to a few restaurants too.
Fattal's in Patterson is home to a lot of great baked goods and even has a Shawarma section.
And lastly, you'll want to check out Jersey's largest Asian marketplace in Cherry Hill called Hung Vuong Food Market
Have you ever been to any of these places? | https://catcountry1073.com/best-nj-local-markets/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:00 | 1 | https://catcountry1073.com/best-nj-local-markets/ |
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Another structural issue has been located with a large roller coaster that’s been closed for weeks since a large crack in a support column was discovered, a North Carolina agency confirmed on Friday.
A Swiss-based engineering company that designed and built the Fury 325 roller coaster at Carowinds, which sits along the North Carolina-South Carolina border, replaced that steel support column earlier this month, news outlets reported.
But the North Carolina Department of Labor, which inspects the ride and decides whether it can operate, said in an email that the agency has now been notified of a separate “weld indication,” which “could be either a break or a crack.”
“No certificate of operation has been issued nor do we have a timeline of when the certificate of operation will be issued for the Fury 325,” department spokesperson Meredith Watson said, referring other questions to Carowinds.
In a statement released Friday, Carowinds said it was conducting a full maintenance review of the ride while test runs are performed.
“During such reviews, it is not uncommon to discover slight weld indications in various locations of a steel superstructure. It is important to note that these indications do not compromise the structural integrity or safety of the ride,” the statement reads. “Once a repair is completed, it undergoes inspection and approval before the ride is deemed operational.”
Park staff closed Fury 325 on June 30 after a visitor pointed out the sizable crack. State Labor Commissioner Josh Dobson said earlier this month that the crack had been visible for at least a week before it was shut down.
Video of the coaster, which reaches 325 feet (99 meters) in height, had showed a key support beam bending with the top visibly detached as cars with passengers barreled by. The roller coaster runs at speeds of up to 95 mph (150 kph).
The department’s Elevator and Amusement Device Bureau said it had conducted its annual inspection of Fury 325 in February and only found a few signage issues, which the park quickly corrected.
Inspections by the park, the engineering company, a third-party testing firm and the Department of Labor have been ongoing. Carowinds has said it’s changing how it inspects rides daily, including the use of drone cameras to examine areas.
While the park straddles the border between the two states, North Carolina regulators inspect Fury 325 because its nearby entrance is in North Carolina. | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/roller-coaster-with-big-crack-has-a-second-structural-issue-inspectors-say/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-28T23:24:00 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/roller-coaster-with-big-crack-has-a-second-structural-issue-inspectors-say/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
Chris Stapleton surprises girl with a rare backstage meet and greet
(Circle) - Chris Stapleton made a little girl’s dream come true over the weekend.
Stapleton’s 2023 All-American Road Show has kept him on the go, performing night after night, but amongst all the shows, one truly stood out.
At his July 14 concert at the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach, Virginia, a heartwarming moment unfolded when a young fan named Lily held up a sign that read, “Will you take a picture with me?”
The simple question seemed to really catch Stapleton’s attention because the girl and her family were escorted backstage after the concert, where they patiently waited for Stapleton and his wife, Morgane, to join them.
In the TikTok video, Morgane asks the young fan if she created the sign. She nods and replies, “Yes,” proudly holding out a guitar pick she had received during the concert before the meet-and-greet.
“Well. We saw your sign, and we said, We’ve gotta do that,” Morgane added.
The fan’s successful meet and greet with Stapleton came as a surprise to many, given his reputation as a private person. He is well-known for his low-key status, rarely participating in interviews, let alone participating in meet and greets.
Stapleton also surprised some fans recently by announcing to the world that he will be releasing his 5th studio album, titled “Higher.”
The upcoming album will mark his first studio release since 2020 when he dropped his fourth studio album, “Starting Over,” which won him a Grammy for Best Country Album.
Originally appeared on Circle All Access. https://www.circleallaccess.com/
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/28/chris-stapleton-surprises-girl-with-rare-backstage-meet-greet/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:00 | 1 | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/28/chris-stapleton-surprises-girl-with-rare-backstage-meet-greet/ |
Javon Freeman-Liberty stole the show for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Summer League.
The Bulls came into Las Vegas with different priorities: scouting Dalen Terry’s growth and measuring up the potential of draft pick Julian Phillips and two-way rookie Adama Sanogo. But instead, all eyes were on Freeman-Liberty, a second-year guard out of DePaul who led the Bulls with 21.2 points per game.
Freeman-Liberty was the best shooter on the court for the Bulls, shooting 49.3% and finishing 12-for-26 on 3-pointers. His performance against the Sacramento Kings was a top highlight as he logged 28 points, six assists and zero turnovers in 31 minutes.
Freeman-Liberty was among the top five of summer league players in shooting percentage (49.3%), field goals (35) and scoring (106 points). He scored 24 on 8-for-16 shooting Saturday in the Bulls’ 90-85 victory against the Washington Wizards in their summer league finale. The Bulls finished 3-2
Freeman-Liberty looked set to step into a larger role for the Windy City Bulls this season following the departure of 2023 G- League MVP Carlik Jones, whose contract was converted to the Bulls roster at the end of last season. But is all this enough for Freeman-Liberty to earn a first-team contract?
It’s an unlikely track — but it’s the primary goal for a Chicago native hoping to make the roster of his hometown team.
A product of Young, Freeman-Liberty played his first two years of college at Valparaiso before transferring to DePaul. After going undrafted in 2022, Freeman-Liberty came off the bench for 11 of 17 appearances with the Windy City Bulls last season. But he made the most of that court time, averaging 18.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists on 49.8% shooting.
The most compelling aspect of Freeman-Liberty’s game is the way he attacks the rim — hard. He brings sharp downhill vision and a lack of hesitation, a crucial combination for any guard to get to the rim. Decisiveness has been a fatal flaw for young Bulls counterparts, such as Dalen Terry and Patrick Williams, but it didn’t seem to be a concern for Freeman-Liberty in Las Vegas.
The caveat, of course, is the circumstance. Summer league is an imperfect gauge of a player’s potential. The defense is less hardy, the opposition less experienced. Top draft picks such as Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson sat out the latter half of the tournament’s opening round, further reducing the level of competition even among the younger stars.
On paper Freeman-Liberty looks to be a viable guard option, but his best stats have been posted against a lower tier of competition.
Freeman-Liberty’s future is affected by another factor: Will the Bulls even need another guard?
As the roster stands, the main priority is securing more size at center and forward. But the Bulls also need to shore up the secondary rotation guard spots. At the end of the season, the goal for that position was clear: re-sign Ayo Dosunmu, who entered restricted free agency.
Dosunmu is another high-motor hometown standout with hefty NBA experience, and his $5.2 million qualifying offer is still a relatively inexpensive deal for a secondary guard.
The Bulls re-signed Coby White while swapping Jevon Carter for Patrick Beverley at guard and Torrey Craig for Derrick Jones Jr. at power forward. If they bring back Dosunmu and Jones, the Bulls will have only be two spots left, both of which will likely need to be focused on bulking up their rim protection and size in the paint.
Like Jones before him, the best option for Freeman-Liberty is likely a two-way contract. The Bulls have used only one of their three two-way contracts so far to sign Sanogo. And a two-way contract benefits the development of a player such as Freeman-Liberty, who could use a high volume of minutes in the G League to keep progressing while mixing in more frequently in practices with the first team.
Regardless of where he lands within the Bulls system, Freeman-Liberty clearly used summer league in the way it was intended — to prove he deserves a shot at the next level.
() | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/has-javon-freeman-liberty-earned-a-spot-on-the-chicago-bulls-time-will-tell-for-the-depaul-alumnus-4/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:03 | 0 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/has-javon-freeman-liberty-earned-a-spot-on-the-chicago-bulls-time-will-tell-for-the-depaul-alumnus-4/ |
NEW YORK (PIX11) — An inmate attempted to escape from Rikers Island on Thursday by disguising himself as a guard, the New York City Department of Correction said on Friday.
The incident happened at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center around 10:30 p.m.
The inmate disguised himself in a correctional officer’s uniform and tried to leave the secure area, according to a statement from the DOC. Correction officers who were on duty identified the detainee in a hallway and quickly took him into custody, according to the DOC.
It remains unclear how the inmate was able to acquire a correction officer’s uniform.
The incident is currently under investigation. | https://pix11.com/news/rikers-inmate-tries-to-escape-by-dressing-in-correction-officers-uniform-doc/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:06 | 0 | https://pix11.com/news/rikers-inmate-tries-to-escape-by-dressing-in-correction-officers-uniform-doc/ |
This New Jersey Town Is Among The Top 10 Richest In America
You may ask yourself where all the money is in New Jersey. Well, one town in particular in the Garden State is among the top 10 richest in the entire nation. Yes, the entire nation.
We all know there are some pockets of the Garden State where the money is flowing a little more steadily than in other places, but there is one town that is nearly the richest town in the whole nation.
So, just how rich is this town? Let's see if you can wrap your head around this. The median home price in this town is $1.75 million, according to Veranda. And that's the average price.
If you're trying to guess which town this is, here are some clues. It's in Essex County, and Anne Hathaway has called it home.
And here's the absolute giveaway. It's home to a very exclusive, very famous mall. If you don't know it by now, you might never know it. So, let's just end the anticipation and give you the answer.
Short Hills, the home of The Mall at Short Hills, is the 6th richest town in the entire nation, and that is definitely where a lot of New Jersey money is hiding.
This amazing town is truly out of a storybook. But not just anyone can afford to live there. In addition to the whopping median home prices, the average household income is nearly $400,000.
By the way, Short Hills isn't the only rich town in the Garden State. Rumson just missed making the top 10. They came in at #12 with a median household income of almost $340,000. | https://catcountry1073.com/this-new-jersey-town-is-among-the-top-10-richest-in-america/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:06 | 1 | https://catcountry1073.com/this-new-jersey-town-is-among-the-top-10-richest-in-america/ |
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian military says it shot down a Ukrainian missile over a southern Russian city, accuses Kyiv of a “terror attack.”
by: AP
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MOSCOW (AP) — Russian military says it shot down a Ukrainian missile over a southern Russian city, accuses Kyiv of a “terror attack.” | https://www.kxnet.com/news/international/ap-international/ap-russian-military-says-it-shot-down-a-ukrainian-missile-over-a-southern-russian-city-accuses-kyiv-of-a-terror-attack/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:05 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/international/ap-international/ap-russian-military-says-it-shot-down-a-ukrainian-missile-over-a-southern-russian-city-accuses-kyiv-of-a-terror-attack/ |
Donald Trump appeals judge’s decision to keep hush-money case in New York state court
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court Friday to reverse a federal judge’s decision to keep his hush-money criminal case in a New York state court that the former president claims is “very unfair” to him.
Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan after U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein last week rejected his bid to move the case to federal court, where his lawyers were primed to argue he was immune from prosecution.
U.S. law allows criminal prosecutions to be moved from state to federal court if they involve actions taken by federal government officials as part of their official duties, but Hellerstein ruled that the hush-money case involved a personal matter, not presidential duties.
Trump’s appeal notice came at the end of another busy week of legal action for the twice-indicted Republican as he seeks a return to the White House in next year’s election. On Thursday, he was indicted on new criminal charges in a separate case in federal court in Florida involving allegations that he illegally hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the hush-money case and fought to keep it in state court, declined to comment on Trump’s appeal.
Trump pleaded not guilty April 4 in state court to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide reimbursements made to his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen for his role in paying $130,000 to the porn actor Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
Cohen also arranged for the National Enquirer to pay Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about an alleged affair, which the supermarket tabloid then squelched in a dubious journalism practice known as “catch-and-kill.”
Trump denied having sexual encounters with either woman. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses and not part of any cover-up.
He is scheduled to stand trial in state court on March 25, 2024. In the meantime, his lawyers have asked the state court judge presiding over the case, Juan Manuel Merchan, to step aside, arguing that he’s biased in part because his daughter does political consulting work for some of Trump’s Democratic rivals. Trump has referred to Merchan as “a Trump-hating judge” with a family full of “Trump haters.” The judge has yet to rule on the request.
In seeking to try the hush-money case tried in federal court, Trump’s lawyers have argued that some of his alleged conduct amounted to official presidential duties because it occurred in 2017 while he was president, including checks he purportedly wrote while sitting in the Oval Office.
Moving the case from state court to federal court would have significant legal and practical consequences for Trump. In federal court, for example, his lawyers could then try to get the charges dismissed on the grounds that federal officials have immunity from prosecution over actions taken as part of their official job duties.
A shift to federal court would also mean a more politically diverse jury pool — drawing not only from heavily Democratic Manhattan, where Trump is wildly unpopular, but also from suburban counties north of the city where he has more political support.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/28/donald-trump-appeals-judges-decision-keep-hush-money-case-new-york-state-court/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:07 | 0 | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/28/donald-trump-appeals-judges-decision-keep-hush-money-case-new-york-state-court/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — The entertainment publication Variety, under fire this week for an article it published about former CNN chief Jeff Zucker’s interest in his old employer, revised the piece on Friday to reflect some of the complaints about it.
None of its changes affected what was written about Zucker, however. He has called for the story to be retracted.
The article by Tatiana Siegel, which initially ran online Tuesday, depicted Zucker as badmouthing his successor at CNN, Chris Licht, while simultaneously trying to buy the news organization that fired him in early 2021. Licht’s unsuccessful run atop the struggling news network ended with his firing in May.
The dispute also points to the dangers inherent in the use of confidential sources by journalists. There are at least a dozen claims made in the story that Variety did not attribute to a named source that were denied on the record, either in the story or after publication, leaving it up to readers to decide who to believe.
“There used to be a time when Variety held its content and its reporters to a high standard of truth and facts in journalism, but those days are clearly over,” said Risa Heller, a spokeswoman for Zucker. “It is stunning to read a piece that is so patently and aggressively false. On numerous occasions, we made it clear to the reporter and her editors that they were planning to publish countless anecdotes and alleged incidents that never happened. They did so anyway. The piece is a total joke.”
Variety’s co-editor-in-chiefs, Cynthia Littleton and Ramin Setoodeh, said in a statement Friday that they have been carefully following the conversation about the story.
“The story was heavily vetted and deeply sourced,” they said. “Everyone included in the story was asked to comment and given the chance to respond. We stand by our reporting and our award-winning reporter.”
The piece is also critical of two reporters who have covered CNN, Tim Alberta of The Atlantic and Dylan Byers of Puck. Both of those news organizations complained of inaccuracies and, in the changes made on Friday, Variety added their specific denials.
Zucker’s team hasn’t sought to hide ill feelings toward Licht, but strongly denied he has tried to buy CNN.
The story begins with an anecdote about Zucker, “with tears in his eyes,” approaching David Zaslav in Miami Beach in March. Zaslav is CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, current owners of CNN, and Variety said Zucker complained that Licht was unfairly maligning him in the press. Zaslav wanted to know if Zucker was trying to assemble investors to buy CNN.
Byers, writing for Puck, said “multiple sources” said no such run-in at the Faena Hotel ever took place and Zucker’s spokeswoman said that anecdote wasn’t checked with them.
The story outlines several specific efforts made by Zucker, or on his behalf, to convince investors to join him in buying CNN. The story includes his denials: “Any allegation or insinuation that Jeff has made any effort to purchase CNN is unequivocally false,” Heller said. Zucker is now head of a private equity firm, RedBird IMI.
At one point, Variety also floated the theory that a secret group of investors was using Zucker’s name without his knowledge to approach Warner Bros. Discovery about buying CNN.
In a June 4 article, The New York Times reported that Zucker was not in talks to buy CNN, although “he has told some associates he would be interested in acquiring the network” if it came up for sale one day, the newspaper said.
The Variety article “struck me as utterly implausible and sophomoric,” Byers wrote for Puck this week.
Variety’s piece called Byers “a former Zucker disciple at CNN who, by his own admission, wrote about Licht incessantly and even took a victory lap after his exit.” The piece described Byers as a writer of “Zucker fan fiction” and criticized him for a conflict of interest in not disclosing in any of his articles that Zucker once had discussions about funding Puck, an online subscription news service.
In its revision on Friday, Variety quoted Puck’s co-founder, Jon Kelly, saying the discussions with RedBird were not disclosed by Byers because “Dylan was intentionally unaware of them.”
For The Atlantic, Alberta wrote a widely-read story that seen by many as being instrumental in Licht’s dismissal by Zaslav. Variety was critical of Alberta, and accused the reporter of using material in his story that he had agreed to keep off the record — a serious charge of malfeasance against a journalist.
As with Byers, Variety didn’t change what it had written about Alberta. But it added a paragraph to its story using some of what Alberta had written on social media, including a denial that he had used off-the-record material, and disputing Variety’s claim of how many times he had met with Licht while reporting the story.
The story was reposted on Variety’s home page. The only indication that it had been changed was a note at its end: “This story was updated on July 28 to reflect new statements from Kelly and Alberta.” | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/variety-revises-article-on-former-cnn-chief-jeff-zucker-that-was-sharply-criticized/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-28T23:24:07 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/variety-revises-article-on-former-cnn-chief-jeff-zucker-that-was-sharply-criticized/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
Two New Jersey Towns Named As Best Towns In America With Fewer Than 10,000 Residents
Far and Wide did an article that focused on the best 100 small towns in America with under 10,000 residents. These are the lovely small towns that are the backbone of this nation. The place where families can live and enjoy a peaceful town. These are the towns you see in Hallmark movies, so yes they do actually exist lol. Of the 100 best in America, two are from right here in the Garden State.
The first town in New Jersey came in at #50. Clinton in Hunterdon County made the Top 50 in America. According to Fare and Wide "Merely an hour away from New York, Clinton has nothing of the city’s traffic or noise. Instead, it offers the tranquility of the Raritan River, a Main Street full of boutiques and the striking Red Mill Museum Village."
The 2nd town to make the Top 100 best small towns with under 10,000 residents is Cape May. In fact, just like Clinton, Cape May made the Top 50 coming in at #49. According to Far and Wide, "Cape May isn’t shy about boasting its status as “America’s oldest seaside resort.” But this age doesn’t mean it’s rickety or stodgy. On the contrary, its Victorian houses are just as glamorous as when they were built, while its more modern offerings include pedestrian-friendly shops and restaurants, as well as annual jazz and film festivals."
I have visited both Clinton and Cape May and both towns are awesome. Great day trip to either location so if you get a chance hit them up. Cape May in the summer and do fall in Clinton :) Check out the Top 100 in the Far and Wide article.
The Definitive List of The Oddest, Strangest and Downright Filthy Town Names In Every State | https://catcountry1073.com/two-new-jersey-towns-named-as-best-towns-in-america-with-fewer-than-10000-residents/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:07 | 1 | https://catcountry1073.com/two-new-jersey-towns-named-as-best-towns-in-america-with-fewer-than-10000-residents/ |
By FELIPE DANA and JIM HEINTZ (Associated Press)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces on Friday struck the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro and pounded a key village in the southeast that Ukraine claimed to have recaptured in its grinding counteroffensive, while Moscow accused Kyiv of firing two missiles at southern Russia and wounding 20 people.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, marked Ukraine’s Statehood Day by reaffirming the country’s sovereignty — a rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who used his claim that Ukraine didn’t exist as a nation to justify his invasion.
“Now, like more than a thousand years ago, our civilizational choice is unity with the world,” Zelenskyy said in a speech on a square outside St. Michael’s Monastery in Kyiv. “To be a power in world history. To have the right to its national history -– of its people, its land, its state. And of our children -– all future generations of the Ukrainian people. We will definitely win!”
He also honored servicemen and handed out first passports to young citizens as part of ceremonies. The holiday coincides with commemorations of the adoption of Christianity on lands that later became Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down a Ukrainian missile in the city of Taganrog, about 40 kilometers (about 24 miles) east of the border with Ukraine, and local officials reported 20 people were injured, identifying the epicenter as an art museum.
Debris fell on the city, the ministry added, alleging the missile was part of a “terror attack” by Ukraine.
Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, blamed Russian air defense systems for the explosion.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it downed a second Ukrainian missile near the city of Azov, which like Taganrog is in the Rostov region, and debris fell in an unpopulated location.
Earlier in the day, a Ukrainian drone was shot down outside Moscow, the Defense Ministry said, in the third drone strike or attempt on the capital region this month. The ministry reported no injuries or damage in the latest incident, and it didn’t give an exact location where the drone fell.
Since the war began, Russia has blamed Ukraine for drone, bomb and missile attacks on its territory far from the battlefield’s front line. Ukrainian officials rarely confirm being behind the attacks, which have included drone strikes on the Kremlin that unsettled Russians.
The strikes have hit Russian ammunition and fuel depots, as well as bridges the Russian military uses to supply its forces, and military recruitment stations. The attacks have also included killings of Russian-appointed officials on occupied Ukrainian territory.
Three months ago, a Russian warplane accidentally dropped a bomb on Belgorod, injuring two people, in an incident where Ukraine was initially suspected.
In Dnipro, an apparent Russian missile attack wounded at least three people in a modern 12-story apartment building, officials said. The nighttime attack also hit the Security Service of Ukraine’s building in the city, Zelenskyy reported. “Russian missile terror again,” he wrote on social media.
Video showed the apartment building’s upper floors in ruins, with gray smoke billowing from them, and flames raging in the night at ground level, where shattered concrete and glass littered a courtyard.
Russia has often struck apartment buildings during the conflict, while denying it intentionally targets civilians.
Meanwhile, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, Col.-Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said his troops were pushing forward in parts of eastern Ukraine occupied by Russia and meeting stiff resistance as the war drags into its 18th month.
“The enemy fiercely clings to every centimeter, conducting intense artillery and mortar fire,” he said in a statement.
Recent fighting has taken place at multiple places along the more than 1,000-kilometer (more than 600-mile) front, where Ukraine deployed its recently acquired Western weapons to push out the Kremlin’s forces. However, it is attacking without vital air support and faces a deeply entrenched foe.
A Western official said Thursday that Ukraine had launched a major push in the southeast. Putin acknowledged that fighting has intensified there, but insisted Kyiv’s push has failed.
Zelenskyy posted a video Thursday night in which Ukrainian soldiers said they had taken Staromaiorske in the Donetsk region. Russian military bloggers said artillery fire at the Ukrainian troops had effectively razed the village and reported more barrages Friday.
Capturing the village, which in 2014 had a population of 682, would give Ukraine a platform to push deeper into Russian-held territory, the bloggers noted.
The area has been a focus of Ukraine’s counteroffensive since June, and its troops have previously captured several other villages there as they slowly work their way across extensive Russian minefields.
It was not possible to verify either side’s claims about what is happening in the war zone.
Syrskyi said fighting that targets the enemy’s artillery as well as its command and control structure is a priority as his troops probe Russian lines for weaknesses.
“In these conditions, it is crucial to make timely management decisions in response to the situation at hand and take measures for maneuvering forces and resources, shifting units and troops to areas where success is evident, or withdrawing them from the enemy’s fire,” he said.
Russia is trying to hold on to the territory it controls in the four provinces it illegally annexed in September — Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk.
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Heintz reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Andrew Katell in New York contributed.
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An earlier version corrected that Oleksiy Danilov is Ukraine’s secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, not defense minister.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/moscow-blames-kyiv-for-attacks-in-south-russia-as-kremlin-forces-hit-ukrainian-buildings/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:09 | 1 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/moscow-blames-kyiv-for-attacks-in-south-russia-as-kremlin-forces-hit-ukrainian-buildings/ |
Heat and medication can have dangerous side effects
SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - Heat and medications, not the combination the doctor ordered as it can have negative side effects.
Emergency Physician, Dr. James Frame said it can enhance the likelihood of heat-related illnesses.
“It can occur a lot quicker because your body can’t compensate because of the presence of medications,” Frame said.
Pharmacist, Kristin Glezman, said antihistamines, decongestants and blood pressure medications are a few.
“Sudafed some beta-blockers, such as Metoprolol, some diuretics, like Furosemide, Lasix,” Glezman said.
When someone is experiencing a heat-related illness they sweat, their heart rate and blood pressure increase and they get thirsty.
“Those medications don’t allow for some of that to happen, especially the heart rate or the blood pressure to come up, that’s the design of the medication to keep the blood pressure down,” Frame said.
This makes it more difficult to detect a dangerous illness, even when it is happening. Glezman said a person taking these medications should be aware.
“Just being conscious of how long they’ve been outside and try to limit their time or exposure,” Glezman said.
Glezman said the head can also take a toll on over-the-counter and prescription drugs that are meant to be stored at room temperature.
“You don’t want to keep your medications in a hot car,” Glezman said, “The efficacy of the medication could decrease.”
It’s important to keep yourself and your medications cool.
Copyright 2023 KXII. All rights reserved. | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/28/heat-medication-can-have-dangerous-side-effects/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:12 | 1 | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/28/heat-medication-can-have-dangerous-side-effects/ |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Salvage crews dealing with a cargo ship loaded with cars that has been burning for more than two days off the northern Dutch coast boarded the vessel for the first time Friday as heat, flames and smoke eased, the Netherlands’ coast guard said.
“In the course of the morning, after measurements by the recovery companies, it turned out that the temperature on board the Fremantle Highway had dropped sharply. The fire is still raging but decreasing. The smoke is also decreasing,” the coast guard said in a statement.
Salvage workers boarded the ship and established “a new more robust towing connection,” the agency added. “This makes it easier to move the ship and keep it under control.”
Government officials are now “looking at various scenarios to determine the next steps,” the coast guard said.
One crew member died and others were injured after the blaze started. The entire crew was evacuated from the ship in the early hours of Wednesday, with some leaping into the sea and being picked up by a lifeboat. The cause of the fire hasn’t been established.
The Fremantle Highway was 23 kilometers (14 miles) north of the island of Terschelling on Friday afternoon, close to busy North Sea shipping lanes and an internationally renowned migratory bird habitat.
K Line, the company that chartered the ship, said Friday that it was carrying far more electric vehicles than initially reported by the coast guard.
Company spokesman Pat Adamson said the ship was carrying a total of 3,783 new vehicles, including 498 electric vehicles. The coast guard, citing an early freight list, had said it was carrying 2,857 cars, including 25 electric cars.
Adamson said K Line didn’t know the source of the initial lower number.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has warned about the possible dangers of electric vehicle battery fires, a hazard that stems from thermal runaway, a chemical reaction that causes uncontrolled battery temperature and pressure increases.
The burning vessel was close to the shallow Wadden Sea, a World Heritage-listed area that is considered one of the world’s most significant habitats for migratory birds. It’s also close to the Netherlands’ border with Germany, whose environment minister, Steffi Lemke, said Thursday that if the ship were to sink, it “could turn into an environmental catastrophe of unknown proportions.”
Earlier this month in Newark, New Jersey, firefighters took nearly a week to extinguish a similar blaze in a car transport ship. Two firefighters were killed and five others were injured battling the flames. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/international/ap-international/ap-salvage-crews-board-a-cargo-ship-burning-off-the-netherlands-the-smoke-and-flames-are-easing/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:12 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/international/ap-international/ap-salvage-crews-board-a-cargo-ship-burning-off-the-netherlands-the-smoke-and-flames-are-easing/ |
‘Horrible conditions’: Nearly 30 dogs found dead in freezers; dog rescue owner charged
HAMILTON, Ohio (Gray News) - The owner of a dog rescue in Ohio is facing multiple charges after deputies found animals in unlivable conditions.
Authorities said deputy dog wardens were called to two properties in Butler County regarding a complaint this week.
The team found at least 30 deceased dogs on the properties along with about 90 living animals in “the most horrible conditions they have ever seen.”
According to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, Rhonda Murphy, the owner of the properties, was operating a rescue under the name Helping Hands for Furry Paws.
When deputies and investigators searched the structures, multiple dogs’ bodies were found in refrigerators and freezers, with some of the coolers not working.
Other deceased canines were also found on the property, including puppies.
According to investigators, a garage housed about 25 living dogs, but they were kept in cages, some together, with no air conditioning or ventilation in the room. Temperatures were measured to be about 89 degrees inside.
Numerous animals were found without access to food or water, including a mother dog and her eight puppies.
Deputies said the odor was so strong that it burned their eyes and took away their breath as they checked the property.
Additionally, 11 more dogs were found in the main house living in the same deplorable conditions as others found on the property.
“Conditions were so horrendous that dog wardens had to leave the structure numerous times to catch their breath,” the sheriff’s office said.
All dogs were seized from the properties.
Authorities said Murphy is facing dozens of misdemeanor and felony charges that include neglect and cruelty to animals.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/28/horrible-conditions-nearly-30-dogs-found-dead-freezers-dog-rescue-owner-charged/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:13 | 1 | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/28/horrible-conditions-nearly-30-dogs-found-dead-freezers-dog-rescue-owner-charged/ |
Wildwood, NJ Hosts Lifeguard Races and Phillies are in Pittsburgh
The 53rd Annual Dutch Hoffman Memorial Lifeguard races are tonight in Wildwood and it will feature for the first time this summer, every Beach Patrol from Brigantine to Cape May Point will compete for bragging rights as the best Lifeguard Patrol in South Jersey. Wildwood hosts the first of the “Big Three” races culminating with The South Jersey Lifeguard Championships. This year's final racing competition is in Margate, whose Lifeguard Patrol was the winner of last year's Championship. The drama has been building the last few weeks of localized competition and we expect the racing to be fierce in this year's 53rd annual Dutch Hoffman Memorial Lifeguard race.
Whether you are on the beach in Wildwood tonight or can't make it out, we invite you to Tune in to 973 ESPN’s Live coverage from 6 pm to 8 pm as we broadcast Live from the beach in Wildwood NJ: Join me, Billy Schweim, along with Former Chief of the Longport Beach Patrol Dan Adams, and Former Lieutenant of the Ocean City Beach Patrol and current President of the Ocean City Beach Patrol Lifeguard Alumni Association Jack Brooks as we describe all the action of this year's Dutch Hoffman Memorial Lifeguard races.
The 55-47 Phillies are in Pittsburgh to face the Pirates who have gone 11-19 in their last 30 games. Despite a rollercoaster season, the Phillies are still in the thick of the National League Wild Card Playoff Race and need to start playing more consistent baseball to ensure they make it back to the playoffs. The MLB Trade Deadline looms and the Phillies could use a right-handed bat to help the team's offensive inconsistencies.
The Eagles Training Camp started this week and every player on their roster is at the Nova Care Complex. Being a healthy team is always a major factor heading into the NFL season and right now everyone looks to be trending in that direction.
This weekend in The Locker Room with Billy Schweim we will talk about all the Philadelphia Sports News and more!!
On Saturday’s show, Mike Carlin joins me in the studio as we recap the Phillies vs. Pirates Game One action. We will also talk about the Eagles' first week at Training Camp. In Hour Two is The Beach Patrol Report brought to you by McCann Realtors of Sea Isle City and the Ocean City Beach Patrol Lifeguard Alumni Association. This week former Lieutenant John McShane and I will go over all the results of the 53rd annual Dutch Hoffman Memorial Lifeguard races. Director Kristen Moorby will join us to talk about the 15th Annual Cape May Point Women's Lifeguard Challenge this past Wednesday and we will have the results plus interviews from that event as well.
On Sunday’s show, The Locker Room Youth Movement is back in studio: Producer Danny Ryan and "The Intern” Andrew Leeds join me to talk about the weekend in sports! Every Sunday during the baseball season we go “On the Mound” with former Phillies Pitcher Tommy Greene brought to you by the John R. Elliott Hero Campaign for Designated Drivers. Tommy talks about the week for the Phillies and previews Sunday’s game against the Pirates.
We are talking Eagles, Phillies, and more this weekend in The Locker Room with Billy Schweim, heard every Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to Noon on 973 ESPN Radio South Jersey. | https://catcountry1073.com/wildwood-nj-hosts-lifeguard-races-and-phillies-are-in-pittsburgh/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:13 | 1 | https://catcountry1073.com/wildwood-nj-hosts-lifeguard-races-and-phillies-are-in-pittsburgh/ |
Man allegedly tries to kidnap children at restaurant, childcare pickup
ARDMORE, Okla. (KXII) - A man who was allegedly driving around town and attempting to lure children from their parents was arrested Thursday afternoon, according to Ardmore Police.
Ardmore police captain Claude Henry said Rickie Marshall was arrested after the department received several calls.
“This is a case where we think it could have escalated if we did not catch him,” Henry said.
The first call was around 2:45 on Thursday after a man approached a grandmother and her granddaughter at childcare pickup, trying to take the child away, Henry said.
“Some employees in the area were able to intervene and take custody back of the child,” Henry said.
Henry said officers had just identified the man when they got another call.
“The same suspect trying to do the same thing,” Henry said. “Mr. Marshall approached a small boy and was trying to lure him away from the restaurant, and he was confronted by the boy’s parents.”
Henry said Rickie Mitchell was telling a boy to go to the restroom with him, and when the parents intervened, he claimed he was a US Marshal.
“Mr. Marshall again got in his car and fled the scene,” Henry said. “However we did have officers in the area who were able to spot the vehicle.”
Kassandra Watson told News 12 a man matching Marshall’s description in the same type of car came by her house Thursday afternoon, claiming to be a US Marshal, and when she asked to see his ID badge, he just showed her a driver’s license.
“He started to get more and more aggressive and when I asked him to show me a badge he just showed me his license,” Watson said. “At that point, I told him something’s kind of fishy about this and you need to leave, I’m gonna call the cops.”
Henry said anyone concerned about the legitimacy of an officer can ask to see their credentials.
“They should have on them a badge from their agency and a commission card that has their picture ID, and it shows they’re commissioned through their agency,” Henry said.
Marshall was booked into the Carter County Jail on charges of child stealing and impersonating an officer of the law.
Copyright 2023 KXII. All rights reserved. | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/28/man-allegedly-tries-kidnap-children-restaurant-childcare-pickup/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:14 | 1 | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/28/man-allegedly-tries-kidnap-children-restaurant-childcare-pickup/ |
ATLANTA — Too much trash on the street, no recycling bins, and far too few public trash cans -- that’s what Cam Kirk saw everyday walking to his Downtown Atlanta studio.
“If you are walking to work everyday, stepping over trash when you get to work," Kirk said. "You're kind of like why does my neighborhood have to look like this."
In 2019, the Morehouse graduate decided to do something about it. He founded Spin the Block, a community initiative aimed at cleaning up Atlanta neighborhoods.
"The initiative is really based upon teaching and educating on sustainable measures, that we can actually beautify our own neighborhood without waiting on anyone to do it for us,” he said.
Since 2019, Kirk said that a group of people meet monthly or quarterly to pick up trash and recycle items found on the street. It’s the Spin the Block initiative. The “spin” is the photo walk -- an opportunity for photographers and creatives to take photos and create content highlighting the beauty of the community.
Kirk told 11Alive part of the trash and recycling issue is a lack of education on sustainability as well as a lack of access to public trash cans and recycling bins.
“We honestly just thought about it like, well the reason why we don’t recycle is because we don’t have an option and the reason why there is a lot of litter is because we don’t have enough trash cans,” Kirk said.
In a partnership with Sprite and Coca-Cola, the Cam Kirk Foundation donated $25,000 to the city to purchase trash cans and recycling bins for his neighborhood. It was a move the organization made in hopes of helping clean up their city.
Now the work continues. The next Spin the Block will take place Saturday starting at 9 am at Cam Kirk Studios, located at 236 Forsyth St. SW #405 in Atlanta. | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/community/spin-the-block-creative-spin-cleaning-up-atlanta/85-fd2b4f94-27e8-4dd8-b78c-2cb4da6d8836 | 2023-07-28T23:24:18 | 1 | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/community/spin-the-block-creative-spin-cleaning-up-atlanta/85-fd2b4f94-27e8-4dd8-b78c-2cb4da6d8836 |
Changes to SNAP requirements highlight food insecurity in Denton
Thousands of Texans over the age of 49 are at risk of losing their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits as a result of new work requirement rules imposed by the federal government.
The changes made to SNAP were part of the deal to raise the federal debt ceiling this summer. In the past, any SNAP participant aged 49 and under who did not claim a dependent or a disability had to work 80 hours a month in order to receive full benefits. This requirement will now extend to older age groups. The rules take effect in September, raising the maximum age to 51. That age limit will then jump to 53 in October and again to 55 in 2024.
“This is only going to exacerbate a problem that is already near the limit of exasperation,” District 5 council member Brandon Chase McGee said. “We are dealing with such limited resources already.”
Over 44,000 Texans could lose their SNAP benefits in response to the age limit increase, according to a recent study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
This move is the latest in a series of government actions altering federal benefits programs. In June, Tarrant Area Food Bank and Texas Health and Human Services co-hosted an event for Medicaid renewal at the Serve Denton nonprofit center with the aim of addressing the influx of people needing to reapply for benefits following the end of the temporary emergency authorizations the COVID-19 pandemic called for.
“We as a nonprofit community are still trying to ensure that as few people as possible get left behind by the termination of pandemic benefits,” said Teddy Yan, United Way of Denton County’s Director of Financial Initiatives and university alumnus.
Denton County has two separate food banks responsible for assisting with food insecurity in the area. The Tarrant Area Food Bank covers the portion of Denton County to the west of I-35, and North Texas Food Bank covers the half of Denton County east of I-35.
Julie Butner, president and CEO of Tarrant Area Food Bank, said the requirements will place a higher demand on their food pantries in Denton County. Butner said Tarrant Area Food Bank is already seeing higher numbers due to inflation and a rising cost of living.
“The lion’s share of folks that come to see us are already working, they’re just not making enough money to cover all of their basic necessities like food, rent [and] gasoline,” Butner said.
Butner estimates SNAP benefits provide $265 per person, per month. For many families and individuals, those extra funds help offset other monthly expenditures.
McGee said federal policymakers are not paying enough attention to the problems elected officials witness on a local level. Citing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, McGee states that leadership in Washington needs to care more about issues such as food insecurity.
“What I see in changing the SNAP requirement is a lack of compassion for humanity, it’s wrong on every level,” McGee said. “It doesn’t just affect adults, it affects kids too.”
According to the North Texas Food Bank website, 1 in every 5 kids in north Texas is food insecure. As children are let out of school during the summer, a higher importance is put on food banks providing food assistance in those months.
For some, special circumstances will prohibit them from being able to meet the work requirements that have extended to older age populations. Those occupying a caretaker role may not be able to fulfill work requirements due to having to devote the majority of their time to taking care of a loved one experiencing a disability or other situation.
“Sometimes folks are coming to us because they’ve just recently been laid off or there’s been some sort of a transition in their life,” Butner said. “Maybe they’ve had a death in the family, or some unforeseen circumstance and they are in food crisis.”
Since May of this year, Yan said food banks in Denton County have seen an uptick in visits from senior citizens and people with disabilities. Yan said a rising cost of living is responsible, as this uptick lines up with when property valuations were released, leading to landlords passing down increased mortgage payments to renters in Denton County.
Butner said Tarrant Area Food Bank is looking to spread awareness about the new restrictions. They are also asking for support for the farm bill and looking to divert people to alternative programs.
The farm bill is a legislative package dedicated to a number of food and agricultural topics that considerably impact the SNAP program. The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP, is one farm bill initiative responsible for supplying local food banks with food. Another related program Butner stresses the importance of is the Commodity Food Supplemental Program, which is a federally-funded program involved in providing groceries to seniors.
“By October, we will have an answer to what the farm bill looks like,” Butner said.
Featured Image: A SNAP sign is displayed at the front of a grocery store in Denton, Texas on July 16, 2023. Makayla Brown | https://www.ntdaily.com/changes-to-snap-requirements-highlight-food-insecurity-in-denton/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:19 | 0 | https://www.ntdaily.com/changes-to-snap-requirements-highlight-food-insecurity-in-denton/ |
Diane Parry vs. Clara Burel: Prediction and Match Betting Odds | Ladies Open Lausanne
Diane Parry will meet Clara Burel in the Ladies Open Lausanne semifinals on Saturday, July 29.
In this Semifinal matchup, Burel is favored (-125) against Parry (+100) .
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Diane Parry vs. Clara Burel Match Information
- Tournament: The Ladies Open Lausanne
- Round: Semifinals
- Date: Saturday, July 29
- Venue: Tennis Club du Stade-Lausanne
- Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
- Court Surface: Clay
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Diane Parry vs. Clara Burel Prediction and Odds
Based on the moneyline in this match, Clara Burel has a 55.6% chance to win.
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Diane Parry vs. Clara Burel Trends and Insights
- Parry is coming off a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 70-ranked Alize Cornet in Friday's quarterfinals.
- In her most recent scheduled match, Burel was handed a walkover win over Ana Bogdan at the Ladies Open Lausanne.
- Parry has played 28 matches over the past year (across all court surfaces), and 21.9 games per match.
- On clay, Parry has played five matches over the past 12 months, totaling 22.8 games per match while winning 49.1% of games.
- Burel is averaging 23.2 games per match in her 28 matches played in the past year across all court types, winning 50.9% of those games.
- Burel has averaged 22.7 games per match and 10.0 games per set in 11 matches on clay courts in the past year.
- Parry and Burel have matched up once dating back to 2015, in the Mutua Madrid Open qualifying round. Burel was victorious in that matchup 6-4, 6-7, 6-4.
- Burel and Parry have faced off in three sets against each other, with Burel taking two of them.
- Burel and Parry have matched up in 33 total games, with Burel taking 18 and Parry claiming 15.
- Burel and Parry have squared off one time, and they have averaged 33.0 games and 3.0 sets per match.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wafb.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/diane-parry-vs-clara-burel-tennis-prediction-betting-odds-ladies-open-lausanne/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:19 | 1 | https://www.wafb.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/diane-parry-vs-clara-burel-tennis-prediction-betting-odds-ladies-open-lausanne/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — ABC’s “This Week” — Gov. Chris Sununu, R-N.H.; Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y.; actor Matthew McConaughey.
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NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.; former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican presidential candidate.
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CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Republican presidential candidates; Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
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CNN’s “State of the Union” — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican presidential candidates; Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
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“Fox News Sunday” — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a Republican presidential candidate; Reps. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C.; Alina Habba, a lawyer for Donald Trump. | https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/guest-lineups-for-the-sunday-news-shows-197/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-28T23:24:19 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/guest-lineups-for-the-sunday-news-shows-197/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Singapore conducted its first execution of a woman in 19 years on Friday and its second hanging this week for drug trafficking despite calls for the city-state to cease capital punishment for drug-related crimes.
Activists said another execution is planned next week.
Saridewi Djamani, 45, was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking about 31 grams (1 ounce) of diamorphine, or pure heroin, the Central Narcotics Bureau said. It said the amount was “sufficient to feed the addiction of about 370 abusers for a week.”
Singapore’s laws mandate the death penalty for anyone convicted of trafficking more than 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of cannabis and 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin.
Djamani’s execution came two days after that of a Singaporean man, Mohammed Aziz Hussain, 56, for trafficking around 50 grams (1.7 ounces) of heroin.
The narcotics bureau said both prisoners were accorded due process, including appeals of their convictions and sentences and petitions for presidential clemency.
Human rights groups, international activists and the United Nations have urged Singapore to halt executions for drug offenses and say there is increasing evidence it is ineffective as a deterrent. Singapore authorities insist capital punishment is important to halting drug demand and supply.
Human rights groups say it has executed 15 people for drug offenses since it resumed hangings in March 2022, an average of one a month.
Anti-death penalty activists said the last woman known to have been hanged in Singapore was 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen, also for drug trafficking, in 2004.
Transformative Justice Collective, a Singapore group which advocates for the abolishment of capital punishment, said a new execution notice has been issued to another prisoner for Aug, 3, the fifth this year alone.
It said the prisoner is an ethnic Malay citizen who worked as a delivery driver before his arrest in 2016. He was convicted in 2019 of trafficking around 50 grams (1.7 ounces) of heroin and his appeal was dismissed last year, it said.
The group said the man had maintained in his trial that he believed he was delivering contraband cigarettes for a friend to whom he owed money, and he didn’t verify the contents of the bag as he trusted his friend.
The High Court judge ruled that their ties weren’t close enough to warrant the kind of trust he claimed to have had for his friend. Although the court found he was merely a courier, the man still had to be given the mandatory death penalty because prosecutors didn’t issue him a certificate of having cooperated with them, it said.
“But how could he have cooperated if, as he told the police and the court, he had not even been aware that he was being used to deliver heroin?” the group said on Facebook.
The group said it “condemns, in the strongest terms, the state’s bloodthirsty streak” and reiterated calls for an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
Critics say Singapore’s harsh policy punishes low-level traffickers and couriers, who are typically recruited from marginalized groups with vulnerabilities. They say Singapore is also out of step with the trend of more countries moving away from capital punishment. Neighboring Thailand has legalized cannabis while Malaysia ended the mandatory death penalty for serious crimes this year. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/international/ap-international/ap-singapore-hangs-first-woman-in-19-years-after-she-was-convicted-of-trafficking-31-grams-of-heroin/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:21 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/international/ap-international/ap-singapore-hangs-first-woman-in-19-years-after-she-was-convicted-of-trafficking-31-grams-of-heroin/ |
By MARY CLARE JALONICK (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly said he is “fine” since he froze up midsentence during a press conference on Wednesday. And now his office is trying to tamp down speculation that he might not fill out his term as leader because of his health.
In a statement, his office said McConnell appreciates the continued support of his colleagues and “plans to serve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected him to do.”
The statement, first reported by Politico, comes after McConnell, 81, has suffered health problems in recent months. At his weekly press conference, he froze and stared vacantly for about 20 seconds before his GOP colleagues standing behind him grabbed his elbows and asked if he wanted to go back to his office. He later returned to the news conference and answered questions as if nothing had happened.
When asked about the episode, he said he was “fine,” a statement he repeated in a hallway to reporters later that day. Neither McConnell nor his office would answer questions about whether he got medical help afterward.
Even as McConnell tried to brush off the concerns, the episode raised new questions among his colleagues about his health and also whether McConnell, who was first elected to the Senate in 1984 and has served as Republican leader since 2007, might soon step aside from his leadership post.
He was elected to a two-year term as leader in January by a large majority of his conference, despite an insurgent challenge from Florida Sen. Rick Scott. He would be up for re-election as leader again after the 2024 elections.
By then, he will have to decide also if he wants to run again for another Senate term. He is up for re-election in 2026.
In March, McConnell suffered a concussion and a broken rib after falling and hitting his head after a dinner event at a hotel. He didn’t return to the Senate for almost six weeks. He has been using a wheelchair in the airport while commuting back and forth to Kentucky. And his speech has sounded more halting in recent weeks.
But McConnell, famously reticent and often private about his personal life and health, has said very little about what is going on.
Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said after Wednesday’s episode that McConnell’s job as leader calls for more transparency than it would for others.
“We should find out, you know, fairly soon what happened and how serious it is,” Cramer said. “But I don’t have to tell you, Mitch is also, as an individual, a pretty private guy. So we’ll see.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he talked to McConnell on Wednesday night and he seemed “strong and alert.” But he said what happened at the news conference on Wednesday was disturbing to watch.
“Mitch is strong, he’s stubborn as a mule,” Cruz said. “My prayers are with them. I hope that — we’re going into the August recess — I hope he has time to fully recuperate.”
GOP senators who are seen as potential successors have been cautious in their approach to questions.
“He’s fine, he’s back to work,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican and one of the senators standing behind McConnell when he froze up.
“I support Senator McConnell as long as he wants to serve as leader,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, another potential replacement.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican and a former orthopedic surgeon, guided McConnell back to his office to rest during the news conference. Afterwards, he told reporters that he has been concerned since McConnell was injured earlier this year, “and I continue to be concerned.”
Barrasso then added: “I said I was concerned when he fell and hit his head a number of months ago and was hospitalized. And I think he’s made a remarkable recovery, he’s doing a great job leading our conference and was able to answer every question the press asked him today.”
Several other GOP senators projected confidence in the Republican leader.
“I do have confidence in his leadership,” said Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis. “At lunch yesterday, he spoke. He was completely on his game using numbers that were pulled out of his head and he was completely with it. So I don’t know what precipitated the freeze, but he’ll be careful to evaluate his own capabilities.”
Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall said he was “a little concerned” after the news conference.
“He said that he got a little overheated, a little dehydrated,” said Marshall, who is also a doctor. “That’s what it looks like to me. I can tell you, he’s got a strong, strong voice in our conference. He’s providing steady leadership. And I think he’s doing a great job as leader.”
McConnell had polio in his early childhood and he has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in climbing stairs. In addition to his fall in March, he also tripped and fell four years ago at his home in Kentucky, causing a shoulder fracture that required surgery.
The Republican leader carried on with his full schedule after the episode on Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he spoke with his Republican counterpart at an event for Thursday evening for Major League Baseball owners.
“I said I’m so glad you’re here,” Schumer said. “And he made a very good speech.”
—-
Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro and AP videojournalist Mike Pesoli contributed to this report. | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/sen-mcconnell-says-he-plans-to-serve-his-full-term-as-leader-despite-questions-about-his-health/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:21 | 0 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/sen-mcconnell-says-he-plans-to-serve-his-full-term-as-leader-despite-questions-about-his-health/ |
PARIS (AP) — Ensconced in a glass cage lined with bamboo shoots, the first panda ever born in France bid ‘’adieu’’ to the French zoo where it grew up and set off Tuesday for its new home in China.
Named Yuan Meng, the 120-kilogram (264-pound) panda peered out of the cage as staff at the Beauval Zoo south of Paris paid an emotional farewell. Its name means ‘’the realization of a wish” or “accomplishment of a dream.”
A crowd of well-wishers waved goodbye as the trailer pulling the cage rolled out of the zoo, the words “Bon Voyage Yuan Meng’’ painted on its sides.
Yuan Meng was born in 2017 to parents at Beauval on a 10-year loan from China. The mother later gave birth to twin pandas. All the offspring are meant to be eventually be sent to China.
Yuan Meng's departure was initially delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the trip was long planned, Beauval Zoo director Rodolphe Delord described the day as "heartbreaking.''
Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and so the births were particularly welcomed. There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and a few hundred in captivity worldwide.
While China for decades gifted friendly nations with its unofficial mascot as part of a policy of “panda diplomacy,'' the country now loans pandas to zoos on commercial terms.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/25/first-panda-born-in-france-says-goodbye-and-heads-to-china | 2023-07-28T23:24:24 | 0 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/25/first-panda-born-in-france-says-goodbye-and-heads-to-china |
ATLANTA — Friday marked two years since police found 40-year-old Katie Janness and her dog, Bowie, stabbed to death in Piedmont Park.
On Friday, Atlanta Police Department held a press conference asking the public for help. Police said no tip is too small and pleaded with people who may know anything to call it in.
11Alive spoke with the president of the International Homicide Investigation Association, Paul Belli, to get perspective on the case, the little information released and what detectives are facing going forward.
Belli said he knows every day that passes adds to the frustration for both the family and friends and the investigators working to solve the case.
“For me, two years, while it is obviously seems like a long time, isn't necessarily when it comes to gathering of evidence, developing leads, continuing to talk to people,” Belli said. “I can think of cases where it took me over a year to just identify what turned out to be witnesses on video in another murder that occurred in a park.”
Belli said, while the first 48 hours are crucial, often, time is on the side of the investigation.
“In the sense of all of your processing, that's what you're gathering in those crucial hours” Belli said. “Those cases can transition to a point where time is on your side. And we don't know necessarily what the what the homicide detectives have as far as information. And personally, I think that's a good thing, because that likely means that they have plenty to work with.”
Atlanta Police said on Friday that Janness’ death is not a cold case, at this point. Belli agreed.
“Not in my opinion, no. I don't think that two years is enough time,” Belli said, later explaining that sometimes police just need the right person to call in a tip. “Sometimes folks don't realize necessarily that they have the information. Very commonly, we ask people to call in about if they saw something strange when in reality we just want them to call in and say what they saw, if they saw anything, if they were close to that area during that time. Because what they may not think is strange may be actually key to the case.”
The July 2021 murder garnered international attention. Belli said that was probably, in part, due to the brutality of it. The autopsy report said Janness was stabbed 50 times.
“When you see that number of stab wounds, I can't help but think, as far as in my experience, that typically shows a significant amount of aggression, whether that is aggression towards that particular person, that’s part if the investigation,” Belli said. “Unfortunately, Katie was in the way of that aggression.”
Atlanta Police said on Friday that they couldn’t say if they believe the suspect or suspects knew Janness. Additionally, when asked about evidence like cell phones and biological data, police said they ‘don’t want to put that out there.'
Before the press conference, 11Alive asked Belli for reasons behind why APD has been relatively tight-lipped about Janness’ case. He said, often, that’s for the best of the investigation.
“That’s actually likely a very good thing when you're holding that case information close. There's a lot of important factors for that, not the least of which is for your upcoming and hopeful prosecution of a suspect,” Belli said. “Releasing too much can obviously have a detrimental impact on actually arriving on a suspect. But it can have a significantly detrimental impact on the prosecution of the case.”
Following the murder, investigators learned some of the city’s surveillance cameras in the park were not working. Belli said while that would have been helpful, solving the case cannot be dependent on technology.
“Of course, it would be great if those cameras in the park were working,” Belli said. “But it's unfortunately just not an uncommon thing that sometimes technology fails us. But I think we have to look back and remember, too, that before all of this technology, you had to solve cases by talking to people. And that still holds true today.”
Belli said he also still holds onto hope that Janness’ case will get solved.
“I believe there is hope. I think what we've seen today with cases that are 40, 50, 60 years old being solved almost on a weekly basis right now…that gives me hope,” Belli said. “Do I want everybody to wait 50 or 60 years? Certainly not. But I think it also shows that that the hope is there.” | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/homicide-expert-no-suspects-2-years-since-woman-stabbed-death-piedmont-park/85-f22ba2b3-d40a-4458-90fe-ab1860269b55 | 2023-07-28T23:24:25 | 0 | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/homicide-expert-no-suspects-2-years-since-woman-stabbed-death-piedmont-park/85-f22ba2b3-d40a-4458-90fe-ab1860269b55 |
Laslo Djere vs. Zhizhen Zhang: Prediction and Match Betting Odds | Hamburg European Open
Laslo Djere will take on Zhizhen Zhang in the Hamburg European Open semifinals on Saturday, July 29.
Djere is getting -175 odds to earn a spot in the final over Zhang (+135).
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Laslo Djere vs. Zhizhen Zhang Match Information
- Tournament: The Hamburg European Open
- Round: Semifinals
- Date: Saturday, July 29
- Venue: MatchMaker Sports Gmbh
- Location: Hamburg, Germany
- Court Surface: Clay
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Laslo Djere vs. Zhizhen Zhang Prediction and Odds
Based on the moneyline in this match, Laslo Djere has a 63.6% chance to win.
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Laslo Djere vs. Zhizhen Zhang Trends and Insights
- In the quarterfinals on Friday, Djere advanced past No. 18-ranked Lorenzo Musetti, 7-5, 6-3.
- Zhang will look to stay on track after a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 61-ranked Daniel Altmaier in the quarterfinals on Friday.
- Through 57 matches over the past 12 months (across all court types), Djere has played 25.4 games per match (23.6 in best-of-three matches) and won 50.1% of them.
- Djere has played 21 matches on clay over the past 12 months, and 22.3 games per match (21.7 in best-of-three matches).
- In the past 12 months, Zhang has played 46 total matches (across all court surfaces), winning 50.0% of the games. He averages 25.7 games per match (23.7 in best-of-three matches) and 10.1 games per set.
- In 14 matches on clay courts in the past year, Zhang has averaged 26.7 games per match (26.6 in best-of-three matches) and 10.7 games per set, winning 50.0% of the games.
- Dating back to 2015, Djere and Zhang have not competed against each other.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wafb.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/laslo-djere-vs-zhizhen-zhang-tennis-prediction-betting-odds-hamburg-european-open/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:25 | 1 | https://www.wafb.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/laslo-djere-vs-zhizhen-zhang-tennis-prediction-betting-odds-hamburg-european-open/ |
Community CoLab gallery raises funds for university Food Pantry
On July 7, the UNT CoLab opened a community art gallery called square-d with proceeds going to the university’s Food Pantry.
The artist call was put out in March, and canvases were sold to participants for $10 each, and $5 for students. Once placed in the gallery, each painting is priced at $25. While many submissions were from university students, a range of different local artists have participated in square-d.
“We wanted to keep it open to the entire community and make it available to all ages,” said Kristen Kendrick Bigley, CoLab director and KKB Metal Studios proprietor.
All artists who entered the show were required to agree to donate their completed artwork to the exhibition, so that proceeds could directly benefit the Food Pantry.
“When we conceptualized the gallery we wanted to benefit the widest range of people,” Bigley said. “The food bank doesn’t just serve UNT students, it serves all students. Everyone understands the concept of food insecurity, we want students to be able to study without wondering where their next meal comes from.”
The show is comprised of over 70 artists and a collective 87 pieces of original work. square-d has no requirements for a particular theme or uniting medium, so each artist was given complete creative control for their part of the show.
Kara Belt, integrative studies graduate student and local textiles artist, created a piece called “Knope 2024,” named after Amy Poehler’s “Parks and Recreation” character. Belt’s gallery addition is made up of a supplied canvas covered with a piece of fabric that includes some of Belt’s favorite quotes from the show, which are cross stitched into the piece.
“I like to make some pieces that are just for fun and to bring people joy,” Belt said. “It’s fun when people ‘get it’ because they are also a ‘Parks and Rec’ fan.”
Belt credits the piece’s final composition to its fictional namesake, as Poehler’s character holds a special place in the artist’s heart.
“I can relate to her energy and enthusiasm,” Belt said. “She takes a lot of responsibility in everything she does and won’t compromise on what she knows is right. I tend to do the same.”
Local photographer and portraitist Kendall Myer’s work was also featured at the gallery. Her oil painting, “Croissant au Ravelin,” features a croissant beside a cup of coffee. Myers considers the piece to be a tribute to the Denton community.
“I am a big fan of Ravelin bakery so I was like, ‘I’m going to get myself some croissants from Ravelin bakery and I’m going to paint a picture,’” Myers said.
Though the painting derives its name from the local bakery, the business’ moniker is not its only Denton tie-in. According to Myers, a coffee cup and obscured coffee featured within the canvas have Denton roots as well.
“The coffee mug is actually from local artist Throw Ceramics, and even though you can’t see the coffee in the cup, it’s from West Oak,” Myers said. “It was a little love note to Denton.”
Myers was born and raised in North Texas, and first came to Denton for her associates degree. Though she graduated in 2014, she had grown to love Denton and wanted to stay.
“I started to build my life here [in Denton], made friends here, and met my husband at UNT,” Myers said. “I really feel like Denton is my home.”
Myers studied Fine Arts in college before changing her major to integrated studies, and has been working as a photographer full time for her business Kendall Nicole Studios. However, over the last couple years, she returned to painting.
“I took such a long time away from it [painting],” Myers said. “I really missed it, but I was building a business, I had a baby. It’s my dream, though and I’m ready to go back to it.”
Square-d marks Myer’s first time displaying her work in a gallery. It is also her first time selling a noncommissioned painting.
“We actually had an open house the night of the gallery opening, so we made it like 30 to 45 minutes in,” Myers said. “It wasn’t even an hour in and [my painting] sold.”
The gallery will close on July 29, but the unsold paintings will be available until through August. So far, the paintings have raised a total of nearly $2,000.
Featured Image: The ‘square-d’ exhibition is displayed in UNT’s CoLab at the Denton Square on July 22, 2023. Makayla Brown | https://www.ntdaily.com/community-colab-gallery-raises-funds-for-university-food-pantry/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:25 | 1 | https://www.ntdaily.com/community-colab-gallery-raises-funds-for-university-food-pantry/ |
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Ballots from Spaniards living abroad were counted Friday, and they gave a new twist to the inconclusive results from the general election.
The conservative Popular Party gained an additional seat from Madrid’s constituency late in the day at the expense of the Socialist Workers’ Party. That change gives the right-wing coalition of the PP and the far-right Vox party 172 seats in the lower house of parliament and drops left-wing forces to 171.
Forming a stable governing coalition will require one of the blocks to have the support of 176 lawmakers in the 350-seat body, and it’s not clear that either side will be able to obtain enough backing from smaller parties.
The country’s main political parties had been waiting for the count in the hope they might win seats from opponents and recompose the final picture. Results coming in from different constituencies during the day showed no changes across Spain — until Madrid added the last-gasp surprise.
The switch likely will make it even tougher to cobble together a government.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is considered the only leader with a chance to form a coalition, since the Popular Party led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo is being shunned by other parties for allying with Vox.
But Sánchez does not have it easy. He needs help from secessionist parties in the Basque Country and Catalonia, and it could be politically risky to bid for support from the Catalan party Junts, which is headed by Carles Puigdemont, a leader of 2017’s failed secession bid in Catalonia.
His party has seven seats, but its goal of forcing Spain to allow a secession referendum is Catalonia is highly unpopular, including in Sánchez’s party.
The new parliament is to convene Aug. 17 and it will have three months to vote in a new prime minister. Otherwise, new elections would be called. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/count-of-ballots-from-spaniards-abroad-gives-edge-to-right-wing-block-and-deepens-the-stalemate/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-28T23:24:25 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/count-of-ballots-from-spaniards-abroad-gives-edge-to-right-wing-block-and-deepens-the-stalemate/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and SCOTT BAUER (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A freshman Republican congressman from Wisconsin is refusing to apologize after he yelled and cursed at high school-aged Senate pages during a late night tour of the Capitol this week, eliciting a bipartisan rebuke from Senate leaders.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, speaking in a round of interviews Friday on Wisconsin conservative talk radio, did not refute reports of his actions or back down from what he did.
Van Orden used a profanity to describe the pages as lazy and and another to order them off the floor of the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday night, according to a report in the online political newsletter PunchBowl News. The pages were laying down to take photos in the Rotunda, according to the publication.
“I’m not going to apologize for making sure that anybody — I don’t care who you are and who you’re related to — defiles this House,” Van Orden said on “The Dan O’Donnell Show.” “It’s not going to happen on my watch, man.”
Van Orden said he was protecting the integrity of the Capitol Rotunda because it served as a field hospital during the Civil War and it’s where presidents have lain in state upon their deaths. He said the young people he confronted were “goofing off” and that Democrats were making it an issue.
“Would this be an issue if those young people did not have political connections?” Van Orden said on “The Jay Weber Show.” “Why do you think this is an issue, pal?”
A former Navy SEAL who was outside of the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, Van Orden also appeared to embrace the presence of alcohol in his office the same evening he encountered the pages. Images were posted on social media showing bottles of liquor and beer cans on a desk in his office. Van Orden said on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, that the alcohol was from constituents.
And his spokeswoman Anna Kelly posted: “As the Congressman says, once you cross the threshold to our office, you are in Wisconsin!” She followed that with a beer mug emoji.
Van Orden represents Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, a GOP-leaning jurisdiction that comprises parts of central, southwestern and western Wisconsin, including moderate exurbs of Minnesota’s Twin Cities.
On Thursday evening, just before the Senate left for its August recess, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., rebuked Van Orden’s behavior and thanked the pages, high school-age students who serve as helpers and messengers around the Senate. Several of the pages were sitting on the Senate floor at the time, smiling and nodding as dozens of senators stood and gave them a standing ovation.
Without mentioning Van Orden by name, Schumer said he was “shocked” to hear about the behavior of a member of the House Republican majority and “further shocked at his refusal to apologize to these young people.” He noted that Thursday was the final day for this class of pages.
“They’re here when we need them,” Schumer said. “And they have served this institution with grace.”
McConnell said he associated himself with Schumer’s words. “Everybody on this side of the aisle feels exactly the same way,” he said.
When asked about McConnell’s rebuke, Van Orden said Friday “I don’t know what it was because I honestly have not tracked any of this stuff.”
Van Orden was elected to Congress in 2022 after a losing bid in 2020. He has insisted that he did not enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and on Friday again condemned those who did, calling them “buffoons.” That didn’t stop fellow Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat, from invoking the Jan. 6 attack in criticizing Van Orden.
“Wonder if he told that to his fellow insurrectionists, who were beating police officers on the same ground?” Pocan said on X.
Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat who is running to challenge Van Orden in 2024, called him an embarrassment and a hypocrite. She called Van Orden a “serial harasser” and referenced an incident in June 2021 when Van Orden was upset about a display of LGBTQ+ books at a southwestern Wisconsin library and yelled at a teenager who was working there.
“For someone to perhaps drunkenly, and definitely belligerently, yell at these kids for enjoying our nation’s Capitol is just stupid,” Pocan said Friday. “He would be best to say it was stupid and just move on.”
___
EDITORS’ NOTE: An earlier version of this story misidentified the name of “The Dan O’Donnell Show.”
___
Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin. | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/senators-rebuke-wisconsin-congressman-who-yelled-vulgarities-at-high-school-age-pages/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:27 | 1 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/senators-rebuke-wisconsin-congressman-who-yelled-vulgarities-at-high-school-age-pages/ |
BEIJING (AP) — Typhoon Doksuri made landfall in China after bringing deadly landslides to the Philippines.
The storm plowed into the eastern province of Fujian on Friday morning after bringing heavy rains and gale-force winds to parts of Taiwan, especially the Penghu island group, also known as the Pescadores.
In the Philippines, a week of stormy weather across the main island of Luzon caused 39 deaths, including 26 killed in the capsizing of a passenger ship. At least 13 people were reported killed earlier due to Doksuri’s onslaught, mostly due to landslides, flooding and toppled trees, and thousands were displaced, disaster response officials said. More than 20 others remained missing, including four coast guard personnel whose boat overturned while on a rescue mission in hard-hit Cagayan province, disaster response officials said Friday.
The storm caused widespread power outages and agricultural damage in the archipelagic country and prompted the suspension of work, classes and sea travel at the height of the onslaught, officials said, adding they were monitoring another approaching storm.
China has upped its typhoon preparedness through text messaging and notices on social media. In Fujian, more than 400,000 people had been moved to safety, hundreds of ships returned to ports and transportation suspended. Businesses and summer school classes were also ordered suspended and the public was urged to stay indoors. In the city of Quanzhou, the roof of a sports stadium was partially torn off, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
After hitting the coast, most typhoons tend to lose strength while moving into the mountainous interior of southeastern China, although they sometimes linger over areas, dropping heavy rain.
___
AP reporter Jim Gomez contributed from Manila, Philippines. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/international/ap-international/ap-typhoon-doksuri-makes-landfall-in-china-after-bringing-deadly-landslides-to-philippines/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:27 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/international/ap-international/ap-typhoon-doksuri-makes-landfall-in-china-after-bringing-deadly-landslides-to-philippines/ |
LONDON (AP) — Britain has “underplayed and underestimated” the threat posed by the Russian Wagner mercenary group and should ban it as a terrorist organization, a powerful committee of U.K. lawmakers said Wednesday.
The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said the sanctions imposed by Britain on Wagner are “underwhelming" and U.K. authorities have done little to track the private army's activities beyond Ukraine, where it has fought as part of Russia's invading forces.
“There are serious national security threats to the U.K. and its allies of allowing the network to continue to thrive,” said the committee, whose members come from both governing and opposition parties. It said Britain should “urgently proscribe the Wagner Network as a terrorist organization," something the Conservative government has so far been unwilling to do.
In a 78-page report, the committee said Wagner, which has close ties to the Russian state, operates like an “international criminal mafia, fueling corruption and plundering natural resources,” especially in Africa, where it provides stability and protection for several authoritarian leaders.
“It is a significant failing to see the Wagner Network primarily through the prism of Europe, not least given its geographic spread, the impact of its activities on U.K. interests further abroad, and the fact that its wealth creation sits largely in Africa,” the report said. It called it “deeply regrettable” that the U.K. paid little attention to Wagner before 2022, and “continues to give so little focus to countries beyond Ukraine.”
The committee said with "high confidence" that Wagner had conducted military operations in at least seven countries since 2014: Ukraine, Syria, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya, Mozambique and Mali.
The lawmakers said Wagner also has business interests in those countries, such as lucrative gold mining operations in the Central African Republic and Sudan, where Wagner’s gold-smuggling activities “enabled huge quantities of gold to bypass the state” and flow to Russia.
Wagner also has carried out non-military actions such as election interference in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and South Africa, and there is evidence of the group’s involvement in other countries, the committee said.
The lawmakers urged the government to move “faster and harder” to sanction individuals and entities linked to Wagner, calling British sanctions “underwhelming in the extreme” compared to those imposed by the United States and the European Union.
The lawmakers urged Britain to boost aid funding to fragile and conflict-wracked countries to stop them from turning to Russia and Wagner for help. A decision to slash the U.K.’s international aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of gross national income should be reversed as soon as possible, they said.
The report, which drew on research by journalists, government and non-government organizations, testimony from Russia experts and evidence from a former Wagner fighter, said Wagner’s future was uncertain after leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed mutiny against Russia’s top military leaders last month. The rebellion ended within hours when a deal was brokered for Wagner troops to go to Belarus.
The lawmakers said Britain should take advantage the confused situation to “disrupt” Wagner.
“In the wake of the attempted coup last month, the future manifestations of the Wagner Network are uncertain,” said the committee’s chairwoman, Conservative lawmaker Alicia Kearns. “With the network at its most vulnerable — and the clock ticking — the time for action is now.”
The Foreign Office said in a statement that Britain had “heavily sanctioned the Wagner Group, including its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and several key commanders, limiting their travel and freezing their assets.”
“The U.K. has been one of the leading suppliers of military aid to Ukraine, who have been fighting Wagner forces on the battlefield,” it said. “We continue to work with our allies to expose and counter their destabilising activities around the world.”
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/25/lawmakers-say-the-uk-should-ban-russias-wagner-as-a-terrorist-group | 2023-07-28T23:24:30 | 1 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/25/lawmakers-say-the-uk-should-ban-russias-wagner-as-a-terrorist-group |
Noma Noha Akugue vs. Arantxa Rus: Prediction and Match Betting Odds | Hamburg
In the final of the Hamburg on Saturday, Noma Noha Akugue (ranked No. 207) takes on Arantxa Rus (No. 60).
Rus is the favorite (-300) to win the title against Noha Akugue (+240).
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Noma Noha Akugue vs. Arantxa Rus Match Information
- Tournament: The Hamburg
- Round: Finals
- Date: Saturday, July 29
- Venue: MatchMaker Sports Gmbh
- Location: Hamburg, Germany
- Court Surface: Clay
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Noma Noha Akugue vs. Arantxa Rus Prediction and Odds
Based on the moneyline in this match, Arantxa Rus has a 75.0% chance to win.
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Noma Noha Akugue vs. Arantxa Rus Trends and Insights
- By taking down No. 101-ranked Diana Shnaider 6-3, 6-3 on Friday, Noha Akugue reached the finals.
- In the semifinals on Friday, Rus clinched a victory against No. 225-ranked Daria Saville, winning 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
- Noha Akugue has played 12 matches over the past 12 months (across all court types), and 22.5 games per match.
- On clay, Noha Akugue has played seven matches over the past 12 months, totaling 25.3 games per match while winning 50.8% of games.
- Rus has played 21 matches in the past 12 months across all court types, averaging 21.6 games per match and winning 53.2% of those games.
- Rus has averaged 20.6 games per match and 9.5 games per set through 12 matches on clay courts in the past 12 months.
- Dating back to 2015, Noha Akugue and Rus have not competed against each other.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wafb.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/noma-noha-akugue-vs-arantxa-rus-tennis-prediction-betting-odds-hamburg/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:31 | 0 | https://www.wafb.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/noma-noha-akugue-vs-arantxa-rus-tennis-prediction-betting-odds-hamburg/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly acknowledged his seventh grandchild, a four-year-old girl fathered by his son Hunter with an Arkansas woman, Lunden Roberts, in 2018.
“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” Biden said in a statement. It was his first acknowledgement of the child.
“This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter,” he said. “Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”
Hunter Biden’s paternity was established by DNA testing after Roberts sued for child support, and the two parties recently resolved outstanding child support issues. The president’s son wrote about his encounter with Roberts in his 2021 memoir, saying it came while he was deep in addiction to alcohol and drugs, including crack cocaine.
“I had no recollection of our encounter,” he wrote. “That’s how little connection I had with anyone. I was a mess, but a mess I’ve taken responsibility for.”
The president, who has made a commitment to family central to his public persona, has faced increasing criticism from political rivals and pundits for failing to acknowledge the granddaughter. According to a person familiar with the matter, he was taking the cue from his son while the legal proceedings played out. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.
Biden’s statement was first reported by People Magazine. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/biden-openly-acknowledges-7th-grandchild-the-daughter-of-son-hunter-and-an-arkansas-woman/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-28T23:24:32 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/biden-openly-acknowledges-7th-grandchild-the-daughter-of-son-hunter-and-an-arkansas-woman/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
ATLANTA — More than five months after a man was found shot dead inside an Atlanta apartment complex, police have arrested a suspect in the case.
Eddie Bolton was booked into jail Thursday. The 36-year-old is accused of the March shooting death of Jaquavious Anderson.
Police records show Anderson, 25, was found dead with several gunshots to his torso and legs at the Royal Oaks Apartments on the morning of March 24. Officers believed he was shot at 3540 N Camp Creek Pkwy SW location and left for dead.
Arrest warrants for Bolton show that he's now accused of Anderson's murder and is also facing an aggravated assault charge, among other charges. | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/royal-oaks-apartments-shooting-suspect-arrest/85-7ff3ce8d-a985-4b41-bd64-4f85a3c28fe6 | 2023-07-28T23:24:33 | 1 | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/royal-oaks-apartments-shooting-suspect-arrest/85-7ff3ce8d-a985-4b41-bd64-4f85a3c28fe6 |
Corruption at the White House allows culprits to escape justice, undermining accountability
The breaking news that the Secret Service concluded its investigation into the small bag of cocaine found at the White House without identifying a suspect is deeply troubling and has sent shockwaves throughout the nation. This incident raises serious concerns about the integrity of our institutions and the potential for corruption within the highest branches of our government. The apparent cover-up and lack of accountability not only undermine the security of the White House but also erode the trust that the American people place in their leaders.
At the heart of any democratic society is the belief that no one is above the law, not even those in positions of power. The principle of accountability is vital to ensure that those who violate the law or breach security protocols are held responsible for their actions. However, the Secret Service’s inability to identify a suspect, in this case, raises serious doubts about the thoroughness and impartiality of their investigation. It is essential to acknowledge that this incident is not a simple matter of a missing bag of cocaine, but rather a symptom of a broader issue of potential corruption and lack of accountability within the White House.
The lack of surveillance footage in the area where the bag of cocaine was found is suspicious and raises questions about the overall security measures in place at the White House. While it is understandable that certain areas need to be restricted and secure, the lack of camera coverage in such a critical location is unacceptable and casts doubt on the effectiveness of the White House’s security protocols.
Moreover, the potential involvement of Hunter Biden in this incident adds another layer of complexity to the matter. Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador, stated “I strongly believe this is a coverup for either Hunter or someone very close to the president, and they don’t want to say who it is,” in an interview at the Family Leadership Summit. She also noted that the area where the bag was found is not a common one to go through, stating, “I’ve been to that area. It is the most secure area anywhere because this is where I, on the National Security Council, with other members of national security met with the president. You discuss the most secure things. I know the area where the locker is — people don’t just go in and out of there.”
While it is crucial not to jump to conclusions without concrete evidence, the perception of favoritism or protection for individuals with close ties to the president can be damaging to the public’s confidence in the government’s ability to maintain impartiality.
The lack of accountability sends a dangerous message to both the American people and those within the government. It suggests that those in power can act with impunity and evade justice, undermining the very foundations of our democracy. If the White House, the symbol of our nation’s leadership, cannot hold individuals accountable for security breaches, it raises questions about how seriously they take their responsibility to protect the American people and uphold the law.
Congress and oversight committees must play a crucial role in demanding transparency and accountability from the White House. They must ensure that the investigation is not compromised or influenced by political interests. By providing rigorous oversight and demanding answers, they can help restore public trust and demonstrate that no one is above the law.
This incident should serve as a wake-up call for the need to reevaluate and strengthen security measures at the White House. Blind spots in surveillance and lax protocols pose significant risks to national security and the safety of the president and his staff. Strengthening security procedures, ensuring proper surveillance coverage, and implementing checks and balances can help prevent future breaches and protect the sanctity of the White House.
A strong democracy relies on an informed and engaged populace actively participating in the democratic process. By holding our elected officials accountable and insisting on transparency and integrity, we can help ensure that incidents like this do not repeat and that our government remains true to the principles on which it was founded.
The lack of accountability and transparency surrounding the discovery of cocaine at the White House is deeply concerning and demands immediate action. To uphold the principles of justice and integrity, we must hold those responsible accountable and require a thorough, impartial investigation. Only by actively confronting corruption and demanding accountability can we ensure a government that truly represents the interests of the people it serves.
Featured Illustration by Allie Garza | https://www.ntdaily.com/corruption-at-the-white-house-allows-culprits-to-escape-justice-undermining-accountability/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:33 | 1 | https://www.ntdaily.com/corruption-at-the-white-house-allows-culprits-to-escape-justice-undermining-accountability/ |
The U.S. government wants to raise the fuel economy of new vehicles 18% by the 2032 model year so the fleet would average about 43.5 miles per gallon in real world driving.
The proposed numbers were released Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which eventually will adopt final mileage requirements.
Currently the fleet of new vehicles must average 36.75 mpg by 2026 under corporate average fuel economy standards adopted by the administration of President Biden, who reversed a rollback made by former President Donald Trump.
The highway safety agency says it will try to line up its regulations so they match the Environmental Protection Agency’s reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. But if there are discrepancies, automakers likely will have to follow the most stringent regulation.
Trucking company Yellow Corp. is reportedly preparing for bankruptcy
The fate of U.S. trucking company Yellow Corp. isn’t looking good.
After years of financial struggles, Yellow is reportedly preparing for bankruptcy and seeing customers leave in large numbers — heightening risk for future liquidation. While no official decision has been announced by the company, the prospect of bankruptcy has renewed attention around Yellow’s ongoing negotiations with unionized workers, a $700 million pandemic-era loan from the government and other bills the trucker has racked up over time.
Yellow, formerly known as YRC Worldwide Inc., is one of the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carriers. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company has some 30,000 employees across the country. | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/ticker-us-proposes-18-fuel-economy-increase-for-new-vehicle-fleet-the-fate-of-u-s-trucking-company-yellow-corp-isnt-looking-good-after-years-of-financial-struggles-yellow-is-reportedly-prepar/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:33 | 1 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/ticker-us-proposes-18-fuel-economy-increase-for-new-vehicle-fleet-the-fate-of-u-s-trucking-company-yellow-corp-isnt-looking-good-after-years-of-financial-struggles-yellow-is-reportedly-prepar/ |
ATLANTA — Cody Rhodes greeted family, friends and fans at the premiere of his documentary, American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes. The documentary tracks his journey from his high school wrestling days to wrestling professionally in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
But Cody's story didn't start on the red carpet at a Metro Atlanta movie theater. It started not too far away, in Marietta.
"I was just enamored at the time at how cool it was to have Dusty and be around Dusty," Cody said. "Had you asked him, he was locked in. From the moment I was in high school and started having success with amateur wrestling, he was the biggest supporter truly.”
Dusty Rhodes was a professional wrestler, multi-time champion and instilled respect for the ring. He inspired his son, Cody, to follow suit. Cody would later become a two-time Georgia State champion in amateur wrestling at Lassiter High School. A couple of years later, Cody broke into WWE as a professional wrestler.
Matt Cardona, a friend Cody made during his first stint in WWE, said the two initially didn't get along. But after growing up in the business together, they've learned to lean on each other.
"We hated each other at first because I see this guy, he’s getting all this special treatment because he’s Dusty’s son," Cardona said. "He didn’t like me. We didn’t really like each other. We were super young. Now we're 38. That's a whole lifetime of not just growing up, but growing up in front of a live audience, in front of the people. So we grew up as men, as wrestlers, as friends."
Even through hard times, the son of the son of a plumber had to write a new chapter. Dusty passed away in 2015 and Cody left WWE in 2016. He would join several wrestling companies before charting his own course. He helped spark All Elite Wrestling in 2019. What someone might call a game-changing gamble, Cody's mentor and longtime Atlanta resident Diamond Dallas Page calls an inevitable rise.
"They weren't really gambles, because the one thing he's all about is work ethic," Page said. "His work ethic is second to none. There's nobody who's going to outwork him. If you didn’t see it that that kid was money right then, you were blind. He just had a natural instinct for it. The beautiful part of the story is, at some point, they never saw it, so he left. That took a lot of guts, and then he went out and made more money than he ever made on the independent scene.”
In 2022, Marietta's own came back to WWE, this time as the American Nightmare Cody Rhodes. He brought a new look, a new song and a new brand. But he still had the same old dream.
"Before he came back, Cody called me up," Cardona said. "I thought it was a Cody lie. He told me 'Yeah, Vince McMahon came to my house. They want me to come back.'"
Cardona said he had nothing but encouragement for his friend.
"There's only one first, the first guy to jump and he did it. He's gotta finish the story," Cardona said.
A new documentary will air on Peacock starting Monday, July 31 culminating Cody's quest to capture the WWE Championship, a title his father never won.
“All of our stories have one thing in common - and that’s persevering no matter what happens," friend and fellow WWE superstar Chelsea Green said. "I don’t care if I’m released, if I’m fired, if I jump from company to company, if I win a championship, if I don’t. We’re all just out here persevering and trying to be the best version of ourselves in wrestling and in life.”
Kevin Egan, the current WWE Monday Night Raw announcer and former Atlanta United broadcaster, said fans gravitate toward Cody's persona and the genuine way he comes across on television.
"Cody is just a tough human being all around with an incredible story," Egan said. "And when you package that with a guy that looks a million dollars in a three-piece suit, yet somehow finds a way to resonate with everybody - he’s the everyman in a lot of ways.”
Cody's family was on hand to celebrate his success so far since returning to WWE. His mother, sister and wife, Brandi Rhodes, stood by his side that night and for years before that.
“He wasn’t ever shy about telling me what his goals were and what he wanted his wrestling career to become," Brandi said. "Back then, it was a long way to go. But here we are, 10 years later, he’s in this great position. I’m a realist, and hard things happen. If everything was easy, there’d really be no high highs or low lows. It would just be a boring life.”
Cody and Brandi have one daughter, and Brandi is opening up a yoga and Pilates studio in Atlanta this fall. Looking back, the two are grateful for their circuitous route to this point. Whether it's the squared circle or the red carpet, Cody still has a few more chapters to write in his story.
"If you had given me the title of American Nightmare Cody Rhodes 10 years ago, it wouldn't have been the same," Cody said. "I needed all these failures, successes and individual experiences. I find myself in a position where I have to remind myself I'm very lucky, very lucky to be here, very lucky to live this type of life." | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/marietta-cody-rhodes-peacock-documentary/85-b5bb589b-085e-42d7-8901-f32ad0783c8f | 2023-07-28T23:24:34 | 1 | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/marietta-cody-rhodes-peacock-documentary/85-b5bb589b-085e-42d7-8901-f32ad0783c8f |
‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise continues consistency of incredible stunts, action
The “Mission: Impossible” film series has captivated fans since before the start of the decade, and the franchise is one of the few that have generally improved upon every entry. Although not the best of the franchise, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” further enshrines Tom Cruise as an action and movie star and continues the franchise’s trend of jaw-dropping action and mesmerizing stunts.
“Dead Reckoning Part One” tasks Ethan Hunt (Cruise) with a mission that puts the secret agent in the crosshairs of a villainous force unlike anything else he’s ever faced — an AI force known as the Entity. Hunt’s team for the mission includes returners like Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), as well as a new member in Grace (Hayley Atwell), a thief caught on the web on the Entity. With his group of friends, Hunt must figure out a way to outsmart the Entity and also face a foe from his checkered past.
The “Mission: Impossible” franchise has garnered praise for its unmatched action sequences, and the latest entry is no exception. “Dead Reckoning Part One” notched another incredulous stunt onto Cruise’s belt, with the actor driving a motorcycle off a mountain and then deploying a parachute. Alongside the main stunt is action centered in locations such as Venice and the Sahara Desert, which uses the environment to elevate the action.
The climactic point of the film occurs on a moving train, which is an interesting homage to when the first film in the franchise had its climactic fight on a moving train. Although the entire sequence in “Dead Reckoning Part One” is visually stunning and captivating in its own right, the homage to the first “Mission: Impossible” was refreshing, as it brought back audiences to the creativity and awe they experienced from the first film.
Christopher McQuarrie directed his third “Mission: Impossible” film in “Dead Reckoning Part One,” but the most recent installment is quite different in terms of pacing from his previous attempts in the franchise. Throughout the entirety of the film, Hunt and the Entity are in a chase for a key. Because the film abandons the mystery in exchange for a race to capture an object, the audience is in constant suspense and the film’s bloated runtime feels normal instead of tedious.
Performances throughout the film are consistently captivating, especially through the interpersonal relationships between Cruise and the rest of the cast. However, the standouts in this film are its two newcomers, Atwell and Esai Morales. Atwell’s character is a fish out of water that constantly adapts and looks out for her own skin, which makes her uniquely perfect for the world of a spy. Morales plays Gabriel, a villainous force working as the “muscle” for the entity, and his ability to outsmart almost everyone in the film places Gabriel in the upper echelon of “Mission: Impossible” villains.
Visually, “Dead Reckoning Part One” is the best film in the franchise. Cinematographer Fraser Taggart has worked on big blockbusters in the past, but never as the principal cinematographer of a film. For this to be Taggart’s first major action movie is inspiring, and it’s clear that his future is bright in Hollywood.
Despite the incredible pacing, plot progression, cinematography, characters, action and stunts, “Dead Reckoning Part One” was not able to top the best film in the franchise, which still goes to its predecessor, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout.” The one technical aspect “Fallout” achieved that “Dead Reckoning Part One” simply doesn’t have is crucial to films in the franchise — an ending.
“Dead Reckoning Part One” is very clearly titled, and the second film will come out on June 28 next year. However, the splitting of the two films hurts “Dead Reckoning Part One,” as its inability to stand on its own makes the conclusion of the film unpalatable and disappointing to audiences.
Interestingly, “Dead Reckoning Part One” is not the only film in Hollywood to adopt this phase. Ever since “Avengers: Infinity War,” blockbusters have chosen to split films in order to create four-to-five-hour visual spectacles, with the most recent examples being the “Spider-Verse” franchise and Denis Villenuve’s two “Dune” films. Those two franchises are groundbreaking pieces of cinema that, paired up with the sequels, will likely be written in film history as some of the best films ever made, but the inability of the first parts to stand on their own makes them incomplete, imperfect movies.
Despite the glaring fault of the film, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” continues the franchise’s inability to make a bad film, especially since everyone chooses to ignore “Mission: Impossible II.” Although Cruise has confirmed that the “Mission: Impossible” franchise will not end with “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two,” it’s been rumored that Ethan Hunt’s story may end next year. Hopefully, the franchise can give a proper send-off to the inarguable pinnacle of action heroes.
Ismael’s rating: 4.5/5
Featured Illustration by Allie Garza | https://www.ntdaily.com/mission-impossible-franchise-continues-consistency-of-incredible-stunts-action/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:34 | 0 | https://www.ntdaily.com/mission-impossible-franchise-continues-consistency-of-incredible-stunts-action/ |
BISMARCK, N.D. (KXNET) — The Bismarck City Commission approved the 2024 preliminary budget earlier this week.
According to a news release, the City of Bismarck’s share of the property tax rates is going to stay stable.
The commission unanimously approved the balanced 2024 preliminary budget during its regular July 25 commission meeting. The overall budget currently stands at just over $346 million, with the city’s general fund accounting for $66.7 million and property taxes providing $32.8 million.
Property taxes are dedicated to the critical mission of public safety, but the cost usually exceeds the property tax assessment.
If the preliminary budget did not change, the general fund would be at $66.7 million:
- Public safety functions of police, fire, and the 911 emergency call system would have 56% or $37.7 million.
- General government functions of legal, administration, human resources, engineering, and community development would have 27% or $18.1 million.
- Street repair and snow removal would have 11% or $7.6 million.
- Public Health would have 5% or $3.3 million.
The general fund is funded through property taxes, a sales tax subsidy of $9.8 million, and the remainder is funded by fees.
The preliminary tax revenue is about $32.8 million and that’s based on the 2023 numbers, and the city’s share has been about 30% of the community’s overall real estate taxes collected.
Other taxing entity allocations include Bismarck Public Schools, Burleigh County and the State, and the Bismarck Parks and Recreation District.
“Going into budget season, my main goal was not to raise property taxes, while still providing services for our citizens with a balanced budget,” and Bismarck City Commissioner Steve Marquardt, who serves as the City’s finance portfolio holder and chair of the budget committee. “There are a lot of needs in our city, and we strive to find a balance so that we are reactive to those needs, while still being responsible with our citizens’ tax dollars.”
Local legislators helped create the budget by securing funding in the last legislative session, and a portion of the remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
Prairie Dog funding, infrastructure funding, and federal funding provide nearly $70 million for projects.
“The City of Bismarck needs to be innovative when it comes to funding sources,” said Bismarck Mayor Mike Schmitz. “We can’t just expect that our citizens will be able to take on the burden of funding some of these large projects. We need to continue to work with our partners at the local, state, and federal levels to secure the funding that will ensure we are building a better Bismarck.”
Bismarck accessed funding in another way, through some of the upcoming infrastructure improvements by decreasing its reserve threshold.
Lowering the threshold lets the city access funds that would typically be untouchable.
The City of Bismarck still maintains a 40% reserve based on expenses, but that would still provide about three months of funding in the vent of a large-scale emergency that would shut the city down.
The City of Bismarck’s Finance Director, Dmitriy Chernyak, said that about $2.2 million of the budget was because of inflationary adjustments.
“I think the key takeaway with this year’s budget is Commissioner Marquardt and the budget committee worked diligently to provide a balanced budget that will not raise property tax rates,” Chernyak said. “There were a number of exterior pressures this year: we were hit with significant inflation, we dealt with an unusually large amount of snow removal, and preparing for some large projects on the horizon. This budget provides us with the means to continue providing services to our citizens and to be nimble if unexpected costs arise.”
The budget committee got requests for 22 full-time employees and approved seven of them, and those positions are:
- Two firefighters
- Two heavy equipment operators
- One school resource officer
- One forestry technician
- One health communications specialist
Here are some of the other projects that are included in the 2024 preliminary budget:
- Added snow removal equipment.
- Continuing fleet turnover based on criteria from the City’s equipment replacement program.
- Purchasing a fire station alerting system.
- Purchasing tasers that work with police body cams from 2023.
- Purchasing equipment to help mitigate Emerald Ash Borer-related damage.
- Increasing staff salaries by 6% to meet current market pay scales.
The next steps in the process will include the public hearing that goes with each budget cycle and approving the final budget on September 12.
You can view information about previous city budgets online. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/local-news/bismarck-2024-preliminary-budget-approved/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:35 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/local-news/bismarck-2024-preliminary-budget-approved/ |
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Tom Durden, the Georgia district attorney who kick-started the prosecution of Ahmaud Arbery’s killing by calling in state investigators to take over the languishing case, has died at age 66.
The Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, which Durden led for 24 years before stepping down last year, confirmed Durden's death in a Facebook post Friday. No cause of death was given.
During his career of nearly four decades, Durden served briefly as the second outside prosecutor overseeing the investigation into the February 2020 killing of Arbery. The 25-year-old Black man was fatally shot as he ran from white men in pickup trucks who chased him through their Georgia neighborhood. The shooter said he fired in self-defense.
The case stalled without charges for more than two months before Durden asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to take over from local police. GBI agents rapidly made arrests that led to three murder convictions. Durden stepped aside soon after the arrests, saying the case needed a DA with a larger staff.
“He played a significant role, as we know the others before him did nothing,” said Thea Brooks, one of Arbery’s aunts. “No matter how long he had it on his desk, he did the right thing.”
Following Arbery’s killing outside the port city of Brunswick in 2020, the local district attorney recused herself and the first outside prosecutor assigned, George Barnhill, opposed bringing criminal charges before he stepped aside.
Georgia’s attorney general then appointed Durden, who had the case for roughly a month amid a growing outcry for arrests. Durden asked the GBI to get involved after cellphone video of the killing leaked online May 5, 2020.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael were arrested on murder charges the day after GBI agents arrived in Brunswick. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, was charged soon after.
“The fact that he sent it to the GBI was a positive turn in the case for us, and I think he deserves credit for it,” said the Rev. John Perry, who led Brunswick’s NAACP chapter at the time Arbery was killed.
The job of prosecuting the McMichaels and Bryan was passed to the district attorney for Cobb County in metro Atlanta. All three men were ultimately convicted of murder in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison.
Durden joined the district attorney's office as an assistant prosecutor in 1984, two years after earning his law degree from Mercer University. He was elected DA after his predecessor retired in 1998.
Durden prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases in the Atlantic Circuit, which covers six southeast Georgia counties outside Savannah.
“Mr. Durden was a true public servant to the State of Georgia for close to 40 years,” Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, said in a statement. “My sincerest condolences to Tom’s family.”
In 1998, Durden successfully prosecuted four family members and a friend in the killing of Thurmon Martin, a case that would become known as Georgia's infamous “tomato patch” murder.
Martin, 64, was shot while sleeping in May 1997 and buried behind his home in rural Ludowici. The case gained notoriety for the tomato plants growing atop Martin's grave, as well as the defendants' harrowing courtroom accounts of being abused by the slain man. | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/tom-durden-ga-da-prosecution-ahmaud-arbery/85-2e603c01-8ced-4b08-ad22-2169e01fb944 | 2023-07-28T23:24:35 | 1 | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/tom-durden-ga-da-prosecution-ahmaud-arbery/85-2e603c01-8ced-4b08-ad22-2169e01fb944 |
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The Roundup
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PERTH, Australia (AP) — Nearly 100 pilot whales stranded themselves on a beach in western Australia Tuesday, and about half had died by Wednesday morning, despite the efforts of wildlife experts and volunteers to save them.
The pod of long-finned pilot whales was first spotted swimming near Cheynes Beach east of Albany on Tuesday morning.
As the day progressed, the pod began moving closer to the beach, sparking the concern of conservation officers. By 4 p.m., a large stretch of the shoreline was covered in beached whales.
Western Australia state’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions set up an overnight camp to monitor the whales.
Peter Hartley, a manager from the department, said they had counted 51 whales that had died overnight.
“We still have 46 whales still alive, and that will be our focus today — to get them back into the water and encourage them to head off into deeper water,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “We are optimistic that we will save as many as we can.”
The team tasked with helping the whales includes Perth Zoo veterinarians and marine fauna experts. They have been using specialized equipment, including vessels and slings.
Hundreds of volunteers also offered to help out. So many, in fact, that officials said they had enough registered volunteers and urged other members of the public to stay away from the beach.
Wildlife experts said the unusual behavior of the whales could be an indicator of stress or illness within the pod. Pilot whales are highly social animals and often maintain close relationships with their pods throughout their lives.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/26/volunteers-working-to-save-nearly-100-beached-whales-in-australia-but-more-than-half-have-died | 2023-07-28T23:24:36 | 0 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/26/volunteers-working-to-save-nearly-100-beached-whales-in-australia-but-more-than-half-have-died |
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court Friday to reverse a federal judge’s decision to keep his hush-money criminal case in a New York state court that the former president claims is “very unfair” to him.
Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan after U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein last week rejected his bid to move the case to federal court, where his lawyers were primed to argue he was immune from prosecution.
U.S. law allows criminal prosecutions to be moved from state to federal court if they involve actions taken by federal government officials as part of their official duties, but Hellerstein ruled that the hush-money case involved a personal matter, not presidential duties.
Trump’s appeal notice came at the end of another busy week of legal action for the twice-indicted Republican as he seeks a return to the White House in next year’s election. On Thursday, he was indicted on new criminal charges in a separate case in federal court in Florida involving allegations that he illegally hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the hush-money case and fought to keep it in state court, declined to comment on Trump’s appeal.
Trump pleaded not guilty April 4 in state court to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide reimbursements made to his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen for his role in paying $130,000 to the porn actor Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
Cohen also arranged for the National Enquirer to pay Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about an alleged affair, which the supermarket tabloid then squelched in a dubious journalism practice known as “catch-and-kill.”
Trump denied having sexual encounters with either woman. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses and not part of any cover-up.
He is scheduled to stand trial in state court on March 25, 2024. In the meantime, his lawyers have asked the state court judge presiding over the case, Juan Manuel Merchan, to step aside, arguing that he’s biased in part because his daughter does political consulting work for some of Trump’s Democratic rivals. Trump has referred to Merchan as “a Trump-hating judge” with a family full of “Trump haters.” The judge has yet to rule on the request.
In seeking to try the hush-money case tried in federal court, Trump’s lawyers have argued that some of his alleged conduct amounted to official presidential duties because it occurred in 2017 while he was president, including checks he purportedly wrote while sitting in the Oval Office.
Moving the case from state court to federal court would have significant legal and practical consequences for Trump. In federal court, for example, his lawyers could then try to get the charges dismissed on the grounds that federal officials have immunity from prosecution over actions taken as part of their official job duties.
A shift to federal court would also mean a more politically diverse jury pool — drawing not only from heavily Democratic Manhattan, where Trump is wildly unpopular, but also from suburban counties north of the city where he has more political support. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/donald-trump-appeals-judges-decision-to-keep-hush-money-case-in-new-york-state-court/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-28T23:24:38 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/donald-trump-appeals-judges-decision-to-keep-hush-money-case-in-new-york-state-court/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
ATLANTA — Young Thug's legal team is asking to toss out a goat sacrifice as evidence in the Atlanta rapper's RICO trial.
Attorneys for the rapper, whose legal name is Jeffery Williams, filed a motion to exclude this specific piece of evidence that was part of Shannon Stillwell's 2022 arrest.
A motion filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County Thursday said Williams was never involved or arrested on March 17, 2022. Stillwell's arrest stems from a man's murder - a charge Williams is not connected to, his attorneys said.
Law enforcement took Stillwell into custody at a home along Meadowlark Drive in East Point last year "while amid a religious ceremony which involved supposed sacrifice of goats."
Stillwell, also known as SB, is still on the list of defendants in the Fulton County District Attorney's RICO case that accuses Young Thug of being the ringleader of the prominent Young Slime Life gang.
Court records claim there is no benefit to showing evidence of the religious ceremony to jurors, adding that prejudice against the religious practice is commonplace.
"A reasonable person can also view this as character evidence as well," the motion reads.
The motion argues that though the ceremony had nothing to do with Williams, it could negatively impact his case and his co-defendants'.
The motion is the latest filing in the more-than-year-long RICO case that has kept Williams in the Cobb County Jail for nearly as long. His bond was denied again last week.
He's remained behind bars, awaiting trial on YSL RICO charges. Jury selection started in January and one has yet to be seated.
Why is Young Thug in jail?
The rapper, Jeffery Williams, was one of 28 people originally charged with being part of the Young Slime Life street gang in a sweeping indictment brought last year by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
In particular, the Fulton County DA is targeting Young Thug as the alleged head of the gang - "he's the one they're all afraid of, he's the one that's King Slime," is how one prosecutor put it during a previous bond hearing.
However, the rapper's attorneys have argued there is no foundation for these accusations, saying he's being punished on the basis of rap lyrics and social media posts and little to no evidence of any criminal acts. They have emphasized his influence on the Cleveland Avenue community and to art.
Already, the YSL RICO trial is on pace to shatter records as the longest criminal trial in Fulton County history. | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/young-thug-rico-sb-goat-sacrifice-motion/85-14735816-228d-40a9-9ac0-e7f548854163 | 2023-07-28T23:24:39 | 0 | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/young-thug-rico-sb-goat-sacrifice-motion/85-14735816-228d-40a9-9ac0-e7f548854163 |
Submersible implosion is a lesson in the dangers of human pride
When Titan, a submersible headed for the Titanic wreckage, first went missing on June 18, many struggled to sympathize with the billionaires and experts who boarded an uncertified submersible. It took connections, $250,000 and a foolish amount of hubris to board the Titan. Remains of the Titan’s implosion were found just four days later and served a valuable lesson: whether it’s traveling to the bottom of the ocean, colonizing Mars or defying time, no amount of money can make one impervious to the laws of nature.
Ultimately, Oceangate, Titan’s operating company, is responsible for the implosion. Although the Titan was only certified to dive up to 1300 ft into the ocean, Oceangate promised passengers a view of the Titanic wreckage located 12500 ft away from the ocean’s surface. Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush ignored warnings and disregarded the importance of safety as a whole, believing them to be an obstacle to innovation. In an interview with journalist David Pogue last year, Rush said he saw safety as “a pure waste” and said the intense water pressure was of no concern because it would make the submersible more waterproof. Evidently, Rush miscalculated and it cost him his life. When Rush took his last dive in the Titan, he didn’t just disregard U.S. laws – he ignored scientific facts and acted as if he was immune to the laws of nature.
Oceangate is just one of many instances of people testing the limits of their humanity for the sake of innovation and exploration. Billionaire Elon Musk and his company SpaceX’s plan to build a colony on Mars has multiple faults not just because of poor planning but because of how harshly uninhabitable the planet is. Mars might have sunlight and water, but it is not naturally suitable for life, even if Musk pulls all the funding he can find to build inventions that can make it so.
To safely build a colony or travel to the ocean’s depths for extended periods without extreme risk, one must create infallible inventions. It brings us to the age-old philosophic question: can an imperfect being, such as a human, create something truly flawless? As of now, the answer is no.
Of course, exploration is risky. Some might argue that relatively normalized experiences like traveling by airplane or hiking are no different than extreme tourism because they all come with a certain risk. A billionaire tech entrepreneur might view the freedom to satisfy one’s curiosity as a right since curiosity and creativity are a core part of the human experience.
Naturally, boarding a plane or even climbing a mountain is vastly different from wanting to colonize Mars or operating a submarine viewing the Titanic shipwreck. The chances of dying in a plane crash are one in 11 million, according to Nova. Airline industries are heavily regulated, while Oceangate used legal loopholes to get away with having as few regulations as possible. Mountain hikers understand they’re willing to risk their injury or death in the spirit of exploration. Responsible exploration is recognizing the risk but aiming for maximum safety. Oceangate’s complete disregard for safety measures and obvious Icarus syndrome doomed the Titan.
Passengers of the Titan signed a waiver that mentioned death thrice on the first page alone, as reported by Insider. What the passengers experienced wasn’t anything close to a typical, dignified death. The extreme pressure and temperature increase the passengers experienced when the Titan imploded may have given them a painless death. Still, they were likely incinerated on the spot, a former US nuclear submarine officer told BBC.
The various forms of extreme tourism have a similar pattern: people pay exorbitant amounts of money and risk terrible, sometimes even painful deaths to have superhuman experiences. The appeal is more than just thrill-seeking. Otherwise, these ultrawealthy customers would have just gone skydiving. These endeavors are about exclusivity and having unprecedented experiences. These wealthy innovators exercise another level of curiosity that can only be alleviated by privilege and riches.
Where much of the masses – who are equally capable of being curious – struggle to sympathize is the idea of spending so much money on an experience that turned into nothing short of an expensive suicide. The Oceangate passengers had every opportunity to realize how dodgy Oceangate was. For one, the passengers weren’t referred to as such – instead, Oceangate listed them as “mission specialists,” according to Insider. In the event of an accident, the legal repercussions would be far more severe should the victims be considered civilian passengers instead of contractors or employees.
It isn’t uncommon for innovators to become so enthralled with their object of curiosity that they adopt a sense of invulnerability and contempt for criticism. Still, it’s important for them to keep a clear, rational mind. Against the forces of nature, a false sense of omnipotence can get you killed.
Featured Illustration by Isabella Isquierdo | https://www.ntdaily.com/submersible-implosion-is-a-lesson-in-the-dangers-of-human-pride/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:39 | 1 | https://www.ntdaily.com/submersible-implosion-is-a-lesson-in-the-dangers-of-human-pride/ |
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge in Montana on Friday temporarily blocked a new law that restricts drag performances just days before thousands of people are expected to attend Montana Pride’s 30th anniversary celebration in Helena.
The way the law is written “will disproportionally harm not only drag performers, but any person who falls outside traditional gender and identity norms,” including transgender people, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris said.
The law seeks to ban minors from attending what it calls “sexually oriented” performances, and bans such performances in public places where minors might be present. However, it does not adequately define many of the terms used in the law, causing people to self-censor out of fear of prosecution, plaintiff’s attorney Constance Van Kley with Upper Seven Law argued Wednesday.
“Plaintiffs, along with the approximately 15,000 Montanans who wish to attend the (Montana Pride) events, cannot avoid chilled speech or exposure to potential civil or criminal liability,” without the temporary restraining order, Morris wrote.
The ruling will allow Montana Pride to advertise and hold some of its events in public places, said Kevin Hamm, president of Montana Pride. The annual LGBTQ+ celebration — which includes a parade, street dance and drag brunch — begins on Sunday and runs through Aug. 6.
“The language used in the (temporary restraining order) is both impressive and should serve as a warning to discriminatory actions by legislators in the future,” Hamm said.
A lawsuit filed on July 6 challenges its constitutionality, and seeks a preliminary injunction to block it. The complaint was later amended to add the city of Helena as a defendant and Montana Pride as a plaintiff in order to request the more urgent move for a temporary restraining order. Montana Pride worked with the city to get permits to hold its public events.
The city of Helena supported the restraining order, saying the law put the city in the position of infringing on Montana Pride’s constitutional rights of free expression by denying the permit, or subjecting city employees to civil and criminal liability included in the law if it granted the permit. The lawsuit allows a minor who attends a drag performance that violates the law to file a civil lawsuit against organizers or participants at any time over the following 10 years.
The complaint — whose initial plaintiffs include a transgender woman, two small theaters and a bookstore that holds drag queen reading events — calls the Montana law “a breathtakingly ambiguous and overbroad bill, motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ animus.”
Judge Morris found that the law did not adequately define actions that might be illegal and appears likely to “encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.”
Montana’s law is flawed — like similar laws in Florida and Tennessee that have been blocked by courts — because it regulates speech based on its content and viewpoint, without taking into account its potential literary, artistic, political or scientific value, Morris found.
“Drag is definitionally political and artistic speech,” said Diana Bourgeois, president of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the State of Montana, an organization that puts on drag reading events and one of the plaintiffs. “The court’s order today protects our right to be commentators and artists and to create a safe, joyful and welcoming environment through our expression.”
Like many Republican-led states, Montana’s conservative lawmakers have passed other laws targeting transgender people. The state is among those to ban gender-affirming care for minors — which is also being challenged in court. It also passed a bill to define sex as only “male” or “female” in state law.
The law also made Montana the first state to specifically ban drag kings and drag queens — which it defined as performers who adopt a flamboyant or parodic male or female persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup — from reading books to children in public schools or libraries, even though the performances do not have a sexual element.
The judge said the law does not define “flamboyant,” “parodic” or “glamorous,” among other terms.
Morris has scheduled an Aug. 26 hearing on the lawsuit’s request for a preliminary injunction, which could continue to block the law while the case moves through the courts.
“We look forward to presenting our written response and full argument at the upcoming preliminary injunction hearing to defend the law and protect minors from sexually oriented performances,” Emily Flower, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, said in a statement.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Braxton Mitchell, has said that to him and his constituents, “keeping hyper sexualized events out of taxpayer funded schools and libraries” does not violate the First Amendment. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/montana-judge-temporarily-lifts-ban-on-drag-performances-ahead-of-major-pride-event/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-28T23:24:39 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/montana-judge-temporarily-lifts-ban-on-drag-performances-ahead-of-major-pride-event/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
By NOMAAN MERCHANT, ELLEN KNICKMEYER, ZEKE MILLER and TARA COPP (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Friday announced $345 million in military aid for Taiwan, in what is the Biden administration’s first major package drawing on America’s own stockpiles to help Taiwan counter China.
The White House’s announcement said the package would include defense, education and training for the Taiwanese. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters ahead of the announcement.
U.S. lawmakers have been pressuring the Pentagon and White House to speed weapons to Taiwan. The goals are to help it counter China and to deter China from considering attacking, by providing Taipei enough weaponry that it would make the price of invasion too high.
The package is in addition to nearly $19 billion in military sales of F-16s and other major weapons systems that the U.S. has approved for Taiwan. Delivery of those weapons has been hampered by supply chain issues that started during the COVID-19 pandemic and have been exacerbated by the global defense industrial base pressures created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The difference is that this aid is part of a presidential authority approved by Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales. This gets weapons delivered faster than providing funding for new weapons.
The Pentagon has used a similar authority to get billions of dollars worth of munitions to Ukraine.
Taiwan split from China in 1949 amid civil war. Chinese President Xi Jinping maintains China’s right to take over the now self-ruled island, by force if necessary. China has accused the U.S. of turning Taiwan into a “powder keg” through the billions of dollars in weapons sales it has pledged.
The U.S. maintains a “One China” policy under which it does not recognize Taiwan’s formal independence and has no formal diplomatic relations with the island in deference to Beijing. However, U.S. law requires a credible defense for Taiwan and for the U.S. to treat all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern.”
Getting stockpiles of weapons to Taiwan now, before an attack begins, is one of the lessons the U.S. has learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pentagon deputy defense secretary Kathleen Hicks told The Associated Press earlier this year.
Ukraine “was more of a cold-start approach than the planned approach we have been working on for Taiwan, and we will apply those lessons,” Hicks said. Efforts to resupply Taiwan after a conflict erupted would be complicated because it is an island, she said.
China regularly sends warships and planes across the center line in the Taiwan Strait that provides a buffer between the sides, as well as into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, in an effort to intimidate the island’s 23 million people and wear down its military capabilities.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, said in a statement Friday that Beijing was “firmly opposed” to U.S. military ties with Taiwan. The U.S. should “stop selling arms to Taiwan” and “stop creating new factors that could lead to tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” Liu said. | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/us-announces-345-million-military-aid-package-for-taiwan/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:42 | 0 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/us-announces-345-million-military-aid-package-for-taiwan/ |
A University of Notre Dame professor has filed a defamation lawsuit against a student-run publication over news coverage of her abortion-rights work. The case is raising questions about press freedom and academic freedom at one of the nation’s preeminent Catholic universities.
Tamara Kay’s suit, filed in May, alleges falsehoods in two articles published by The Irish Rover in the past academic year. The Rover defended its reporting as true in a motion filed earlier this month to dismiss the case, under a law meant to protect people from frivolous lawsuits over matters of public concern.
Kay, a professor of global affairs and sociology, asks for unspecified punitive damages after she “has been harassed, threatened, and experienced damage to her residential property” and “continues to experience mental anguish” because of the two articles.
Published in October and March after public events in which Kay participated, the articles cover her remarks about her support for abortion rights. The lawsuit alleges that the articles contained “false and defamatory” information, arguing that they misinterpreted a sign on her door about helping students access healthcare and denying two quotes about academic freedom and her work at a Catholic institution.
“The note on my door referenced sexual assault, and the inadequate resources and support for student survivors at Notre Dame,” Kay told The Associated Press via email.
She added that she had asked the Rover’s faculty advisors to retract or correct the story, and that Notre Dame officials refused to intervene on her behalf.
“All of this is utterly devastating,” Kay said. She said her public writing and public speech “are all fair game for reporting and critique, as long as that reporting is accurate. It has not been.”
Notre Dame’s Office of Media Relations didn’t answer repeated requests for comment from the AP. Neither did Kay’s attorney in the lawsuit.
In the motion filed under Indiana’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) law, the Irish Rover argued that – as an “independent, non-profit, student publication ‘devoted to preserving the Catholic identity of Notre Dame’” – its coverage of a Notre Dame professor’s public statements and actions about abortion qualify under the law’s public interest and free speech criteria.
The motion added that the stories were “at least substantially true” and “did not contain defamatory imputation.” Exhibits include a transcript of the March event and since-deleted tweets by Kay last fall referring Notre Dame colleagues to websites with information on where to find abortion providers and how to procure abortion pills.
That “targeted advocacy” — just as Indiana’s abortion ban first went briefly into effect — motivated Notre Dame student W. Joseph DeReuil, 21, to seek comments from Kay and write a news story, he told the AP.
DeReuil, the Rover’s editor-in-chief during the last academic year, said he is a practicing Catholic and believes the Church’s teaching that life starts at conception and thus abortion is intentional killing.
“I do wish at times that, I guess, Notre Dame would take, as an institution, a stronger stance in favor of the Catholic position on some of these issues,” he said.
He added that he condemned harassment of abortion rights advocates and specifically the threats mentioned in the lawsuit by Kay.
DeReuil said he was confident his reporting was factually correct and hoped the suit would be dismissed, instead of consuming his senior year.
“You’ll face pushback, but you can still be a normal, cheerful, happy student,” he said. “It’s not going to affect you negatively in the long term if you’re standing up for what you believe is true.”
The Rover’s attorney, James Bopp, Jr., said lawsuits like this can create a chilling effect.
“If we fail, it will send the message that if you speak out about the abortion issue, then you risk punishment through the legal system, and particularly if you speak out on the pro-life side,” said Bopp, who has worked on major national cases on behalf of anti-abortion and free speech causes.
While the Church’s position on abortion is unwavering, not all Catholics agree with it. Some oppose it based on their sense of Catholic teachings about individual conscience or social justice, said professor Samira Mehta, an expert on gender and religion at the University of Colorado.
It’s rare to have faculty sue students for libel over an issue broaching “diametrically opposed worldviews,” said Jonathan Gaston-Falk, an attorney with the Student Press Law Center. The organization defends press freedom rights for high school and college journalists and their advisors; it is not involved in this litigation.
“Libel can be boiled down to a false statement of fact that harms somebody’s reputation” – and is published with knowledge of that falsity and malice if the person is a public figure, Gaston-Falk added.
According to Indiana law, courts have six months to rule on an anti-SLAPP motion.
Indiana was the first state to enact sweeping abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-a-notre-dame-professor-sues-a-student-publication-over-its-coverage-of-her-abortion-rights-work/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:42 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-a-notre-dame-professor-sues-a-student-publication-over-its-coverage-of-her-abortion-rights-work/ |
ATLANTA — A judge has set an Aug. 10 hearing on a motion from Donald Trump as he aims to avoid an indictment in Georgia's 2020 election probe.
Judge Stephen Schuster of the Superior Court of Georgia signed an order Friday, ordering all sides to file legal briefs before Aug. 8 — around the same time a Fulton County grand jury is expected to announce its charging decision against the former president and his allies.
Schuster was assigned the case after all Fulton County Superior Court judges were recused. Trump filed the lawsuit against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney.
The order comes one week after Trump's attorneys — Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg and Jennifer Little — renewed their attempts to end Willis' investigation before potential prosecutions begin. They seek to disqualify Willis and bury a special purpose grand jury report into potential election interference. While much of the report remains sealed, Trump's attorneys argue that no evidence from the document should be used by the district attorney's office.
Former Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer and former Coffee County Republican chair Cathy Latham, two Republicans who served as Trump presidential electors in 2020, also joined Trump's efforts to derail the investigation earlier this week.
Shafer played a key role in the alternate elector plot where 16 Georgia Republicans signed Electoral College ballots falsely claiming that Trump won the election. Latham is involved in the alleged copying of election data in Coffee County.
A similar attempt was shot down by the Georgia Supreme Court earlier this month. Trump filed his initial motion to quash the jury's report in Fulton County Superior Court in March. In addition to seeking Willis' disqualification, Trump's team also wanted a judge other than McBurney to rule on their motion.
Attorneys representing the former president filed the lawsuit in part because the March motion never received a ruling. The lawsuit seeks to have Willis and McBurney comply with "the lawful duties of their offices and "bar their further contortion of legal processes."
Willis has hinted that charging decisions will come sometime between July 31 and Aug. 18.
It's unclear which of the two current Fulton County grand juries will hear evidence in the election investigation. One of the juries meets on Monday and Tuesday, and the second meets on Thursday and Friday.
The special purpose grand jury report recommends at least a dozen indictments, jury foreperson Emily Kohrs told media outlets earlier this year. | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/special-reports/ga-trump-investigation/trump-attempts-to-end-2020-election-investigation-georgia/85-31eb368f-cfc2-46dc-8b4e-6677d198f58a | 2023-07-28T23:24:45 | 1 | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/special-reports/ga-trump-investigation/trump-attempts-to-end-2020-election-investigation-georgia/85-31eb368f-cfc2-46dc-8b4e-6677d198f58a |
UNT professors research laser-based 3D printing for army
An $800,000 grant from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory was awarded to two engineering professors at the university to improve the process of additive manufacturing.
Additive manufacturing is a relatively new technology where a 3D printer fuses particles in small layers to create an object, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering Herman Shen said. The machine required to produce three-dimensional objects can fit on military installations, like an aircraft carrier.
The Army will fund this grant over the next four years. Shen and Hector Siller, assistant professor and manufacturing engineering technology program coordinator, will provide a framework for understanding whether items that are printed through additive manufacturing will be reliable under physically stressful situations. This will allow them to produce higher-durability replacement parts on their extended foreign missions, Shen said.
“Suppose their F-18 Super Hornet lost parts on their landing gear, or the components aren’t functioning well — they can’t just call and say ‘send me parts right away,’” Shen said. “You have to build the parts right on board.”
Over the last 30 years, Shen collaborated with Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in Dayton, Ohio, including when he was a professor at Ohio State University. During this time, he studied the fatigue of high-stress parts of machinery and will now apply this framework to additive manufacturing.
“This is the other part of the project — how to predict defects and at the same time how to fabricate parts with increased reliability,” Siller said. “There is a direct correlation between the microstructure and the poor performance, so this is the other part we will be tackling.”
With the technology currently available, you are able to scan an item and create what is called a “digital twin,” Siller said. From these files, you are able to take an item and print it, which is especially useful if the item is no longer being made.
To identify where the defects, or what they call voids, are coming from, they can create a digital twin of the 3D printed item and use artificial intelligence to predict where the voids will appear which will help them analyze why they’re there, Siller said. Then they run high throughput tests, which allows them to analyze an item’s tensile strength or its resistance to pressure.
“The number one issue of additive manufacturing is internal voids generated during the manufacturing process,” Shen said. “Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get rid of that.”
The research will be conducted at the university’s Center for Agile and Adaptive Additive Manufacturing. The center is equipped with cutting-edge additive manufacturing technology required to study this issue, according to the CAAAM website. Part of the purpose of this site is to “address acute shortages in the manufacturing workforce” which is a way of teaching students pertinent job skills for careers in the tech field.
“Texas is a very dynamic state, so many high tech companies are moving into the area, Tesla, Semiconductor, Texas instruments [have] built a new plant,” Shen said. “It’s not nuts and bolts, it’s knowledge-based manufacturing. Our workers need to have some kind of background in […] data-driven, predictive manufacturing.”
This study will be conducted with the help of post-doctorate and undergraduate students at the university who will be learning job skills through this endeavor. James Koonce III, who is in charge of research testing and is a teaching fellow in the Mechanical Engineering Department, will recruit students from his classes in the upcoming semesters.
“The format of teaching in my classes leads to open discussion from time to time, and students that are interested may be recruited for future participants,” Koonce said. “I knew I wanted to work with that material and manufacturing type, so working with a cyclic loading pattern, and fatigue testing them seemed like the perfect fit.
Shen said following the work being conducted at the CAAAM center, the team will look for new funding opportunities to continue their research.
“Either from the DOD, DOE or even down in the south, the oil and gas industry,” Shen said. “They [oil and gas companies] will primarily use the technology for offshore platforms in the deep water.”
Featured Image: Credit Leo Gonzalez / UNT Photo | https://www.ntdaily.com/unt-professors-research-laser-based-3d-printing-for-army/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:45 | 1 | https://www.ntdaily.com/unt-professors-research-laser-based-3d-printing-for-army/ |
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that a Delaware hospital system performed an autopsy on a 16-week-old fetus despite the parents refusing to give their consent.
Superior Court Judge Patricia Winston denied a motion this week by Christiana Care Health Services and Christiana Care Health System to dismiss a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress filed by Maryland residents Meredith and Brandon Boas.
The couple had adequately stated a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, Winston said. The offense is defined as “extreme and outrageous conduct” that intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress to another.
Attorneys for the hospital system argued that performing a fetal autopsy without consent and against the express wishes of the parents does not rise to the level of being “beyond all possible bounds of decency.”
“Plaintiffs do not allege that the autopsy was performed in an indecent manner or that CCHS intentionally abused the fetus by dissecting and examining the fetus’ internal organs,” hospital lawyers wrote.
Meredith Boas began to experience fluid leakage in May 2021 when she was 16 weeks pregnant, according to the complaint. After being admitted to Christiana Care and diagnosed with preterm premature rupture of the membranes, she chose to have labor induced.
“She explicitly stated that she wanted her baby to remain whole and intact; that was why she chose to vaginally deliver him,” the lawsuit states. “She delivered her baby boy, Ronan, approximately three hours later. Meredith and Brandon held Ronan and took pictures with him and said hello and goodbye for many hours.”
Meredith specifically declined an autopsy when a nurse handed her autopsy consent paperwork, and the couple wanted private cremation and funeral services, the lawsuit states. The couple wanted placental pathology but “no fetal autopsy unless there are visual abnormalities,” a doctor’s note states. Discharge notes also indicated that the mother specifically declined an autopsy, according to the lawsuit.
“Meredith and Brandon left the hospital on May 6, 2021 believing their baby would be taken to the morgue and then the funeral home,” the lawsuit states. “Instead — behind her back he was taken to pathology and was disemboweled.”
The couple didn’t learn what happened until more than a month later, when Meredith found the pathology report in her medical records.
“She, a grieving mother, read the words ‘the fetus is eviscerated’ and read how they took him apart after she had seen her son for the last time as whole and intact,” according to the lawsuit.
The couple was later told that the hospital had a policy of performing autopsies on any babies who died under 20 weeks, “regardless of explicit parental directives to the contrary,” the complaint states.
It is unclear whether such a policy is still in effect and whether Christiana Care officials acted contrary to staff rule documents that are publicly available online. According to those documents, which date back several years, an autopsy may be performed “only with proper consent in accordance with state law and hospital policy.” The documents also state that consent for an autopsy is effective only if it is noted on a hospital form “signed by the appropriate legal representative of the patient.”
An informational page on Christiana’s website for parents who have experienced a miscarriage or pregnancy loss indicates that parents can “choose” to have an autopsy and that they have up to 24 hours to make that decision.
Hiran Ratnayake, a Christiana Care spokesperson, refused to say whether the policies were in effect in May 2021. He also declined to address the court ruling, saying Christiana Care does not comment on pending legal matters.
While allowing the lawsuit to proceed, the judge did dismiss a claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress. She said that claim could not remain because the parents themselves were not in a “zone of danger” in which negligent conduct causes a person to fear for his or her own safety.
“Plaintiffs claim defendants’ autopsy performance on their fetus, against their express consent, caused them emotional distress, and their fright arose when they read Mrs. Boas’s medical records,” Winston wrote. “Hence, plaintiffs’ fright arose from the peril of another, their fetus.” | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/judge-allows-suit-alleging-that-hospital-ignored-parents-and-performed-fetal-autopsy-without-consent/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-28T23:24:45 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/judge-allows-suit-alleging-that-hospital-ignored-parents-and-performed-fetal-autopsy-without-consent/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
By TOM KRISHER (AP Auto Writer)
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government wants to raise the fuel economy of new vehicles 18% by the 2032 model year so the fleet would average about 43.5 miles per gallon in real world driving.
The proposed numbers were released Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which eventually will adopt final mileage requirements.
Currently the fleet of new vehicles must average 36.75 mpg by 2026 under corporate average fuel economy standards adopted by the administration of President Joe Biden, who reversed a rollback made by former President Donald Trump.
The highway safety agency says it will try to line up its regulations so they match the Environmental Protection Agency’s reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. But if there are discrepancies, automakers likely will have to follow the most stringent regulation.
In the byzantine world of government regulation, both agencies essentially are responsible for setting fuel economy requirements since the fastest way to reduce greenhouse emissions is to burn less gasoline.
“I want to make clear that EPA and NHTSA will coordinate to optimize the effectiveness of both agency standards while minimizing compliance costs,” NHTSA Acting Administrator Ann Carlson said.
A large auto industry trade group which includes General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Stellantis and others said requirements from the agencies should be lined up. “If an automaker complies with EPA’s yet-to-be-finalized greenhouse gas emissions rules, they shouldn’t be at risk of violating CAFE rules (from NHTSA) and subject to civil penalties,” John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said in a statement.
However the alliance has said the EPA’s proposed cut in carbon emissions will require a huge increase in electric vehicle sales that’s not attainable by 2032. The EPA says the industry can reach the greenhouse gas emissions goals if 67% of new vehicles sold in 2032 are electric. Currently, EVs make up about 7% of new vehicle sales.
NHTSA said its proposal includes a 2% annual improvement in fuel mileage for passenger cars, and a 4% increase for light trucks. It’s proposing a 10% improvement per year for commercial pickup trucks and work vans. Automakers can meet the requirements with a mix of electric vehicles, gas-electric hybrids and efficiency improvements in gas and diesel vehicles.
The agency says the new regulations will save more than $50 billion on fuel over the vehicles’ lifetimes and save more than 88 billion gallons of gasoline through 2050 if NHTSA’s preferred alternative is adopted. The standards would cut new-vehicle fuel consumption nearly in half by the 2035 model year, and benefits will exceed costs by $18 billion, the agency said.
NHTSA will take comments from the public for 60 days before drafting a final regulation. | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/us-proposes-18-fuel-economy-increase-for-new-vehicle-fleet-from-2027-through-2032/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:48 | 1 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/28/us-proposes-18-fuel-economy-increase-for-new-vehicle-fleet-from-2027-through-2032/ |
HAVRE, Mont. (AP) — When Alicia Navarro disappeared in 2019 from her home in a Phoenix suburb days before her 15th birthday, she left a signed note for her family promising she would return.
“I will be back, I swear,” the note read. “I’m sorry.”
Believing she would keep her promise, Jessica Nunez never stopped searching for her daughter.
She paid for a billboard ad in Mexico that featured a photo of her daughter for a year. She bought 10 more ads in Las Vegas. She spoke at events and gave media interviews to raise awareness. She left flyers all around Glendale — at salons, truck stops, parks.
Nunez’s yearslong search came to an end Sunday when her daughter, now 18, walked into a small-town Montana police station near the Canadian border and identified herself as the missing teenager.
Police said Navarro told them she hadn’t been harmed, wasn’t being held, and could come and go as she pleased. She does not face any criminal charges, they added.
Investigators are now trying to determine what happened to Navarro after she disappeared and how she ended up in Havre, Montana, more than 1,300 miles (2,090 kilometers) from her home.
A spokesperson for the Glendale police said Friday that no one has been taken into custody in Navarro’s disappearance. Officer Gina Winn declined to say whether investigators know how long Navarro was in Montana.
Glendale police Lt. Scott Waite said at a news conference Wednesday they were looking into all the possible scenarios that could have led to Navarro’s disappearance, including kidnapping.
Over the years, Nunez had raised concerns that Navarro, who was diagnosed with autism, may have been lured away by someone she met online.
In Havre — a town of about 9,200 people surrounded by farmland and north of the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation — Navarro’s story had residents buzzing even though most had never seen or heard of her. It also piqued interest when a team of heavily armed law enforcement officers entered an apartment and took a man into custody just a few blocks from the Havre police station Wednesday night, witnesses told The Associated Press.
As many as 10 uniformed and undercover officers showed up at about 8 p.m. and took him away in handcuffs. The man had been living in the apartment, said Rick Lieberg, who lives across the street.
A young woman later emerged from the apartment — one of six units in an aging building in a residential neighborhood — who Lieberg said he had not previously seen. The woman resembled a photograph of Navarro that was released by police, he said.
Jonathan Michaelson, who lives next door, said he was questioned Wednesday night by a plainclothes police officer from Arizona who asked whether he had ever seen a girl at the apartment next door. He said he had not.
“If she was in that apartment, I’m surprised I never saw her,” Michaelson said.
A person who works at the Dollar Tree in Havre, Jeff Hummert, said he saw a young woman resembling a photograph of Navarro last year in a city park just up the street from the apartment raided by police Wednesday. She was walking alone and carrying a plastic Walmart bag, Hummert said.
Theories about how Navarro came to be in Montana topped the conversation Friday among the regulars at a coffee shop inside Gary & Leo’s IGA, a grocery store in downtown Havre. With scant details from authorities, most of the talk — about Navarro’s possible destination and whether she was being coerced — was conjecture, said former county Coroner Steve Sapp, who joined the discussion.
“When you’re in law enforcement, all these different stories about what happened make it hard to tell which story is really true,” Sapp said. “I would really like to know more.”
Nunez declined an interview request. But for years, she had documented her efforts to find her daughter on a Facebook page titled “Finding Alicia” and an audio podcast. In an emotional video viewed more than 200,000 times since it was posted Wednesday, Nunez told her tens of thousands of followers: “For everyone who has missing loved ones, I want you to use this case as an example. Miracles do exist. Never lose hope and always fight.”
Nunez had amassed a loyal following on social media throughout the years while sharing inspirational quotes, photos of Navarro as a young child and posts addressed directly to her daughter.
“Alicia I know you will fulfill what you promised,” Nunez wrote in one post. “You will be back.”
People across the U.S. reached out to the Arizona mother to ask how they could help, creating an informal network of volunteers. They shared photos and information through the Facebook page.
Glendale police said this week that they received thousands of tips over the years.
In a short video clip that Glendale police said was taken shortly after Navarro arrived at the Montana police station, she can be heard telling authorities, “No one hurt me.” In another short video, Navarro thanked the police.
“Thank you for offering help to me,” she said.
___
Yamat reported from Las Vegas. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-arizona-mom-never-stopped-looking-for-her-missing-daughter-she-showed-up-4-years-later-in-montana/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:50 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-arizona-mom-never-stopped-looking-for-her-missing-daughter-she-showed-up-4-years-later-in-montana/ |
HAVRE, Mont. (AP) — An Arizona teenager who disappeared days before her 15th birthday nearly four years ago is safe after walking into a small-town police station in Montana this week, authorities announced Wednesday.
Police in Havre, Montana, said Alicia Navarro, now 18, showed up alone Sunday morning in the town of about 9,200 people near the Canadian border and identified herself as a missing teenager from the Phoenix suburb of Glendale.
Navarro’s disappearance on Sept. 15, 2019, sparked a massive search that included the FBI. Glendale police spokesperson Jose Santiago said over the years, police had received thousands of tips.
Investigators are now trying to determine what happened to Navarro after vanishing at age 14 and how she ended up in Montana, more than 1,300 miles (2,090 kilometers) away from her hometown.
When she disappeared, Navarro left a signed note that read: “I ran away. I will be back, I swear. I’m sorry.”
But her mother, Jessica Nunez, raised concerns that Navarro, who was diagnosed as on the autism spectrum, may have been lured away by someone she met online.
Law enforcement officers took a man into custody at an apartment just a few blocks from the Havre police station on Wednesday night, according to several witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press.
As many as 10 heavily-armed uniformed and undercover officers showed up about 8 p.m. and took away in handcuffs the man who had been living in the apartment, said Rick Lieberg, who lives across the street.
A young woman later emerged from the apartment who Lieberg said he had not previously seen. He said the woman resembled a photograph of Navarro that has been released by police.
“She came out, talked to the officers, then two ladies pulled up and then she got into a car with them and they left,” Lieberg said.
Officers remained on the scene for several hours, taking pictures and doing other work inside the apartment, Lieberg said. He said the young woman returned to the apartment building with the two women on Thursday, but he did not see her go into the apartment.
A second witness, Jonathan Michaelson, who lives next door, said he was questioned at the scene by a plainclothes police officer who said he was from Arizona and asked if Michaelson had ever seen a girl at the apartment. He said he had not.
“If she was in that apartment, I’m surprised I never saw her,” Michaelson said.
Glendale police Lt. Scott Waite, the lead investigator, said they were looking into all the possible scenarios that could have led to Navarro’s disappearance, including kidnapping.
“As much as we’d like to say this is the end,” Waite said, “we know this is only the beginning of where this investigation will go.”
Police said Navarro told them after her arrival at the station she hadn’t been harmed, wasn’t being held and could come and go as she pleased. She does not face any criminal charges, they added.
In a short video clip that police said was taken shortly after Navarro arrived at the police station this week, she can be heard telling authorities, “No one hurt me.”
In another short video, Navarro thanked the police.
“Thank you for offering help to me,” she said.
Authorities in both Montana and Arizona haven’t said how long Navarro had been in Havre before walking into the police station. Havre is surrounded by farmland and is north of the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.
Waite described Navarro’s reunion this week with her mother as “emotionally overwhelming” and that Navarro said she was sorry for “what she has put her mother through.”
In an emotional video posted Wednesday to a Facebook account titled “Finding Alicia,” Nunez told her tens of thousands of followers, “I want to give glory to God for answering prayers and for this miracle.”
Nunez had been documenting her efforts to find her daughter on the Facebook page throughout the years. The account features hundreds of posts with photos of Navarro as a young child and pictures of Nunez holding up signs that read, “Children don’t just disappear!”
“For everyone who has missing loved ones, I want you to use this case as an example,” Nunez said in the video, which had been viewed more than 200,000 times. “Miracles do exist. Never lose hope and always fight.”
___
Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press writers Robert Jablon in Los Angeles and Amy Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-arizona-teen-alicia-navarro-missing-since-2019-shows-up-safe-at-montana-police-station/ | 2023-07-28T23:24:56 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-arizona-teen-alicia-navarro-missing-since-2019-shows-up-safe-at-montana-police-station/ |
When you get a stomachache, you may reach for a glass of ginger ale to help feel better. It is a common home remedy for nausea or other gastrointestinal issues. However, some people online are wondering if their mom’s go-to cure actually works.
THE QUESTION
Does ginger ale help with stomachaches?
THE SOURCES
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- A study published in Nutrients in 2020
- Emma Slattery, RDN, in a post on Johns Hopkins Medicine
- A blog post by Matthew Goldman, M.D., on Cleveland Clinic
- Seagram’s
- Schweppes
- Canada Dry
THE ANSWER
While ginger root can help stomachaches, many popular brands of ginger ale do not contain any real ginger. The sugar and high carbonation may also worsen digestive problems.
WHAT WE FOUND
Ginger ale could help relieve stomachaches for some people, but only if it contains real ginger. A scientific review of more than 100 studies on the effects of ginger show moderate effectiveness in relieving nausea.
Emma Slattery, a registered dietician at Johns Hopkins Medicine, explains in a blog post that “eating ginger encourages efficient digestion, so food doesn’t linger as long in the gut.” This can help you cut down on bloating and constipation as ginger improves “the rate at which food exits the stomach and continues along the digestive process.”
But while “ginger” may be in the name of the fizzy drinks you find in stores, many brands of ginger ale do not actually contain any real ginger.
VERIFY looked at the ingredients list of Seagram’s ginger ale and found that the soda contains “ginger extract with other natural flavors.” Schweppes, Canada Dry and Great Value ginger ale do not include ginger in their ingredient list and instead only say “natural flavors.” According to the FDA, “natural flavors” can refer to a wide variety of ingredients whose “significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.”
Ginger ale often contains large amounts of sugar, which may create further issues for your stomachache. In a blog post for the Cleveland Clinic, Matthew Goldman, M.D., says, “If a person has bloating, gas or indigestion, the carbonation and sugar may make it worse. Even diet ginger ale can be harmful because our bodies may not digest artificial sugars as well.”
Another aspect of ginger ale believed to assist with stomachaches is carbonation. But that might not be helpful for everyone.
Baptist Health explains, “Some people find that the bubbles in carbonated drinks help soothe an upset stomach, in part, by making it easier for them to burp and release stomach pressure. For others, gas and acidity can make matters worse.” Baptist Health recommends that you drink heavily carbonated drinks with caution if you are not sure how they affect you.
So how can you best take advantage of ginger’s soothing effects when you’re feeling sick? Cleveland Clinic recommends getting ginger root from the grocery store and mixing it with decaf tea or warm water.
Some ginger sodas do have real ginger in the ingredient list. Reed’s sells a ginger ale with 2 grams of ginger in a 12 oz bottle and ginger beer that contains 17 grams of ginger per bottle. | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/verify/health-verify/ginger-ale-no-help-stomachache-because-no-ginger/536-b21c22d9-743a-4f5a-a9d6-a570ef090627 | 2023-07-28T23:24:59 | 0 | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/verify/health-verify/ginger-ale-no-help-stomachache-because-no-ginger/536-b21c22d9-743a-4f5a-a9d6-a570ef090627 |
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Immigration advocates said Thursday that an online appointment system to seek asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico is out of reach for many migrants, in the latest legal challenge to the Biden administration’s immigration agenda.
The lawsuit says the administration, often working with Mexican authorities, has physically blocked migrants from claiming asylum at land crossings with Mexico unless they have an appointment through the CBP One app. It says the app is “impossible” for those with inferior internet access, language difficulties or lack of technical know-how. Appointments are capped at 1,450 a day.
“CBP One essentially creates an electronic waitlist that restricts access to the U.S. asylum process to a limited number of privileged migrants,” according to the lawsuit by advocacy groups Al Otro Lado and the Haitian Bridge Alliance and would-be asylum-seekers from Mexico, Haiti, Nicaragua and Russia who say they couldn’t get appointments while waiting in Mexico.
More than 38,000 people were processed for entry using CBP One in June and more than 170,000 got appointments during the first six months of the year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said last week.
CBP said late Thursday that use of the app has increased processing at land crossings to “historic levels,” significantly expanding access to asylum and humanitarian protections. At the same time, the agency said it continues to serve people “who walk up to a port of entry without an appointment.”
The lawsuit is the latest legal threat to the Biden administration’s carrot-and-stick approach to the border that combines new avenues for legal entry, like CBP One, and shuts down routes to asylum for those who enter the country without government permission.
Officials say the approach is working, noting a sharp drop in illegal crossings since a rule took effect on May 11 that allows authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the border without applying on CBP One or seeking protection in another country they passed through. In June, authorities stopped migrants nearly 145,000 times, the lowest level since February 2021 and down 43% from December’s peak.
But the lawsuits complicate President Joe Biden’s efforts to introduce new policies.
“Litigation is, to a certain extent, dictating immigration policy along the border, also in the interior,” Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank, said.
A look at some of the other legal challenges and where they stand:
The government is appealing a federal judge’s decision to block the new asylum rule. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar delayed his ruling from taking effect for two weeks. It may fall to an appeals court to decide whether to keep the rule in place during what may be a lengthy challenge.
Some legal observers don’t expect a final resolution until 2025, probably in the Supreme Court.
Another closely watched case challenges the administration’s policy to grant parole for two years to up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela if they apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive at an airport. Texas is leading 21 states to argue that Biden overreached his authority, saying it “amounts to the creation of a new visa program that allows hundreds of thousands of aliens to enter the United States who otherwise have no basis for doing so.”
A trial is scheduled Aug. 24 in Victoria, Texas, before U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton. Legal observers anticipate a decision in the fall.
Mexico says the policy was critical to it agreeing to take back people from those four countries who enter the U.S. illegally and are denied asylum.
An appeals court could rule soon on the Biden administration’s use of what is known as humanitarian parole, in which asylum-seekers are released in the U.S. while they pursue cases in immigration court.
U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II said in a March ruling prohibiting the practice that the administration “effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand.”
The Border Patrol paroled 572,575 migrants last year, including a record-high 130,563 in December. The practice sharply subsided even before the administration lost a lawsuit by the state of Florida, but it wants the option in case Border Patrol stations become too overcrowded.
Texas sued the administration in May to block Biden’s policies, particularly the use of CBP One. “The Biden Administration’s attempt to manage the southern border by app does not meet even the lowest expectation of competency and runs afoul of the laws Congress passed to regulate immigration,” the lawsuit states.
Indiana and 17 other states sued the administration on similar grounds, saying in its federal lawsuit filed in North Dakota that new policies “will further degrade our nation’s border security and make it even easier to illegally immigrate into the United States.”
Neither case appears headed toward swift resolution. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-as-illegal-crossings-drop-the-legal-challenges-over-bidens-us-mexico-border-policies-grow/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:02 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-as-illegal-crossings-drop-the-legal-challenges-over-bidens-us-mexico-border-policies-grow/ |
ATLANTA — As the extreme heat rolls into metro Atlanta this weekend, the Braves are ensuring fans that come to Truist Park this weekend will stay cool.
With the high temperatures expected to climb into the upper 90s with a heat index in the 100s throughout the weekend, here are some of the precautions the team is taking for fans coming to enjoy the game:
- Fans are allowed to bring one sealed plastic bottle of water, one bag of food, and one bottle of non-aerosol sunscreen per game ticket. This is a rule the Braves always have in place at Truist Park.
- There will be cooling stations inside the park, which are located at the 1st and 3rd base elevator lobbies on the Lower Level.
- Battery-operated, handheld fans and misters are allowed.
- Umbrellas are permitted as long as they don’t block other fans’ view of the game, according to the Truist Park guidelines.
- These ice-water stations will be set up and in place throughout the homestand:
- Left Field Gate
- Chop House Gate
- Right Field Gate
- 1st Base Gate
- 3rd Base Gate
- Sandlot
- 1st Base LL Premium Lobby
- 3rd Base LL Premium Lobby
- Jim Beam Lounge (ticket specific)
- Chippers Corner (ticket specific)
- Outside of Wahlburgers in The Battery Atlanta
- Delta Wing (Outside 3rd Base Gate)
The Braves homestand runs from Friday night through next Wednesday. The Bravos will battle the Milwaukee Brewers this weekend before global superstar Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels head to Atlanta for a three-game set from Monday-Wednesday.
Atlanta will take on Milwaukee at 7:20 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday before an afternoon rubber match on Sunday at 1:35 p.m. The Braves will play the Angels at 7:20 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday before their final game on Wednesday at 12:20 p.m. | https://www.11alive.com/article/sports/mlb/atlanta-braves/braves-heat-safety-precautions-truist-park/85-8ca944b0-e836-4f6b-aa98-80e0675b0c28 | 2023-07-28T23:25:05 | 0 | https://www.11alive.com/article/sports/mlb/atlanta-braves/braves-heat-safety-precautions-truist-park/85-8ca944b0-e836-4f6b-aa98-80e0675b0c28 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly acknowledged his seventh grandchild, a four-year-old girl fathered by his son Hunter with an Arkansas woman, Lunden Roberts, in 2018.
“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” Biden said in a statement. It was his first acknowledgement of the child.
“This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter,” he said. “Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”
Hunter Biden’s paternity was established by DNA testing after Roberts sued for child support, and the two parties recently resolved outstanding child support issues. The president’s son wrote about his encounter with Roberts in his 2021 memoir, saying it came while he was deep in addiction to alcohol and drugs, including crack cocaine.
“I had no recollection of our encounter,” he wrote. “That’s how little connection I had with anyone. I was a mess, but a mess I’ve taken responsibility for.”
The president, who has made a commitment to family central to his public persona, has faced increasing criticism from political rivals and pundits for failing to acknowledge the granddaughter. According to a person familiar with the matter, he was taking the cue from his son while the legal proceedings played out. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.
Biden’s statement was first reported by People Magazine. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-biden-openly-acknowledges-7th-grandchild-the-daughter-of-son-hunter-and-an-arkansas-woman/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:09 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-biden-openly-acknowledges-7th-grandchild-the-daughter-of-son-hunter-and-an-arkansas-woman/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday giving decisions on the prosecution of serious military crimes, including sexual assault, to independent military attorneys, taking that power away from victims’ commanders.
The order formally implements legislation passed by Congress in 2022 aimed at strengthening protections for service members, who were often at the mercy of their commanders to decide whether to take their assault claims seriously.
Members of Congress, frustrated with the growing number of sexual assaults in the military, fought with defense leaders for several years over the issue. They argued that commanders at times were willing to ignore charges or incidents in their units to protect those accused of offenses and that using independent lawyers would beef up prosecutions. Military leaders balked, saying it could erode commanders’ authority.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York spent about a decade in an uphill battle to reform how the military handles sexual assaults and get the legislative changes passed that were codified through Biden’s order.
“While it will take time to see the results of these changes, these measures will instill more trust, professionalism, and confidence in the system,” Gillibrand said.
The change was among more than two dozen recommendations made in 2021 by an independent review commission on sexual assault in the military that was set up by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. And it was included in the annual defense bill last year. But since it requires a change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, it needed formal presidential action.
In a call with reporters previewing the order, senior Biden administration officials said it was the most sweeping change to the military legal code since it was created in 1950.
The Pentagon had already been moving forward with the change. A year ago, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force set up the new special trial counsel offices, which will assume authority over prosecution decisions by the end of this year. Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, that prosecution authority will expand to include sexual harassment cases.
The changes come as the military grapples with rising numbers of reported sexual assaults in its ranks.
While the services have made inroads in making it easier and safer for troops to come forward, they have had far less success reducing the number of assaults, which have increased nearly every year since 2006. Overall, there were more than 8,942 reports of sexual assaults involving service members during the 2022 fiscal year, a slight increase over 8,866 the year before.
Defense officials have long argued that an increase in reported assaults is a positive trend because so many people are reluctant to report them, both in the military and in society as a whole. Greater reporting, they say, shows there is more confidence in the reporting system, greater comfort with the support for victims, and a growing number of offenders who are being held accountable.
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Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-biden-orders-changes-to-the-military-code-of-justice-for-sexual-assault-victims/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:15 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-biden-orders-changes-to-the-military-code-of-justice-for-sexual-assault-victims/ |
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A federal trial for the man who fatally shot 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue approached its conclusion Friday as the defense, trying to persuade a jury to spare his life, pressed its case that mental illness spurred the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack.
Robert Bowers, a 50 year-old truck driver from suburban Baldwin, was convicted in June on 63 criminal counts for the 2018 massacre at Tree of Life synagogue. The jury has been hearing testimony in the penalty phase of the trial and will decide whether Bowers will receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors have presented evidence that Bowers was motivated by his hatred of Jewish people when he opened fire at the synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, killing members of three congregations gathered for Sabbath worship and study. The defense argues Bowers has schizophrenia and acted out of a delusional belief that Jews were participating in a genocide of white people.
On Friday, a defense psychiatrist who met with Bowers 10 times for nearly 40 hours said Bowers saw himself as a soldier of God in a war in which Satan was trying to use Jewish people to bring about the end of the world. Dr. George Corvin, of Raleigh, N.C., said it was a delusion brought on by psychosis.
Corvin said Bowers continues to express delusional beliefs about Jews — “disgustingly so” — and that he is incapable of remorse. He said Bowers should be on anti-psychotic medication.
Bowers “has a belief that we’re at the end of a war that’s been going on for thousands of years,” Corvin testified. “He still envisions what he did as an unfortunate act of violence at the direction of God — that it will save lives. He believes he’s a tool for God. I know it sounds absurd. It’s psychotic.”
Corvin continued: “This is the result of a mental illness.”
Corvin was one of several defense experts who diagnosed Bowers with schizophrenia, a serious brain disorder whose symptoms include delusions and hallucinations. A neurologist testifying for the prosecution disputed that Bowers has schizophrenia, saying Bowers has a personality disorder but is not delusional, and that mental illness did not appear to play a role in the attack. Prosecutors have noted Bowers spent six months planning the shooting.
Also testifying Friday were Bowers’ aunt and uncle.
The uncle, Clyde Munger, said he visited with Bowers in prison because “he is my nephew and I love him.” He said he prays for Bowers every morning.
The aunt, Patricia Fine, was expected to the final defense witness. She said Bowers had a difficult childhood from infancy, describing the house where he lived as unsafe. She said he was a sad child and that she “was convinced” he would take his own life. A defense expert previously described Bowers’ early life as deeply unstable and said he attempted suicide several times in his teens.
Fine’s testimony was scheduled to resume Monday, with closing arguments and jury deliberations expected to follow. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-defense-presses-case-that-mental-illness-spurred-pittsburgh-synagogue-massacre/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:21 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-defense-presses-case-that-mental-illness-spurred-pittsburgh-synagogue-massacre/ |
PHOENIX (AP) — Homeless in America’s hottest big metro, Stefon James Dewitt Livengood was laid out for days inside his makeshift dwelling, struggling to breath, nauseous and vomiting.
Every day this month, temperatures have soared past 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius).
Livengood said he stopped briefly at a free clinic that took his blood pressure and declared it acceptable. But he received no other medical help for his apparent heat exhaustion, or for the peeling skin on his arms he believes was caused by sun exposure. He is careful when he walks through the sprawling tent city, cognizant that if he falls, the simmering black asphalt could seriously burn his skin.
“If you’re going outside, let somebody know where you’re going so you can be tracked so you don’t pass out out there,” he said. “If you fall out in the heat, you don’t want a third degree burn from the ground.”
The 38-year-old sleeps in a structure cobbled together with a frame of scavenged wood and metal covered by blue vinyl tarp. The space inside is large enough to stand up and walk around in and features an old recliner and a bicycle Livengood uses less now that he spends more time inside with the sides of his dwelling open.
“Some of the friends that I’ve made down here, they come check on me if they don’t see me moving around,” he said.
Homeless people are among those most likely to die in the extreme heat in metro Phoenix. The city is seeing its longest run of consecutive days of 110 Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) ever recorded, clocking 28 in a row as of Thursday, even as the first monsoon storm of the season brought some overnight relief.
“It has been a scary situation this year and it’s especially scary for our homeless population,” said Dr. Geoff Comp, an emergency room physician for Valleywise Health in central Phoenix. “They have a more constant exposure to the heat than most of us.”
People living outside are also vulnerable to surface burns from contact with hot metal, concrete or asphalt.
Surgeons at the Arizona Burn Center–Valleywise Health recently warned about burns caused by walking, sitting or falling on outside surfaces reaching up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit (82.2 degrees Celsius). The burn center last year saw 85 people admitted with heat-related surface burns for the months of June through August. Seven died.
Record high overnight temperatures persisted above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 degrees Celsius) for 16 days straight after finally slipping to 89 Fahrenheit (31.6 Celsius) on Thursday after a storm Wednesday evening kicked up dust, high winds and a bit of rainfall.
If temperatures don’t drop sufficiently after the sun sets, it’s hard for people’s bodies to cool down, health professionals say, especially those who live in flimsy structures without air conditioning or fans.
“People really need a lot of water and a cooling system to recover overnight,” Comp said.
There is no air conditioner, fan or even electricity in Livengood’s home, just a little, flat piece of plastic he uses as a hand fan.
Unhoused people accounted for about 40% of the 425 heat-associated deaths tallied last year in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, during its hottest summer on record. More than half of the 425 deaths occurred in July and 80% occurred outdoors.
Maricopa County reported Wednesday that as of July 22, there were 25 heat-associated deaths confirmed this year going back to April 11. Another 249 deaths remain under investigation.
Livengood’s shack stands among some 800 people living in tents and other makeshift dwellings outside Arizona’s largest temporary shelter. The tents stand close together on concrete sidewalks, and seem to increase the stifling heat from the encampment called “The Zone.”
But the location is convenient. Nearby agencies provide social services, food and life-saving water, including the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA and St. Mary’s Food Bank.
Livengood can get breakfast and lunch with faith-based groups in the area before taking a nap in his recliner.
On some hot days, the local transportation agency Valley Metro send over a couple of empty buses so people can sit for hours in the air conditioning. On other days, Livengood and a few friends walk to a nearby city park and sit in the grass under shade trees outside a public swimming pool.
“It’s a definite part of what keeps everybody safe down here in the ‘The Zone,’” Livengood said, ticking off the things people distribute: hygiene items, sunscreen, lip balm, hats and cooling rags. “A lot of love is given out here.”
Livengood tells of a childhood of trauma and neglect. Born in Phoenix and originally named Jesse James Acosta Jr., Livengood spent much of his early years in public housing in a low-income, largely African American neighborhood of south Phoenix. Both of his parents spent time in prison. His mother struggled with addiction, giving birth to a daughter behind bars, and later slipped into homelessness.
“My childhood has been filled with a lot of memories of being bounced around, never really having anything stable,” Livengood said.
Livengood was adopted at age 12 by a woman named Denise who legally changed his name to the current one. He and the rest of his adoptive family moved to Alaska, where his adoptive mother died in a traffic accident.
Livengood struggled in school and met the mother of his son. He later left behind the woman and their child to return to Phoenix, a decision he regrets.
Back in the desert, Livengood said he is well aware of the dangers from extreme heat from the pamphlets volunteers pass out with bottles of icy water.
“Yeah, it gets really hot out here, guys,” he said. “Stay hydrated, drink plenty of water even when you think you’ve had a lot of water. And drink more.”
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-homeless-struggle-to-stay-safe-from-record-high-temperatures-in-blistering-phoenix/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:27 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-homeless-struggle-to-stay-safe-from-record-high-temperatures-in-blistering-phoenix/ |
ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Many were not just killed at home. They were killed by their homes.
Angela Eason had visited Brenda Odoms’ tidy mobile home before. It was a place where Odoms, who had many tragedies in her life, felt safe.
In March, a tornado ripped through this small Mississippi town and people in mobile or manufactured homes were hit the hardest. Inside a mobile morgue, Eason, the county coroner, examined Odoms’ gaping fatal head wound. Odoms was found just outside of her collapsed mobile home that was tossed around by a tornado. Blunt force trauma killed her.
“The one place she felt safe she was not,” Eason said. Fourteen people died in that Rolling Fork tornado, nine of them, including Odoms, were in uprooted manufactured or mobile homes.
Tornadoes in the United States are disproportionately killing more people in mobile or manufactured homes, especially in the South, often victimizing some of the most socially and economically vulnerable residents. Since 1996, tornadoes have killed 815 people in mobile or manufactured homes, representing 53% of all the people killed at home during a tornado, according to an Associated Press data analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tornado deaths. Meanwhile, less than 6% of America’s housing units are manufactured homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
While the dangers of tornadoes to mobile homes have long been known, and there are ways to mitigate the risk, the percentage of total tornado deaths that happen in mobile homes has been increasing. Part of the problem is that federal housing rules that call for tougher manufactured home standards, including anchoring, only apply in hurricane zones, which is most of Florida and then several counties along the coast. Those are not the areas where tornadoes usually hit.
Auburn University engineering professor David Roueche called manufactured homes in non-coastal places “death traps compared to most permanent homes” when it comes to tornadoes.
A DEADLY YEAR
The first tornado deaths this year were in Alabama in January, killing seven people, all in mobile homes. All but one were thrown at least 1,000 feet from their homes, with the seventh person thrown at least 500 feet, said Ernie Baggett, the former emergency management chief for Autauga County, Alabama. Less than 100 yards from where four of those people died was a permanent home that had little more than shingle damage, he said.
When the wind hits the mobile homes, “it’s like a house of cards. They just crumble,” Baggett said.
So far this year, at least 45 of the 74 people killed in the U.S. by tornadoes were in some form of manufactured housing when they died, according to NOAA data. Nine others died in site homes and the rest were killed in other places, such as in vehicles.
The manufactured housing industry — which disputes that there’s any disproportionate danger — insists on calling the structures manufactured homes if they are built after hurricane-based federal standards in 1976 and mobile homes if they are built before, saying age of the home matters. Federal housing officials use the term manufactured housing. Other people, including many researchers and residents, use the terms interchangeably.
More than 70% of the 8 million manufactured homes in America were built after 1976. Because a big chunk were built in the 1980s and early 1990s, 60% of all those homes were installed before increased federal standards were adopted in 1994, the industry’s trade group, Manufactured Housing Institute said.
TORNADOES DON’T HAVE TO BE DEADLY
Tornado experts say most tornadoes should be survivable.
“You just have to be in some structure that’s attached to the ground. And then no matter what the tornado throws at you, you have really good odds,” said NOAA social scientist Kim Klockow-McClain.
But in manufactured homes, even the weakest tornadoes are killing people in large numbers when they shouldn’t be, more than a dozen experts in meteorology, disasters and engineering told The AP.
More than 240 people in mobile homes in the past 28 years have died in tornadoes with winds of 135 mph or less, the three weakest of the six categories of twisters, the AP analysis found. That’s 79% of the deaths at home in the weaker tornadoes. It’s only in storms with winds higher than 165 mph where most of the at home deaths are in more permanent structures.
Auburn’s Roueche not only studies what happens in mobile homes during tornadoes, he grew up in one. What he sees over and over are mobile homes that fail from the bottom up because they are not secured enough to the ground, like permanent homes are.
WHAT HAPPENS IN A TORNADO
“The whole structure is rolling or flying through air. You’ve got dressers falling on top of you. You’ve got the entire structure that’s trying to crush you,” said Roueche.
That March evening in Rolling Fork, when the tornado roared through Ida Cartlidge remembered the air blowing so powerfully that she couldn’t breathe, the sounds of windows shattering and then utter mayhem.
“The only thing that’s holding a mobile home down are the little straps in the ground,” Cartlidge said. “It picked up the home one time, set it down. It picked it up again, set it down. It picked it up a third time, and we were in the air.”
The tornado hit Mildred Joyner’s mobile home so hard she felt the mobile home shake, heard the cracking sound of what she figured was her home coming apart and then she woke up in the hospital and her mother who was in the mobile home with her ended up paralyzed from the waist down.
The problem is worsening in the South because tornadoes have been moving more from the Great Plains to the mid-South in recent decades and will likely to continue to do so with climate change a possible factor, studies show. Alabama has the most tornado deaths by far.
Unlike the rest of the country, which usually has most manufactured housing in parks, the South has mobile homes scattered about the countryside in ones and twos, making central tornado shelters less effective and likely to be built, said Villanova University tornado expert Stephen Strader and Northern Illinois meteorology professor Walker Ashley.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ANCHORING
One thing scientists, emergency managers and the manufactured housing industry agree on is that anchoring mobile homes to the ground is key.
That requires expensive concrete or expensive tie down systems, said former Alabama emergency official Jonathan Gaddy, now a professor at Idaho State University.
“Why does that matter? Well, it explains why we haven’t fixed the problem with anchoring because nobody can fix the problem and still make money. That’s the bottom line,” Gaddy said.
“Anchoring matters and has been shown to be the difference between life or death,” Villanova’s Strader said in an email. “However, the MH industry seems disinterested in addressing this because it would make their homes more expensive.”
Manufactured Home Institute Chief Executive Officer Lesli Gooch said the industry is “very clear” about the importance of anchoring. “We also talk about making sure that a professional checks your anchoring systems on your manufactured home, especially on mobile homes built prior to (19)76,” she said.
“We’re very focused on making sure that there are minimum installation standards in the states,” Gooch said.
Northern Illinois’ Ashley said lack of state regulations and inspections, especially in much of the South, is a big problem.
Improvements in federal codes that went into effect in 1976, 1994 and 2008 make a big difference, Gooch said, arguing that the NOAA data the AP analyzed and that scientists use lump different ages of manufactured homes together and tar them with the problems of the oldest ones.
“I wouldn’t want your readers to misinterpret your data to suggest that living in a manufactured home is somehow more deadly than living in a site-built home because I would tell you that I don’t think that the data bears that out,” Gooch said.
Gooch pointed to manufactured homes in Florida, where tighter federal Housing and Urban Development safety rules apply because it is a hurricane wind zone. “Homes in Florida that are manufactured homes are performing better than what you see in the site-built world,” she said.
IT’S NOT GETTING BETTER
Several scientists and engineers said data, and history, show the situation has not improved.
“This is more of the handwaving- and misdirection-type statements that has come to represent the manufactured housing industry’s take on tornado and manufactured home safety,” Villanova’s Strader said in an email, with Northern Illinois’ Ashley agreeing.
“Our study of the Lee County Alabama EF4 tornado found that 19 of the 23 deaths were in manufactured homes (all built after 1994),” Strader said. “All of those deaths were due to a lack of anchoring or a floor-to-wall connection. There have been many prior studies that have illustrated that these homes are failing at lower wind loads than permanent homes.”
If Gooch were right, the percentage of tornado deaths in mobile homes would be going down with time and they are not, NOAA National Severe Storms Lab tornado scientist Harold Brooks said, presenting data that goes back to 1975. His data showed mobile home deaths between 1975 and 1984 were 43.6% of all at-home tornado deaths and the same figure was 63.2% for the past ten years through the end of May.
A contributing factor, Strader, Ashley and Roueche said, is that federal rules for anchoring only apply in hurricane zones, mostly in Florida. Those are not the areas where tornadoes usually hit. Instead, they hit inland where the weakest federal standards are, they said. Most of tornado-prone areas, including almost all of Alabama, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Mississippi are in “Zone 1,” where safety and anchoring of mobile homes have the most lax standards.
“People are dying in new and old Zone 1 manufactured homes,” Roueche said in response to Gooch’s comments. Tornado homes throughout the country would be much safer if the coastal federal requirements applied everywhere, he said.
HURTING POOR PEOPLE MORE
One of the issues with mobile homes and tornadoes is that it is an intersection of risk and “different social vulnerability factors like poverty, even some issues pertaining to race, ethnicity, age,” NOAA’s Klockow said.
And it makes it harder for people to leave their mobile homes and head for a permanent shelter.
“I always think about the single mother who’s living in a manufactured home. It’s the middle of the night. She has three kids. Her car’s not starting correctly and all of a sudden here comes a tornado,” Strader said in an interview.
Officials tell her “to get to a storm shelter because our manufactured home isn’t safe,” Strader said. “Well, the problem there is that there’s all these factors up against them.”
Tornadoes pop down rapidly, which doesn’t allow meteorologists to give much warning, maybe 10 to 15 minutes. In many cases, the National Weather Service warns days in advance that the conditions are ripe for tornadoes, but that isn’t the same as warning that one has touched down.
University of Oklahoma social scientist Justin Sharpe, who studies disaster warnings, said with poor and disabled residents the key is to avoid warnings that simply say “get out now” and nothing else.
Instead, a couple hours before a tornado is possible, meteorologists should warn people to be packed up and ready to go at a moment’s notice later, Sharpe and Klockow-McClain said.
FINDING SAFER PLACES
A relatively new law in Alabama could help provide more shelters and be a model for other states. The law gives liability protection to buildings like churches and stores that open up in an emergency as a shelter if specifically-built shelters aren’t available.
When this year’s first deadly tornado struck just outside Montgomery, Alabama, Autauga County had about 30 minutes warning but no “safer places” to send people, the then-emergency chief, Baggett said. Seven people in mobile homes died.
The tornado continued into neighboring Elmore County, which had already set off its 30 warning sirens, used a mass notification system to make 16,772 calls to phones in the danger area and opened up 16 churches and other safer places.
People went into the temporary shelters. Homes were destroyed, but no one died.
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Associated Press photographer Gerald Herbert and video journalist Stephen Smith contributed to this report. Borenstein reported from Washington and Fassett from Seattle.
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Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
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Follow Seth Borenstein, Camille Fasset and Michael Goldberg on Twitter at @borenbears, @camfassett and @mikergoldberg.
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-homes-that-become-deadly-tornadoes-kill-disproportionately-more-in-mobile-homes-ap-analysis-finds/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:35 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-homes-that-become-deadly-tornadoes-kill-disproportionately-more-in-mobile-homes-ap-analysis-finds/ |
Animal care at ND State Fair
Published: Jul. 28, 2023 at 6:14 PM CDT|Updated: 9 minutes ago
MINOT, N.D (KMOT) - Hundreds of farm animals were transported to the North Dakota State Fair for showings and need shade and to get out of the heat.
Dylan Cargo, a 4-H member who has shown cattle this week, said he keeps the fans running on his calf, Cheeto, to prevent the cow from sweating and looking drenched.
He said fans also keep the flies away.
“If they overheat, they could get heatstroke and die, or they just will fight you and not want to cooperate,” said Cargo.
In addition to cooling the cow, he also washes it.
Copyright 2023 KFYR. All rights reserved. | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/28/animal-care-nd-state-fair/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:41 | 0 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/28/animal-care-nd-state-fair/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Samuel Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose a code of ethics on the Supreme Court, making him the first member of the court to take a public stand against proposals in Congress to toughen ethics rules for justices in response to increased scrutiny of their activities beyond the bench.
“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period,” Alito said in an interview he gave to the Wall Street Journal opinion pages. An account of the interview, which the paper said took place in New York in early July, was published Friday.
Democrats last week pushed Supreme Court ethics legislation through a Senate committee, though the bill’s prospects in the full Senate are dim.
All federal judges other than the justices already adhere to an ethics code that was developed by the federal judiciary. But the Supreme Court’s unique status — it’s the only federal court created by the Constitution — puts it outside the reach of those standards that apply to other federal jurists.
Democrats first sought to address that after ProPublica reported earlier this year that Justice Clarence Thomas participated in lavish vacations and a real estate deal with a top Republican donor — and after Chief Justice John Roberts declined to testify before the committee about the ethics of the court.
Since then, ProPublica also revealed that Alito had taken a luxury vacation in Alaska with a Republican donor who had business interests before the court. The Associated Press reported in early July that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, aided by her staff, has advanced sales of her books through college visits over the past decade.
The 73-year-old Alito, who joined the court in 2006, has rejected the idea that he should have disclosed the Alaska trip or stepped away from cases involving the donor, hedge fund owner Paul Singer. Alito penned his own Wall Street Journal op-ed, which was published hours before ProPublica posted its story.
Alito said that he is unwilling to leave allegations unanswered, though he acknowledged judges and justices typically don’t respond to their critics.
“And so at a certain point I’ve said to myself, nobody else is going to do this, so I have to defend myself,” he said in the newest column.
While no other justice has spoken so definitively about ethics legislation, Roberts has raised questions about Congress’ authority to oversee the high court.
In his year-end report in 2011, Roberts wrote that the justices comply with legislation that requires annual financial disclosures and limits their outside earned income. “The Court has never addressed whether Congress may impose those requirements on the Supreme Court. The Justices nevertheless comply with those provisions,” Roberts wrote.
The justices have so far resisted adopting an ethics code on their own, although Roberts said in May that there is more the court can do to “adhere to the highest standards” of ethical conduct, without providing specifics.
The column is co-written by James Taranto, the paper’s editorial features editor, and David Rivkin, a Washington lawyer. Rivkin represents Leonard Leo, the onetime leader of the conservative legal group The Federalist Society, in his dealings with Senate Democrats who want details of Leo’s dealings with the justices. Leo helped arrange Alito’s trip to Alaska.
Rivkin, in a letter Tuesday to leading Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the request was politically motivated and violates Leo’s constitutional rights. Rivkin also wrote that a congressionally imposed ethics code for the Supreme Court would falter on constitutional grounds. Separately, Rivkin represents a couple whose tax case will be argued before the court in the fall.
Alito talked with the Taranto and Rivkin for four hours in interviews in April and July, they wrote. They published an account of the earlier interview in April. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-justice-alito-says-congress-lacks-the-power-to-impose-an-ethics-code-on-the-supreme-court/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:43 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-justice-alito-says-congress-lacks-the-power-to-impose-an-ethics-code-on-the-supreme-court/ |
Dickinson State starts trap shooting club
DICKINSON, N.D. (KQCD) - Starting this year students at Dickinson State University will be able to try their hand at trap shooting.
Trap shooting will be a club and school-sponsored sport at the school. Head coach Rus Kiser says he has five students already interested in the shooting experience.
Kiser says students will train and shoot matches at Dickinson Trap Club.
He adds that students will have to go through a full safety course before joining.
“You’re really competing against yourself most of all. If you have a mental breakdown or lose focus for a few minutes or a few seconds, your score is going to suffer and this sport teaches you to focus, be in the moment,” said Kiser.
Any full-time student can be part of the team and part-time students can join the club.
Copyright 2023 KFYR. All rights reserved. | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/28/dickinson-state-starts-trap-shooting-club/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:47 | 0 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/28/dickinson-state-starts-trap-shooting-club/ |
Federal investigators renewed their recommendation that major freight railroads equip every locomotive with the kind of autonomous sensors that could have caught the track flaws that caused a fatal 2021 Amtrak derailment in northern Montana.
But installing the sensors on the tens of thousands of locomotives in the fleet could be cost prohibitive, and it’s not entirely clear if one would have caught the combination of rail flaws that the National Transportation Safety Board said caused the crash near Joplin, Montana, that killed three people and injured 49 others. And rail unions caution that no technology should be a substitute for human inspectors.
The NTSB report laid blame in part on BNSF railroad, which owns the tracks, and “a shortcoming in its safety culture.” But it noted that even if track inspections had been more frequent, the severity of the problems may not have been noticed the day of the crash without devices and technology designed to enhance the inspections.
“It is unlikely that the track deviations would have been detected through the current track inspection process,” the board concluded in the report released Thursday. But “autonomous monitoring systems … have the ability to monitor track conditions and provide real-time condition monitoring that could be used for early identification and mitigation of unsafe track conditions.”
BNSF defends its safety record and said it already employs a number of the sensors that the NTSB is recommending. Spokeswoman Lena Kent said BNSF inspections meet all federal requirements, and the Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad is committed to timely maintenance, repair and replacement whenever issues or potential issues are detected.
But track problems have long been a safety concern for the NTSB, which can recommend but not mandate changes. In a 2021 report on the Joplin derailment, it attributed 592 U.S. derailments over a decade-long timespan to “track geometry,” which includes the distance between the rails and their horizontal and vertical alignment. Those issues were the second-leading cause of derailment in 2021.
Railroad safety expert Dave Clarke, the former director of University of Tennesse’s Center for Transportation Research, said it is important to remember that the NTSB doesn’t do any kind of cost-benefit analysis on its recommendations.
“If they think something is a good idea for safety they put it out there. In the real world there may be no way to economically or practically do everything NTSB recommends,” Clarke said.
Clarke said it’s also not clear that these sensors would have definitely caught the problems that caused the Montana derailment because none of the individual factors was severe enough to be considered a defect under Federal Railroad Administration rules. The NTSB said it was the combination of all those factors that caused the derailment.
The major freight railroads have more than 23,000 locomotives in their fleets, including thousands that have been put into storage in recent years as the railroads have overhauled their operations to rely more on longer trains that don’t need as many locomotives.
It would require a major investment to add detectors to every locomotive, although the Association of American Railroads trade group couldn’t immediately provide an estimate of how much each sensor costs. BNSF and the five other major U.S. freight railroads already spend roughly $23 billion every year on improving and maintaining their networks and investing in new equipment.
But attorney Jeff Goodman, who represented family members of the three passengers who died in the derailment, said he believes his clients would have lived if trains that had passed through the area before the Amtrak train had been equipped with these sensors.
Tracks will always bend or get out of sync because they’re exposed to the elements, but monitoring allows trains to know when to slow down and prevent accidents, he said.
“If the recommendations that the NTSB issued today were implemented prior to this tragedy, Zach Scheider and Don and Marjorie Varnadoe would all be alive today,” he said, naming the deceased family members of his clients.
Railroads have long resisted new regulations, Although there aren’t any rules requiring these automated inspection sensors or the thousands of trackside detectors they employ, railroads have spent millions developing the technology and installed them voluntarily to improve safety. But regulators are considering drafting rules for them in the wake of recent derailments.
An AAR trade group spokeswoman said that the type of sensors the NTSB singled out measure the force a locomotive exerts on the track and hasn’t proven as useful as other kinds of sensors railroads have developed.
“This technology has been difficult to maintain in real-world operations and lacks a strong correlation to track geometry defects,” Jessica Kahanek said.
Railroads are experimenting with a variety of technologies to find the best way to spot problems.
Another kind of autonomous sensor that can be installed on locomotives as well as the trucks inspectors use to ride along the rails can spot problems like misaligned track and wear on the rails by testing the track continuously.
Vehicle track interaction systems, like the ones the NTSB singled out, must be mounted on locomotives because they measure the force a train puts on the tracks.
Both kinds of sensors can help identify areas of concern for a human inspector to follow up on after computers analyze the data they generate. But the VTI sensors tend to be so sensitive that they flag areas where there aren’t true defects.
In the past, BNSF and other railroads have even petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration to get a waiver releasing them from some inspection requirements because they believe the track geometry sensors provide enough information that the frequency of human inspections can be safely reduced.
Federal officials approved a waiver allowing BNSF to reduce inspections on a couple of areas of its more than 30,000-mile (48,000-kilometer) network after the railroad successfully tested the devices for several years, but later declined to let the railroad expand that practice, including its tracks that cross Montana. BNSF took the FRA to court over that decision and the dispute is still pending.
Rail unions have opposed the waivers. They argue that while the new technology is helpful, it shouldn’t replace human inspections. Even with an interest in preserving jobs, they say safety is their primary concern.
Already, the unions say the widespread job cuts the major railroads have made — eliminating nearly one-third of all rail jobs over the past six years — have made it difficult for employees to keep up with inspection demands and meet all FRA requirements. The NTSB pointed out that the inspector responsible for the territory where the Montana derailment happened had worked an average of 13 hours a day in the four weeks prior to the crash.
Former NTSB director Bob Chipkevich, who spent years investigating rail crashes, said it often takes multiple derailments to force railroads to implement new safety technology.
One of the biggest recent advances in rail safety came after a commuter train collided head-on with a freight train near Los Angeles in 2008, killing 25 people and injuring more than 100. Congress mandated a $15 billion automatic braking system that stops trains when they’re in danger of colliding, derailing and other situations — but it took 12 years to complete.
“When there are safety issues that have been raised after multiple accidents that occurred again and again, the question is to the industry,” Chipkevich said. “Why haven’t you done it after all these years?”
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Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska, and Metz reported from Salt Lake City.
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Follow Josh Funk on Twitter at www.twitter.com/funkwrite | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-montana-train-derailment-report-renews-calls-for-automated-systems-to-detect-track-problems/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:49 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-montana-train-derailment-report-renews-calls-for-automated-systems-to-detect-track-problems/ |
Healthy snacking company That's it. aims to simplify back-to-school nutrition with curated shopping lists
LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The new school year is approaching, and with it, parents are preparing for the accompanying stress of the back-to-school season. Amongst the biggest stressors for parents of school-aged children? Managing after school activities (24%), followed by finding healthy snack options (23%) and packing lunches / food prep (20%)1.
With 43% of parents' top stressors coming in as nutrition-related, That's it. has partnered with childhood nutrition expert Rachel Rothman, MS, RD, CLEC to take the guesswork out of shopping for healthy back-to-school snacks by creating two curated snack shopping lists for Target and Walmart. (Seventy percent of parents indicated that they will do the majority of their back-to-school shopping at one of these two retail giants2.)
"The best part about these snacks is the variety of ingredients and nutrients," said Rothman. "They all contain key nutrients, and are made from whole foods, without the use of flavors or additives. These snacks are all shelf-stable and can be eaten as a quick, nutritious snack, or as part of a more diverse meal to keep your kids fed as the weather cools off and fall schedules heat back up."
Keep reading for Rothman's hand-selected healthy picks:
Target:
- That's it. Mango & Blueberry Mini Fruit Bars
- Whisps Cheese Crisps
- Chomps Snack Sticks
- Simple Mills Crackers
- Seapoint Farms Dry Roasted Edamame
Walmart:
- That's it. Apple + Strawberry Mini Fruit Bars
- Terra Sweet Potato Chips
- Kars Nuts Second Nature Wholesome Medley Trail Mix
- BOOMCHICKAPOP Sea Salt Popcorn
- Wild Planet Wild Albacore Tuna pouches
That's it. Mini Fruit Bars are made from two ingredients: Fruit + fruit. These shelf-stable Mini Fruit Bars contain no juices, purees, concentrates or added sugars, and are all-natural, gluten-free, non-GMO, and free from all top food allergens – making them the perfect back-to-school snack for the whole family.
About That's it.
That's it. makes delicious, convenient, plant-based super snacks from only the purest ingredients, and completely free from the top 12 allergens. Since 2012, it has been innovating the natural foods category in the United States with its portfolio of simple and nutritious snacks made from real, whole foods. All That's it. products transparently contain six real ingredients or less, and absolutely no natural or artificial flavors, sugar alcohols, or artificial colors. Its flagship Fruit Bars, now the #1 fruit bar in America, contain only two ingredients: fruit + fruit. You can find That's it. nationwide at your local Starbucks, at major retailers such as: Target, Whole Foods, Costco, Sam's Club, 7-Eleven, Walmart, VONS, CVS and Kroger, and online at Amazon and www.thatsitfruit.com. Learn more on Instagram and TikTok.
Media Contact:
Chief Marketing Officer
That's it.
1 About Suzy Survey:
The "Parents' Plates" study surveyed 1,000 parents of school-aged children in the U.S. in July 2023. Survey was conducted via real-time consumer insights platform Suzy.
2 About Suzy Survey:
The "Back-to-School" study surveyed 2,706 parents of school-aged children in the U.S. in June 2023. Survey was conducted via real-time consumer insights platform Suzy.
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SOURCE That’s it Nutrition | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/dietitians-top-walmart-target-picks-back-to-school-snacking/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:53 | 0 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/dietitians-top-walmart-target-picks-back-to-school-snacking/ |
FULTON, Mo. (AP) — At the entrance to Missouri prisons, large signs plead for help: “NOW HIRING” … “GREAT PAY & BENEFITS.”
No experience is necessary. Anyone 18 and older can apply. Long hours are guaranteed.
Though the assertion of “great pay” for prison guards would have seemed dubious in the past, a series of state pay raises prompted by widespread vacancies has finally made a difference. The Missouri Department of Corrections set a record for new applicants last month.
“After we got our raise, we started seeing people come out of the woodwork, people that hadn’t worked in a while,” said Maj. Albin Narvaez, chief of custody at the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center, where new prisoners are housed and evaluated.
Public employers across the U.S. have faced similar struggles to fill jobs, leading to one of the largest surges in state government pay raises in 15 years. Many cities, counties and school districts also are hiking wages to try to retain and attract workers amid aggressive competition from private sector employers.
The wage war comes as governments and taxpayers feel the consequences of empty positions.
In Kansas City, Missouri, a shortage of 911 operators doubled the average hold times for people calling in emergencies. In one Florida county, some schoolchildren frequently arrived late as a lack of bus drivers delayed routes. In Arkansas, abused and neglected kids remained longer in foster care because of a caseworker shortage. In various cities and states, vacancies on road crews meant cracks and potholes took longer to fix than many motorists might like.
“A lot of the jobs we’re talking about are hard jobs,” said Leslie Scott Parker, executive director of the National Association of State Personnel Executives.
Lingering vacancies “eventually affects service to the public or response times to needs,” she added.
Workforce shortages worsened across all sorts of jobs due to a wave of retirements and resignations that began during the pandemic. Many businesses, from restaurants to hospitals, responded nimbly with higher wages and incentives to attract employees. But governments by nature are slower to act, requiring pay raises to go through a legislative process that can take months to complete — and then can take months more to kick in.
Meanwhile, vacancies mounted.
In Georgia, state employee turnover hit a high of 25% in 2022. Thousands of workers left the Department of Corrections, pushing its vacancy rate to around 50%. The state began a series of pay raises. This year, all state employees and teachers got at least a $2,000 raise, with corrections officers getting $4,000 and state troopers $6,000.
The Georgia Department of Corrections used an ad agency to bolster recruitment and held an average of 125 job fairs a month. It’s starting to pay off. In the first week of July, the department received 318 correctional officer applications — nearly double the weekly norm, said department Public Affairs Director Joan Heath.
Almost 1 in 4 positions — more than 2,500 jobs — were empty in the Missouri Department of Corrections late last year, which was twice the pre-pandemic vacancy rate in 2019.
Missouri gave state workers a 7.5% pay raise in 2022. This spring, Gov. Mike Parson signed an emergency spending bill with an additional 8.7% raise, plus an extra $2 an hour for people working evening and night shifts at prisons, mental health facilities and other institutions. The vacancy rate for entry level corrections officers now is declining, and the average number of applications for all state positions is up 18% since the start of last year.
At the Fulton prison, where staff shortages have led to a standard 52-hour work week, newly hired employees can earn around $60,000 annually — an amount roughly equal to the state’s median household income. The prison also is proposing to provide free child care to correctional officers willing to work nights.
If prison staffing is too low, “it can get dangerous” for both inmates and guards, Narvaez said.
Public safety concerns also have arisen in Kansas City, where a country music fan attacked before a concert last month waited four minutes for a 911 call to be answered and an hour for an ambulance to arrive. About one-quarter of 911 call center positions are vacant — “a huge factor” in the longer wait times to answer calls, said Tamara Bazzle, assistant manager of the communications unit for the Kansas City Police Department.
In Biddeford, Maine, a 15-person roster of 911 dispatchers dipped to just eight employees in July as people quit a “pressure cooker job” for less stress or better pay elsewhere, Police Chief JoAnne Fisk said. The city is now offering fully certified dispatchers $41 an hour to help plug the gaps on a part-time basis — $10 an hour more than comparable new workers normally would earn.
This month, Biddeford also launched a $2,000 bonus for city employees who refer others who get jobs. That comes a year after Biddeford adopted a four-day work week with paid lunch periods to try to make jobs more appealing, said City Manager Jim Bennett.
To attract workers, other governments have dropped college degree requirements and spiced up drab job descriptions.
Nationally, the turnover rate in state and local governments is twice the average of the previous two decades, according federal labor statistics.
Uncompetitive wages were the most common reason for leaving cited in exit interviews, according to a survey of 249 state and local government human resource managers conducted by MissionSquare Research Institute, a Washington, D.C. -based nonprofit. The hardest positions to fill included police and corrections officers, doctors, nurses, engineers and jobs requiring commercial driver’s licenses.
Along Florida’s east coast, the Brevard County transit system and school district have been competing for bus drivers. On days when drivers are lacking, the transit system has cut the frequency of bus stops on some routes. The school system, meanwhile, has asked some bus drivers to run a second route after dropping children off at school, often resulting in the second busload arriving late.
Since 2022, the county has twice raised bus driver wages to a current rate of $17.47 an hour. The school board recently countered with a $5 increase to a minimum $20 an hour for the upcoming school year. The goal is to hire enough drivers to regularly get kids to class on time, said school system communications director Russell Bruhn.
In Arkansas, the goal is to get foster kids into permanent homes in less than a year. But during the first three months of this year, the state met that target for just 32% of foster children — well below the national standard of over 40%. More than one-fifth of the roughly 1,400 positions in the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services are vacant.
Many new employees leave in less than two years because of heavy caseloads and the “very difficult, emotionally tolling work,” Mischa Martin, the Department of Human Services’ deputy secretary of youth and families, told lawmakers last month.
“If we had a knowledgeable, experienced workforce,” she said, “they would be able to work cases in a better way to get kids home quicker.” | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-mounting-job-vacancies-push-state-and-local-governments-into-a-wage-war-for-workers/ | 2023-07-28T23:25:55 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-mounting-job-vacancies-push-state-and-local-governments-into-a-wage-war-for-workers/ |
Provides military services, DOD agencies with access to zero-trust technology
FORT MEADE, Md., July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Defense Information Systems Agency awarded a follow-on production other transaction authority (OTA) agreement for Thunderdome, DISA's zero trust network access and application security architecture.
Thunderdome will harden the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) networks and help warfighters defend against adversarial activity by employing network and resource access tools along with segmentation technologies. DISA's Thunderdome capabilities work in concert with identity and endpoint cybersecurity capabilities, and align to the president's Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity and the DoD's Zero Trust Strategy.
"Awarding this Thunderdome production agreement is an important step on our zero-trust journey and furthers DISA's mission to provide warfighters with a more secure operating environment," said Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert J. Skinner, DISA director and Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network Commander. "While DISA leverages these capabilities on our cyber terrain, this full-scale production agreement can be used to assist the military services and other DoD components in implementing key zero-trust activities."
This follow-on agreement to Booz Allen Hamilton is to broadly implement and operate Thunderdome's zero trust network access and application security architecture and comes after successful completion of an 18-month prototype. The period of performance for this follow-on OTA is for a one-year base period, with four one-year option periods for a total agreement lifecycle of five years (August 2023 through August 2028).
"The experience gained in partnership with industry as we implemented the prototype solution over the last 18 months has been invaluable, and we believe this award positions the department to meet critical zero trust adoption timelines in support of our warfighters" said Christopher Barnhurst, DISA deputy director. "We look forward to accelerating implementation activities and partnering across the department to expand access to the zero-trust capabilities Thunderdome provides."
For more information and pricing details, please contact DISA's Mission Partner Engagement Office.
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SOURCE Defense Information Systems Agency | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/disa-awards-thunderdome-production-agreement/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:00 | 0 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/disa-awards-thunderdome-production-agreement/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Carlos Reyes sought shade under a tree in the Bronx on a day that felt like it was over 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) because of the heat and humidity.
“It’s not like when you were younger, you were playing around,” said the 56-year-old who runs a daycare center. “Now it’s like you got the humidity. It makes you kind of not breathe the same way. So when you walk, you get a little more tired, a little more exhausted.”
Reyes was one of nearly 200 million people in the United States, or 60% of the U.S. population, under a heat advisory or flood warning or watch since Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
Dangerous heat engulfed much of the eastern half of the United States Friday as extreme temperatures spread from the Midwest into the Northeast and mid-Atlantic where some residents saw their hottest temperatures of the year.
Although much of the country does not cool much on normal summer nights, night temperatures are forecast to stay hotter than usual, prompting excessive heat warnings from the Plains to the East Coast.
From Thursday to Friday, the number of people under a heat advisory rose from 180 to 184 million and the number of people under a flood warning or watch dropped from 17 to 10 million.
Moisture moved into the Southwest, cooling somewhat the southernmost counties of California and parts of southern Arizona, but excessive heat warnings remain for much of the region.
On top of the heat, severe thunderstorms are forecast for multiple regions of the country. There are forecasts with flash flood warnings for Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, west to the Middle Missouri Valley through Saturday morning. There are severe thunderstorm warnings with a chance of quarter-sized hail Friday night for the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
Tornado watches are posted in Wisconsin and New Hampshire, in addition to the heat advisories and potential for severe storms.
The prediction for continued excessive heat comes as the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service declared July 2023 the hottest month on record this week.
Scientists have long warned that climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, by deforestation and by certain agricultural practices, will lead to more and prolonged bouts of extreme weather.
On Thursday, heat and humidity in major cities along the East Coast, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City, made it feel above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius). Forecasters expect several records may break Friday with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 to 8 degrees Celsius) above average.
The “dangerous” heat wave, as the National Weather Service called it, may begin to subside on Saturday as thunderstorms and a cold front from Canada progress through the region. It seems the hottest temperatures happened on Friday.
“By Sunday, the high temperature is going to be 86,” he said, “so that’s more typical weather you would expect in July.”
The Salvation Army in the Bronx was one of hundreds of cooling centers open in New York City to give people a respite from the scorching heat.
“It’s very hot every year. This year, it started last week, becoming very hot,” said Robert Ciriaco, a corps officer with The Salvation Army. “(It’s) very dangerous for people. Some people die. So that’s why we open to offer people (a place) to come to be comfortable.”
Philadelphia declared a heat health emergency as temperatures soared into the 90s, and city authorities opened cooling centers.
But some residents took the heat in stride. Alexander Roman, who brought his children to play in the fountain at the city’s iconic Love Park, said he is not worried about heat stroke as long as his family can cool down. “A lot of water with ice and it will be O.K,” he said.
In the Southwest and southern Plains, oppressive temperatures have been a blanket for weeks. One meteorologist based in New Mexico called the prolonged period of temperatures over 100 degrees (37.8 Celsius) unprecedented.
Due to the extreme heat, some of the nation’s large power grids and utilities are under stress, which could affect Americans’ ability to cool off.
In New York City, utility Con Edison sent out a text blast asking residents to be frugal with air conditioning to conserve electricity. Overtaxing an electrical grid can mean blackouts, which are not just an inconvenience, but can lead to equipment failures and major pollution as equipment restarts.
The country’s largest power grid, PJM Interconnection, declared a level one energy emergency alert for its 13-state grid on Wednesday, meaning the company had concerns about ability to provide enough electricity.
“PJM currently has enough generation to meet forecast demand, but operators continue to monitor the grid conditions for any changes,” said spokesperson Jeffrey Shields on Thursday.
PJM isn’t the only electrical grid to issue such an alert. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which mostly covers states in the Midwest and Northern Plains, issued a similar one Thursday.
The California Independent System Operator also issued an energy emergency alert for the evening on Wednesday, in part due to excess heat in Southern California, but that expired the same day. Anne Gonzales, a CAISO spokesperson, said they expect to be able to meet demand the next few days.
A spokesperson for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which covers most of Texas, said they expect their grid will operate per usual during this latest blast of extreme weather across the country.
The dangerous heat peaks in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, and Midwest Friday and Saturday before a cold front is expected to bring some relief Sunday and into next week.
Heat experts and environmental advocates said that these effects of the high temperatures will not be felt equally.
“The impacts of heat are highly inequitable,” said Ladd Keith, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona who studies heat policy and governance. He explained that people experiencing homelessness feel heat effects more than the housed, and low-income and communities of color are often hotter than more affluent and whiter neighborhoods.
“When we’re talking about how to keep people safe, we not only need to be thinking about the neighborhoods that are disproportionately warmer during these heat waves,” said Jeremy Hoffman, director of climate justice and impact at Groundwork USA, an environmental justice nonprofit. “But (also) the folks that can’t avoid being outside during these heat waves, people that rely on public transportation, people that work outside, and the extremely elderly that may be living in substandard housing without a lot of ventilation and air conditioning.”
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Follow Drew Costley on Twitter: @drewcostley.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-nearly-200-million-people-in-us-are-under-heat-flood-advisories/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:03 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-nearly-200-million-people-in-us-are-under-heat-flood-advisories/ |
LIMERICK, Ireland, July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NAC Aviation 29 Designated Activity Company (the "Company") today announced amendments to (i) its previously announced offer to purchase an amount up to the Tender Cap (as defined below) of its 4.75% Senior Secured Notes due June 30, 2026 (the "Notes") at a purchase price per $1,000 principal amount of Notes for cash (the "Notes Offer") as set forth in the Company's amended Offer to Purchase and dated July 28, 2023 (as amended hereby, the "Amended Offer to Purchase") and (ii) the concurrent purchase by way of assignment from lenders (the "TLB Lenders"), of loans (the "TLB Loans") under its term loan B credit agreement dated as of June 1, 2022 between, among others, the Company as a borrower, the financial institutions named therein as original lenders and Wilmington Trust (London) Limited as agent for the lenders (as amended from time to time, the "Term Loan B Credit Agreement" and, together with the Notes, the "NAC 29 Debt"), on substantially the same economic terms as the Notes Offer (the "TLB Offer" and, together with the Notes Offer, the "Debt Purchase Transactions"). The maximum aggregate amount (at face value) of NAC 29 Debt to be purchased by the Company pursuant to the Debt Purchase Transactions is $80,000,000 (the "Tender Cap").
The Company is hereby amending the Amended Offer to Purchase to (1) amend the Early Tender Premium component of the Total Consideration (both as defined in the Amended Offer to Purchase) from $30.00 to $10.00 per $1,000 principal amount for each $1,000 principal amount of Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase by the Company, plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding the settlement date; (2) extend the Early Tender Time and the Withdrawal Deadline (both as defined in the Amended Offer to Purchase) from 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 7, 2023 to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 10, 2023; and (3) a clarificatory change to the table on the second page of the Amended Offer to Purchase. These amendments apply to both the Notes Offer and the TLB Offer.
The change in the Early Tender Premium has been made to ensure compliance with the requirements as set out in Clause 4.3 of side letter no. 2 to the intercreditor agreement that was entered into by, among others, the Company on 18 July 2023.
No further action is required to be taken by holders who have already validly tendered and not validly withdrawn their NAC 29 Debt in order to receive the Total Consideration, including the amended Early Tender Premium. Except as described herein, other terms of the previously announced Debt Purchase Transactions remain unchanged.
The complete terms and conditions of the Notes Offer are described in the Amended Offer to Purchase, dated July 28, 2023, a copy of which may be obtained from Global Bondholder Services Corporation, the tender agent and information agent (the "Tender and Information Agent") for the Notes Offer, by telephone at +1 (855) 654-2014 (U.S. toll free) and +1 (212) 430-3774 (collect), in writing at 65 Broadway – Suite 404, New York, New York 10006, Attention: Corporate Actions.
The complete terms of the TLB Offer are described in the Amended Auction Notice dated July 28, 2023, a copy of which may be obtained from Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. as purchase agent (the "Purchase Agent") for the TLB Offer by telephone at +1 (855) 287-1922 (toll-free) or +1 (212) 250-7527 (collect), or in writing at One Columbus Circle, New York, New York 10019, Attention: Liability Management Group.
The Company has engaged Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. to act as the dealer manager (the "Dealer Manager") in connection with the Notes Offer and as Purchase Agent in connection with the TLB Offer. Questions regarding the terms of the Debt Purchase Transactions may be directed to the Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. by telephone at +1 (855) 287-1922 (toll-free) and +1 (212) 250-7527 (collect).
Cautionary Statement
None of the Company, the Dealer Manager, the Purchase Agent, the Tender and Information Agent or the trustee for the Notes, or any of their respective affiliates, is making any recommendation as to whether holders and/or lenders should or should not tender any NAC 29 Debt in response to the Debt Purchase Transactions or expressing any opinion as to whether the terms of the Debt Purchase Transactions are fair to any holder or lender. Holders and/or lenders must make their own decision as to whether to tender any of their NAC 29 Debt and, if so, the principal amount of NAC 29 Debt to tender and the bid price at which to tender. Holders of Notes should refer to the Amended Offer to Purchase for a description of the offer terms, conditions, disclaimers and other information applicable to the Notes Offer, and TLB Lenders should refer to the TLB Auction Notice for a description of the offer terms, conditions, disclaimers and other information applicable to the TLB Offer.
This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to purchase or the solicitation of an offer to sell any securities. The Notes Offer is being made solely by means of the Amended Offer to Purchase. The Debt Purchase Transactions are not being made to holders of securities in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities, blue sky or other laws of such jurisdiction. In those jurisdictions where the securities, blue sky or other laws require any Debt Purchase Transactions to be made by a licensed broker or dealer, the Debt Purchase Transactions will be deemed to be made on behalf of the Company by the Dealer Manager or Purchase Agent (as applicable) or one or more registered brokers or dealers licensed under the laws of such jurisdiction.
About Nordic Aviation Capital
NAC is a global leader in regional aircraft leasing and is expanding into larger narrowbody aircraft leveraging its world-class asset management platform. The firm is based in Ireland and currently has offices also in Singapore, Denmark, Toronto and Beijing.
Forward Looking Information Disclaimer
Some of the statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements include statements regarding the Company's intent and belief or current expectations and may be identified by the use of words like "anticipate", "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "will," "should," "seek," the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include, without limitation, the Company's ability to consummate the Debt Purchase Transactions, as well as matters beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, results or events.
Contacts:
Nordic Aviation Capital:
Media contact: marketing@nac.dk
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SOURCE NAC Aviation 29 Designated Activity Company | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/nac-aviation-29-designated-activity-company-announces-amendment-partial-notes-tender-offer-term-loan-b-offer/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:07 | 1 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/nac-aviation-29-designated-activity-company-announces-amendment-partial-notes-tender-offer-term-loan-b-offer/ |
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado police officer who put a handcuffed woman in a parked police vehicle that was hit by a freight train was found guilty of reckless endangerment and assault but was acquitted of a third charge of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter during a trial Friday.
Jordan Steinke was the first of two officers to go to trial over the Sept. 16, 2022, crash that left Yareni Rios-Gonzalez seriously injured.
Steinke testified that she did not know that the patrol car of another officer she was helping was parked on the tracks even though they can be seen on her body camera footage along with two railroad crossing signs. Steinke said she was focused on the threat that could come from Rios-Gonzalez and her pickup truck, not the ground.
Steinke said she put Rios-Gonzalez in the other officer’s vehicle because it was the nearest spot to temporarily hold her. She said she didn’t know the train was coming until just before it hit.
There was no jury in Steinke’s trial, which started Monday. Instead, Judge Timothy Kerns listened to the evidence and issued the verdict. Mallory Revel, Steinke’s attorney, didn’t immediately respond to requests by phone and email for comment.
Steinke, who was working for the Fort Lupton Police Department at the time of the crash, was charged with criminal attempt to commit manslaughter, a felony; and reckless endangerment and third-degree assault, both misdemeanors.
The other officer, Pablo Vazquez, who worked for the police department in nearby Platteville, is being prosecuted for misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and traffic offenses. He hasn’t entered a plea yet. His lawyer, Reid Elkus, didn’t immediately respond to a request by phone for comment.
Vazquez pulled over Rios-Gonzalez on a rural road that intersects U.S. Highway 85 after she was accused of pointing a gun at another driver. Trains pass on tracks that parallel the highway about a dozen times a day, prosecutors said, and the sound of their horns is common in the area north of Denver.
Rios-Gonzalez, who suffered a traumatic brain injury, is suing over her treatment. She later pleaded no contest to misdemeanor menacing, said one of her lawyers, Chris Ponce, who was in court to watch the trial. Rios-Gonzalez did not testify or attend herself.
Steinke said she placed Rios-Gonzalez in the other police car temporarily because it was the nearest place to keep her secure, a move that is standard practice for high-risk traffic stops, said defense expert witness Steve Ijames. He also testified that in dangerous situations officers can become hyperfocused on particular threats and overlook things that turn out to be important in hindsight.
Steinke, who drove at around 100 mph (161 kph) at times on her way to backup Vazquez, testified that she was surprised to see him sitting in his vehicle when she arrived, rather than pointing a gun at Rios-Gonzalez’s truck. She said she quickly parked her patrol vehicle behind his and got out because it was the quickest way “to get a gun in the fight.”
Steinke also said she did not notice the tracks or the ground when she squatted down to arrest a kneeling Rios-Gonzalez along the tracks after the suspect was ordered out of her pickup truck.
When pressed by Deputy District Attorney Christopher Jewkes, Steinke replied, “I am sure I saw the tracks sir, but I did not perceive them.” She said she was focused on the suspect and the potential threat she posed and was “fairly certain” that the traffic stop would end in gunfire.
“I never in a million years thought a train was going to come plowing through my scene,” Steinke said.
The Weld County District Attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request by phone for comment.
___
This story has been updated to correct that the officer was acquitted of the charge of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter, not manslaughter. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-officer-who-put-suspect-in-car-hit-by-train-found-guilty-of-reckless-endangerment/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:09 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-officer-who-put-suspect-in-car-hit-by-train-found-guilty-of-reckless-endangerment/ |
NEW YORK, July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Official Committee of Talc Claimants (the "Committee"), which has been tirelessly pursuing justice for its constituency of talc victims' injury by Johnson & Johnson's ("J&J's") talc products, is pleased with the court's decision to dismiss the second bankruptcy attempt. We believe the decision of the Honorable Chief Judge Kaplan was thoughtful, well-reasoned, and well-supported by the facts and law. This outcome now frees tens of thousands of victims to seek their justice through the tort system either before juries of their peers or by settlement on terms acceptable to them. The Committee has consistently contended the tort system is the rightful place for these claims to be resolved. Today's ruling validates the Committee's belief that J&J manipulated the bankruptcy system by using the "Texas Two-Step" legal maneuver and wrongfully sought to manufacture financial distress in its "Legacy Talc Liabilities" (LTL) Management subsidiary, solely to carry out a bad faith bankruptcy case. The company will now face the full weight of its conduct in the appropriate judicial forums.
"This ruling sends a clear message: multibillion-dollar, wholly solvent companies like J&J should not be allowed to use and in fact abuse bankruptcy laws to avoid accountability," said Brown Rudnick's David Molton, one of the co-counsels representing the Committee. "We are reassured by the Bankruptcy Court's reaffirmation that it will not allow solvent corporations to abuse the system and impose coercive, low-value and cram-down solutions on nonconsenting claimants. Justice should and now will triumph over corporate greed and legal chicanery."
"The claimants have waited long enough. Untold numbers of cancer victims have died while Johnson & Johnson attempted to manipulate the bankruptcy system to limit its liabilities," added Molton. "Now victims and their families can seek justice through the tort system – by presenting their case before a jury of their peers in courts of their own choosing."
The TCC filed its motion to dismiss on April 24, 2023, alongside several other movants, including the Office of the United States Trustee, numerous State Attorneys General, and other plaintiff groups, who shared a vision for this outcome. Chief Judge Kaplan's Opinion can be viewed on the case docket, available at: https://document.epiq11.com/document/getdocumentbycode?docId=4202926&projectCode=LCN&source=DM
About The Official Committee of Talc Claimants
The Official Committee of Talc Claimants (TCC), appointed by the Office of the United States Trustee (UST), an arm of the US Department of Justice, represents and acts as a fiduciary for all mesothelioma and ovarian cancer victims, as well as all subrogation claimants who have claims based on or derivative to the victims' talcum powder claims. For more information about the TCC, please view our website at https://www.ltltalccommittee.org/
The TCC is advised by counsel, an investment banker, a financial advisor, and claims estimation experts well-versed in mass tort, asbestos, talc, bankruptcy, and victim advocacy. These entities include Genova Burns L.L.C., Brown Rudnick L.L.P., Otterbourg PC, Massey & Gail L.L.P., Miller Thomson L.L.P., MoloLamken L.L.P., Compass Lexecon, FTI Consulting, and Houlihan Lokey.
Media Contact
questions@ltltalccommittee.org
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SOURCE Official Committee of Talc Claimants | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/official-committee-talc-claimants-applauds-decision-dismiss-ltl-management-second-bankruptcy-attempt/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:13 | 1 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/official-committee-talc-claimants-applauds-decision-dismiss-ltl-management-second-bankruptcy-attempt/ |
JEFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The nation’s top health official implored states to do more to keep lower-income residents enrolled in Medicaid, as the Biden administration released figures Friday confirming that many who had health coverage during the coronavirus pandemic are now losing it.
Though a decline in Medicaid coverage was expected, health officials are raising concerns about the large numbers of people being dropped from the rolls for failing to return forms or follow procedures.
In 18 states that began a post-pandemic review of their Medicaid rolls in April, health coverage was continued for about 1 million recipients and terminated for 715,000. Of those dropped, 4 in 5 were for procedural reasons, according to newly released data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra sent a letter Friday to all governors encouraging them to bolster efforts to retain people on Medicaid. He particularly encouraged them to use electronic information from other federal programs, such as food stamps, to automatically confirm people’s eligibility for Medicaid. That would avert the need to mail and return documents.
“I am deeply concerned about high rates of procedural terminations due to ‘red tape’ and other paperwork issues,” Becerra told governors.
During the pandemic, states were prohibited from ending people’s Medicaid coverage. As a result, Medicaid enrollment swelled by nearly one-third, from 71 million people in February 2020 to 93 million in February 2023. The prohibition on trimming rolls ended in April, and states now have resumed annual eligibility redeterminations that had been required before the pandemic.
The new federal data captures only the first month of state Medicaid reviews from states that acted the most expeditiously. Since then, additional states also have submitted reports on those renewed and dropped from Medicaid in May and June.
Though the federal government hasn’t released data from the most recent reports, information gathered by The Associated Press and health care advocacy groups show that about 3.7 million people already have lost Medicaid coverage. That includes about 500,000 in Texas, around 400,000 in Florida and 225,000 in California. Of those who lost coverage, 89% were for procedural reasons in California, 81% in Texas and 59% in Florida, according to the AP’s data.
Many of those people may have still been eligible for Medicaid, “but they’re caught in a bureaucratic nightmare of confusing forms, notices sent to wrong addresses and other errors,” said Michelle Levander, founding director of the Center for Health Journalism at the University of Southern California,
Top CMS officials said they have worked with several states to pause Medicaid removals and improve procedures for determining eligibility.
South Carolina, for example, reported renewing Medicaid coverage for about 27,000 people in May while removing 118,000. Of those dropped, 95% were for procedural reasons. In a recent report to the federal government, South Carolina said it removed no one from Medicaid in June because it extended the eligibility renewal deadline from 60 days to 90 days.
Michigan reported renewing more than 103,000 Medicaid recipients in June and removing just 12,000. It told the federal government that the state opted to delay terminations for those who failed to respond to renewal requests while instead making additional outreach attempts. As a result, the state reported more than 100,000 people whose June eligibility cases remained incomplete.
People who are dropped from Medicaid can regain coverage retroactively if they submit information within 90 days proving their eligibility. But some advocacy groups say that still poses a challenge.
“State government is not necessarily nimble,” said Keesa Smith, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. “When individuals are being disenrolled, the biggest concern … is that there is not a fast track to get those individuals back on the rolls.”
Arkansas officials have been at the forefront of defending Medicaid cuts. They contend that many people likely don’t return forms because they no longer need Medicaid.
People are “transitioning off of Medicaid” because “they are working, making more money, and have access to health care through their employers or the federal marketplace,” Arkansas Medicaid Director Janet Mann said earlier this month. “This should be celebrated, not criticized.”
Insurance companies that run Medicaid programs for states said they are trying to reduce procedural terminations and enroll people in new plans.
The Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer Elevance Health lost 130,000 Medicaid customers during the recently completed second quarter, as Medicaid eligibility redeterminations began. Chief Financial Officer John Gallina said earlier this month that many people lost Medicaid coverage for administrative reasons but are likely to reenroll in the near future.
Leaders of the insurer Molina Healthcare told analysts Thursday that the company lost about 93,000 Medicaid customers in the recently completed second quarter, mostly due to eligibility redeterminations. Molina officials said they are trying to switch people who no longer qualify for Medicaid to one of the individual insurance plans they sell through state-based marketplaces.
Federal data for April indicates that some states did a better job than others at handling a crush of questions from people about their Medicaid coverage.
In 19 states and the District of Columbia, the average Medicaid call center wait time was 1 minute or less in April. But in Idaho, the average caller to the state’s Medicaid help line waited 51 minutes. In Missouri, the average wait was 44 minutes, and in Florida 40 minutes.
___
Associated Press writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-paperwork-problems-drive-surge-in-people-losing-medicaid-health-coverage/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:15 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-paperwork-problems-drive-surge-in-people-losing-medicaid-health-coverage/ |
LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA, July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In an unprecedented collaborative endeavor, Slovenia's Ministry of Environment, Climate and Energy, in partnership with Global Footprint Network, announces a critical date for the planet: this year's Earth Overshoot Day lands on August 2nd.
The date, calculated by Global Footprint Network each year using National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, marks when humanity's demand for biological resources exceeds the Earth's capacity to regenerate them within that year. To spotlight this issue, the Ministry and Global Footprint Network are organizing a high-level event on August 1st, held in Ljubljana and online, to discuss the implications of overshoot. The high-level event enjoys support from key figures including President of the Republic of Slovenia Nataša Pirc Musar, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28 and IUCN President Razan Al Mubarak, and Co-Chair of the International Resource Panel at UNEP Dr. Janez Potočnik.
"Slovenia, as the first EU country, joins the ranks of countries such as Ecuador, Japan, the Philippines, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates, leveraging Ecological Footprint data and officially endorsing the metric as a useful tool to steer environmental policy," affirms Bojan Kumer, Slovenia's Minister of the Environment, Climate and Energy. He further elucidates that efforts to reduce Slovenia's Ecological Footprint by 20% by 2030 will spur greater opportunities for the country amid a future marked by climate change and resource constraints.
Razan Al Mubarak notes the Ecological Footprint's utility, "With this metric in hand, any country, region, city, or company can assess its current standing and determine how it can contribute to postponing this date (Earth Overshoot Day)." It provides valuable insights for forward-thinking strategies that address resource security and enable the transition towards a sustainable economy.
Earth Overshoot Day coincides with the European Parliament's recent vote on the Nature Restoration Law. The persistence of overshoot has led to land and soil degradation, fish stock depletion, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas accumulation. These symptoms are becoming more prominent every day across the planet, with unusual heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods, exacerbating the competition for food and energy.
"The biggest risk, apart from ecological overshoot itself, lies in complacency towards this crisis. Entities that act now are not just safeguarding the environment but future-proofing their economy and the wellbeing of their residents," underlines Steven Tebbe, CEO of Global Footprint Network.
Contacts
Watch event https://video.sta.si/
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SOURCE Republic of Slovenia Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/slovenias-ministry-environment-climate-energy-global-footprint-network-host-high-level-event-mark-earth-overshoot-day-2023/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:19 | 1 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/slovenias-ministry-environment-climate-energy-global-footprint-network-host-high-level-event-mark-earth-overshoot-day-2023/ |
The rapper G Herbo pleaded guilty Friday to his role in a scheme that used stolen credit card information to pay for a lavish lifestyle including private jets, exotic car rentals, a luxury vacation rental and even expensive designer puppies.
Under a deal with prosecutors, the 27-year-old Chicago rapper, whose real name is Herbert Wright III, entered a guilty plea in federal court in Springfield, Massachusetts, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making false statements. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed several counts of aggravated identity theft.
He also agreed to forfeit nearly $140,000, the amount he benefited from what prosecutors have said was a $1.5 million scheme that involved several other people.
“Mr. Wright used stolen account information as his very own unlimited funding source, using victims’ payment cards to finance an extravagant lifestyle and advance his career,” acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement.
Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 7, and he faces a maximum of 25 years in prison. A voicemail seeking comment was left with his attorney.
From at least March 2017 until November 2018, G Herbo and his promoter, Antonio Strong, used text messages, social media messages and emails to share account information taken from dark websites, authorities said.
On one occasion, the stolen account information was used to pay for a chartered jet to fly the rapper and members of his entourage from Chicago to Austin, Texas, authorities said. On another, a stolen account was used to pay nearly $15,000 for Wright and seven others to stay several days in a six-bedroom Jamaican villa.
In court documents, prosecutors said G Herbo “used the proceeds of these frauds to travel to various concert venues and to advance his career by posting photographs and/or videos of himself on the private jets, in the exotic cars, and at the Jamaican villa.”
G Herbo also helped Strong order two designer Yorkshire terrier puppies from a Michigan pet shop using a stolen credit card and a fake Washington state driver’s license, according to the indictment. The total cost was more than $10,000, prosecutors said.
When the pet shop’s owner asked to confirm the purchase with G Herbo, Strong directed her to do so through an Instagram message, and G Herbo confirmed he was buying the puppies, authorities said.
Because the stolen credit card information was authentic, the transactions went through and it wasn’t until later that the real credit card holders noticed and reported the fraud.
G Herbo was also charged in May 2021 with lying to investigators by denying that he had any ties to Strong when in fact the two had worked together since at least 2016, prosecutors said.
Strong has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
G Herbo’s music is centered on his experiences growing up on the East Side of Chicago in a neighborhood dubbed Terror Town, including gang and gun violence.
He released his debut mix tapes “Welcome to Fazoland” and “Pistol P Project” in 2014, both named for friends who had been killed in the city. His first album was 2017’s “Humble Beast,” and his latest is “Survivor’s Remorse,” released last year.
His 2020 album “PTSD” debuted at number 7 on the Billboard 200.
G Herbo also started a program in Chicago called Swervin’ Through Stress, aimed at giving urban youths tools to navigate mental health crises, after publicly acknowledging his own struggle with PTSD. In 2021 he was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 music list. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-rapper-g-herbo-pleads-guilty-in-credit-card-fraud-that-paid-for-private-jets-and-designer-puppies/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:21 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-rapper-g-herbo-pleads-guilty-in-credit-card-fraud-that-paid-for-private-jets-and-designer-puppies/ |
Tampa General is recognized nationally in the top 100 of the Best Employers for Women list and ranks #1 among Best Employers for Women in Florida in the Healthcare and Social category.
TAMPA, Fla., July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tampa General Hospital has been named one of America's Best Employers for Women by Forbes for 2023, ranking in the top 100 of organizations nationally and as the Best Employer for Women in Florida in the Healthcare and Social category. The academic health system is also ranked #3 overall in the state. Tampa General has been included on Forbes America's Best Employers for Women list every year since 2020.
"The health and well-being of our team at Tampa General is our top priority and critical to our success as an organization as well as our ability to provide the highest level of care to our community and beyond. We continue to nurture a human-centered culture that both empowers everyone to be their whole, authentic selves at work and ensures every individual feels seen, heard and valued," said John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital. "As an academic health system, we are committed to prioritizing not only the personal and professional development of all team members through education opportunities, but we also work to ensure that they have all the support they need."
Forbes partnered with the market research company Statista to identify organizations committed to the advancement of women in and out of the workplace. More than 60,000 American employees were surveyed, including 40,000 women working for companies employing at least 1,000 people within the United States. Survey responses were evaluated against various criteria, including atmosphere and development, image, working conditions, workplace, diversity, family support, flexibility, representation and pay equity.
Tampa General routinely gauges the needs of team members through annual evaluations conducted by a third-party professional survey company.
"When we talk about providing world-class care at Tampa General, that includes taking care of our team members as well as our community," said Qualenta Kivett, executive vice president and chief people and talent officer at Tampa General Hospital. "To make this a reality, our academic health system embodies a culture of belonging and fairness. Our steadfast commitment to our team members' growth and well-being is essential to recruiting and retaining high-quality and diverse talent, which results in better experiences and outcomes for the patients we serve."
Aligning with Tampa General's culture focused on helping all team members thrive personally and professionally, the academic health system has developed and continues to introduce new programs and initiatives that provide support to women team members such as:
- Flexibility: Tampa General offers a competitive time-off policy as well as remote working options and flexibility for part-time positions. Over the past two years, the academic health system's team members have increasingly expressed a desire for part-time work schedules and those have been accommodated through offering seasonal contracts and part-time opportunities, where possible.
- Growth and Development: In addition to competitive tuition reimbursement, skills reimbursement and scholarships, Tampa General also offers free access to career, leadership and personal development through courses in Organizational Development, such as Crucial Conversations. Through clinical and non-clinical ladders, the academic health system also offers structured systems to advance career development while the team member remains in a current position.
- Health, Wellness and Benefits: Along with competitive medical benefits, team members receive access to wellness activities and fitness tracking through a free app, an on-site gym and online classes through the TGH Fitness Center. The academic health system also provides free access to virtual behavioral health support that provides access to a trained mental health counselor within 72 hours. It is also available to dependents with TGH insurance. Additionally, there is a team member lounge in the hospital that includes massage chairs to allow team members to decompress.
- Family Support: An on-site daycare center provides families with an education and development curriculum for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years. Understanding that family support looks different for every team member, through the TGH Foundation, the academic health system offers an annual school supply giveaway, which includes computers and an emergency fund to support team members in crisis. Other support includes gas cards to team members when gas prices skyrocketed, as well as grants to help team members rebuild their homes after sustaining hurricane damage. Tampa General offers a generous maternity leave package. All team members who give birth are guaranteed 12 weeks of job-protected leave post-delivery, regardless of whether they qualify for Family Medical Leave (FMLA) or have exhausted their FMLA entitlement for the year. In addition, Tampa General provides several options to team members needing financial assistance, including ATO leave sharing and short-term disability. TGH also provides a supportive environment to enable breastfeeding team members to express milk during work hours. Private lactation rooms or designated nursing space is available throughout the hospital and every TGH location.
- People Development Institute: Tampa General has invested heavily in the continued education and professional development of all team members with programs such as its People Development Institute (PDI), which offers classes through a partnership with the University of South Florida (USF) Muma College of Business at no charge. Among the program's most impactful success stories are those of women who have leveraged PDI offerings to broaden their career horizons. One example is Stephanie Jackson, who started as a parking attendant at Tampa General and pursued advanced degrees and PDI courses to become a director for the academic health system.
- AKTiVe Leadership Initiative: Through the PDI program, the AKTiVe Leadership Initiative involves all TGH leaders in their leadership development. The AKTiVe Leadership Model embodies four qualities of leaders: Authenticity, Kindness, Transparency and Vulnerability. When enacted through the behaviors of leaders, these qualities create a positive environment for leaders, team members and patients.
- LEAD TGH: LEAD (Leadership, Enrichment and Development) TGH provides a platform for emerging leaders to share ideas, overcome challenges and foster personal and professional development. The free program spans 12 months and creates career pathways while identifying future leaders.
- Modern Advances in Leadership: Facilitated through the University of Tampa's Sykes College of Business, the series provides transformative and interactive learning experiences to advance the skills of current and future leaders.
Inclusion on the Forbes America's Best Employers for Women list is the latest among several high-profile recognitions for Tampa General for its supportive work environment:
- Forbes' Best Employers for New Graduates (Top 20) – May 2023
- Becker's Hospital Review's 150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare – April 2023
- Glassdoor's Employee's Choice Award – January 2023
- Newsweek's America's Greatest Workplaces for Diversity – January 2023
- Forbes' America's Best Employers by State (Top 10 Employer in Florida) – August 2022
ABOUT FORBES
Forbes champions success by celebrating those who have made it, and those who aspire to make it. Forbes convenes and curates the most influential leaders and entrepreneurs who are driving change, transforming business and making a significant impact on the world. The Forbes brand today reaches more than 140 million people worldwide through its trusted journalism, signature LIVE and Forbes Virtual events, custom marketing programs and 32 licensed local editions in 71 countries. Forbes Media's brand extensions include real estate, education and financial services license agreements. For more information, visit the Forbes News Hub or Forbes Connect.
ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL
Tampa General Hospital, a 1,040-bed, not-for-profit, academic health system, is one of the largest hospitals in America and delivers world-class care as the region's only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care. Tampa General Hospital is the highest-ranked hospital in the market in U.S. News & World Report's 2022-23 Best Hospitals, and is tied as the third highest-ranked hospital in Florida, with seven specialties ranking among the best programs in the United States. Tampa General Hospital has been designated as a model of excellence by the 2022 Fortune/Merative 100 Top Hospitals list. The academic health system's commitment to growing and developing its team members is recognized by two prestigious Forbes magazine rankings – in the top 100 nationally in the 2023 America's Best Employers for Women and sixth out of 100 Florida companies in the 2022 America's Best Employers by State. Tampa General is the safety net hospital in the region, caring for everyone regardless of their ability to pay, and in fiscal year 2021, provided a net community benefit worth more than $224.5 million in the form of health care for underinsured patients, community education, and financial support to community health organizations in Tampa Bay. It is one of the nation's busiest adult solid organ transplant centers and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With six medical helicopters, Tampa General Hospital transports critically injured or ill patients from 23 surrounding counties to receive the advanced care they need. Tampa General houses a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center, and its 32-bed Neuroscience, Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It also is home to the Jennifer Leigh Muma 82-bed neonatal intensive care unit, and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General Hospital's footprint includes 17 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices, TGH Family Care Center Kennedy, TGH Brandon Healthplex, TGH Virtual Health, and 21 TGH Imaging powered by Tower outpatient radiology centers throughout Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Palm Beach counties. Tampa Bay area residents also receive world-class care from the TGH Urgent Care powered by Fast Track network of clinics. To see a medical care professional live anytime, anywhere on a smartphone, tablet or computer, visit Virtual Health | Tampa General Hospital (tgh.org). As one of the largest hospitals in the country, Tampa General Hospital is the first in Florida to partner with GE Healthcare and open a clinical command center that provides real-time situational awareness to improve and better coordinate patient care at a lower cost. For more information, go to www.tgh.org.
Media Contact: Beth Hardy, APR
Senior Communications Specialist
(727) 510-6363 (cell)
ehardy@tgh.org
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SOURCE Tampa General Hospital | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/tampa-general-hospital-named-one-americas-best-employers-women-2023-by-forbes/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:26 | 0 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/tampa-general-hospital-named-one-americas-best-employers-women-2023-by-forbes/ |
HILLSBORO, Ore. — The teenage boy accused of killing a Beaverton girl in May of last year will be tried as an adult instead of as a juvenile, a Washington County judge decided on Friday.
Daniel Gore, now 17, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with 13-year-old Milana Li's death a few weeks after her body was found in Westside Linear Park.
Li was a sixth grader at Conestoga Middle School in Beaverton. Her family reported her missing on May 8, 2022, after she was last seen at the family's Murray Hill apartment the night before. Someone located her body in a small stream at the park a day later.
Investigators quickly concluded that Li's death was a homicide, finding evidence that she'd been sexually abused and strangled to death. Police arrested Daniel Ryan Gore, then 16, a little over a week later.
Gore already had a criminal history in the juvenile system, and had been placed on probation just a few months prior to Li's death due to an unrelated theft case. The Washington County District Attorney's office recommended that he be held in a detention center, but he was instead released to his family in Salem on the recommendation of the Washington County Juvenile Department.
The teenager later ran away from home, and his father emailed the Juvenile Department on April 4 to report that Gore was likely staying in Beaverton. The Juvenile Department did not notify the District Attorney's office or Beaverton Police, the Oregonian reported at the time.
After his arrest in May, Gore was charged with first-degree murder in the case, but remained in the juvenile court system pending trial.
During a hearing in Washington County on Friday, Judge Erik Bucher said that Gore was "sufficiently mature" to understand his actions, and keeping Gore in the juvenile system is not in the teenager's best interest or that of the community.
Due to the decision to try Gore as an adult, he now faces a potential 30-year prison sentence instead of a term in juvenile custody of closer to eight years.
Milana Li's grandmother, Lidiya Li, said that the family was hoping for this outcome, one they believe is necessary to protect other girls in the future.
“If he can plan, he can know what he’s doing ... so of course he has to go to adult, (be) charged as adult,” Lidiya Li said. “My granddaughter is gone, she’s not with us anymore here, so I don’t want him to hurt other people.”
Since Oregon passed reforms on its juvenile justice system in 2019, it has been rare for a judge to determine that minors between 15 and 17 years old charged with serious crimes should be tried as adults. It's happened only a handful of times, according to Justice Department data. Gore's case now becomes one of the few exceptions.
Judge Bucher said he wrote a 54-page report on his decision to try Gore as an adult, but it is only being released to the involved lawyers and the victim's family at this time. Gore will soon be indicted in circuit court. | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/milana-li-murder-teenage-suspect-tried-adult/283-100536f3-a008-49b5-b04c-a6b595848083 | 2023-07-28T23:26:27 | 1 | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/milana-li-murder-teenage-suspect-tried-adult/283-100536f3-a008-49b5-b04c-a6b595848083 |
A New York man who stole a badge and radio from a police officer brutally beaten by other rioters during the attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Friday to more than four years in prison.
Thomas Sibick, of Buffalo, pleaded guilty in March for his role in the attack on Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who has described fighting for his life to defend the Capitol as lawmakers inside fled from the angry mob on Jan. 6, 2021.
In a letter to the judge, Sibick, 37, called the trauma Fanone experienced “undeniably sickening” and said he takes full responsibility for his “uncivilized display of reckless behavior.”
“It was an attack on the institutions of our democracy and not as some would make you believe legitimate political discourse. The attack was far from peaceful, my actions played a role that will follow me for the rest of my life,” Sibick wrote.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 50 months in prison during a hearing in Washington’s federal court.
Sibick’s attorney Stephen Brennwald did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Following his arrest, Sibick spent eight months behind bars but was released on home confinement in October 2021 after his lawyer pressed the judge to free him while his case played out.
Sibick’s attorney had asked for a sentence of home confinement, writing in court papers that a mental health misdiagnosis resulted in his client taking medication on Jan. 6 that “severely and negatively impacted him.” Sibick’s attorney said, unlike other rioters, his client did not physically assault Fanone, and their interaction was limited to Sibick grabbing Fanone’s radio and badge.
“Mr. Sibick has made a remarkable change in his life since he received his correct mental health diagnosis and has begun cognitive behavioral therapy,” Brennwald wrote. “Because he sees January 6 for what it was, he is not a threat to re-offend in the future.”
Rioters kicked, punched, grabbed and shocked Fanone with a stun gun after pulling him away from other officers who were guarding a tunnel entrance on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. Another rioter threatened to take Fanone’s gun and kill him. Fanone said the attack gave him a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury and ultimately cost him his career.
Fanone’s body camera captured Sibick removing the officer’s badge and radio from his tactical vest, according to a court filing accompanying his guilty plea.
Others in the crowd escorted Fanone back to the police line. Before FBI agents showed Sibick the body camera video, he initially claimed that he tried in vain to pull the officer away from his attackers.
Sibick said he buried Fanone’s badge in his backyard after returning home to Buffalo. He returned the badge, but Fanone’s $5,500 radio hasn’t been recovered.
Other rioters have been charged with attacking Fanone, who lost consciousness and was taken to an emergency room.
Albuquerque Cosper Head, a Tennessee man who dragged Fanone into the crowd, was sentenced in October 2022 to seven years and six months in prison. Another man, Daniel Rodriguez of California, was sentenced last month to more than 12 years in prison for driving a stun gun into Fanone’s neck as the officer screamed out in pain. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-rioter-who-stole-badge-radio-from-beaten-officer-on-jan-6-gets-more-than-4-years-in-prison/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:27 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-rioter-who-stole-badge-radio-from-beaten-officer-on-jan-6-gets-more-than-4-years-in-prison/ |
PORTLAND, Oregon — Deputies with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office seized the largest amount of fentanyl in the agency's history this week following a months-long investigation, according to the sheriff's office.
On July 25, deputies with the Special Investigations Unit saw a "wanted person" near Southwest 20th Avenue and Southwest Main Street walk to a vehicle. In a news release, the sheriff's office didn't provide any details elaborating on why the person was "wanted," but said that the deputies took them into custody.
The deputies obtained a search warrant for the person's vehicle and apartment. They found gallon-sized plastic bags filled with around 58,000 fentanyl pills and 16 pounds of fentanyl powder, the sheriff's office said. The agency estimates that 10 of the 16 pounds of fentanyl powder would have amounted to around 50,000 pills. Deputies believe the remaining six pounds would have remained in powder form, according to the sheriff's office. In total, the sheriff's office estimates that the deputies seized the equivalent of about 138,000 pills with an estimated value between $320,000 to $400,000.
The deputies also found scales, a manual-operated pill press and a commercial grade pill press.
The name of the person the deputies served search warrants to hasn't been released yet due to "investigative reasons," the sheriff's office said.
In 2022, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office seized 92,000 fentanyl pills and other drugs during a traffic stop in Clackamas County. That was the agency's second-largest illegal fentanyl seizure ever.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid drug approved for treating severe pain, most often for advanced cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, in recent years, there has been a major increase in the number of fake pills containing a lethal dose of fentanyl, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reports. Six out of 10 DEA-tested pills with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose. | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/multnomah-county-sheriffs-office-fentanyl-seized/283-e7bb5948-75a4-43ce-a004-dc70a53dbe70 | 2023-07-28T23:26:33 | 0 | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/multnomah-county-sheriffs-office-fentanyl-seized/283-e7bb5948-75a4-43ce-a004-dc70a53dbe70 |
More Than 1,175 Higher Education Workers Gain Teamster Representation
OAKLAND, Calif., July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Workers at the University of California (UC) have joined Teamsters Local 2010. The 1,175 newest members of Local 2010 in Oakland will now bargain for higher pay, reduced benefit costs, overtime pay, job security, and respect in the workplace.
"It's great to be represented again! I feel secure knowing someone is fighting for us to receive better pay and protect our rights," said Azalia Maldonado, a facilities management specialist at UC Berkeley.
"I'm so happy to be a Teamster again!" said Michelle Belden, a research administrator at UC Davis who was Teamster Shop Steward in her previous job of Blank Assistant 4 in the CX Unit. "There is power in our solidarity."
"I am excited to be a part of a strong union that advocates for members' rights and interests," said Patricia Passalacqua, an ambulatory care administration coordinator at UC San Diego. "All of the Teamsters' hard work and tenacity is evident. Knowing we have the support of Teamsters from all industries to help us protect our rights has lifted a weight off our shoulders. I look forward to connecting with other members in the future."
Workers in the titles of Ambulatory Care Administration Coordinator, Facilities Management Specialist, Health Professional Education Specialist, and Research Administrator had been misclassified by the UC in an effort to deny union-negotiated wages and benefits, including the right to strike. The Public Employment Relations Board issued unit modification orders on June 22, 2023.
The newly organized workers will join more than 16,000 administrative, paraprofessional, and skilled trades workers who provide critical public services at every University of California and California State University campus, medical center, and laboratory throughout the state, as well as 1.2 million Teamster members in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, with Public Services being one of the largest Teamster divisions.
"Teamsters Local 2010 welcomes our new sisters and brothers," said Jason Rabinowitz, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 2010. "We are especially pleased that they will immediately see the benefits of being Teamsters — guaranteed raises that are higher than those for non-union workers, this year and every year of our contract — plus all the rights at work and benefits of Teamster representation."
The group will soon assemble a bargaining team to begin the bargaining process for salary ranges, step placement, on-call and shift differential pay, as well as other bonus eligibility and pay.
Teamsters Local 2010 is a union of 15,000 hardworking employees in California higher education. We are affiliated with the 1.2 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing members throughout the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. We stand together to win better wages, benefits, and working conditions. We strive to protect workers' rights through direct action and determined labor representation.
Contact
Aimee Baror, (213) 220-0538
abaror@teamsters2010.org
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SOURCE Teamsters Local 2010 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/university-california-workers-join-teamsters-local-2010/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:32 | 1 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/university-california-workers-join-teamsters-local-2010/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruling that upended President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive student loan debt changed his budget math, modestly lowering the projected deficit for this year, his budget office reported Friday.
The White House expects to pare back $259 billion in spending that otherwise would have gone to erasing student loans. This contributed to lowering expected red ink this year under Biden’s budget plans from $1.569 trillion to $1.543 trillion.
The Office of Management and Budget’s Mid-Session Review represents the administration’s first recalculations of the loan program since the court’s June decision, which will affect millions of borrowers.
The court decision initially was expected to reduce the deficit by $400 billion. But a portion of that money will instead be used to pay for a smaller income-driven loan repayment program that goes into effect this summer, according to the report.
Millions of Americans with student loans will be able to enroll in the new SAVE repayment plan that offers some of the most lenient terms the government has ever offered borrowers.
Looking ahead to 2024, the report projects that inflation will continue to decline and the unemployment rate will average 3.8% for the rest of the year. Unemployment is expected to hit 4.4 % in 2024, then decline over the rest of the 10-year budget window to an annual average of 3.8%.
The new forecast comes as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell earlier this week said staff economists no longer foresee a recession.
“There is clear evidence that the President’s economic plan — Bidenomics — is growing our economy from the middle out and bottom up, not the top down,” said Biden’s budget director Shalanda Young in a statement accompanying the report.
The administration has been pushing “Bidenomics” as an approach that spurs economic growth through promoting domestic supply chains and favoring firms that use those supply chains through tax credits and other measures. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-supreme-courts-student-loan-decision-will-lower-us-deficit-according-to-new-white-house-projection/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:34 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-supreme-courts-student-loan-decision-will-lower-us-deficit-according-to-new-white-house-projection/ |
When you get a stomachache, you may reach for a glass of ginger ale to help feel better. It is a common home remedy for nausea or other gastrointestinal issues. However, some people online are wondering if their mom’s go-to cure actually works.
THE QUESTION
Does ginger ale help with stomachaches?
THE SOURCES
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- A study published in Nutrients in 2020
- Emma Slattery, RDN, in a post on Johns Hopkins Medicine
- A blog post by Matthew Goldman, M.D., on Cleveland Clinic
- Seagram’s
- Schweppes
- Canada Dry
THE ANSWER
While ginger root can help stomachaches, many popular brands of ginger ale do not contain any real ginger. The sugar and high carbonation may also worsen digestive problems.
WHAT WE FOUND
Ginger ale could help relieve stomachaches for some people, but only if it contains real ginger. A scientific review of more than 100 studies on the effects of ginger show moderate effectiveness in relieving nausea.
Emma Slattery, a registered dietician at Johns Hopkins Medicine, explains in a blog post that “eating ginger encourages efficient digestion, so food doesn’t linger as long in the gut.” This can help you cut down on bloating and constipation as ginger improves “the rate at which food exits the stomach and continues along the digestive process.”
But while “ginger” may be in the name of the fizzy drinks you find in stores, many brands of ginger ale do not actually contain any real ginger.
VERIFY looked at the ingredients list of Seagram’s ginger ale and found that the soda contains “ginger extract with other natural flavors.” Schweppes, Canada Dry and Great Value ginger ale do not include ginger in their ingredient list and instead only say “natural flavors.” According to the FDA, “natural flavors” can refer to a wide variety of ingredients whose “significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.”
Ginger ale often contains large amounts of sugar, which may create further issues for your stomachache. In a blog post for the Cleveland Clinic, Matthew Goldman, M.D., says, “If a person has bloating, gas or indigestion, the carbonation and sugar may make it worse. Even diet ginger ale can be harmful because our bodies may not digest artificial sugars as well.”
Another aspect of ginger ale believed to assist with stomachaches is carbonation. But that might not be helpful for everyone.
Baptist Health explains, “Some people find that the bubbles in carbonated drinks help soothe an upset stomach, in part, by making it easier for them to burp and release stomach pressure. For others, gas and acidity can make matters worse.” Baptist Health recommends that you drink heavily carbonated drinks with caution if you are not sure how they affect you.
So how can you best take advantage of ginger’s soothing effects when you’re feeling sick? Cleveland Clinic recommends getting ginger root from the grocery store and mixing it with decaf tea or warm water.
Some ginger sodas do have real ginger in the ingredient list. Reed’s sells a ginger ale with 2 grams of ginger in a 12 oz bottle and ginger beer that contains 17 grams of ginger per bottle. | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/health-verify/ginger-ale-no-help-stomachache-because-no-ginger/536-b21c22d9-743a-4f5a-a9d6-a570ef090627 | 2023-07-28T23:26:39 | 0 | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/health-verify/ginger-ale-no-help-stomachache-because-no-ginger/536-b21c22d9-743a-4f5a-a9d6-a570ef090627 |
Junior's Rolls Out a Dessert Fit for The King: Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana is Winner of National Cheesecake Day Flavor Contest
BROOKLYN, N.Y., July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Elvis Presley is the original rock 'n' roll legend, and Junior's is the original cheesecake legend. So, it is more than appropriate that peanut butter chocolate and banana – inspired by Elvis' favorite sandwich -- is now the newest limited edition Junior's cheesecake flavor, the result of a national flavor contest held in the lead-up to National Cheesecake Day, this coming Sunday, July 30.
Out of more than 5,000 entries across the country, Thomas Zahorec, from Greenville, South Carolina, channeled his inner King when submitting the winning flavor.
"Elvis had his numerous number one hits, and we have ours," said Alan Rosen, owner of Junior's. "So, I can't think of a better way to celebrate National Cheesecake Day than by creating this new flavor to honor the King, himself. Because just as you 'can't help falling in love' with Elvis, I know you won't be able to resist this peanut butter chocolate banana cheesecake. My deepest congratulations goes to Mr. Zahorec for inspiring our 25th flavor."
Rosen said that in addition to a $2500 cash prize, Zahorec will win a cheesecake a month for a year, including one of the new flavor, of course. And Junior's lovers around the country are also winners because the peanut butter chocolate banana cheesecake will be available for a limited time in Junior's restaurants and by mail order. This limited edition flavor will be available in various sizes through Labor Day.
About Junior's
Since the 1950s, Junior's Restaurant and Bakery in Brooklyn, New York has been famous for great food, great fun, great service, and, of course, the World's Most Famous Cheesecake. Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily, Junior's Restaurant and Bakery's menu features New York and Brooklyn comfort food dishes ranging from classic New York deli sandwiches piled high, famous 10 oz. steak burgers, salads, jumbo half pound hot dogs, fresh seafood and a full-service bar. For more information, visit juniorscheesecake.com.
Instagram: @JuniorsCheesecake, Facebook: @JuniorsCheesecake
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SOURCE Junior's | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/viva-las-cheesecake/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:39 | 1 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/viva-las-cheesecake/ |
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A teenager recalled Friday how she helped save a girl who was severely wounded during a Michigan school shooting in 2021, telling a judge that she moved her to an empty classroom, applied pressure to stop the bleeding and prayed with her.
“I asked her if she knew who God was. She said, ‘Not really,’” Heidi Allen, 17, recalled.
“I think I’m supposed to be here right now,” she said, describing how she felt at the time. “Because there’s no other reason that I’m OK, that I’m in this hallway, completely untouched.”
Heidi testified at a hearing to determine whether Ethan Crumbley, 17, will get a life prison sentence, or a shorter term with an opportunity for parole, for killing four students and wounding seven other people at Oxford High School.
She said she recognized him as soon as he exited a bathroom and brandished a gun.
“It fired,” Heidi recalled. “Everything kind of slowed down for me. It was all slow motion. I had covered my head. I dropped down. … It sounded like a balloon popping or a locker slamming. It was very loud.
“I just prayed and covered my head,” she said. “I didn’t know if those were my last moments.”
Heidi wasn’t shot but others were. She said she took a girl into a classroom, installed a portable lock on the door and applied pressure to the girl’s wounds. The victim survived.
“I just kept reassuring her she was going to be OK. She was crying,” Heidi testified. “I don’t fully remember what she was saying. I was trying to stay calm.”
The shooter, who was 15 at the time, pleaded guilty to murder, terrorism and other crimes. But a life sentence for minors isn’t automatic after a series of decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and Michigan’s top court.
Defense attorneys are arguing that he can be rehabilitated in prison and eventually released. They said the shooting followed years of a turbulent family life, grossly negligent parents and untreated mental illness.
A former warden, Ken Romanowski, testified about a variety of programs available in prison, such as mental health therapy, anger management, education and trade skills.
“Honestly, I think everybody has the potential for change. But he has to be the one who makes that choice,” Romanowski said, appearing for the defense.
A psychiatrist, Dr. Fariha Qadir, said Crumbley discussed having depression, hallucinations and hearing voices when they first met after his arrest. She has talked to him more than 100 times while in jail and prescribed medication for depression, mood and sleep.
James and Jennifer Crumbley are separately charged with involuntary manslaughter. They’re accused of buying a gun for their son and ignoring his mental health needs.
Earlier Friday, Judge Kwame Rowe denied a request by the shooter’s lawyers to stop students from testifying. They argued that it’s irrelevant when applying key factors set by the U.S. Supreme Court when determining a sentence for a minor.
“I’m able to discern what’s relevant to the… factors and what’s not relevant,” the judge said.
Prosecutors presented other witnesses Friday. An assistant principal, Kristy Gibson-Marshall, tearfully described how she tried to revive Tate Myre, a student whom she had known since he was 3 years old. He died.
“It was crushing. I had to help him,” Gibson-Marshall testified. “I could feel the entrance wound in the back of his head. … I just kept talking to him, that I love him, that I needed him to hang with me.”
It took “months to get the taste of Tate’s blood out of me,” she said.
Gibson-Marshall also knew the shooter, who passed by but didn’t harm her.
Separately, a 16-year-old boy explained how he hid in a bathroom with another student, Justin Shilling, who was killed by the shooter. Keegan Gregory said he suddenly found an opportunity to run behind the shooter’s back and escape.
“I realized if I stayed I was going to die,” said Keegan, who now wears a tattoo to honor the victims. “I just kept running as fast as I could, making turns so if he chased me I’d lose him.”
The hearing will resume Tuesday.
If the shooter doesn’t get a life sentence, he would be given a minimum prison sentence somewhere from 25 years to 40 years. He would then be eligible for parole, though the parole board has much discretion to keep a prisoner in custody.
There were opportunities to possibly prevent the shooting earlier that day. The boy and his parents met with school staff after a teacher was troubled by drawings that included a gun pointing at the words: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
The teen was allowed to stay in school, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Detroit, though his backpack was not checked for weapons.
___
Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-teen-says-she-just-prayed-while-saving-girl-in-michigan-school-shooting/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:42 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-teen-says-she-just-prayed-while-saving-girl-in-michigan-school-shooting/ |
PORTLAND, Ore. — The NBA interviewed Damian Lillard and his agent, Aaron Goodwin, about Lillard's trade request and warned them against making any further comments, in public or private, indicating that Lillard wants to be traded only to the Miami Heat, the league said in a memo sent to all 30 NBA teams.
The news about the memo was first reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic. Chris Haynes of TNT and Bleacher Report later shared the complete text of the memo (included at the bottom of this article).
In the memo, the NBA referenced public statements by Goodwin that said Lillard only wants to be traded to Miami, as well as media reports stating Goodwin had warned other NBA teams against trading for Lillard because they'd be trading for an unhappy player.
The NBA said it interviewed Lillard and Goodwin, and that the agent "denied stating or indicating to any team that Lillard would refuse to play for them." The NBA said it interviewed teams Goodwin spoke to and those teams told the league that their communications with Goodwin were "mostly, though not entirely, consistent with Goodwin's statements to us."
The league said it told Goodwin and Lillard that any future comments, either in private or public, that suggests Lillard wouldn't "fully perform the services called for under his player contract in the event of a trade will subject Lillard to discipline by the NBA."
The NBA said Goodwin and Lillard agreed to the terms.
"Goodwin and Lillard affirmed to us that Lillard would fully perform the services called for under his player contract in any trade scenario," the league said in the memo.
The league didn't cite specifics about which media reports or public comments it was referencing in the memo, but it's possible the NBA was referring to a July 6 report by Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald in which Jackson, based off an interview with Goodwin, reported that Goodwin was "advising other teams not to pursue a trade for Lillard."
"Those teams have been warned that they will be getting an unhappy player if they acquire Lillard," Jackson reported.
"I do what I should for my client. Some teams I did call. Other teams have called me. It's a respectful relationship with most teams. Truthfully, he wants to play in Miami. Period," Goodwin told Jackson.
Jackson also reported in the article that "Lillard hopes that message [from his agent] will discourage other teams from offering appealing trade assets to Portland."
Lillard's trade request was reported July 1 by multiple NBA reporters. Those reports included the information that the Blazers had been told Lillard wanted a trade "specifically" to Miami.
Full text of the memo
Haynes shared the full text of the memo:
Recent media reports stated that Damian Lillard’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, called multiple NBA teams to warn them against trading for Lillard because Lillard’s only desired trade destination is Miami. Goodwin also made public comments indicating that Lillard would not fully perform the services called for under his player contract if traded to another team.
We interviewed Goodwin and Lillard and also spoke with several NBA teams to whom Goodwin spoke. Goodwin denied stating or indicating to any team that Lillard would refuse to play for them. Goodwin and Lillard affirmed to us that Lillard would fully perform the services called for under his player contract in any trade scenario. The relevant teams provided descriptions of their communications with Goodwin that were mostly, though not entirely, consistent with Goodwin’s statements to us.
We have advised Goodwin and Lillard that any future comments, made privately to teams or publicly, suggesting Lillard will not fully perform the services called for under his player contract in the event of a trade will subject Lillard to discipline by the NBA.
We also have advised the Players Association that any similar comments by players or their agents will be subject to discipline going forward. | https://www.kgw.com/article/sports/nba/blazers/nba-memo-damian-lillard-agent-miami-heat/283-5b895601-6068-4047-8fdb-f5973cef5c01 | 2023-07-28T23:26:45 | 1 | https://www.kgw.com/article/sports/nba/blazers/nba-memo-damian-lillard-agent-miami-heat/283-5b895601-6068-4047-8fdb-f5973cef5c01 |
PHOENIX (AP) — The backup Uber driver for a self-driving vehicle that killed a pedestrian in suburban Phoenix in 2018 pleaded guilty Friday to endangerment in the first fatal collision involving a fully autonomous car.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David Garbarino, who accepted the plea agreement, sentenced Rafaela Vasquez, 49, to three years of supervised probation for the crash that killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. Vasquez told police that Herzberg “came out of nowhere” and that she didn’t see Herzberg before the March 18, 2018, collision on a darkened Tempe street.
Vasquez had been charged with negligent homicide, a felony. She pleaded guilty to an undesignated felony, meaning it could be reclassified as a misdemeanor if she completes probation.
Authorities say Vasquez was streaming the television show “The Voice” on a phone and looking down in the moments before Uber’s Volvo XC-90 SUV struck Herzberg, who was crossing with her bicycle.
Vasquez’s attorneys said she was was looking at a messaging program used by Uber employees on a work cellphone that was on her right knee. They said the TV show was playing on her personal cellphone, which was on the passenger seat.
Defense attorney Albert Jaynes Morrison told Garbarino that Uber should share some blame for the collision as he asked the judge to sentence Vasquez to six months of unsupervised probation.
“There were steps that Uber failed to take,” he said. By putting Vasquez in the vehicle without a second employee, he said. “It was not a question of if but when it was going to happen.”
Prosecutors previously declined to file criminal charges against Uber, as a corporation. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded Vasquez’s failure to monitor the road was the main cause of the crash.
“The defendant had one job and one job only,” prosecutor Tiffany Brady told the judge. “And that was to keep her eyes in the road.”
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a statement after the hearing that her office believes the sentence was appropriate “based on the mitigating and aggravating factors.”
The contributing factors cited by the NTSB included Uber’s inadequate safety procedures and ineffective oversight of its drivers, Herzberg’s decision to cross the street outside of a crosswalk and the Arizona Department of Transportation’s insufficient oversight of autonomous vehicle testing.
The board also concluded Uber’s deactivation of its automatic emergency braking system increased the risks associated with testing automated vehicles on public roads. Instead of the system, Uber relied on the human backup driver to intervene.
It was not the first crash involving an Uber autonomous test vehicle. In March 2017, an Uber SUV flipped onto its side, also in Tempe when it collided with another vehicle. No serious injuries were reported, and the driver of the other car was cited for a violation.
Herzberg’s death was the first involving an autonomous test vehicle but not the first in a car with some self-driving features. The driver of a Tesla Model S was killed in 2016 when his car, operating on its Autopilot system, crashed into a semitrailer in Florida.
Nine months after Herzberg’s death, in December 2019, two people were killed in California when a Tesla on Autopilot ran a red light, slammed into another car. That driver was charged in 2022 with vehicular manslaughter in what was believed to be the first felony case against a motorist who was using a partially automated driving system.
In Arizona, the Uber system detected Herzberg 5.6 seconds before the crash. But it failed to determine whether she was a bicyclist, pedestrian or unknown object, or that she was headed into the vehicle’s path, the board said.
The backup driver was there to take over the vehicle if systems failed.
The death reverberated throughout the auto industry and Silicon Valley and forced other companies to slow what had been a fast march toward autonomous ride-hailing services. Uber pulled its self-driving cars out of Arizona, and then-Gov. Doug Ducey prohibited the company from continuing its tests of self-driving cars.
Vasquez had previously spent more than four years in prison for two felony convictions — making false statements when obtaining unemployment benefits and attempted armed robbery — before starting work as an Uber driver, according to court records. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-the-backup-driver-in-the-1st-death-by-a-fully-autonomous-car-pleads-guilty-to-endangerment/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:48 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-the-backup-driver-in-the-1st-death-by-a-fully-autonomous-car-pleads-guilty-to-endangerment/ |
SUMPTER, Ore. — The beauty of traveling across Oregon’s backroads and byways is the unexpected treasure that you might find along the way – not just the scenery, but interesting people who provide lessons about Oregon’s past.
Not so long ago, I met a dedicated couple who own a love affair with Oregon’s railroading past. Their Baker & Grande Ronde Railroad takes folks where imagination travels.
So when the train whistle blows near Sumpter, Oregon, one thing’s for sure: adventure isn’t far behind!
“Last call! Train Number One to Sumpter departing in five minutes,” shouted Sumpter Railroad conductor Daniel Bentz.
The young man strolled across the wooden planks of the McEwen Depot and played his part well in a period costume and a full-on character performance.
“So hurry and buy a ticket and then step aboard the 'Stump Dodger' because even a century later, this railroad is always on time,” he continued.
Up to four times a day, Baker County’s Sumpter Valley Railroad makes the 12-mile round trip run from McEwen Depot to Sumpter.
It’s a railroad that reaches back to the early days of settlement in northeastern Oregon, according to the railroad’s operations manager, Taylor Rush.
“The railway meandered in and out of every canyon throughout the Sumpter Valley as it followed the timber line in the 1880s," Rush said. "In those days they said the railroad engine would dodge the stumps as it crawled up into the mountains and that name just stuck.”
“The original purpose of the railroad was to haul logs down to mills in Baker City where they were cut and hauled out across the nation," Bentz added. "But the railroad also hauled regular goods, passengers, and during cattle season there would be long stock trains heading down to the valley.”
These days, tourists have replaced cattle and timber. Folks travel here from all over the country to escape city hubbub and settle in for a slower pace, and also learn more about Baker County‘s past.
There’s no doubt about it — the Stump Dodger connects you with Oregon’s past. And it turns out some folks just can’t get enough.
“It was back in time – just at the end of steam locomotion that I remember these great big behemoth locomotives roll by at a shattering pace and make all the glass windows shake,” said longtime railroad enthusiast Gary Lee.
Lee fell in love with trains as a boy, and decades later he’s the chief conductor and owner of his own Baker & Grande Ronde Railroad.
“I’m fascinated by the old West and how the railroad played such an important part in the development of it. There’s something romantic about a train.”
It’s a “romance” that he shares with his wife, Jonette Lee.
For nearly twenty years the two have transformed their Corbett, Oregon backyard into a narrow-gauge scale railroad that chugs across a make-believe Eastern Oregon.
“I sculpted all the hills and forests and other stuff,” noted Gary Lee. “As fast as I would do that, she came along behind me, planting ground covers and grooming the garden for our very own railroad.”
“We were novices, and we didn’t know much about a garden railroad," Jonette Lee added. "So we mostly used plants that were pretty forgiving – especially when it came to watering. It’s really lots of different ground covers, like herbs, with nothing really over 6 inches tall. It all has to be to scale just like the trains.”
The work never ends, either! Gary spends all winter indoor putting together buildings, rail equipment and new track so he can spend all summer outdoors adding them to his railroad layout.
As many as seven trains can run on the 900-foot-long, hand-built, hand-laid track, and Gary’s real joy comes from sharing it with young and older visitors alike.
His goal is to make it all look as realistic as possible, and it’s impressive work too! For example, it took him a year to build the 22-foot-long trestle that climbs to the top of his Grande Ronde River Canyon.
Lee attributes his railroading passion to younger days with a dad who took his son to see the big trains roll across Oregon.
Today, those times fuel enough memories to last a lifetime on a railroad where imagination travels.
“You know, just a hundred years ago it was the most advanced technology available to us in the West. There were few roads and most often the only way you could get around was by rail. That fascinates me! It’s my inspiration!”
Be sure to watch the weekly half hour program of Grant’s Getaways. The show airs each Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. on KGW.
For something different, you can follow my Oregon adventures via the Grant’s Getaways Podcast. Each segment is a story-telling session where I relate behind the scenes stories from four decades of travel and television reporting.
You can also learn more about many of my favorite Oregon travels and adventures in the Grant’s Getaways book series, including:
- "Grants Getaways I," Photography by Steve Terrill
- "Grant's Getaways II," Photography by Steve Terrill
- “Grant’s Getaways: 101 Oregon Adventures,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
- “Grant’s Getaways: Guide to Wildlife Watching in Oregon,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
- “Grant’s Getaways: Oregon Adventures with the Kids,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
The book collection offers hundreds of outdoor activities across Oregon and promises to engage a kid of any age.
You can reach me: Gmcomie@kgw.com | https://www.kgw.com/article/travel/destinations/grants-getaways/grants-getaways-imagination-travels-train-railroad-locomotive/283-8c0b5d4f-3fe5-4667-81c4-e2dba3d81b50 | 2023-07-28T23:26:51 | 0 | https://www.kgw.com/article/travel/destinations/grants-getaways/grants-getaways-imagination-travels-train-railroad-locomotive/283-8c0b5d4f-3fe5-4667-81c4-e2dba3d81b50 |
Lottery players will have another shot at a huge Mega Millions jackpot Friday night and a chance to break a stretch of more than three months without a big winner of the game.
The estimated $940 million prize has been building since someone last matched all six numbers and won the jackpot April 18. Since then, there have been 28 straight drawings without a jackpot winner.
The jackpot is now the eighth-largest ever in the U.S. It comes a little over a week after someone in Los Angeles won a $1.08 billion Powerball prize that ranked as the sixth-largest in U.S. history. It’s still a mystery who won that prize.
Lottery jackpots grow so large because the odds of winning are so small. For Mega Millions, the odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 302.6 million.
The $940 million prize would be for a sole winner choosing to be paid through an annuity with annual payments over 30 years. Jackpot winners almost always opt for a lump sum payment, which for Friday night’s drawing would be an estimated $472.5 million.
Winners also would be subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-the-mega-millions-jackpot-is-now-910-million-after-months-without-a-big-winner/ | 2023-07-28T23:26:54 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-the-mega-millions-jackpot-is-now-910-million-after-months-without-a-big-winner/ |
ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina has criticized fellow Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for supporting new standards that require teachers to instruct middle school students that slaves developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“What slavery was really about was separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating,” Scott, the sole Black Republican in the Senate, told reporters on Thursday after a town hall in Ankeny. “So I would hope that every person in our country — and certainly running for president — would appreciate that.”
“People have bad days,” Scott added. “Sometimes they regret what they say. And we should ask them again to clarify their positions.”
DeSantis has been facing criticism from Florida teachers, civil rights leaders, President Joe Biden’s White House and even Black Republicans on the school standards. Vice President Kamala Harris, the nation’s first Black vice president, traveled to Florida last week to condemn the curriculum.
DeSantis fired back on Friday, saying that “part of the reason our country has struggled is because D.C. Republicans all too often accept false narratives, accept lies that are perpetrated by the left.”
Campaigning in Iowa, he added that he was “defending” Florida “against false accusations and against lies. And we’re going to continue to speak the truth.”
The back-and-forth marked a shift in campaign styles for both DeSantis and Scott, who have not directly critiqued each other and have instead focused much of their antagonism toward President Joe Biden. It also comes as DeSantis’ effort has endured a mid-campaign reset, making staffing cuts to accommodate campaign expenses.
Another Black Republican presidential candidate, former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, has also criticized DeSantis over the curriculum, as have Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas, two Trump allies who are among a handful of Black Republicans in Congress.
Scott’s comments came as he and DeSantis stumped in Iowa before the state Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner. At that gathering, 13 candidates in the GOP presidential primary field, including front-runner Donald Trump, will be addressing an expected 1,200 activists on Friday. Scott, part of the GOP’s most diverse presidential field ever, was asked for his opinion on the standards hours after DeSantis defended them to reporters.
“At the end of the day, you got to choose: Are you going to side with Kamala Harris and liberal media outlets or are you going to side with the state of Florida?” DeSantis said, citing Democrats’ criticism of the wording on slavery. “I think it’s very clear that these guys did a good job on those standards. It wasn’t anything that was politically motivated.”
Responding on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to reporters’ posts of Scott’s video, a super PAC supporting DeSantis on Thursday night called the posts “incredibly sloppy or intentionally disingenuous,” reposting video of DeSantis’ defense of the curriculum earlier in the day.
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Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C., and can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-tim-scott-criticizes-ron-desantis-over-floridas-new-slavery-curriculum/ | 2023-07-28T23:27:01 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-tim-scott-criticizes-ron-desantis-over-floridas-new-slavery-curriculum/ |
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Tom Durden, the Georgia district attorney who kick-started the prosecution of Ahmaud Arbery’s killing by calling in state investigators to take over the languishing case, has died at age 66.
The Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office, which Durden led for 24 years before stepping down last year, confirmed Durden’s death in a Facebook post Friday. No cause of death was given.
During his career of nearly four decades, Durden served briefly as the second outside prosecutor overseeing the investigation into the February 2020 killing of Arbery. The 25-year-old Black man was fatally shot as he ran from white men in pickup trucks who chased him through their Georgia neighborhood. The shooter said he fired in self-defense.
The case stalled without charges for more than two months before Durden asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to take over from local police. GBI agents rapidly made arrests that led to three murder convictions. Durden stepped aside soon after the arrests, saying the case needed a DA with a larger staff.
“He played a significant role, as we know the others before him did nothing,” said Thea Brooks, one of Arbery’s aunts. “No matter how long he had it on his desk, he did the right thing.”
Following Arbery’s killing outside the port city of Brunswick in 2020, the local district attorney recused herself and the first outside prosecutor assigned, George Barnhill, opposed bringing criminal charges before he stepped aside.
Georgia’s attorney general then appointed Durden, who had the case for roughly a month amid a growing outcry for arrests. Durden asked the GBI to get involved after cellphone video of the killing leaked online May 5, 2020.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael were arrested on murder charges the day after GBI agents arrived in Brunswick. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, was charged soon after.
“The fact that he sent it to the GBI was a positive turn in the case for us, and I think he deserves credit for it,” said the Rev. John Perry, who led Brunswick’s NAACP chapter at the time Arbery was killed.
The job of prosecuting the McMichaels and Bryan was passed to the district attorney for Cobb County in metro Atlanta. All three men were ultimately convicted of murder in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison.
Durden joined the district attorney’s office as an assistant prosecutor in 1984, two years after earning his law degree from Mercer University. He was elected DA after his predecessor retired in 1998.
Durden prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases in the Atlantic Circuit, which covers six southeast Georgia counties outside Savannah.
“Mr. Durden was a true public servant to the State of Georgia for close to 40 years,” Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, said in a statement. “My sincerest condolences to Tom’s family.”
In 1998, Durden successfully prosecuted four family members and a friend in the killing of Thurmon Martin, a case that would become known as Georgia’s infamous “tomato patch” murder.
Martin, 64, was shot while sleeping in May 1997 and buried behind his home in rural Ludowici. The case gained notoriety for the tomato plants growing atop Martin’s grave, as well as the defendants’ harrowing courtroom accounts of being abused by the slain man. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-tom-durden-georgia-da-who-ordered-takeover-of-stalled-ahmaud-arbery-investigation-dies-at-66/ | 2023-07-28T23:27:09 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-tom-durden-georgia-da-who-ordered-takeover-of-stalled-ahmaud-arbery-investigation-dies-at-66/ |
ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Streams of air whirled by Ida Cartlidge in every direction, but she couldn’t breathe.
Between the thin walls and above the shaky foundation of a mobile home, Cartlidge, 32, miraculously survived a March tornado that carved a path of destruction through Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Mobile home residents in the path of a twister’s fury often don’t live to recount the experience.
“It sounded like a real loud train coming through,” Cartlidge said. “And I could feel the wind, it was so powerful you couldn’t even breathe while you were in the air.”
Cartlidge and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in Rolling Fork with their three sons. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones for a local auto parts shop. They viewed Rolling Fork as a refuge from city life and an ideal place to raise kids. The family lived in a mobile home park behind Chuck’s Dairy Bar, a diner that had long been a nexus of local life for Rolling Fork residents.
Then the tornado tore through the park, making it a point of misery.
Most of the 14 people who died in Rolling Fork when the March 24 tornado hit the Mississippi Delta lived in the mobile home park, with large families crowding into one or two-bedroom units. Such living arrangements have been a way to offset the financial strain endemic to the Mississippi Delta, where poverty is prevalent and stable jobs are scarce.
Tornadoes in the United States are disproportionately killing more people in mobile or manufactured homes, especially in the South. Since 1996, tornadoes have killed 815 people in mobile or manufactured homes. That’s 53% of all the people killed in their homes during a tornado, according to an Associated Press data analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tornado deaths.
Cramped living arrangements forced mobile home inhabitants to shelter just as they lived: with little space between them.
“The only thing I could tell them to do was get on the floor,” said Charles Jones, Cartlidge’s husband. “And I got on top. I got on top of my family.”
Just seconds before Cartlidge found herself burrowed beneath her husband on the mobile home’s living room floor, her father had called her. He had been watching the news and saw that a tornado had touched down in Rolling Fork.
Cartlidge heard car windows shattering outside. The home’s windows shattered next. She scooped up her 1-year-old son and dove to the floor, with her 11- and 12-year-old sons next to her and Jones atop them. They didn’t know the incoming winds had reached 200 mph (320 kph). The storm’s force was instead measured by the fear it induced.
“The only thing that’s holding a mobile home down are the little straps in the ground,” Cartlidge said. “It picked up the home one time, set it down. It picked it up again, set it down. It picked it up a third time, and we were in the air.”
Her future was suspended in the air alongside her home. “You don’t know what’s happening next, whether you’re going to live it through it or not,” she said.
The next thing Cartlidge remembers is lying with her back on the ground and the baby resting on her chest. He was the only member of the family who made it through the storm unscathed.
Her fear didn’t subside. “All you could hear were people screaming and hollering for help,” she recalled.
Cartlidge propped herself up with a piece of wood and walked to the highway. She could feel her bones shifting with every step.
She suffered a crushed pelvis bone and broken shoulder. One of her sons punctured a lung and had shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Jones injured his ribs and spine.
Since returning from the hospital, the family has been living in a motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. Rain storms still make Cartlidge and Jones anxious, as they experienced the raw force of twister first-hand.
“The tornado’s going to win every time,” Jones said. “It’s just like when a nail meets a tire.”
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Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mikergoldberg.
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-we-were-in-the-air-mississippi-family-recounts-surviving-tornado-that-tore-mobile-home-apart/ | 2023-07-28T23:27:15 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-we-were-in-the-air-mississippi-family-recounts-surviving-tornado-that-tore-mobile-home-apart/ |
HOUSTON (AP) — Just moments before rap superstar Travis Scott took the stage at the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival, a contract worker had been so worried about what might happen after seeing people getting crushed that he texted an event organizer saying, “Someone’s going to end up dead,” according to a police report released Friday.
The texts by security contract worker Reece Wheeler were some of many examples in the nearly 1,300-page report in which festival workers highlighted problems and warned of possible deadly consequences. The report includes transcripts of concertgoers’ 911 calls and summaries of police interviews, including one with Scott conducted just days after the event.
The crowd surge at the Nov. 5, 2021, outdoor festival in Houston killed 10 attendees who ranged in age from 9 to 27. The official cause of death was compression asphyxia, which an expert likened to being crushed by a car. About 50,000 people attended the festival.
“Pull tons over the rail unconscious. There’s panic in people eyes. This could get worse quickly,” Reece Wheeler texted Shawna Boardman, one of the private security directors, at 9 p.m. Wheeler then texted, “I know they’ll try to fight through it but I would want it on the record that I didn’t advise this to continue. Someone’s going to end up dead.”
Scott’s concert began at 9:02 p.m. In their review of video from the concert’s livestream, police investigators said that at 9:13 p.m., they heard the faint sound of someone saying, “Stop the show.” The same request could also be heard at 9:16 p.m. and 9:22 p.m.
In an Aug. 19, 2022, police interview, Boardman’s attorneys told investigators that Boardman “saw things were not as bad as Reece Wheeler stated” and decided not to pass along Wheeler’s concerns to anyone else.
A grand jury declined to indict anyone who was investigated over the event, including Scott, Boardman and four other people.
During a police interview conducted two days after the concert, Scott told investigators that although he did see one person near the stage getting medical attention, overall the crowd seemed to be enjoying the show and he did not see any signs of serious problems.
“We asked if he at any point heard the crowd telling him to stop the show. He stated that if he had heard something like that he would have done something,” police said in their summary of Scott’s interview.
Hip-hop artist Drake, who performed with Scott at the concert, told police that it was difficult to see from the stage what was going on in the crowd and that he didn’t hear concertgoers’ pleas to stop the show.
Drake found out about the tragedy later that night from his manager, while learning more on social media, police said in their summary.
Marty Wallgren, who worked for a security consulting firm hired by the festival, told police that when he went backstage and tried to tell representatives for Scott and Drake that the concert needed to end because people had been hurt and might have died, he was told “Drake still has three more songs,” according to an interview summary.
Daniel Johary, a college student who got trapped in the crush of concertgoers and later used his skills working as an EMT in Israel to help an injured woman, told investigators hundreds of people had chanted for Scott to stop the music and that the chants could be heard “from everywhere.”
“He stated staff members in the area gave thumbs-up and did not care,” according to the police report.
Richard Rickeada, a retired Houston police officer who was working for a private security company at the festival, told investigators that from 8 a.m. the day of the concert, things were “pretty much in chaos,” according to a police summary of his interview. His concerns and questions about whether the concert should be held were “met with a lot of shrugged shoulders,” he said.
About 23 minutes into the concert, cameraman Gregory Hoffman radioed into the show’s production trailer to warn that “people were dying.” Hoffman was operating a large crane that held a television camera before it was overrun with concertgoers who needed medical help, police said.
The production team radioed Hoffman to ask when they could get the crane back in operation.
Salvatore Livia, who was hired to direct the live show, told police that following Hoffman’s dire warning, people in the production trailer understood that something was not right, but “they were disconnected to the reality of (what) was happening out there,” according to a police summary of Livia’s interview.
Concertgoer Christopher Gates, then 22, told police that by the second or third song in Scott’s performance, he came across about five people on the ground who he believed were already dead.
Their bodies were “lifeless, pale, and their lips were blue/purple,” according to the police report. Random people in the crowd – not medics – provided CPR.
The police report was released about a month after the grand jury in Houston declined to indict Scott on any criminal charges in connection with the deadly concert. Police Chief Troy Finner had said the report was being made public so that people could “read the entire investigation” and come to their own conclusions about the case. During a news conference after the grand jury’s decision, Finner declined to say what the overall conclusion of his agency’s investigation was or whether police should have stopped the concert sooner.
The report’s release also came the same day that Scott released his new album, “Utopia.”
More than 500 lawsuits were filed over the deaths and injuries at the concert, including many against concert promoter Live Nation and Scott. Some have since been settled.
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Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
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Find more AP coverage of the Astroworld festival: https://apnews.com/hub/astroworld-festival-deaths | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-worker-warned-organizer-someones-going-to-end-up-dead-before-crowd-surge-at-21-travis-scott-show/ | 2023-07-28T23:27:21 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/ap-worker-warned-organizer-someones-going-to-end-up-dead-before-crowd-surge-at-21-travis-scott-show/ |
(The Hill) – President Biden on Friday made his first public remarks about his 4-year-old grandchild Navy, the daughter of his son Hunter Biden, after silence from the White House over the young girl amid legal disputes between her parents.
Biden said, in a statement exclusively provided to People, that his son and Lunden Roberts, the mother, are working to provide a life for her.
“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” the president said. “This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter. Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”
The New York Times earlier this month published a piece about the child, writing that she’s never met Hunter Biden or her grandfather. After that was published, the White House dealt with questions in the briefing room from reporters asking whether Biden accepted Hunter Biden’s daughter in Arkansas as his granddaughter.
Roberts, who is in Arkansas, filed a paternity suit against Hunter Biden in May 2019, and the younger Biden appeared in court this May. In June, he reached a settlement in his child support case after he was ordered to sit for a deposition under oath to answer questions about his finances.
An anonymous source told People that the president and first lady Jill Biden have been “giving Hunter and Lunden the space and time to figure things out” and have been “following Hunter’s lead” throughout the legal proceedings involving the young girl.
Hunter Biden’s personal and legal troubles have been increasingly in the spotlight lately. He appeared in a Delaware court Wednesday, where his plea deal on federal tax and gun charges was put on hold by a judge who questioned the scope of the agreement. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/biden-offers-first-statement-on-hunters-4-year-old-daughter/ | 2023-07-28T23:27:27 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/biden-offers-first-statement-on-hunters-4-year-old-daughter/ |
DELMAR, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Many across social media feel confused about Twitter rebranding its iconic bird logo to a simple “X” symbol. At his Albany, New York-area studio on Thursday, the artist behind the original logo talked about its creation and leaving the brand behind.
Phil Pascuzzo is hard at work in his quiet suburban home in Delmar, mainly designing the inviting covers that tempt you to pick up a good book. You’d never guess he’s the designer of the world-famous Twitter bird icon.
“It’s so interesting. Most people have no idea,” laughed Pascuzzo. “It’s kind of like how Milton Glaser created the ‘I love New York’ logo, but when you see the I ‘heart’ NY, it doesn’t feel like anybody did it. It’s just there.”
Pascuzzo has run Pepco Studio, his independent freelance design studio, for the last 20 years, but he said that his first graphic design job out of college was where he met Biz Stone, one of the three Twitter co-founders. “We were both junior designers, so we were lowest on the rank, but he would just after every subway ride have all these wild ideas and we would just talk about them,” Pascuzzo recollected with NEWS10’s Mikhaela Singleton. “I would do these little doodles on Post-it notes, and he just liked my drawings.”
He said that Stone approached him around 2005 looking for a unique bird-themed design. The iStock image by Simon Oxley that was used when Twitter first launched couldn’t be its official logo, as that would violate iStock’s terms of service.
“I started sketching different birds. We knew we were going with blue, which — it’s great for like, feeling optimistic, feels like the future, blue skies,” Pascuzzo explained. “[Stone] had a rough idea, but he really left it to me to get creative with. He’s got a great sense of humor so he had all these ideas for little things he wanted the bird to be doing.”
Pascuzzo said that first bird design took about 30 minutes and a chat between friends, landing him $500 for the work. “I was in an apartment in Arbor Hill at the time and thought, $500 will make rent so yeah let’s do it,” he said. “Twitter wasn’t some huge thing like it is now that everybody is on.”
For years, he continued creating many marketing items that helped Twitter take flight. Shifting the bird’s design to a silhouette, Pascuzzo then sold the design to the studio outright in 2010, when it took shape in the most recent version used from 2012 to 2023. He added that he did reapproach his friend and the company to renegotiate pay for the logo design when Twitter truly took off.
“When I realized the weight of what this icon had become, I went back with an intellectual property lawyer, and it was extremely cordial,” Pascuzzo said. “It didn’t give me anything close to Elon Musk money, but it was a down payment on a house.”
On the topic of Musk and the many changes since his takeover of the social media giant in October, Pascuzzo said the news to clip the bird’s wings for a simple “X” symbol came as a surprise. “I was like, ‘What?’ What is this white — because it’s just a Unicode symbol,” he said. “It’s not even a logo. Nobody even designed it.”
After 20 years in the business, he said that he’s learned not to get too attached to any creation, so he’s not sad to see the bird go. But he worries that Musk’s future for Twitter leaves behind much of what made the platform unique.
“He seems obsessed with the ‘X.’ I mean you look at his child with Grimes — X Æ A-Xii — he loves X. It’s everywhere. So in his world, it may make sense, but I think, in the Twitter world, it doesn’t really make much sense,” Pascuzzo concluded. “I feel he threw away a lot of brand equity. The name, the color, the language — it’s so ubiquitous. It’s part of our lexicon.” | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/original-designer-behind-twitter-bird-icon-talks-the-x-rebrand/ | 2023-07-28T23:27:33 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/original-designer-behind-twitter-bird-icon-talks-the-x-rebrand/ |
(The Hill) – Carlos De Oliveira was indicted on three criminal charges alongside former President Trump and his longtime aide Walt Nauda in a superseding indictment Thursday, part of the classified document investigation at Trump’s Florida club.
De Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago Club’s property manager, allegedly assisted Trump and Nauta in attempting to delete security footage that showed the men moving boxes of classified documents around the property to hide them from federal authorities.
He was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, destroying evidence and lying to the FBI.
De Oliveira, 56, was hired as the Mar-a-Lago manager in January 2022, previously working there as a valet, according to the indictment.
Federal investigators claim De Oliveira helped Nauta move about 30 boxes of classified documents around Mar-a-Lago, and at one point told the club’s head of IT that “the boss” wants security camera footage deleted.
In October of last year, after federal investigators searched the club and found additional classified documents, De Oliveira allegedly drained one of the club’s pools causing flooding in the server room that contained the security camera footage. This happened not long after Trump told De Oliveira he would get him an attorney, the indictment says.
According to investigators, Nauta attempted to judge De Oliveira’s loyalty before that promise came, with De Oliveira telling him that nothing would get in the way of his relationship with Trump.
Trump now faces a total of 40 charges related to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, with three of those added this week in the superseding indictment. Nauta faces eight charges.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the classified documents probe, is also investigating Trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot on the Capitol.
Smith met with Trump’s defense on Thursday and sent him a target letter earlier this month, raising speculation that he could be indicted again for that separate investigation soon. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/who-is-carlos-de-oliveira-trumps-mar-a-lago-resort-manager/ | 2023-07-28T23:27:39 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/who-is-carlos-de-oliveira-trumps-mar-a-lago-resort-manager/ |
Healthy snacking company That's it. aims to simplify back-to-school nutrition with curated shopping lists
LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The new school year is approaching, and with it, parents are preparing for the accompanying stress of the back-to-school season. Amongst the biggest stressors for parents of school-aged children? Managing after school activities (24%), followed by finding healthy snack options (23%) and packing lunches / food prep (20%)1.
With 43% of parents' top stressors coming in as nutrition-related, That's it. has partnered with childhood nutrition expert Rachel Rothman, MS, RD, CLEC to take the guesswork out of shopping for healthy back-to-school snacks by creating two curated snack shopping lists for Target and Walmart. (Seventy percent of parents indicated that they will do the majority of their back-to-school shopping at one of these two retail giants2.)
"The best part about these snacks is the variety of ingredients and nutrients," said Rothman. "They all contain key nutrients, and are made from whole foods, without the use of flavors or additives. These snacks are all shelf-stable and can be eaten as a quick, nutritious snack, or as part of a more diverse meal to keep your kids fed as the weather cools off and fall schedules heat back up."
Keep reading for Rothman's hand-selected healthy picks:
Target:
- That's it. Mango & Blueberry Mini Fruit Bars
- Whisps Cheese Crisps
- Chomps Snack Sticks
- Simple Mills Crackers
- Seapoint Farms Dry Roasted Edamame
Walmart:
- That's it. Apple + Strawberry Mini Fruit Bars
- Terra Sweet Potato Chips
- Kars Nuts Second Nature Wholesome Medley Trail Mix
- BOOMCHICKAPOP Sea Salt Popcorn
- Wild Planet Wild Albacore Tuna pouches
That's it. Mini Fruit Bars are made from two ingredients: Fruit + fruit. These shelf-stable Mini Fruit Bars contain no juices, purees, concentrates or added sugars, and are all-natural, gluten-free, non-GMO, and free from all top food allergens – making them the perfect back-to-school snack for the whole family.
About That's it.
That's it. makes delicious, convenient, plant-based super snacks from only the purest ingredients, and completely free from the top 12 allergens. Since 2012, it has been innovating the natural foods category in the United States with its portfolio of simple and nutritious snacks made from real, whole foods. All That's it. products transparently contain six real ingredients or less, and absolutely no natural or artificial flavors, sugar alcohols, or artificial colors. Its flagship Fruit Bars, now the #1 fruit bar in America, contain only two ingredients: fruit + fruit. You can find That's it. nationwide at your local Starbucks, at major retailers such as: Target, Whole Foods, Costco, Sam's Club, 7-Eleven, Walmart, VONS, CVS and Kroger, and online at Amazon and www.thatsitfruit.com. Learn more on Instagram and TikTok.
Media Contact:
Chief Marketing Officer
That's it.
1 About Suzy Survey:
The "Parents' Plates" study surveyed 1,000 parents of school-aged children in the U.S. in July 2023. Survey was conducted via real-time consumer insights platform Suzy.
2 About Suzy Survey:
The "Back-to-School" study surveyed 2,706 parents of school-aged children in the U.S. in June 2023. Survey was conducted via real-time consumer insights platform Suzy.
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SOURCE That’s it Nutrition | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/dietitians-top-walmart-target-picks-back-to-school-snacking/ | 2023-07-28T23:27:43 | 0 | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2023/07/28/dietitians-top-walmart-target-picks-back-to-school-snacking/ |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday the United States stands with countries fighting Chinese “bullying behavior” as he launched bilateral talks in Australia aimed at countering Beijing’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Australian city of Brisbane late Thursday ahead of annual bilateral meetings on Friday and Saturday that will focus on a deal to provide Australia, a defense treaty partner, with a fleet of submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.
Ahead of a meeting with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, Austin said both countries share concerns about China’s break from international laws and norms that resolve disputes peacefully and without coercion.
“We’ve seen troubling P.R.C. coercion from the East China Sea, to the South China Sea, to right here in the Southwest Pacific,” Austin told reporters, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“We’ll continue to support our allies and partners as they defend themselves from bullying behavior,” he added.
China has imposed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers in recent years against Australian exports including coal, wine, barley, beef, seafood and wood. The barriers are widely seen as a punitive reaction to Australian government policy that has cost Australian exporters as much as $15 billion a year.
Australia’s icy relationship with Beijing was thawing since a change of Australian government at elections last year. Meanwhile, the sharing of U.S. nuclear secrets with Australia takes that bilateral relationship to a new level.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is planning state visits to both the United States and China before the end of the year.
Under the AUKUS partnership — an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — Australia will buy three Virginia-class submarines from the United States and build five of a new AUKUS-class submarine in cooperation with Britain.
Australian media have focused on a letter signed by more than 20 Republican lawmakers to President Joe Biden that warned the deal would “unacceptably weaken the U.S. fleet” without a plan to boost U.S. submarine production.
Albanese said he remained “very confident” that the United States would deliver the three submarines.
The prime minister said he’d been reassured by discussions he had with Republicans and Democrats earlier in July at a NATO summit in Lithuania.
“What struck me was their unanimous support for AUKUS, their unanimous support for the relationship between the Australia and United States,” Albanese said.
Marles agreed the AUKUS program was on track.
“Congress can be a complicated place as legislation makes its way through it, but actually we’re encouraged by how quickly it is going through it and we are expecting that there will be lots of discussions on the way through,” Marles said.
“Fundamentally, we have reached an agreement with the Biden administration about how Australia acquires the nuclear-powered submarine capability and we’re proceeding along that path with pace,” he added.
Australia understood there was “pressure on the American industrial base” and would contribute to submarine production, Marles said. The AUKUS deal is forecast to cost Australia up to 368 billion Australian dollars ($246 billion) over 30 years.
Albanese publicly welcomed Austin and Blinken at a media event before the three began a meeting with Marles, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy and Australian Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd, a former prime minister.
“The relationship between Australia and the United States has never been stronger,” Albanese told the two visitors. | https://www.kxnet.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-australian-prime-minister-is-confident-the-us-will-deliver-nuclear-powered-submarines/ | 2023-07-28T23:27:45 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-australian-prime-minister-is-confident-the-us-will-deliver-nuclear-powered-submarines/ |