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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host the leaders of Japan and South Korea next month for a summit at Camp David, the White House announced Friday.
The Aug. 18 meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is the latest sign of warming relations between Japan and South Korea as they move to set aside generations of tensions and mistrust while the United States deepens its commitment to Asia.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the leaders “will discuss expanding trilateral cooperation across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.” Expected topics include the threat posed by North Korea and ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and with the Pacific Islands.
The invitation spun out of a brief photo-op that the three leaders had at the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, in May. The Biden administration has been urging stronger economic and defense ties between South Korea and Japan as it looks to bolster the region against China’s assertive territorial moves, as well as to secure their cooperation to support Ukraine fight off Russia’s invasion. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-president-biden-to-host-the-leaders-of-japan-and-korean-for-an-august-summit-at-camp-david/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:03 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-president-biden-to-host-the-leaders-of-japan-and-korean-for-an-august-summit-at-camp-david/ |
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.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-us-proposes-18-fuel-economy-increase-for-new-vehicle-fleet-from-2027-through-2032/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:07 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-us-proposes-18-fuel-economy-increase-for-new-vehicle-fleet-from-2027-through-2032/ |
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin courted leaders from Africa at a summit on Friday, hailing the continent’s growing role in global affairs and offering to expand political and business ties.
Addressing the Russia-Africa summit for a second day, Putin said Moscow would closely analyze a peace proposal for Ukraine that African leaders have sought to pursue.
“This is an acute issue, and we aren’t evading its consideration,” the Russian leader said, emphasizing that his government was treating the African initiative with respect and “looking at it attentively.”
He encouraged the African leaders to talk to Ukraine, which has refused to engage in talks until Russian troops pull back. “I believe it’s necessary to also talk to the other side, although we are grateful to our African friends for their attention to the issue,” Putin said at the St. Petersburg summit.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said African leaders were looking forward to engaging further with Putin later Friday on their peace proposal.
“It is our hope that constructive engagement and negotiation can bring about an end to the ongoing conflict,” Ramaphosa, who leads sub-Saharan Africa’s most developed country, said, adding in South Africa, “our own history has taught us that this is indeed possible.”
Without specifically mentioning the fighting in Ukraine, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni denounced those who foment ideologically-driven military conflicts as “time and opportunity wasters,” adding that “human history will move on, whether they like it or not.”
“The only justified wars are the just wars, like the anti-colonial wars,” Museveni said. “Wars of hegemony will fail and waste time and opportunity. Dialogue is the correct way.”
In the public portion of a late night meeting Friday about the peace proposal, Putin repeated to the African leaders his explanations for the conflict’s origins and Russia’s actions in it, without giving any specific reaction to their suggestions. The African leaders said they expected to hear Putin’s detailed reactions in a subsequent closed part of the meeting.
In his speech, Putin reaffirmed his pledge that Russia will maintain steady supplies of grain and other agricultural products to the continent after its withdrawal from a deal allowing grain shipments from Ukraine. Moscow’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative has fueled concerns of a global food crisis.
“Russia will always be a responsible international supplier of agricultural products and will continue to support the countries and region in need by offering free grain and other supplies,” the Russian leader said.
He declared at the summit’s opening Thursday that Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and Central African Republic each will receive 25,000 to 50,000 tons of Russian grain in the next three to four months.
In comparison, the U.N. World Food Program shipped 725,000 tons of grain to several countries, including Somalia, under the Black Sea deal.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres responded to Putin’s pledge of no-cost grain shipments by noting that such donations of grain can’t compensate for the impact of Moscow cutting off grain exports from Ukraine, which along with Russia is a top supplier to the world market.
Guterres said the U.N. was in contact with Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and other countries to try to reestablish the year-old agreement, under which Ukraine exported more than 32 million tons of grain. The resumption of shipments from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports allowed global food prices to drop significantly from the levels they reached after Putin sent troops into the neighboring country.
The deal brokered a year ago by the U.N. and Turkey reopened Ukrainian Black Sea ports blocked by fighting and provided assurances that ships entering them wouldn’t be attacked. Russia declined to renew the agreement last week, complaining that its own exports were being held up.
Putin used the summit to repeat his accusations against the West of obstructing the export of Russian grain and fertilizers, including proposed no-cost supplies of fertilizers to Africa.
The Russia-Africa summit marks a renewed Kremlin effort to bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage. Africa’s 54 nations make up the largest voting bloc at the United Nations and have been more divided than any other region on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Only 17 heads of state were at the summit, compared to 43 at the first Russia-Africa summit in 2019, a sharp drop in attendance that the Kremlin has attributed to what it described as “outrageous” Western pressure to discourage African countries from showing up.
Putin hailed Africa’s role in the emerging “multipolar world order,” noting that “the era of hegemony of one or several countries is receding into the past, albeit not without resistance on the part of those who got used to their own uniqueness and monopoly in global affairs.”
“Russia and Africa are united by an innate desire to defend true sovereignty and the right to their own distinctive path of development in the political, economic, social, cultural and other spheres,” he said.
He said Russia plans to expand trade and economic ties with Africa and continue efforts to relieve their debt burden by writing off another $90 million of their debts.
Putin noted that Moscow also stands ready to bolster defense ties with African countries by helping train their military and expanding supplies of military equipment, some of them on a no-cost basis.
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This story corrects the amount that Ukraine exported under the Black Sea deal to 32 million tons.
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Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-putin-woos-african-leaders-at-a-summit-in-russia-with-promises-of-expanding-trade-and-other-ties/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:10 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-putin-woos-african-leaders-at-a-summit-in-russia-with-promises-of-expanding-trade-and-other-ties/ |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesotans can legally possess and grow their own marijuana for recreational purposes starting Tuesday, Aug. 1, subject to limits meant to keep a lid on things while the state sets up a full-blown legal cannabis industry.
The Democratic-controlled Minnesota Legislature approved a massive legalization bill and Democrat Gov. Tim Walz signed it in May.
At least one Minnesota tribe plans to take advantage of its sovereignty and allow sales right away. But the state projects most legal retail sales won’t begin until early 2025, while it creates as licensing and regulatory system for the new industry.
Legalization followed a debate between critics who fear for the impacts on public safety and young people, and supporters who argue that prohibition of the drug had failed. Backers of the law framed legalization noted that people of color were more likely than whites to be arrested for minor offenses, and to suffer lasting consequences in employment and housing.
Minnesota is the 23rd state to legalize recreational marijuana, more than a decade after Colorado and Washington did so.
It comes as New York struggles to end the illicit trade while failing to quickly license legal shops with a focus on “social equity” and New Mexico punishes retailers for illegally selling weed sourced from California — amid wider gluts and plummeting prices for pot farmers.
Farmers, like members of the public, can’t legally move cannabis across state lines amid the ongoing federal ban.
Here’s a look at what will and won’t change in Minnesota as of Aug. 1:
WHAT’S LEGAL
Adults 21 and older can possess and travel in the state with 2 ounces of cannabis flower, 8 grams of concentrate and 800 milligrams worth of THC-containing edible products such as gummies and seltzers. They can have up to 2 pounds of cannabis flower at home.
Low-potency edibles made with THC from industrial hemp were legalized last year. They’ve been subject to a 10% marijuana tax since July 1.
That tax will apply to other marijuana products as they become licensed for sales, but not on sovereign tribal lands.
It remains illegal under federal law to bring marijuana in from out of state.
RETAIL WEED
The Red Lake Nation plans to sell recreational marijuana at its existing medical cannabis dispensary starting Aug. 1. But that’s on its remote reservation in northwestern Minnesota. It’s not clear yet if other tribes will follow.
While states like New Mexico managed to legalize and regulate marijuana within a year of legalization, Minnesota will take a bit longer.
Like New York, the Minnesota law gives priority to social equity considerations for awarding licenses. That can mean applicants from low-income areas that have felt disproportionate effects from marijuana being illegal, people whose convictions have been expunged, and military veterans who lost their honorable status due to a marijuana-related offense, to name a few.
That includes a long list of license categories for cannabis-related businesses, with application fees ranging from $250 for delivery services to $10,000 for growers and product manufacturers.
Local governments can’t ban cannabis sales, but they can limit the number of retailers to one per 12,500 residents.
MINNESOTA GROWN
Adults can grow up to eight plants at home, with no more than four flowering at a time. The plants must be grown in an enclosed, locked space that’s not open to public view, whether that’s indoors or in a garden.
Retailers can start selling marijuana seeds if they comply with labeling and other requirements set by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
WHERE AND WHERE NOT TO TOKE
Cannabis can be legally consumed on private property, including private homes. Eventually it will be allowed at special events where organizers have permits.
But it’s still illegal to smoke or vape cannabis anywhere that tobacco smoking is prohibited, including most businesses, apartment buildings and college campuses. Nothing in the state law prohibits smoking it on a public sidewalk, but local ordinances might.
Cannabis use remains illegal in all forms while driving, in public schools, on school buses, in state prisons, and on federal property. It can’t be smoked or vaped where a minor could inhale it.
GUNS AND GANJA
Federal law still bars cannabis consumers from owning firearms or ammunition.
That’s despite Second Amendment-friendly provisions in the Minnesota law. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has said that regardless of Minnesota’s new law, a “current user” of marijuana is defined as an “unlawful user” for federal purposes. That means people following state law are still prohibited from having guns and ganja.
Gun purchasers must fill out an ATF form saying whether or not they use marijuana. Lying on the form is a felony under federal law.
CLEANING SLATES
Minor marijuana convictions, like possession of small amounts, will began to be automatically expunged starting in August. More than 60,000 Minnesotans could benefit, but the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says the process could take up to a year to clear everyone’s record.
A special Cannabis Expungement Board will be formed to review felony convictions to determine eligibility case by case.
REGULATING IT
The Office of Cannabis Management will oversee the cannabis industry in Minnesota. It’s starting to list job positions, with applications for the office’s first executive director open through July 31.
The office will also take over the running of Minnesota’s medical marijuana program, which won’t be taxed.
Tribal governments will set their own rules. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-what-to-know-as-recreational-marijuana-becomes-legal-in-minnesota-on-aug-1/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:14 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-what-to-know-as-recreational-marijuana-becomes-legal-in-minnesota-on-aug-1/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-rapper-g-herbo-pleads-guilty-in-credit-card-fraud-that-paid-for-private-jets-and-designer-puppies/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:16 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-rapper-g-herbo-pleads-guilty-in-credit-card-fraud-that-paid-for-private-jets-and-designer-puppies/ |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — While Nashville International Airport hums to the tune of live music in a terminal filled with tourists and locals alike, this trendy gateway to Tennessee has quietly confronted an identity crisis.
Under a new state law, there is no clear agreement now about who’s in charge of airport operations. The confusion comes at a time when the airport is booming, its annual passengers having more than doubled over the past decade to 21.8 million by the 2023 fiscal year.
The nonprofit Metro Nashville Airport Authority and state officials argue that a new group of state appointees has lawfully taken over the authority’s board. But federal officials and the city contend the old board picked by Nashville’s mayor still has power.
Both boards met at the same time last week across town from each other.
The dispute heads to a hearing Friday in a state court in Nashville.
Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers approved plans for the state to make enough appointments to control the airport’s board starting in July. The change was among several passed by legislators seeking to curtail the power of the heavily Democratic city, whose metro council sunk a bid to bring the 2024 Republican National Convention to Nashville.
The city has filed suit against the state over the changes to the airport authority, which manages, operates, finances and maintains the international airport and a smaller one in Nashville. In the meantime, the authority installed the new board members on July 1, saying it can’t defy state law without a court order.
Citing the Tennessee Constitution, the city’s lawsuit argues the state violated home rule protections by singling out Nashville without requiring either a local referendum or a two-thirds vote of the metro council for the change.
The state responded that Nashville can’t make its claims because the airport authority is independent of the local government.
City leaders, however, reached out and received input from the Federal Aviation Administration, which can veto certain changes to the airport’s governance. The federal agency said it would keep recognizing the pre-July 1 board until a court decides the lawsuit.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper, a Democrat, has cried foul on the Republican change.
“Nashville’s airport has grown very successfully over the years by the direction of this board, and that’s unquestionable,” Cooper said during a recent meeting of the board he selected. “Any state action is purely about politics.”
Tennessee’s situation isn’t unprecedented. Due to FAA and court action, North Carolina’s 2013 law to shift control of Charlotte Douglas International Airport from the city to a separate regional board never came to fruition. Mississippi’s 2016 law to reconfigure Jackson’s airport remains blocked by an ongoing legal challenge. Georgia lawmakers flirted with flipping the Atlanta airport’s governance in 2019 but opposition sank the proposal.
Nashville officials say the state is upending an airport board without complaints about its performance, even during a time of extensive expansion.
In the 2023 budget year, the airport unveiled a new lobby, added more restaurants and live music, opened an additional parking garage and made progress toward an onsite hotel. The airport hosts country, jazz and bluegrass concerts in its terminals and exhibits the work of local artists.
The facility has endured growing pains, too, marked by passenger pickup lines sometimes stretching well past a nearby interstate exit.
Lawmakers passed the change despite predictions in April by former FAA official Kirk Shaffer that it would create competing boards in “a messy and costly stalemate that damages all involved,” possibly jeopardizing federal grant money.
So far, the fight is largely unfolding in court filings. The city says lost grant money could halt projects to accommodate more flights, spurring cancellations and delays. The state and the airport authority argue the grants aren’t in jeopardy. The authority said Nashville officials are making “sky-is-falling” exaggerations.
Republican lawmakers contend the state deserves more say over the growing airport because of its regional impact. House Speaker Cameron Sexton said lawmakers created “the legally sanctioned board.”
As an intervenor in the lawsuit, the airport authority has remained neutral on whether the new law is unconstitutional. Updates to the FAA have never resulted in the federal agency directing the authority to stop following the state law, while even worse disruptions would result from an order to temporarily return to the preexisting board, the authority wrote.
The state-majority board met at the airport on Wednesday, conducting standard-fare business on contracts and reports. At the same time, the members of the mayoral-picked board gathered in city hall, reiterating that the FAA still acknowledges them while criticizing the state law and approving an outside attorney hire.
In a letter to the Nashville community at large, the authority’s CEO has acknowledged the “frustration and confusion” caused by the dispute. But he said the authority is responsible for staying legally compliant.
“As an airport authority, we do not take political positions,” airport authority President and CEO Doug Kruelen wrote in the July 6 letter. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-whos-in-charge-of-nashvilles-airport-us-and-tennessee-officials-disagree-under-a-new-state-law/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:22 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-whos-in-charge-of-nashvilles-airport-us-and-tennessee-officials-disagree-under-a-new-state-law/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-rioter-who-stole-badge-radio-from-beaten-officer-on-jan-6-gets-more-than-4-years-in-prison/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:22 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-rioter-who-stole-badge-radio-from-beaten-officer-on-jan-6-gets-more-than-4-years-in-prison/ |
SULLIVAN COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Tennessee has a new state record for cutthroat trout, and the massive fish was caught by a 10-year-old on the Holston River.
According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), Palmer Tipton reeled in the 4-pound 12-ounce trout in the Boone tailwater along the Holston River.
The previous record cutthroat trout was caught in the South Fork Holston River in October 2022. It weighed 2 pounds 8 ounces.
In a social media post congratulating Palmer, the TWRA shared that the agency had released 2,550 cutthroat trout into the upper portion of Fort Patrick Henry Reservoir on the Holston below Boone Dam. Cutthroat trout aren’t native to the Eastern United States but have been stocked by various agencies in select waterways.
Tennessee is home to other species of trout, most of which can be found in cooler waters in the mountainous parts of the state. | https://www.wjhl.com/outdoors-appalachia/10-year-old-catches-state-record-trout-in-holston-river/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:24 | 0 | https://www.wjhl.com/outdoors-appalachia/10-year-old-catches-state-record-trout-in-holston-river/ |
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 nine people in the area of a newly constructed and as yet unoccupied 12-story apartment building, as well as an unoccupied adjacent Security Service of Ukraine building. “Russian missile terror again,” Zelenskyy 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.
___
Heintz reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Andrew Katell in New York contributed.
___
An earlier version corrected that Oleksiy Danilov is Ukraine’s secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, not defense minister.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-russia-says-a-ukrainian-drone-was-shot-down-outside-moscow/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:30 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-russia-says-a-ukrainian-drone-was-shot-down-outside-moscow/ |
A British court ruled Friday against London suburbs that tried to block a pollution tax on older cars as green policies become a hot political issue in the U.K. amid increasingly dramatic impacts of global climate change.
The High Court ruled that Mayor Sadiq Khan had the authority to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone, or ULEZ, which charges drivers of older gas and diesel vehicles 12.50 pounds ($16) a day they operate, to the city’s outskirts next month.
Five conservative councils challenged Khan’s right to impose the measure. They criticized the expansion to an area where there are fewer public transport options and people are more reliant on cars, and because of a disproportionate impact on lower-income drivers who can’t afford newer, cleaner cars.
Khan said the ruling would allow the expanded zone to take effect Aug. 29 and help reduce air pollution. He said he would also expand a program that provides financial assistance to some families and small businesses to scrap older cars.
“The ULEZ has already reduced toxic nitrogen dioxide air pollution by nearly half in central London and a fifth in inner London,” said Khan, a member of the Labour Party. “The coming expansion will see 5 million more Londoners being able to breathe cleaner air.”
The five councils that challenged the zone issued a joint statement saying they were “hugely disappointed”. While they accepted that Khan may have the legal right to implement the measure, they questioned whether it was morally right.
“It is evident that the mayor of London and (Transport for London) do not realize the damage the extension will have to the lives of residents and businesses in outer London as well as those outside of its borders,” the group said.
The city’s transportation agency said most gas vehicles under 16 years old and diesel vehicles less than 6 years old comply with the standard.
In April, a study from London City Hall found levels of nitrogen dioxide exceeded the legal limit in 14 of the city’s 32 boroughs. Khan argued he had a statutory responsibility to take measures to improve air quality.
Nine out of 10 cars on the road in outer London on an average day comply with standards, Transport for London said. The Royal Automobile Club said nearly 700,000 licensed cars in London are unlikely to comply.
Fury over the the ULEZ expansion was credited last week with helping Tories hold one of three seats in Parliament in a special election. Conservatives had been expected to lose all three but they retained their seat in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Interestingly, the emissions charge was first imposed in 2015 by then-Mayor Boris Johnson, the Conservative who went on to become prime minister before resigning last year amid several scandals and quitting Parliament last month. It was his House of Commons seat Tories retained in the by-election.
The issue has now caused a crisis for the Labour Party, which is seen as likely to return to power next year after being ousted by Conservatives in 2010.
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said there was no doubt ULEZ cost them the Uxbridge election and said Khan should “reflect” on the policy.
Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair was widely quoted this week in a New Statesman magazine interview in which he cautioned: “Don’t ask us to do a huge amount when frankly whatever we do in Britain is not really going to impact climate change.” The interview was conducted before the special elections.
The dust-up over how to control emissions comes as July is on target to be the hottest month in recorded human history and the effects of a warming planet can be seen in catastrophic wildfires, flooding and alarming ocean temperatures. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres this week declared: “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”
While the by-election has caused consternation for Labour over how best to stick to a green agenda, it is also sparking a rethink for Conservatives who have been accused recently of backing away from pledges to combat climate change.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signaled this week he was open to revisiting net-zero policies, saying he’d take a pragmatic approach that didn’t add more hassles or costs to people’s lives. He caused confusion by not recommitting to a ban on gas and diesel cars by 2030, though cabinet minister Michael Gove later insisted that deadline was firm. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-a-pollution-tax-on-older-cars-can-be-extended-to-londons-suburbs-after-a-british-court-ruling/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:29 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-a-pollution-tax-on-older-cars-can-be-extended-to-londons-suburbs-after-a-british-court-ruling/ |
BEIRUT (AP) — An impasse at the United Nations over a border crossing with Syria’s last rebel-held enclave is putting 4.1 million Syrian there in danger, the president of the International Rescue Committee warned this week.
David Miliband’s comments came more than two weeks after the U.N. Security Council failed to renew the mandate for the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey, which secures aid for Syrians in the enclave.
The vast majority of people in northwestern Syria live in poverty and rely on aid to survive — a crisis that was further worsened by a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit southern Turkey and northern Syria in February. The earthquake killed more than 50,000 people, including over 6,000 in Syria, according to the United Nations. The quake also displaced hundreds of thousands of others.
“The people of northwest Syria can ill afford a new wave of suffering, having lived through the trauma of the earthquake,” Miliband told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday.
He urged the Security Council to “do its job” and resume the humanitarian border crossing.
The council earlier in July failed to adopt one of two rival resolutions on the crossing. Russia, a top ally of the Syrian government in Damascus, vetoed a Swiss-Brazilian compromise resolution backed by Western countries that renewed authorization for the crossing of aid through Bab al-Hawa for six months. Moscow’s draft resolution with additional requirements — including increasing aid delivery to the opposition enclave through Damascus — only received China’s backing.
The paralysis also comes as donor fatigue has led to aid cuts in aid to both northwestern Syria and neighboring countries hosting millions of Syrian refugees who fled the ongoing conflict, now in its 13th year.
Syrian President Bashar Assad opened two additional crossing points from Turkey at Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai to increase the aid flow to the quake victims. The U.N. says that some 85% of its aid to northwestern Syria goes through Bab al-Hawa, a more efficient route.
For the moment, Miliband said the International Rescue Committee is trying to cope by using other crossings and finding other ways of getting aid into the enclave.
“Our point of view is that interference with the humanitarian crossing point poses severe danger to the efficiency and the effectiveness of humanitarian aid,” he explained.
Additionally, the United States said Monday that it has joined major donors in demanding the U.N. be able to deliver aid through Bab al-Hawa independently and to everyone in need — a rejection of conditions set by Syria and backed by its ally Russia that Damascus control all aid and banning U.N. communications with rebels in the region.
The Security Council initially authorized aid deliveries in 2014 from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan through four border crossing points into rebel-held areas in Syria.
However, Russia, backed by China, over the years successfully applied pressure to reduce the authorized crossings to just Bab al-Hawa, and the mandates from a year to six months.
Moscow alleges that militant groups in the northwestern province of Idlib are taking the aid and preventing it from reaching families in need. Russia and China have been calling for all aid to be routed through Damascus instead.
But Syrians in the northwestern enclave, as well as Western countries critical of Assad, say they are skeptical of the push.
“There’s a lot of danger for people in need in northwest Syria,” Miliband said. “And it’s very important that they’re not forgotten.” | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-aid-group-official-warns-that-impasse-at-the-un-on-border-crossing-puts-4-1-million-syrians-at-risk/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:37 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-aid-group-official-warns-that-impasse-at-the-un-on-border-crossing-puts-4-1-million-syrians-at-risk/ |
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by: AP Posted: Jul 28, 2023 / 10:32 AM EDT Updated: Jul 28, 2023 / 10:32 AM EDT MOSCOW (AP) — Russian military says it shot down a Ukrainian missile over a southern Russian city, accuses Kyiv of a “terror attack.” | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-russian-military-says-it-shot-down-a-ukrainian-missile-over-a-southern-russian-city-accuses-kyiv-of-a-terror-attack/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:43 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-russian-military-says-it-shot-down-a-ukrainian-missile-over-a-southern-russian-city-accuses-kyiv-of-a-terror-attack/ |
MONCURE, N.C. (AP) — A Vietnamese company planning an electric vehicle plant in central North Carolina that would employ 7,500 workers met a milestone Friday as its top executive joined Gov. Roy Cooper and others for a groundbreaking ceremony.
VinFast announced last year that it would build its first manufacturing facility outside Vietnam in Chatham County, about 30 miles southwest of Raleigh.
The planned $4 billion investment would create North Carolina’s first car manufacturing plant and North Carolina's largest state-backed economic development project as far as job creation, according to news outlets. North Carolina had missed out on car plants over the years to other Southeastern states.
"(For) decades we’ve wanted an automaker in North Carolina, and you know, somebody was looking after us. We were just waiting for that EV market,” Cooper said at Friday’s event.
VinFast, which makes fully electric SUVs, aims to open in 2025 a manufacturing and asssembly plant with initial production capacity of 150,000 vehicles annually.
The company has submitted site plans to Chatham County government and received county and environmental permits to begin work.
The state and Chatham County offered VinFast up to $1.25 billion in incentives that can be reached if it meets hiring and investment thresholds. The amount includes $450 million that the General Assembly set aside for infrastructure around the plant.
VinFast, which was only formed in 2017, pivoted two years ago toward electric SUVs and targeted foreign markets. The company says it’s so far delivered 350 of its five-seat model to U.S. customers since shipping its first batch late last year.
“Our project represents a significant investment and we’re proud to create thousands of jobs here in North Carolina, but we believe the recognition that we receive here goes beyond the figures and reflects the mutual ambition that we all are pursuing,” VinFast CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy said at the ceremony.
Earlier this year, the company announced it would delay the production start in Chatham County from 2024 to 2025. A company executive acknowledged that the original timeline had been aggressive but reaffirmed the company’s commitment to build. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2023/07/29/vietnamese-carmaker-begins-build-for-n-c--electric-vehicle-plant-that-will-employ-thousands | 2023-07-29T01:30:45 | 1 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2023/07/29/vietnamese-carmaker-begins-build-for-n-c--electric-vehicle-plant-that-will-employ-thousands |
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s authorities on Friday called on the country’s international allies to put pressure on Azerbaijan after accusing it of carrying out a three-day blockade of humanitarian aid to Nagorno-Karabakh.
The accusations mark another flashpoint in the tense relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan which have fought over the breakaway region for decades.
The Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister, Vahan Kostanyan, accused Azerbaijan of blocking the so-called Lachin Corridor and demanded international allies step in to allow 19 trucks with 400 tons of humanitarian aid to pass. According to Armenian authorities, the trucks have been stuck there since the evening of July 26.
“The additional pressure of our international partners on Baku is very important. We have heard statements from our various colleagues, but we don’t think this is enough,” he said.
Kostanyan previously also accused Azerbaijan of ignoring a ruling by the International Court of Justice ordering Azerbaijan authorities to ensure unimpeded movement in the Lachin Corridor, the only road from Armenia into Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ongoing dispute over the road has impeded food supplies to the region and aggravated tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which have fought two wars since the end of Soviet rule.
Nagorno-Karabakh had substantial autonomy under the Soviet Union and came under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian military in 1994 at the end of years of separatist fighting. Armenian forces also took sizable territory surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh itself.
In 2020, Azerbaijan regained most of that surrounding territory and pieces of Nagorno-Karabakh itself in a war which killed about 6,800 soldiers. Under a Russia-brokered armistice, transit along the Lachin Corridor was to continue under the guarantee of Russian peacekeepers.
According to Armenian media, trucks and foreign diplomats are currently in the village of Kornidzor on Armenia’s border with Nagorno-Karabakh, which is at one end of the Lachin Corridor.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said that it viewed Armenia’s attempt to send a convoy to Nagorno-Karabakh “under the guise of ‘humanitarian aid’” as a violation of Azerbaijan’s “territorial integrity and sovereignty.” Azerbaijan also accuses Armenia of smuggling weapons into Nagorno-Karabakh.
The latest flare-up comes weeks following talks in Brussels and Washington aimed at calming tensions between the two countries after Azerbaijan opened a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor in April. At that point, the road had already been blocked for four months by demonstrators who were protesting what they claimed to be illegal mining and other ecological abuses by Armenians in the area. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-armenia-calls-on-allies-to-help-get-aid-to-nagorno-karabakh-during-tensions-with-azerbaijan/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:45 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-armenia-calls-on-allies-to-help-get-aid-to-nagorno-karabakh-during-tensions-with-azerbaijan/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-salvage-crews-board-a-cargo-ship-burning-off-the-netherlands-the-smoke-and-flames-are-easing/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:50 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-salvage-crews-board-a-cargo-ship-burning-off-the-netherlands-the-smoke-and-flames-are-easing/ |
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The rival leaders of ethnically divided Cyprus on Friday jointly appealed for information that could lead to the buried remains of people who vanished amid violence and war decades ago, a task with increasing urgency as eyewitnesses die.
Cyprus’ Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Ersin Tatar, the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots, made the appeal in a symbolic move aiming to show that the purely humanitarian issue should stay above the complex and often bitter politics of the nearly half-century ethnic split.
It also sought to inject some fresh urgency into efforts to resume deadlocked peace talks. A deal has eluded Cypriot leaders since a 1974 coup aiming at union with Greece triggered a Turkish invasion that entrenched that division.
Both Christodoulides and Tatar toured the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) that has, since 2006, been tasked with locating, unearthing and identifying the remains of individuals who vanished during clashes in the early 1960s and the 1974 invasion.
“This is a humanitarian issue, therefore this is something which is outside politics,” Tatar told reporters. “What ever we can do to improve, as I saw the discovery of missing persons is something that we owe to the families.”
Christodoulides echoed a shared commitment to collect more information, but added that progress on this issue would also send a “clear political message” about building trust between the two sides that haven’t engaged in direct talks in six years.
Information is now at a premium, said Paul-Henri Arni, the U.N. appointed member of the tripartite committee that also includes a Greek and Turkish Cypriot representative.
Arni told The Associated Press that the CMP has found, identified and returned to relatives the remains of 51.5% of all missing persons.
But having the leaders nudge anyone with information to step forward is essential to resolving the most difficult remaining cases, in which individuals were killed at one spot and buried elsewhere without witnesses.
According to CMP figures, of 1,510 Greek Cypriots and 492 Turkish Cypriots who are missing, 769 and 200 respectively have not been found.
“The issue is access to new information at the moment where witnesses are passing away,” Arni said. “And so we’ve discussed with the leaders ways they could help us through the own networks, also with specific former combatants.”
Work is slow as the chances of finding remains at excavated sites currently stands at 10% — far below the 50% when the CMP began work in earnest in 2006.
Arni said another key source of information are archived witness accounts which have been digitized for easer access, as well as sifting through 900,000 pages of U.N., U.K. and International Committee of the Red Cross archives which produced 3,740 documents of actionable data.
Christodoulides told reporters following the visit to the CMP premises that access to Turkey military archives is still restricted.
Some 80% of the CMP’s 3.2 million euro ($3.5 million) annual budget is funded by the EU and Arni said additional funding would enable the committee to augment is current number of seven excavation teams to speed up work on 65 new sites.
Christodoulides said it would be a “shame” for more information becoming available but without additional teams to act on them, adding that he would formally ask the EU for more funding. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-divided-cyprus-rival-leaders-appeal-for-information-on-the-missing-as-eyewitnesses-die/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:52 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-divided-cyprus-rival-leaders-appeal-for-information-on-the-missing-as-eyewitnesses-die/ |
PHOENIX (AP) — By the time Aaliyah Ibarra started second grade, her family had moved five times in four years in search of stable housing. As she was about to start a new school, her mother, Bridget Ibarra, saw how much it was affecting her education.
At 8 years old, her daughter did not know the alphabet.
“She was in second grade and couldn’t tell me any of the letters. I would point them out and she didn’t know,” Bridget Ibarra said. “She would sing the song in order, but as soon as I mixed them up, she had no idea.”
“I just didn’t know what letters were which,” says Aaliyah, now 9. “I know them now.”
The family’s struggles coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic that forced Aaliyah to begin her school experience online. Unfamiliar with a computer, Aaliyah was regularly kicked out of the virtual classroom, her mother said. Teachers complained she was not looking at the screen and took too many breaks.
Zoom school was especially difficult for Aaliyah because she was homeless — and like thousands of students nationally, her school didn’t know.
Homeless students often fell through the cracks during the tumult of the pandemic, when many schools struggled to keep track of families with unstable housing. Not being identified as homeless meant students lost out on eligibility for crucial support such as transportation, free uniforms, laundry services and other help.
Years later, the effects have cascaded. As students nationwide have struggled to make up for missed learning, educators have lost critical time identifying who needs the most help. Schools are offering tutoring and counseling but now have limited time to spend federal pandemic relief money for homeless students, said Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, a national homelessness organization.
“There is urgency because of the losses that have occurred over the pandemic — loss in learning, the gaps in attendance and the health crisis,” she said. Many education leaders, Duffield said, don’t even know about federal money earmarked for homeless students — and the programs expire next year.
The number of children identified as homeless by schools nationwide dropped by 21% from the 2018-2019 school year to the 2020-2021 school year, according to federal data. But the decrease, representing more than 288,000 students, likely includes many kids whose homelessness was unknown to schools. Federal counts of homeless people living on the street or in shelters also appeared to decrease in 2021 due to pandemic disruptions, but by 2022, those numbers shot up to the highest in a decade.
In Bridget Ibarra’s case, she chose not to tell the school her kids were homeless — and she says teachers, disconnected from students by a screen, never asked. She was worried if officials knew the family was staying in a shelter, and the school was obliged by law to provide transportation, the family would face pressure to enroll in a different school that was closer.
She knew how hard the disruptions were on her kids.
“I know they didn’t enjoy moving as often as we did. They would say things like, ‘We’re moving again? We just moved!’” Ibarra said.
“When I moved, I missed my friends and my teacher,” Aaliyah said.
The stigma and fear associated with homelessness also can lead families not to tell anyone they lack secure housing, Duffield said.
“If we don’t identify children proactively, we can’t ensure that they have everything they need to be successful in school and even go to school,” she said.
Before the pandemic, Ibarra and her two children moved in with her brother in Phoenix because she was having trouble making ends meet. Then her brother died unexpectedly. At the time, Ibarra was pregnant with her third child and couldn’t afford the rent with what she earned working at a fast-food restaurant.
The family spent the next six months at Maggie’s Place, a shelter in North Phoenix that caters to pregnant women. The four of them, including Aaliyah’s infant brother, moved next to Homeward Bound, an apartment-like shelter for families, where they were living when the pandemic hit a few months before Aaliyah started kindergarten.
Aaliyah’s school, David Crockett Elementary, stuck with online learning her entire kindergarten year. Aaliyah and her older brother, joined by several other children, spent most of their school days on computers in a mixed-grade makeshift classroom at the shelter.
“It was like she wasn’t even in school,” Ibarra said.
While the shelter helped the family meet their basic needs, Ibarra said she asked the school repeatedly for extra academic help for her daughter. She blamed the struggles partly on online learning, but she also felt the school was giving all their attention to Aaliyah’s older brother because he already was designated as a special education student with an individualized education program, or IEP.
The principal, Sean Hannafin, said school officials met frequently with the children’s mom. He said they offered the support they had available, but it was hard to determine online which students had needs that required intervention.
“The best thing we could do was take that data and flag them for when we returned in person, because you need a certain amount of time to observe a child in a classroom,” he said. “The online setting is not the place to observe.”
A federal law aimed at ensuring homeless students have equal access to education provides rights and services to children without a “fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.”
Many students aren’t identified as homeless when their parents or guardians enroll them. At school, teachers, cafeteria staff, aides or bus drivers often notice other students whose well-being may need looking into. Students may have unwashed clothes, or many late arrivals or absences.
But with children learning online, teachers and staff often didn’t see those things.
Overall, the drop in the student homelessness count began before the pandemic, but it was much steeper in the first full school year after COVID-19 hit. The percentage of enrolled students identified as homeless in the U.S. dropped from 2.7% in 2018-2019 to 2.2% in 2020-2021.
Over that timeframe, Arizona had one of the biggest drops in the number of students identified as homeless, from about 21,000 to nearly 14,000. But there were signs many families were in distress. KateLynn Dean, who works at Homeward Bound, said the shelter saw huge numbers of families dealing with homelessness for the first time during the pandemic.
Eventually, Bridget Ibarra had to enroll Aaliyah in a different school.
After getting kicked out of low-income housing last year when their property owner sold the building, the family lived with Ibarra’s mother before finding another low-income unit in Chandler, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Phoenix.
Once the family moved, enrolling in school was far from easy. Aaliyah missed the first three weeks of the school year last fall because of delays obtaining transcripts, and Ibarra insisted she not start the year without a plan to address her delays in reading and writing. Aaliyah spent that time playing and sitting around the house.
“Honestly, Aaliyah said she didn’t care how long, because she didn’t want to go to that school anyway,” her mother said. She said Aaliyah missed her friends and was tired of moving.
At Aaliyah’s new school, Frye Elementary, Principal Alexis Cruz Freeman saw for herself how hard it was to keep in touch with families when children were not in classrooms. Several students disappeared altogether. But she said families have started re-engaging with school. The state of Arizona reported more than 22,000 students were identified as homeless in the last school year — twice as many as the year before.
Ibarra said she tried to shield as much discomfort about their living situation from her kids as possible. It worked. Aaliyah doesn’t remember much about the places they’ve stayed except the people that surrounded her family.
Aaliyah has gained ground academically at her new school, Cruz Freeman said. She still has trouble pronouncing and recognizing some words. But by the end of the school year, she was able to read a text and write four sentences based on its meaning. She is also performing at grade level in math.
The principal considers her a success story in part because of her mother’s support.
“She was an advocate for her children, which is all that we can ever ask for,” Cruz Freeman said.
___
Associated Press data journalist Sharon Lurye contributed to this report from New Orleans.
___
The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-schools-lost-track-of-homeless-kids-during-the-pandemic-many-face-a-steep-path-to-recovery/ | 2023-07-29T01:30:56 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-schools-lost-track-of-homeless-kids-during-the-pandemic-many-face-a-steep-path-to-recovery/ |
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Pope Francis urged governments to do more to fight climate change and protect “our common home” as improving weather conditions Friday helped firefighters contain wildfires in Greece, Italy and other countries in southern Europe.
Francis, who has been outspoken on environmental issues, sent a telegram of condolences to Greece, where wildfires killed five people over the past week, including the pilots of a water-dropping aircraft.
The pope noted that successive heat waves have exacerbated the dangers of the summer fire season. He offered his prayers for firefighters and emergency personnel in particular.
“(I hope) that the risks to our common home, exacerbated by the present climate crisis, will spur all people to renew their efforts to care for the gift of creation, for the sake of future generations,” Francis said.
Fueled by the heat waves and strong gusts of wind, wildfires in Europe’s Mediterranean region have kept travelers and residents on alert. In Greece, fires scorched hundreds of square kilometers of land outside Athens, on the island of Rhodes and elsewhere this month.
As the situation improved considerably on Friday, Greece’s minister for the police unexpectedly stepped down, citing “personal grounds.” Greek media said Notis Mitarachi’s resignation was requested after it emerged he had been on a family holiday during the wildfire crisis.
The main opposition Syriza party issued a statement accusing the center-right government of using “personal grounds” as a euphemism for “(Mitarachi’s) holidays while the country was burning from end to end.”
In central Greece, authorities maintained an exclusion zone around one of the country’s largest air force bases after a wildfire triggered powerful explosions at a nearby ammunition depot Thursday. Fighter jets stationed at the 111th Combat Wing base were moved to other facilities.
The depot blasts near the central city of Volos shattered windows in nearby towns and prompted the evacuation of more than 2,000 people. Local news broadcasts showed a ground-shaking fireball erupting.
Residents were rushed onto private boats mobilized by the coast guard and taken to a conference center in Volos, some 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the weapons storage site. A civilian traffic ban and evacuation order remained in effect Friday within a 3-kilometer (2-mile) radius of the depot.
The explosions did not affect flights at Volos international airport, officials told The Associated Press.
A drop in temperatures and calmer winds helped firefighters get a handle on the blazes in Greece and all major fires were contained by midday Friday, Greek Fire Service officials said.
Conditions also improved elsewhere in Europe’s Mediterranean regions thanks to cooler temperatures, allowing firefighters to contain wildfires along the Croatian coast and in Sicily.
Firefighting teams in Turkey also brought a wildfire burning close to the southern Mediterranean resort of Kemer under control, four days after it erupted, Ibrahim Yumakli, the country’s forestry minister, said.
The governments of the countries hit by heat waves and fires have steered public debate away from the potential impact on tourism. Rhodes, where a fire last weekend required about 19,000 people to be evacuated from several locations on the island, was promised state support Friday for its international advertising campaign.
In Germany, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach sought Friday to address Italian irritation over a mid-July social media post in which he described the heat wave he encountered on a visit to Italy as “spectacular” and added that “if it goes on like this, these vacation destinations will have no future in the long term.”
Lauterbach told reporters in Berlin that he wasn’t warning against vacations in southern Europe and plans to visit Italy again himself.
“Of course, it is more difficult now for the southern countries to organize heat protection in such a way that it is also accessible for every tourist, but I think those countries will know exactly what they have to do,” he said.
Vassilis Kikilias, the Greek minister for climate change and civil protection, said fires had burned 400 square kilometers (155 square miles) of land in the country in July alone, while the recent average is 500 square kilometers (nearly 200 square miles) in a year.
“Is the situation any better in other countries bordering the Mediterranean? It’s a fair question … but the answer is no,” Kikilias said.
“The climate crisis that brought us this unprecedented heat wave is here. It’s not a theory. It is our actual experience,” he said. “This is not something that will just occur this year. It will last and we have to face the consequences of what that means.”
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Winfield reported from Rome. Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of climate issues at https://apnews.com/climate-and-environment | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-exclusion-zone-set-up-around-greek-military-base-after-wildfires-trigger-powerful-explosions/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:00 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-exclusion-zone-set-up-around-greek-military-base-after-wildfires-trigger-powerful-explosions/ |
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 this week, 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 recently sounded more halting.
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 reaction.
“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 Wednesday evening for Major League Baseball owners.
“I said I’m so glad you’re here,” Schumer said. “And he made a very good speech.”
The Republican leader is one of several senators who have been absent due to health issues this year. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, 90, was out of the Senate for more than two months as she recovered from a bout of shingles. And Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., 53, took leave for several weeks to get treatment for clinical depression.
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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro and AP videojournalist Mike Pesoli contributed to this report. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-sen-mcconnell-says-he-plans-to-serve-his-full-term-as-leader-despite-questions-about-his-health/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:02 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-sen-mcconnell-says-he-plans-to-serve-his-full-term-as-leader-despite-questions-about-his-health/ |
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.”
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EDITORS’ NOTE: An earlier version of this story misidentified the name of “The Dan O’Donnell Show.”
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Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-senate-rebukes-wisconsin-congressman-who-yelled-vulgarities-at-high-school-age-pages/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:08 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-senate-rebukes-wisconsin-congressman-who-yelled-vulgarities-at-high-school-age-pages/ |
BENGALURU, India (AP) — The final meeting of climate and environment ministers from the world’s largest economies ended without an agreement or joint statement Friday despite pleas from leading figures for nations to show a united front on climate change as weather records shatter across the globe.
In a gathering in Chennai in India, ministers from the Group of 20 countries — who emit around 80% of the world’s planet-warming gases — failed to agree on four of 68 points of discussion.
A document published by the group shows countries did not agree on aiming to peak emissions by 2025, moving to clean energy and a tax on carbon as a way to reduce emissions.
“We couldn’t get a consensus but we agreed on a lot,” said Canada’s climate minister Steven Guilbeault at a virtual press conference after the meeting.
The ministers’ decisions will now be passed on to country leaders ahead of a summit in New Delhi in September this year. It will be the group’s last chance to issue a joint statement on climate this year.
On Thursday, the president of the upcoming United Nations climate talks Sultan al-Jaber and the U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell attended the Chennai meeting to urge countries to issue an ambitious statement that will make sure the world is on track to keep global warming within the agreed temperature limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
The world has currently warmed around 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times and effects are already being felt all over the world, with hosts India especially vulnerable. Earlier this year, more than 100 people died during a heat wave in the center of the country and last week at least 27 people died in western India due to landslides triggered by heavy rains.
Since India took over the G-20 presidency last December, none of the meetings that deal with various policy areas like foreign affairs, finance, energy and climate change have come out with a joint communique but their announcements may form part of a final document released at the leaders’ summit in September.
Earlier this month, a meeting of finance chiefs and central bank governors of the G-20 leading economies ended in Gandhinagar in the western state of Gujarat without a consensus because of differences between countries over the war in Ukraine.
Similarly, a meeting of energy ministers in Goa last week ended unsuccessfully with the final summary failing to mention a phase down of fossil fuels and ministers did not agree to raise ambition to treble renewable energy targets.
The meeting in Chennai was the last of four meetings of G-20 climate ministers. They had earlier met in Bengaluru, Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Mumbai.
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Follow Sibi Arasu on Twitter at @sibi123
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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.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-g20-ministers-reach-agreement-on-most-but-not-all-climate-issues/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:08 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-g20-ministers-reach-agreement-on-most-but-not-all-climate-issues/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-singapore-hangs-first-woman-in-19-years-after-she-was-convicted-of-trafficking-31-grams-of-heroin/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:14 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-singapore-hangs-first-woman-in-19-years-after-she-was-convicted-of-trafficking-31-grams-of-heroin/ |
BERLIN (AP) — A leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany on Friday urged members of the country’s main opposition conservative bloc to break down a “firewall” meant to isolate his party, which is at record levels in polls.
The 10-year-old Alternative for Germany, or AfD, gathered in the eastern city of Magdeburg for a convention stretching over the next two weekends at which it plans to choose candidates and set its policy platform for next June’s European Parliament election.
Recent polls put support for AfD at 19-22%, behind only the main conservative opposition bloc. Earlier this week, the latter’s main leader, Friedrich Merz, insisted that there would be no cooperation even at the local level between his Christian Democratic Union and AfD, after his apparent suggestion that they might work together prompted criticism from fellow conservatives.
AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla told delegates that “polls aren’t results” and they should view recent surveys with “humility.” But he pointed to his party’s prospects of winning three state elections in eastern regions next year, and said that “we could take on government responsibility.”
The first AfD candidates recently won elections in eastern Germany to lead a county administration and become the full-time mayor of a municipality.
Chrupalla mocked Merz, who recently described his conservative bloc as an “alternative for Germany with substance.” He said that “we are the original,” and argued that Merz has recognized “it was wrong to put up a firewall against our party.”
“I call on all patriots in the CDU: tear down this … wall,” he said.
Chrupalla spent large parts of his speech assailing the environmentalist Green party, part of the center-left coalition of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and also underlined his party’s opposition to weapons deliveries to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. He asserted that today’s European Union is “responsible for a disastrous migration policy, with sanctions policies that are harmful to the economy.”
The AfD convention will, probably several days in, address the party’s position on the EU and whether Germany should leave. The party’s other co-leader, Alice Weidel, told ZDF television Friday that it favors a dismantling of EU areas of responsibility, but didn’t specify whether the bloc should be dissolved. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-german-far-right-leader-urges-conservatives-to-break-down-firewall-against-his-party/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:16 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-german-far-right-leader-urges-conservatives-to-break-down-firewall-against-his-party/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street’s rally got back on track Friday following more encouraging profit reports and the latest signal that inflation is loosening its chokehold on the economy.
The S&P 500 rose 1% to its highest close in more than 15 months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 176 points, or 0.5% after breaking a 13-day winning streak the day before. The Nasdaq composite jumped 1.9% as Big Tech stocks led the market.
Stocks have been rising recently on hopes high inflation is cooling enough to get the Federal Reserve to stop hiking interest rates. That in turn could allow the economy to continue growing and avoid a long-predicted recession. The S&P 500 closed out its third straight winning week and its ninth in the last 11.
A report on Friday bolstered those hopes, saying the inflation measure the Fed prefers to use slowed last month by a touch more than expected. Perhaps just as importantly, data also showed that total compensation for workers rose less than expected during the spring. While that’s discouraging for workers looking for bigger raises, investors see it adding less upward pressure on inflation.
The hope among traders is that the slowdown in inflation means the Federal Reserve’s hike to interest rates on Wednesday will be the final one of this cycle. The federal funds rate has leaped to a level between 5.25% and 5.50%, up from virtually zero early last year. High interest rates work to lower inflation by slowing the entire economy and hurting prices for stocks and other investments.
Critics, though, say the stock market’s rally may have gone too far, too fast. The full effects of the Fed’s rate hikes have yet to make their way fully through the system. Other parts of the economy could still crack under the pressure, like the three U.S. bank failures this spring that shook confidence. Plus, inflation remains above the Fed’s target level, and the central bank could have to keep the brakes on the economy a while to get it down to target.
“Don’t underestimate central bank commitment to 2% inflation,” Bank of America economists wrote in a BofA Global Research report.
Still, hopes for a halt to rate hikes helped technology stocks and others seen as big beneficiaries from easier rates to rally and lead the market Friday.
Microsoft, Apple and Amazon each rose at least 1.4% and were the three strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500.
Companies also continued to deliver stronger profits for the spring than analysts expected. Roughly halfway through the earnings season, more companies than usual are topping profit forecasts, according to FactSet.
Intel rose 6.6% after reporting a profit for the latest quarter, when analysts were expecting a loss.
Food giant Mondelez International climbed 3.7% after reporting stronger results for the spring than expected. The company behind Oreo and Ritz also raised its forecasts for financial results for the full year.
On the losing end was Exxon Mobil. It fell 1.2% and was the heaviest single weight on the S&P 500. It reported weaker profit for the spring than expected, though its revenue topped forecasts.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 44.82 points to 4,582.23. The Dow added 176.57 to 35,459.29, and the Nasdaq jumped 265.55 to 14,316.66.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4% after the Bank of Japan made moves that could allow longer-term interest rates to rise. Stocks rose in China and were modestly higher across Europe.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.95% from 4.00% late Thursday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans.
The two-year Treasury, which moves more on expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do, fell to 4.87% from 4.92%.
Yields dipped after a survey said sentiment among U.S. consumers wasn’t quite as high in July as thought, though it was still the strongest reading since October 2021.
The report from the University of Michigan also said expectations for inflation inched up in July but remain well below where they were last year. The Fed wants to keep such expectations anchored because it fears a vicious cycle where expectations for high inflation only worsen it.
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AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-stock-market-today-asian-shares-mixed-tokyo-falls-as-bank-of-japan-adjusts-bond-purchase-policy/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:22 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-stock-market-today-asian-shares-mixed-tokyo-falls-as-bank-of-japan-adjusts-bond-purchase-policy/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-supreme-courts-student-loan-decision-will-lower-us-deficit-according-to-new-white-house-projection/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:23 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-supreme-courts-student-loan-decision-will-lower-us-deficit-according-to-new-white-house-projection/ |
HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong judge on Friday denied a government request to ban a popular protest song in a landmark decision after Google had resisted official pressure to alter internet search results for the city’s anthem.
The development was a setback for Hong Kong leaders who are trying to crush a pro-democracy movement. They have been embarrassed when “Glory to Hong Kong” — written during mass protests against the government in 2019 — was mistakenly played at international sporting events instead of China’s national anthem, “March of the Volunteers.”
Critics have warned that granting the request to prohibit broadcast or distribution of the song would add to a decline in civil liberties since Beijing launched a crackdown following the 2019 protests. They said that might disrupt internet companies and hurt the city’s appeal as a business center.
But some analysts cautioned the court’s decision on Friday does not mean that foreign tech giants can from now on let down their guard in Hong Kong, and said that political challenges surrounding their operations in the financial hub still linger.
Judge Anthony Chan said he considered whether a ban of the song would act as a wider deterrence than the city’s criminal law already in place. That includes a National Security Law imposed by Beijing in 2020 under which many of the city’s leading activists have been arrested.
“I cannot be satisfied that it is just and convenient to grant the injunction,” he wrote in a ruling.
The government went to the court after Google resisted pressure to display China’s national anthem as the top result in searches for the city’s anthem instead of “Glory to Hong Kong.”
Google had asked that a ruling prove the song violated the law before it could be removed, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong told a local broadcaster earlier. Google did not reply to a request for comment on its earlier exchanges with officials.
The city’s leader, Chief Executive John Lee, told reporters he had asked government lawyers to study the judgment and decide how to respond.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and was promised that it could keep its Western-style civil liberties intact for 50 years after the handover. But the security law and other changes since the 2019 protests have shrunk the openness and freedoms that were once hallmarks of the city.
The city’s secretary for justice sought the injunction last month after the song was mistakenly played as the city’s anthem at international events. And a mix-up in an ice hockey competition in February resulted in the city’s top sports body reprimanding the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association, which appealed for forgiveness for what it called an “independent and unfortunate” event.
In seeking the court order, the government wanted to target anyone who uses the song to advocate for the separation of Hong Kong from China. It also sought to ban actions that use the song to incite others to commit secession and to insult the national anthem, including online.
However, Friday’s ruling will not mean the end of the controversy for tech giants, said George Chen, former head of public policy for Greater China at Meta.
He said it was a new beginning for the platforms and the government to work together on content-related issues, given there was “zero chance” that the government would just leave all versions of the protest song online.
“Now the ball is back to the government but it doesn’t mean platforms can relax,” said Chen, who now works as a managing director for business advisory firm The Asia Group.
He said the city is now a “highly political place” and many lawmakers were surprised by the ruling, predicting that the political pressure on content removal on tech platforms will remain.
“It may feel more like Season 1 of a long series,” he said.
Eric Lai, visiting researcher of King’s College London’s School of Law, said that the government was trying to abuse the legal system by using an injunction to tackle a political matter when it sought the court order. The ruling reflects that the court still wants to defend the integrity of the city’s legal system, Lai said.
“Had this injunction been granted by the court, it would further create a more restrictive environment for both the internet and the public,” he said.
Lai cautioned that it’s a worrying trend to see that the secretary for justice “is so eager to politicize the court and the legal proceedings” to suppress the opposition camp and dissenting opinions, adding that he would monitor how the government would respond to the decision.
The government earlier said the lyrics contain a slogan that could constitute a call for secession. The song was already banned at schools. It said that it respected freedoms protected by the city’s constitution, “but freedom of speech is not absolute.”
The 2019 protests were sparked by a proposed extradition law that would have allowed Hong Kong criminal suspects to be sent to the mainland for trial. The government withdrew the bill, but the protesters widened their demands to include direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountability. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-hong-kong-court-rejects-government-requested-ban-on-protest-song-glory-to-hong-kong/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:24 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-hong-kong-court-rejects-government-requested-ban-on-protest-song-glory-to-hong-kong/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-teen-says-she-just-prayed-while-saving-girl-in-michigan-school-shooting/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:29 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-teen-says-she-just-prayed-while-saving-girl-in-michigan-school-shooting/ |
A long battle between American Airlines and its pilots seems to finally be nearing its end.
On Thursday, the Allied Pilots Association, the union representing American Airlines pilots, said it reached an agreement on an enhanced version of its previous tentative agreement, now referred to as TA 2.0.
TA 2.0 matches terms of agreements reached by Delta Air Lines and United Airlines pilots — a parity request American Airlines pilots asked for when they postponed the vote to ratify the original TA.
The original TA had been increased to more than $9 billion over four years when the 15,000 pilots in APA indefinitely postponed voting to ratify it until further improvements were made to "bring [them] in line with [their] peers."
Though the first TA had finally brought the airline's pay standards to the same level as United, the APA said other benefits, like "quality-of-life" provisions, didn't match up, pushing the union's board to postpone the vote late Sunday evening.
SEE MORE: Solving the airline pilot shortage may require multiple solutions
The union's board of directors then said it would take days, not weeks, to reach a new agreement, and they stuck to their word.
TA 2.0, APA said, now includes all improvements to the original TA that it was asking for, "along with additional improvements." Those include changes in medical reimbursements, per diem, extended sick leave, and more, along with the obvious pay rate increases.
Now TA 2.0 is contingent again on a ratification vote by the union, which is set for August, and on United pilots ratifying their agreement, which gives employees up to a 40% raise.
American Airlines' pay rate matching with United and Delta leaves Southwest Airlines as the only one of the nation's four biggest carriers to not reach a tentative deal with its pilots. The airline has been in unsuccessful contract negotiations with its pilots for years, and its CEO Robert Jordan said there was "nothing new to report."
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.wtvr.com/american-airlines-again-reaches-tentative-contract-with-pilots | 2023-07-29T01:31:31 | 1 | https://www.wtvr.com/american-airlines-again-reaches-tentative-contract-with-pilots |
HONG KONG (AP) — The Chinese government on Friday demanded the United States invite Hong Kong’s leader to an economic conference following a news report that Chief Executive John Lee would be barred due to his role in crushing the city’s pro-democracy movement.
The conflict threatens to complicate Washington’s efforts to revive relations that are at their lowest level in decades due to disputes about security, technology, human rights and other irritants.
The Washington Post, citing unidentified U.S. officials, said Lee would be barred from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in San Francisco in November due to sanctions imposed on him in 2020. Lee oversaw the crackdown as Hong Kong’s top police official before he was named chief executive last year.
The United States and other governments have accused Beijing of violating promises of autonomy and Western-style civil liberties after the former British colony returned to China in 1997.
The foreign ministry demanded Washington lift the “illegal and unreasonable” sanctions on Lee, which it called “bullying that seriously violates the basic norms of international relations.” It accused Washington of “undermining the solidarity and cooperation” of the regional forum.
“We demand that the U.S. side immediately correct its wrong move, lift the sanctions against the chief executive and other officials of the SAR, fulfil the due responsibility as APEC host, invite Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu to the meeting,” said a ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning.
Lee’s office in Hong Kong said the United States is “obliged to fulfil its basic responsibilities as a host” and should follow the usual APEC practice by inviting him.
“APEC meetings do not belong to any country or economy,” the office said in a statement.
Lee later said in a press briefing that the city would attend the meeting according to APEC rules and guidelines, saying he hoped that the host of the meeting could handle it in accordance with such norms.
The Washington Post cited U.S. officials as saying Hong Kong could send another representative to APEC.
Washington has launched a flurry of diplomatic missions to restore dialogue suspended by Beijing, mainly over U.S. support for the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan, which the mainland’s ruling Communist Party claims as part of its territory.
Officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry have traveled to China for meetings.
Chinese officials have demanded concessions, including changes in U.S. dealings with Taiwan, but have given given no indication Beijing might change trade, strategic or other policies that irk Washington and China’s Asian neighbors and other trading partners.
In a July 20 meeting with Henry Kissinger, a former U.S. secretary of state who has been used by Beijing to convey messages to Washington, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said both sides need to make decisions that could result in stable ties and joint success and prosperity.
___
Associated Press video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-hong-kongs-leader-may-be-barred-from-a-key-economic-summit-the-city-says-that-breaks-conventions/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:31 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-hong-kongs-leader-may-be-barred-from-a-key-economic-summit-the-city-says-that-breaks-conventions/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-backup-driver-in-the-1st-death-by-a-fully-autonomous-car-pleads-guilty-to-endangerment/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:35 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-backup-driver-in-the-1st-death-by-a-fully-autonomous-car-pleads-guilty-to-endangerment/ |
A relentless summer with record-breaking sweltering temperatures is putting the human body to the test.
"We are the warmest we have been in 1,000 years based on the best possible data that we have," said Carlos Del Castillo, the NASA Ocean Ecology Laboratory chief.
Scientific data is forecasting that July will be the hottest month globally on record, and possibly the warmest human civilization has ever experienced.
Dr. Pope Moseley is a research professor at Arizona State University and a lung and intensive care unit physician. He is one of two professors studying the impacts of extreme heat on the body in Arizona, using hospital and population data.
"The majority of people who are affected by heat and who seek hospital care or become seriously ill are not captured under the heat-related illness banner," said Moseley. "Heat is the force multiplier of chronic disease."
He says he wants to highlight the health implications of excessive heat beyond just the data on common heat illnesses.
"More than 65% of people have at least one chronic condition, and 40% have two or more. So, these chronic conditions are activated and made worse by heat," said Moseley.
SEE MORE: Over half the US is under extreme heat or flood warnings
He says research shows that during heat waves, blood stream infections go up, suicides rates tick up 1% to 2%, overdoses increase, and hospitalizations for dementia and heart attacks increase.
A recent report published by the American Heart Association also found that the risk of fatal heart attacks may double when combined with fine particle pollution and heat waves.
In Arizona, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s office is at 106% capacity. The coroner's office brought in 10 coolers to store bodies. The county spokesperson says this year is worse than past years, with reports showing 25 heat-associated deaths in the county so far this year.
In April, Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix called on the federal government to add extreme heat to FEMA's list of declarable disasters, a plea that she made again this week to the president. "We would love it if Congress would give you the ability to declare heat a disaster," said Mayor Gallego.
The move would unlock additional resources for emergency relief. Phoenix is forecast to hit or exceed an entire month with temperatures at 110 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. While other parts of the country can expect to cool off this weekend, there is little relief in sight for the Southwest.
"Phoenix is going to be the place that these health issues are solved, because Phoenix is the place that is ground zero for heat waves right now," said Gallego.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.wtvr.com/what-are-some-health-complications-from-extreme-heat | 2023-07-29T01:31:37 | 0 | https://www.wtvr.com/what-are-some-health-complications-from-extreme-heat |
MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge in Miami on Friday blasted prosecutors for an apparent attempt to disavow a court order and take control of a oceanside condo belonging to a former Republican Congressman ahead of a high-profile trial connected to a $50 million consulting contract with Venezuela’s socialist government.
When David Rivera and an associate were charged last November with money laundering and acting as unregistered foreign agents for President Nicolás Maduro’s government, prosecutors obtained a judge’s order freezing around $24 million from banking and brokerage accounts as well as Florida properties that they said were the product of ill-gotten gains.
Prosecutors also blocked eight more properties belonging to Rivera and his associate in Florida and Georgia that, while unrelated to criminal activity, would likely be seized if the two are found guilty.
This month, in a harshly worded ruling, Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres said that the government had no right to take the “innocent” Florida assets without a conviction. Rather than lift the restraining order, the government then asked the court to reconsider and said that it had since determined that three of the properties — including a condo that Rivera and his wife purchased in 2019 for $301,000 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida — could also be traced to the defendants’ alleged lobbying on behalf of Maduro’s government.
Judge Darrin Gayles on Friday expressed frustration with the government’s change in strategy.
“This reeks of gamesmanship,” said Gayles, who reversed his own sealed order of a week ago granting prosecutors’ request that the real estate properties once again be frozen. “It seems like the government simply filed this because it lost.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nalina Sombuntham said prosecutors first learned from investigators that the property could be directly “tainted” by Rivera’s consulting work with Venezuela in May or June but didn’t alert the court until July 14 — a week after Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres issued his 23-page order freeing up the properties.
Gayles, who is overseeing the criminal case, was unimpressed. “It seems like you’re wasting the court’s time,” he said.
Rivera has been marred by scandals stretching back to his days in Congress from 2011 to 2013. He was arrested late last year on an eight-count criminal indictment alleging that at the start of the Trump administration he was part of a conspiracy to lobby on behalf of Venezuela to lower tensions with the U.S., resolve a legal dispute with a U.S. oil company and end U.S. sanctions against the South American nation — all without registering as a foreign agent.
As part of that effort, he arranged meetings in Washington, New York and Dallas for allies of Maduro with U.S. lawmakers and a top aide to former President Donald Trump, according to the indictment. To hide the sensitive nature of his work, prosecutors allege Rivera referred to Maduro in chat messages as the “bus driver,” a congressman as “Sombrero” and millions of dollars as “melons.”
Court records show Rivera’s consulting work was closely coordinated with Raúl Gorrín, a Venezuelan insider and media tycoon who has himself been sanctioned and indicted in the U.S. on money laundering charges. Part of the more than $20 million that Rivera was alleged to have received from Venezuela was used to pay maintenance on one of Gorrin’s yachts, according to prosecutors.
Rivera maintains that Gorrín was his attorney in Venezuela and that all of his work was conducted on behalf of PDV USA — a Delaware-based affiliate of Venezuelan-owned Citgo — and didn’t require he register as a foreign agent.
The dispute over Rivera’s assets has slowed the government’s prosecution of the high-profile case. Eight months after being charged, Rivera has yet to be formally arraigned — normally a routine procedural step — because he said he needs access to the disputed assets to pay his attorneys.
Rivera’s attorneys in filings have accused prosecutors of waging a “scorched earth attack” against the south Florida GOP stalwart who once shared an apartment in Tallahassee with now Sen. Marco Rubio when both were state lawmakers.
“They lost, they got caught and they came to this court and it is wrong,” David Oscar Markus, an attorney for Rivera’s co-defendant Esther Nuhfer said.
Rivera was triumphant following Friday’s hearing, accusing the prosecutors of “misconduct.” Judge Gayles was more restrained, making no such finding of wrongdoing even as he questioned prosecutors’ actions.
“Today’s decision shows that there are still honorable judges in America who will not tolerate misconduct from dishonest government prosecutors,” Rivera wrote The Associated Press in a text message. “Another victory for truth and justice.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida didn’t immediately comment.
—
Follow Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-judge-blasts-prosecutors-handling-of-venezuela-case-against-ex-miami-congressman/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:39 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-judge-blasts-prosecutors-handling-of-venezuela-case-against-ex-miami-congressman/ |
The 75th Emmy Awards are the latest production to be put on pause due to the Hollywood strikes and will not air as planned in September.
A person familiar with the postponement plans but not authorized to speak publicly pending an official announcement confirmed the delay Friday. No information about a new date was immediately available.
The Emmy Awards were scheduled to be broadcast on Fox on Sept. 18. Rules laid out by the actors’ union, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, say stars cannot campaign for the Emmys or attend awards shows while on strike.
Writers are also not permitted to work on awards shows until the strike ends.
Whenever the next Emmy Awards are held, HBO will walk in as the leading contender. The network is up for 74 awards for three of its top shows: “ Succession,” “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us.”
“Ted Lasso” has the most comedy category nominations with 21, including best comedy series and best actor for Jason Sudeikis.
Roughly 65,000 SAG-AFTRA actors and 11,500 Writers Guild of America screenwriters are on strike, calling for better pay, structure with residual payments and protection from the use of artificial intelligence. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-emmy-awards-are-postponed-due-to-the-hollywood-actors-and-writers-strike-source-says/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:41 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-emmy-awards-are-postponed-due-to-the-hollywood-actors-and-writers-strike-source-says/ |
Global average sea temperatures are at unprecedented highs.
Ocean heat is contributing to significant ice melt and causing coral die-offs.
In places, our instruments are registering what may be the highest ocean temperatures ever recorded on Earth.
Scientists say the oceanic heat waves that have pushed sea surface temperatures to new records this summer are expected to persist, which may continue to contribute to extreme weather later in the year.
Svenja Ryan, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, told NBC News: "We’re not even at the height of the summer. Typically, the ocean continues to warm until September, so I think certainly we can expect this heat wave to last into the fall."
But experts can't say exactly what exactly to expect in terms of effects — in some cases, the conditions now are unlike anything they've ever seen before.
So researchers are studying whether the warm ocean temperatures are influencing this year's weather. Rainfall patterns may have been affected in places as far apart as Norway, which saw unusually dry conditions this year, and South Asia, where the monsoon that waters rice and other crops has been weaker than usual.
Typically, warmer waters also fuel stronger hurricanes, which draw their energy from the ocean as they move across it.
However, any intensification of this year's storms may be moderated by the characteristic wind shear from the El Niño weather pattern in the Pacific; the competing winds make it difficult for storms to keep their form and strength.
SEE MORE: Rising ocean temps contributing to Florida's dying coral reefs
Looking past just this year's effects, warmer oceans are expected to increase pressure on ocean ecosystems, intensify hurricanes, and accelerate ice loss — which could then cause other imbalances in the climate that we're used to.
Research published this week found that accelerated melting from ice in Greenland is changing the speed of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current, which is expected to eventually destabilize, now possibly as early as midcentury.
A weakening or collapse of the ocean-wide current could disrupt weather patterns on multiple continents, threaten the reliability of agricultural zones and displace millions of people due to sea level rise.
SEE MORE: A major Atlantic Ocean current could collapse as early as 2025
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.wtvr.com/what-does-prolonged-ocean-heat-mean-for-our-weather | 2023-07-29T01:31:43 | 1 | https://www.wtvr.com/what-does-prolonged-ocean-heat-mean-for-our-weather |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-mega-millions-jackpot-is-now-910-million-after-months-without-a-big-winner/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:43 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-mega-millions-jackpot-is-now-910-million-after-months-without-a-big-winner/ |
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s navy located the boat of a missing American sailor off the country’s southern coast, but the Maryland man who had been piloting it solo wasn’t found, authorities said Friday.
Donald Lawson’s capsized trimaran was found Thursday night by a patrol boat involved in the search 356 nautical miles (about 410 miles or 660 kilometers) southwest of the resort city of Acapulco, according to the navy’s press office.
The navy said that it would continue its search for Lawson, 41, an experienced sailor.
A plane had reported spotting a boat similar to the description of Lawson’s on July 23 about 320 nautical miles (370 miles or 595 kilometers) south of Acapulco. The navy sent boats to the area, but it wasn’t until Thursday night that they found it.
Port authorities in Acapulco said that Lawson had arrived on Jan. 26 for repairs to a motor and hull of the boat. After the repairs were completed, Lawson left Acapulco on July 5, headed for the Panama Canal, where he planned to cross to the Caribbean Sea and continue north to Baltimore, Maryland.
His wife, Jacqueline Lawson, told local media outlets that on July 9, he had sent her a message saying he was having mechanical problems and the motor was losing power. Three days later, he told her a storm had knocked out his wind generator and he would try to return to Acapulco. The last satellite positioning message received for the Defiant was July 13.
Lawson, who is Black, grew up in Baltimore and from his first sailing opportunity at age 9, set his sights on making it his career.
“From that day forward, that was my goal – become a professional sailor,” Lawson said in a profile published by U.S. Sailing last year.
He started out cleaning boats, folding sails and stowing gear in Annapolis. Later, he and his wife founded the Dark Seas Project, an effort to increase diversity in the sport of sailing. He is the chairman of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for U.S. Sailing.
Lawson was working toward challenging records for circumnavigating the globe solo. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-mexicos-navy-finds-boat-but-not-missing-us-sailor/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:45 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-mexicos-navy-finds-boat-but-not-missing-us-sailor/ |
A former Michigan State football player facing gun and assault charges stemming from two separate incidents has accepted plea deals in both cases.
Defensive end Itayvion “Tank” Brown pleaded guilty to felony carrying a concealed weapon in Ingham County’s 30th Circuit Court on Wednesday. In exchange, he will have a misdemeanor firearms possession while under the influence charge dismissed.
As part of a Killebrew Agreement, Brown will not face up-front jail time. He is expected to receive probation and be sentenced under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which will allow his record to become non-public if he fulfills the terms of the agreement.
In a separate case, Brown pleaded guilty to misdemeanor jostling or crowding people in Ann Arbor’s 15th District Court on Friday. He was previously charged with misdemeanor assault and battery stemming from his involvement in postgame tunnel incidents following Michigan State’s loss at Michigan on Oct. 29. Brown also received HYTA in that case and is expected to receive probation.
Brown was arrested on March 17 by East Lansing police for carrying a concealed gun after he was drinking and kicked out of a bar, according to a police report. As officers were attempting to handcuff him, a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber fell out of his waistband and onto the ground, the report stated. He was arraigned on April 14 in East Lansing’s 54-B District Court and received a $5,000 bond. Brown’s lawyer, Wade Fink, said the gun that was seized by police was registered but he will forfeit it as part of the plea deal in 30th Circuit Court.
After being arraigned, a Michigan State football spokesman said Brown had been suspended indefinitely from the team in late February for an unrelated reason before being dismissed from the program in March.
Brown was one of seven Michigan State players charged with assault following the loss at Michigan and suspended for the final four games of the season. He was among the six Spartans charged with misdemeanor assault in Washtenaw County and all six entered into a pre-plea diversion program to have the charges dismissed. Defensive end Brandon Wright and linebacker Jacoby Windmon both completed the program and had their charges dismissed earlier this month. However, Brown’s arrest on gun charges resulted in the assault case being opened again.
“Sometimes people have to make practical decisions in the criminal justice system and Tank regrets having to deal with the (assault) case and he made a decision here where he could keep his record clean and move on and that was the right thing for everyone involved,” Fink said. “None of this means that we agree that the charges should have been brought or that there was any crime here.”
Brown is a former four-star recruit from St. Louis who spent one season at Minnesota before transferring to Michigan State in 2021. He appeared in 12 games over the last two season and had five tackles.
“After all this is said and done, Tank’s going to have a chance at a fresh start with a new school and hopefully a new team,” Fink said, “and I’m hoping the best for him.”
Related Michigan State football stories:
Now at Wisconsin, Luke Fickell says Michigan State wasn’t right fit in 2020
Mel Tucker on important facility update and Michigan State’s anti-hazing policy
Michigan State LB Darius Snow ‘battling’ to return after season-ending injury
Michigan State’s three-man QB competition could drag out to season opener
Mel Tucker: No way to tame Michigan State-Michigan rivalry | https://www.mlive.com/spartans/2023/07/former-michigan-state-football-player-takes-plea-deals-to-gun-tunnel-assault-charges.html | 2023-07-29T01:31:45 | 0 | https://www.mlive.com/spartans/2023/07/former-michigan-state-football-player-takes-plea-deals-to-gun-tunnel-assault-charges.html |
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Pentagon official has attacked this week’s widely watched congressional hearing on UFOs, calling the claims “insulting” to employees who are investigating sightings and accusing a key witness of not cooperating with the official U.S. government investigation.
Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick’s letter, published on his personal LinkedIn page and circulated Friday across social media, criticizes much of the testimony from a retired Air Force intelligence officer that energized believers in extraterrestrial life and produced headlines around the world.
Retired Air Force Maj. David Grusch testified Wednesday that the U.S. has concealed what he called a “multi-decade” program to collect and reverse-engineer “UAPs,” or unidentified aerial phenomena, the official government term for UFOs.
Part of what the U.S. has recovered, Grusch testified, were non-human “biologics,” which he said he had not seen but had learned about from “people with direct knowledge of the program.”
A career intelligence officer, Kirkpatrick was named a year ago to lead the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, which was intended to centralize investigations into UAPs. The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies have been pushed by Congress in recent years to better investigate reports of devices flying at unusual speeds or trajectories as a national security concern.
Kirkpatrick wrote the letter Thursday and the Defense Department confirmed Friday that he posted it in a personal capacity. Kirkpatrick did not return messages seeking comment.
He writes in part, “I cannot let yesterday’s hearing pass without sharing how insulting it was to the officers of the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community who chose to join AARO, many with not unreasonable anxieties about the career risks this would entail.”
“They are truth-seekers, as am I,” Kirkpatrick said. “But you certainly would not get that impression from yesterday’s hearing.”
In a separate statement, Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough denied other allegations made by Grusch and other witnesses before a House Oversight subcommittee.
The Pentagon “has no information that any individual has been harmed or killed as a result of providing information” about UFO objects, Gough said. Nor has the Pentagon discovered “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”
Kirkpatrick wrote, “AARO has yet to find any credible evidence to support the allegations of any reverse engineering program for non-human technology.”
He had briefed reporters in December that the Pentagon was investigating “several hundreds” of new reports following a push to have pilots and others come forward with any sightings.
Kirkpatrick wrote in his letter that allegations of “retaliation, to include physical assault and hints of murder, are extraordinarily serious, which is why law enforcement is a critical member of the AARO team, specifically to address and take swift action should anyone come forward with such claims.”
“Yet, contrary to assertions made in the hearing, the central source of those allegations has refused to speak with AARO,” Kirkpatrick said. He did not explicitly name Grusch, who alleged he faced retaliation and declined to answer when a congressman asked him if anyone had been murdered to hide information about UFOs.
Messages left at a phone number and email address for Grusch were not returned Friday. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-ufo-congressional-hearing-was-insulting-to-us-employees-a-top-pentagon-official-says/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:49 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-ufo-congressional-hearing-was-insulting-to-us-employees-a-top-pentagon-official-says/ |
Michigan State football will have a different look this season.
The Spartans on Friday night unveiled new black “Shadow” uniform via social media.
Michigan State’s uniform announcement, which was teased on social media, coincides with the program’s third Spartan Dawg Con. It is an annual event in which coach Mel Tucker welcomes former players back to campus along with recruits. Former Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio is among those back in East Lansing for the event.
The black uniforms are part of a reworked design with Nike and unveiled during a “Thy Shadows” event featuring current players modeling them. Michigan State debuted a neon green look in 2019 that has been worn each season since. After Tucker took over the program in 2020, there have also been alternate helmets used, including the Block S and “Gruff Sparty.”
Michigan State is coming off a 5-7 season and hosts Central Michigan on Sept. 1 in the opener.
New donation: Michigan State on Friday announced a $500,000 donation from former cornerback Trae Waynes and his wife, Kyra, for renovations to the Tom Izzo Football Building.
“A big part of who I am today is because of Michigan State University, so having the opportunity to give back and make my own mark on this facility was an easy decision,” Trae Waynes said in a press release. “The people of MSU who have supported me have left quite an impact, so I’m happy to be able to show support in some way to the current and future players and staff coming through this university.”
Waynes was named a second team All-American as a redshirt junior in 2014 and selected by the Vikings with the No. 11 pick in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft. He spent five seasons in Minnesota and two with the Bengals before starting a hunting guide service based in Wisconsin.
This is the latest significant financial contribution Michigan State announced to the newly-named Tom Izzo Football Building. Construction began in spring 2022 and the project is expected to be substantially completed by this fall.
Former Michigan State basketball player and billionaire Mat Ishbia in February 2021 announced a $32 million donation to the athletic department with $20 million earmarked for the football facility, which he requested be named after Izzo, the Hall of Fame basketball coach of the Spartans. A $10 million donation for the project from Greg and Dawn Williams was announced in November 2021.
Related Michigan State football stories:
Now at Wisconsin, Luke Fickell says Michigan State wasn’t right fit in 2020
Mel Tucker on important facility update and Michigan State’s anti-hazing policy
Michigan State LB Darius Snow ‘battling’ to return after season-ending injury
Michigan State’s three-man QB competition could drag out to season opener
Mel Tucker: No way to tame Michigan State-Michigan rivalry | https://www.mlive.com/spartans/2023/07/michigan-state-football-unveils-new-black-uniforms.html | 2023-07-29T01:31:51 | 0 | https://www.mlive.com/spartans/2023/07/michigan-state-football-unveils-new-black-uniforms.html |
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Millions of Shiite Muslims in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and around the world on Friday commemorated Ashoura, a remembrance of the 7th-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, that gave birth to their faith.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban cut mobile phone services in key cities holding commemorations for fear of militants targeting Shiites, whom Sunni extremists consider heretics. Security forces in neighboring Pakistan as well stood on high alert as the commemorations there have seen attacks in the past.
Not all Shiites, however, were to mark the day Friday. Iraq, Lebanon and Syria planned their remembrances for Saturday, which will see a major suburb of Beirut shut down and the faithful descend on the Iraqi city of Karbala, where Hussein is entombed in a gold-domed shrine.
Shiites represent over 10% of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims and view Hussein as the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein’s death in battle at the hands of Sunnis at Karbala, south of Baghdad, ingrained a deep rift in Islam and continues to this day to play a key role in shaping Shiite identity.
Over 1,340 years after Hussein’s martyrdom, Baghdad, Tehran, Islamabad and other major capitals in the Middle East were adorned with symbols of Shiite piety and repentance: red flags for Hussein’s blood, symbolic black funeral tents and black dress for mourning, processions of men and boys expressing fervor in the ritual of chest-beating and self-flagellation with chains.
In Iran, where the theocratic government views itself as the protector of Shiites worldwide, the story of Hussein’s martyrdom takes on political connotations amid its tensions with the West over its advancing nuclear program.
Iranian state television aired images of commemorations across the Islamic Republic, tying the event to criticizing the West, Israel and the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Anchor Wesam Bahrani on Iran’s state-run English-language broadcaster Press TV referred to America as the “biggest opponent of Islam” and criticized Muslim countries allied with the U.S.
Men wore black, rhythmically beating their chests in mourning or using flails to strike their backs. Some wore red headbands, as black and red banners bore Hussein’s name. Some sprayed water over the mourners in the intense heat.
“Every year everyone joins hands in solidarity,” said 23-year-old Mohammad Hajatmand, who took part in a processional in Tehran. Hussein “was martyred very brutally and when anyone hears the story of Ashoura, regardless of their religion, their hearts will be broken and they will sympathize with him.”
The commemoration in Iran also comes as Tehran prepares for the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini. Her death launched protests nationwide in Iran that reportedly saw more than 500 protesters killed and some 20,000 others detained. Authorities have begun stepping up their enforcement of mandatory hijab, or headscarf, laws for women in recent weeks.
In the suburb of Sayida Zeinab near Syria’s capital, Damascus, security forces guarded checkpoints after a bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens more. On Tuesday, another bomb in a motorcycle wounded two people. The suburb is home to a shrine to Zeinab, the daughter of the first Shiite imam, Ali, and granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad.
Local resident Mustafa Semaan, 41, said the area had seen a resurgence of religious tourism after security stabilized amid Syria’s ongoing war and the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I don’t believe the religious observances will be affected (by the recent bombings), but the economic situation as a result of visitors coming from outside Syria may be affected,” Semaan said. “If this continues, if there were a third attack, there might be a very negative impact.”
Iraq will see the main observance of the Ashoura on Saturday in Karbala, where hundreds of thousands are expected and many will rush toward the shrine to symbolize their desire to answer Hussein’s last cries for help in battle. Convoys of the faithful already had begun to arrive there.
Those marking the commemoration in Kabul, Afghanistan, beat their backs bloody with chains and knives in ritual bloodletting known as “tatbir,” meant to recreate the blood flowing from the slain Hussein. The practice has become debated among Shiite clerics in recent decades.
“We have only one problem that (the Taliban) are preventing us to raise our flags and enter (the city) with the flags,” said Karbalayee Rashid, an organizer of the Kabul commemoration. “Thank God the security has been taken care. It is OK, but there are more limits in this country this year than last year.”
In Pakistan, authorities stepped up security as an Interior Ministry alert warned that “terrorists” could target Ashoura processions in major cities. Security was tight in the capital, Islamabad, where police were deployed at a key Shiite place of worship.
The main Ashoura processions also got underway in the eastern city of Lahore in the Punjab province, where thousands of police officers have been deployed. Processions in Karachi and elsewhere were also starting. There was no immediate report of any violence.
“The Imam’s lesson is … hold on to patience,” said Anam Batool, a mourner who took part in a commemoration in Islamabad. “After that, resist falsehood, stand with the truth. Where you must raise your voice against oppression, raise your voice there.”
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Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Baghdad; Anmar Khalil in Karbala, Iraq; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-millions-of-shiite-muslims-across-the-world-commemorate-the-mourning-day-of-ashoura/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:51 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-millions-of-shiite-muslims-across-the-world-commemorate-the-mourning-day-of-ashoura/ |
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 Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida, Wesley Hunt of Texas and John James of Michigan, 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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-tim-scott-criticizes-ron-desantis-over-floridas-new-slavery-curriculum/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:55 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-tim-scott-criticizes-ron-desantis-over-floridas-new-slavery-curriculum/ |
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was joined by senior Russian and Chinese delegates as he displayed his most powerful nuclear-capable missiles in a military parade marking a major war anniversary with a show of defiance against the United States and deepening ties with Moscow as tensions on the peninsula are at their highest point in years.
Kim attended Thursday night’s parade with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese ruling party official Li Hongzhong from a balcony looking over a brightly illuminated Kim Il Sung Square, named after Kim’s grandfather, the founder of North Korea.
Edited footage from North Korean state TV on Friday showed streets and stands packed with tens of thousands of mobilized spectators, who roared in approval as waves of goose-stepping soldiers, tanks and huge, intercontinental ballistic missiles wheeled out on launcher trucks filled up the main road. People were brought from around the country to the capital, Pyongyang, to fill the crowd, according to state media.
The parade began with warm-up events that featured ceremonial flights of newly developed surveillance and attack drones, which were first unveiled by state media this week as they reported on an arms exhibition attended by Kim and Shoigu.
The main event began with Kim arriving at the square in a limousine escorted by a formation of motorcycles. Kim saluted honor guards and military officials and walked down a red carpet to enter a building where Shoigu and Li greeted him at the balcony, as troops below chanted “protect Kim Jong Un with our lives!”
Organizers broadcast messages in Russian, Chinese and Korean while introducing Kim’s guests to the crowd, drawing cheers and applause.
As the parade proceeded, Kim was constantly talking and exchanging smiles with Shoigu and Li, who respectively stood to his right and left at the balcony’s center. Kim and Shoigu repeatedly raised their hands to salute the parading troops. The broadcast did not show Kim making a speech.
Kim’s biggest weapons were saved for the end, when his troops rolled out new ICBMs that were flight-tested in recent months and demonstrated ranges that could reach deep into the U.S. mainland, the Hwasong-17 and Hwasong-18. Some analysts say the missiles are based on Russian designs or know-how.
North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam spoke, describing the parade as a historic celebration of the country’s “great victory” against “U.S. imperialist aggression forces and groups of its satellite states.”
He condemned the United States for its expanding military exercises with South Korea, which the North portrays as invasion rehearsals, and also holding new rounds of nuclear contingency planning meetings with Seoul. The allies describe their drills as defensive, and say the upgrades in training and planning are necessary to cope with the North’s evolving nuclear threat.
“We solemnly declare that if they attempt military confrontation as now, the exercise of our state’s armed forces will go beyond the scope of the right to defense for the United States of America and (South Korea),” Kang said, repeating previous North Korean threats of nuclear conflict.
“The U.S. imperialists have no room of choice of survival in case they use nuclear weapons against the DPRK,” he said, using the initials of his country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Clouds over Pyongyang in recent days made it difficult for satellites to monitor preparations for the parade, which took place at night.
Satellite images showed what appeared to be a massing of people at the square at 1316 GMT (10:16 p.m. local) Thursday, said Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, which is part of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
North Korea’s invitation of Russian and Chinese delegates was a rare diplomatic opening since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts say Kim is trying to break out of diplomatic isolation and boost the visibility of his partnership with authoritarian allies to counter pressure from the United States.
The parade followed meetings between Kim and Shoigu this week that demonstrated North Korea’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and added to suspicions the North was willing to supply arms to Russia, whose war efforts have been compromised by defense procurement and inventory problems.
North Korean state media also highlighted a message sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who thanked Kim for “firmly supporting” his war efforts in Ukraine. Putin said that interests between Moscow and Pyongyang were aligning as they counter the “collective West in its policy to stand in the way of establishing a genuinely multipolar and just world order,” according to the Kremlin’s version of the letter.
Kim also held a luncheon and dinner banquet for Shoigu and his delegation following a second day of talks about expanding the countries’ “strategic and tactical collaboration and cooperation” in defense and security, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
“Given Russia’s need for ammunition for its illegal war in Ukraine and Kim Jong Un’s willingness to personally give the Russian defense minister a tour of North Korea’s arms exhibition, U.N. member states should increase vigilance for observing and penalizing sanctions violations,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
He added: “China’s representation at North Korea’s parading of nuclear-capable missiles raises serious questions about Beijing enabling Pyongyang’s threats to global security.”
The parade capped off the North Korean festivities for the 70th anniversary of the armistice that stopped fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea, which triggered the war with a surprise attack on the South in June 1950, was supported by Chinese troops and the then-Soviet air force. South Korea, the United States and troops from other nations under the aegis of the U.N. fought to push back the invasion.
The July 1953 truce was never replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war, but the North still sees it as a victory in the “Grand Fatherland Liberation War.”
The anniversary events were more somber in South Korea, where President Yoon Suk Yeol visited a war cemetery in Busan to honor foreign troops who died while fighting for the South.
In the face of growing North Korean threats, Yoon has pushed to expand South Korea’s military exercises with Washington and is seeking stronger U.S. reassurances that it would use its nuclear capabilities to defend the South in the event of a nuclear attack.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also marked the anniversary with a statement expressing concern over what he described as a growing “nuclear risk” on the Korean Peninsula.
“I urge the parties to resume regular diplomatic contacts and nurture an environment conducive to dialogue,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Edith Lederer in New York contributed to the report. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-north-korean-leader-kim-shares-center-stage-with-russian-chinese-delegates-at-military-parade/ | 2023-07-29T01:31:58 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-north-korean-leader-kim-shares-center-stage-with-russian-chinese-delegates-at-military-parade/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-tom-durden-georgia-da-who-ordered-takeover-of-stalled-ahmaud-arbery-investigation-dies-at-66/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:01 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-tom-durden-georgia-da-who-ordered-takeover-of-stalled-ahmaud-arbery-investigation-dies-at-66/ |
REDFIELD, S.D. — Salem/Montrose/Canova’s Legion baseball team showed up in Redfield for the Class B American Legion baseball tournament on Friday with a goal of being aggressive.
In the aftermath of a 15-2 win over one of the pre-tournament favorites Tabor, consider that goal met.
SMC scored in six of their seven innings at the plate and reached base 26 times in the first-round game, putting the pressure on the Bluebirds throughout the contest at American Legion Field.
“Their pitcher was around the zone and we tried to take advantage of that early in the count,” SMC coach Curt Neises said. “We wanted to be aggressive and really set the tone at the plate.”
SMC (18-5) will face Dell Rapids in the second round on Saturday, while Tabor now faces elimination against Platte/Geddes at 10 a.m. Saturday.
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SMC led 2-1 after two innings and stretched the lead from there, scoring two in the third and three in the fourth inning for a 7-1 lead, plus four runs each in the sixth and seventh innings.
Friday’s win came after Tabor won twice during the season between the two teams by margins of 7-0 and 11-1.
“We talked about how everyone was 0-0 coming in,” coach Neises said. “They had beaten us and quite soundly. Tabor is a really good team for a reason and earlier in the year, we didn’t hit the ball as well as we could have and we saw what we were capable of today”
Braeden Kerkhove scored four times for SMC, with two hits. Jack Neises and Weston Remmers each drove in a pair of runs, while Remmers and Jackson Grady each had three hits. Griffin Clubb, who scored three times, had a three-run home run in the seventh inning to left-center field that proved to be the cherry on top of the state tournament victory.
Jack Neises pitched well, throwing five innings and allowing five hits, one run and striking out five on 80 pitches. Owen Alley was solid in relief, allowing one run and one hit in two innings.
“They pitched very well,” said Curt Neises, talking about the efforts of his son and Alley. “We talked about trying to get ground ball outs. (Tabor) is such a good hitting team and if you elevate it, they can hit it. Our defense came in and really helped us out too.”
Brady Bierema had a double and two hits for Tabor (18-6), which was kept to only six hits. Riley Rothschadl added a double. Landon Smith took the loss, throwing 2 1/3 innings with five hits and three earned runs allowed and one strikeout. The Bluebirds then used four pitchers to close out the game and try to manage pitch counts to allow pitchers to return later in the tournament.
Friday represented a good first step for SMC, which is well aware of the challenge awaiting with Dell Rapids, who have won 26 games in a row after their first round win over Platte/Geddes.
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“Tonight, it’s one game, but it’s a big game,” Curt Neises said. “We will enjoy this for a few hours and they we have to be ready for Dell Rapids, because they’re extremely good and they have strong pitching.”
The Mitchell Republic's Adam Thury contributed to this report. | https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/sports/prep/salem-montrose-canova-breaks-out-big-bats-in-class-b-legion-win-over-tabor | 2023-07-29T01:32:04 | 0 | https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/sports/prep/salem-montrose-canova-breaks-out-big-bats-in-class-b-legion-win-over-tabor |
A long battle between American Airlines and its pilots seems to finally be nearing its end.
On Thursday, the Allied Pilots Association, the union representing American Airlines pilots, said it reached an agreement on an enhanced version of its previous tentative agreement, now referred to as TA 2.0.
TA 2.0 matches terms of agreements reached by Delta Air Lines and United Airlines pilots — a parity request American Airlines pilots asked for when they postponed the vote to ratify the original TA.
The original TA had been increased to more than $9 billion over four years when the 15,000 pilots in APA indefinitely postponed voting to ratify it until further improvements were made to "bring [them] in line with [their] peers."
Though the first TA had finally brought the airline's pay standards to the same level as United, the APA said other benefits, like "quality-of-life" provisions, didn't match up, pushing the union's board to postpone the vote late Sunday evening.
SEE MORE: Solving the airline pilot shortage may require multiple solutions
The union's board of directors then said it would take days, not weeks, to reach a new agreement, and they stuck to their word.
TA 2.0, APA said, now includes all improvements to the original TA that it was asking for, "along with additional improvements." Those include changes in medical reimbursements, per diem, extended sick leave, and more, along with the obvious pay rate increases.
Now TA 2.0 is contingent again on a ratification vote by the union, which is set for August, and on United pilots ratifying their agreement, which gives employees up to a 40% raise.
American Airlines' pay rate matching with United and Delta leaves Southwest Airlines as the only one of the nation's four biggest carriers to not reach a tentative deal with its pilots. The airline has been in unsuccessful contract negotiations with its pilots for years, and its CEO Robert Jordan said there was "nothing new to report."
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.abcactionnews.com/american-airlines-again-reaches-tentative-contract-with-pilots | 2023-07-29T01:32:04 | 0 | https://www.abcactionnews.com/american-airlines-again-reaches-tentative-contract-with-pilots |
NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Travis Scott has released “Utopia,” his first album in five years and his first major release since 10 people died at his 2021 Astroworld music festival.
The star-studded 19-track “Utopia” features Beyoncé, SZA, Drake, Sampha, Young Thug, Playboi Carti, Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Future, Bon Iver, James Blake, Kid Cudi, 21 Savage, and many more.
The LP, Scott’s fourth full-length, was originally announced back in 2020 and follows 2018’s “Astroworld.” In November 2019, 10 people died as a result of compression asphyxia during a massive crowd surge during Scott’s Astroworld festival. A grand jury declined to file charges against Scott earlier this year.
Also Friday, Houston police released files that showed that some workers were concerned about the crowd conditions at the show. The 1,300-page report also included a summary of an interview with Scott in which he said he did not hear calls from the crowd to stop the show.
The first track from the album, the popetón -adjacent “K-pop”, was released on July 21 and features the Weeknd and Bad Bunny. The release spans genres — an eclectic mix of autotune ambient ballads (“My Eyes”), ferocious bars (“Looove”), futuristic trap (“Lost Forever,” Telekinesis”), and beyond.
In addition to the album, Scott hosted a one-night-only release of his feature film, “Circus Maximus” at select theaters on Thursday night.
“Utopia” was originally scheduled to be celebrated with a livestreamed concert at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, but was canceled due to “complex production issues,” Live Nation said in a statement. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-travis-scott-drops-utopia-his-first-album-since-the-astroworld-festival-tragedy/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:04 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-travis-scott-drops-utopia-his-first-album-since-the-astroworld-festival-tragedy/ |
Churchill Downs to resume racing at fall meet with no changes after horse deaths
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Racing will resume at Churchill Downs in September, with no changes being made after a review of surfaces and safety protocols in the wake of 12 horse deaths, including seven in the days leading up to the Kentucky Derby in May.
The Louisville track suspended racing operations on June 7 and moved the rest of its spring meet to Ellis Park in western Kentucky at the recommendation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the sport’s national overseer.
Training continued at Churchill Downs during the track’s investigation.
Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen called the deaths “a series of unfortunate circumstances” and said the review “didn’t find anything fundamentally wrong or different about our track from previous years.”
“That, in a sense, can sometimes be unsatisfying,” he said. “But that’s business, and that’s sports.”
Two of the horse deaths occurred in undercard races on Derby day. Another five died later.
“The takeaway is, the track is very safe,” Carstanjen said Thursday on an earnings call with CDI investors.
“What we needed to do was spend some of this time in the interim, while we ran the rest of the (spring) meet at Ellis to just go soup to nuts through every single thing we do at the racetrack. There was nothing that jumped out as an apparent cause of the injuries, of the breakdowns; and, as we went through and rebuilt our processes from the ground up to check everything that we do to make extra sure, we didn’t find anything material.”
The track’s fall meet begins Sept. 14 and runs through Oct. 1.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/29/churchill-downs-resume-racing-fall-meet-with-no-changes-after-horse-deaths/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:04 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/29/churchill-downs-resume-racing-fall-meet-with-no-changes-after-horse-deaths/ |
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 nine people in the area of a newly constructed and as yet unoccupied 12-story apartment building, as well as an unoccupied adjacent Security Service of Ukraine building. “Russian missile terror again,” Zelenskyy 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.
___
Heintz reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Andrew Katell in New York contributed.
___
An earlier version corrected that Oleksiy Danilov is Ukraine’s secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, not defense minister.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-russia-says-a-ukrainian-drone-was-shot-down-outside-moscow/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:05 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-russia-says-a-ukrainian-drone-was-shot-down-outside-moscow/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — 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.
Here’s what you need to know.
Not yet. But industry experts suspect that a bankruptcy filing could come any day now.
People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the company could seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week — with some noting that a significant amount of customers have already started to leave the carrier.
Meanwhile, according to FreightWaves, employees were told to expect the filing Monday. Yellow laid off an unknown number of employees Friday, the outlet later reported, citing a memo that stated the company was “shutting down its regular operations.”
According to Satish Jindel, president of transportation and logistics firm SJ Consulting, Yellow handled an average of 49,000 shipments per day in 2022. As of this week, he estimates that number is down to between 10,000 and 15,000 daily shipments.
With customers leaving — as well reports of Yellow stopping freight pickups earlier this week — bankruptcy would “be the end of Yellow,” Jindel told The Associated Press, noting increased risk for liquidation.
“The likelihood of them surviving and remaining solvent diminishes really by the day,” added Bruce Chan, a research director at investment banking firm Stifel.
Yellow media contacts did not immediately respond to the Associated Press’ requests for comment on Friday. In a Wednesday statement to The Journal, the company said it was continuing “to prepare for a range of contingencies.” On Thursday, Yellow said it was in talks with multiple parties about selling its third-party logistics organization.
Even if Yellow was able to sell its logistics firm, it would “not generate a sufficient amount of cash to keep them operational on any sort of permanent basis,” Chan said. “Without a major equity injection, it would be very difficult for them to survive.”
As of late March, Yellow had an outstanding debt of about $1.5 billion. Of that, $729.2 million was owed to the federal government.
In 2020, under the Trump administration, the Treasury Department granted the company a $700 million pandemic-era loan on national security grounds. Last month, a congressional probe concluded that the Treasury and Defense Departments “made missteps” in this decision — and noted that Yellow’s “precarious financial position at the time of the loan, and continued struggles, expose taxpayers to a significant risk of loss.”
The government loan is due in September 2024. As of March, Yellow had made $54.8 million in interest payments and repaid just $230 million of the principal owed, according to government documents.
Yellow’s current finances and prospect of bankruptcy “is probably two decades in the making,” Chan said, pointing to poor management and strategic decisions dating back to the early 2000s. “At this point, after each party has bailed them out so many times, there is a limited appetite to do that anymore.”
In May, Yellow reported a loss of $54.6 million, a decline of $1.06 per share, for its first quarter of 2023. Operating revenue was about $1.16 billion in the period.
A Wednesday investors note from financial service firm Stephens estimated that Yellow could be burning between $9 million and $10 million each day. Using a liquidity disclosure from earlier this month, Yellow had roughly $100 million in cash at the end of June, the note added — estimating that the company has been burning through increasing amounts of money through July.
“It is reasonable to believe that the Company could breach its $35 mil. liquidity requirement at any moment,” Stephens analyst Jack Atkins and associate Grant Smith wrote.
The reports of bankruptcy preparations arrive just days after a strike from the Teamsters, which represents Yellow’s 22,000 unionized workers, was averted.
A series of heated exchanges have built up between the Teamsters and Yellow, who sued the union in June after alleging it was “unjustifiably blocking” restructuring plans needed for the company’s survival. The Teamsters called the litigation “baseless” — with general president Sean O’Brien pointing to Yellow’s “decades of gross mismanagement,” which included exhausting the $700 million federal loan.
On Sunday, a pension fund agreed to extend health benefits for workers at two Yellow Corp. operating companies, averting a strike — and giving Yellow “30 days to pay its bills,” notably $50 million that Yellow failed to pay the Central States Health and Welfare Fund on July 15, the union said. While the strike didn’t occur, talks of a walkout may have caused some Yellow customers to pull back, Chan said.
Talks between Yellow and the Teamsters, which also represents UPS’s unionized workers, are ongoing. The current contract expires in March 2024.
“The financial struggles of Yellow are not related to the union and the contracts,” Jindel said, pointing to management’s responsibility around its services and prices. He added the union wages from Yellow are “lower than any competitor.”
If Yellow files for bankruptcy and customers continue to take their shipments to other carriers, like FedEx or ABF Freight, prices will go up.
Yellow’s prices have historically been the cheapest compared to other carriers, Jindel said. “That’s why they obviously were not making money,” he added. “And while there is capacity with the other LTL carriers to handle the diversions from Yellow, it will come at a high price for (current shippers and customers) of Yellow.”
Chan adds that we’re in an interesting time for the LTL marketplace — noting that, if Yellow declares bankruptcy and liquidates, “the freight would find a home” with other carriers, which may not have been true in recent years.
“It may take time, but there’s room for it to be absorbed,” he said. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-trucking-company-yellow-corp-is-reportedly-preparing-for-bankruptcy-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:10 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-trucking-company-yellow-corp-is-reportedly-preparing-for-bankruptcy-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ |
SPRING HILL, Fla. — A Spring Hill family is remembering their daughter on her birthday after waiting nearly 2 years for answers regarding her death.
18-year-old Ariana Ptarcinski died following an incident on Christmas Eve of 2021.
Her parents, Edward and Judy, said the family was home on Christmas Eve at their Spring Hill house. Edward and Judy said their daughter was in her room with her boyfriend.
Around midnight, their daughter suffered a fatal knife wound to the neck.
"You feel helpless most of the time, most of the time you're helpless," said Edward Ptarcinski.
"I just want justice for her. She deserves it. You don't get any answers, that's all we want."
Ariana's parents showed ABC Action News their daughter's death certificate. The manner of death is listed as homicide and the cause of death is listed as "complications of stab wound of neck."
"She was so loved. She was just so loved. She had everything going right for her. She was going to be somebody. You know, and just to have it taken away," said Edward.
Family said no arrests have been made in the case. We reached out to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.
In a statement the agency said, "Our office conducted a death investigation in this case. Once the case was complete (evidence gathered and tested, witness interviews, photos, written reports, etc.) we turned it over to the SAO for review. The case has been with the SAO since that time."
ABC Action News reached out to the state attorney's office for comment. A spokesperson said, "The investigation is ongoing so I cannot release any details."
Ariana's parents are begging for answers into their daughter's death.
"You're prolonging the pain like this, you know. She can't be at peace. She's not at peace because of this whole thing. We are not at peace," said Edward.
Family and friends released lanterns on Friday at the Anderson Snow Sports Complex in Spring Hill.
Ariana would have celebrated her 20th birthday on Friday.
"Feels like it was just yesterday this happened. It just doesn't seem like it's going to get better. It really doesn't," said Edward.
Her parents said their daughter was an organ donor and saved the lives of seven others. | https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-citrus-hernando/spring-hill-family-remembers-daughters-birthday-as-they-wait-for-answers-into-her-death | 2023-07-29T01:32:10 | 1 | https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-citrus-hernando/spring-hill-family-remembers-daughters-birthday-as-they-wait-for-answers-into-her-death |
CMPD involved in high speed chase in Northeast Charlotte
According to CMPD the incident happened shortly before 7:30 p.m., in the 1900 block of Prospect Drive.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police were involved in a high speed chase this evening after a suspect fled the scene of what appeared to be a shooting.
According to CMPD the incident happened shortly before 7:30 p.m., on the 1900 block of Prospect Drive.
Officers found a person suffering from gunshot wounds and noticed the suspect involved in the shooting made an attempt to leave the scene in their vehicle.
CMPD made a pursuit to stop the suspect and that pursuit eventually resulted in a crash on the intersection of Cinderella Lane and Sugar Creek Road.
Despite the reckless driving from the suspect, no motorists or residents were injured or involved during the collision, according to CMPD.
The victim was transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries and the suspect has been taken into custody.
The investigation is still ongoing but WBTV will keep you updated on more information regarding the high speed chase.
Download the free WBTV News app for updates and breaking news.
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Copyright 2023 WBTV. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/29/cmpd-involved-high-speed-chase-northeast-charlotte/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:10 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/29/cmpd-involved-high-speed-chase-northeast-charlotte/ |
A relentless summer with record-breaking sweltering temperatures is putting the human body to the test.
"We are the warmest we have been in 1,000 years based on the best possible data that we have," said Carlos Del Castillo, the NASA Ocean Ecology Laboratory chief.
Scientific data is forecasting that July will be the hottest month globally on record, and possibly the warmest human civilization has ever experienced.
Dr. Pope Moseley is a research professor at Arizona State University and a lung and intensive care unit physician. He is one of two professors studying the impacts of extreme heat on the body in Arizona, using hospital and population data.
"The majority of people who are affected by heat and who seek hospital care or become seriously ill are not captured under the heat-related illness banner," said Moseley. "Heat is the force multiplier of chronic disease."
He says he wants to highlight the health implications of excessive heat beyond just the data on common heat illnesses.
"More than 65% of people have at least one chronic condition, and 40% have two or more. So, these chronic conditions are activated and made worse by heat," said Moseley.
SEE MORE: Over half the US is under extreme heat or flood warnings
He says research shows that during heat waves, blood stream infections go up, suicides rates tick up 1% to 2%, overdoses increase, and hospitalizations for dementia and heart attacks increase.
A recent report published by the American Heart Association also found that the risk of fatal heart attacks may double when combined with fine particle pollution and heat waves.
In Arizona, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s office is at 106% capacity. The coroner's office brought in 10 coolers to store bodies. The county spokesperson says this year is worse than past years, with reports showing 25 heat-associated deaths in the county so far this year.
In April, Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix called on the federal government to add extreme heat to FEMA's list of declarable disasters, a plea that she made again this week to the president. "We would love it if Congress would give you the ability to declare heat a disaster," said Mayor Gallego.
The move would unlock additional resources for emergency relief. Phoenix is forecast to hit or exceed an entire month with temperatures at 110 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. While other parts of the country can expect to cool off this weekend, there is little relief in sight for the Southwest.
"Phoenix is going to be the place that these health issues are solved, because Phoenix is the place that is ground zero for heat waves right now," said Gallego.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.abcactionnews.com/what-are-some-health-complications-from-extreme-heat | 2023-07-29T01:32:13 | 1 | https://www.abcactionnews.com/what-are-some-health-complications-from-extreme-heat |
Global average sea temperatures are at unprecedented highs.
Ocean heat is contributing to significant ice melt and causing coral die-offs.
In places, our instruments are registering what may be the highest ocean temperatures ever recorded on Earth.
Scientists say the oceanic heat waves that have pushed sea surface temperatures to new records this summer are expected to persist, which may continue to contribute to extreme weather later in the year.
Svenja Ryan, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, told NBC News: "We’re not even at the height of the summer. Typically, the ocean continues to warm until September, so I think certainly we can expect this heat wave to last into the fall."
But experts can't say exactly what exactly to expect in terms of effects — in some cases, the conditions now are unlike anything they've ever seen before.
So researchers are studying whether the warm ocean temperatures are influencing this year's weather. Rainfall patterns may have been affected in places as far apart as Norway, which saw unusually dry conditions this year, and South Asia, where the monsoon that waters rice and other crops has been weaker than usual.
Typically, warmer waters also fuel stronger hurricanes, which draw their energy from the ocean as they move across it.
However, any intensification of this year's storms may be moderated by the characteristic wind shear from the El Niño weather pattern in the Pacific; the competing winds make it difficult for storms to keep their form and strength.
SEE MORE: Rising ocean temps contributing to Florida's dying coral reefs
Looking past just this year's effects, warmer oceans are expected to increase pressure on ocean ecosystems, intensify hurricanes, and accelerate ice loss — which could then cause other imbalances in the climate that we're used to.
Research published this week found that accelerated melting from ice in Greenland is changing the speed of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current, which is expected to eventually destabilize, now possibly as early as midcentury.
A weakening or collapse of the ocean-wide current could disrupt weather patterns on multiple continents, threaten the reliability of agricultural zones and displace millions of people due to sea level rise.
SEE MORE: A major Atlantic Ocean current could collapse as early as 2025
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.abcactionnews.com/what-does-prolonged-ocean-heat-mean-for-our-weather | 2023-07-29T01:32:14 | 1 | https://www.abcactionnews.com/what-does-prolonged-ocean-heat-mean-for-our-weather |
by: AP Posted: Jul 28, 2023 / 09:32 AM CDT Updated: Jul 28, 2023 / 09:32 AM CDT MOSCOW (AP) — Russian military says it shot down a Ukrainian missile over a southern Russian city, accuses Kyiv of a “terror attack.” | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-russian-military-says-it-shot-down-a-ukrainian-missile-over-a-southern-russian-city-accuses-kyiv-of-a-terror-attack/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:13 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-russian-military-says-it-shot-down-a-ukrainian-missile-over-a-southern-russian-city-accuses-kyiv-of-a-terror-attack/ |
More patients are skipping the brick-and-mortar hospital to heal at home instead with hospital-at-home programs. And more health care systems are adopting the programs and offering them to patients, especially those 65 and older. The age group makes up a sixth of the U.S. population, and can be at increased risk for secondary infections or falls.
The model is part of health care in other countries too. But critics warn more regulation needs to happen before it is widely adopted in the U.S.
On a recent morning in California, Scripps News met with Pippa Shulman, chief medical officer of Medically Home. The company has partnered with hospital systems like the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente. The decentralized health care company invited the media to see how their hospital-at-home service works.
"It could be anywhere electricity, running water, an access to a bathroom, everything else. We can help mitigate and support the patient," said Schulman.
Hospital-at-home, or acute at-home hospital care is for stable, acute-care patients. It would not be used for someone who could be admitted to a hospital with a bad infection, COPD, or heart failure, for example. The patients are discharged more quickly or stay at home completely to heal in their own dwelling.
The model uses telehealth and technology. Think calls with doctors and nurses, and devices like a watch that reads vitals or a medication dispenser, for example, supplemented by visits from health care workers for therapies or tests.
"We can do in-home ultrasound, we can do in-home blood testing, we can do in-home x-ray," Schulman explained.
SEE MORE: White House to force insurers to increase mental health coverage
On the other end, medical professionals — doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses — are either working from home or in their own command center, having appointments, looking at a patient's vitals, livestreaming, video chatting, and giving them medical advice in real time.
"People think of the tech as sensors and remote this and monitoring," said geriatrician Dr. Bruce Leff."All-important, all true. But I think what they forget, on the other side, is that the tech and the software platforms allow programs to build high-quality, highly safe care, and the ability to coordinate services."
Leff is an early pioneer of hospital-at-home. He started a program at Johns Hopkins in 1994, conducting some of the first clinical research looking into health outcomes for patient care in and out of hospital. The first participants were patients who needed hospital care, but when offered, refused. Hopkins' institutional review board also required the patients to be monitored 24/7 in person.
"Interestingly, more than half the patients refused that because they thought it would be weird to have someone sitting in their home and watching them sleep."
The trend really boomed out of the COVID pandemic, when hospitals were overrun, and some were working with makeshift wards. In November 2020, Medicare rules changed due to the public health emergency. Hospitals were paid the same amount if an acute patient was in the actual hospital room or in their home. Hospitals were also no longer required to provide 24/7 in-person nursing care.
SEE MORE: 1 million dropped from Medicaid as states start post-pandemic purge
Those Medicare rules were extended that same year. They're now set to expire December 2024, and while law requires the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services to evaluate the program by then, what happens after is uncertain.
Nearly 300 hospital at-home programs exist in 37 states. And the market is expected to grow to $254 billion over the next seven years.
"My view ... is that in the future, hospitals will become big ERs, ORs and ICU beds. Everything else could and should be moved out to the community," said Leff. "As the tech gets better, we'll see more acuity taken care of in the home. I think ... we'll have improved approaches for engaging with family members in terms of maybe more standardization across programs ... Better training for caregivers, which I think is something we need to be working towards."
But acute health care at home has been met with criticism. The largest nurses' union calls it "home all alone."
"Acute care means that your condition is likely to change and you are likely to experience, or at high risk to experience, complications. So even if you're feeling well, that could change quickly," explains Michelle Mahon, RN. She's the assistant director of nursing practice for National Nurses United.
SEE MORE: 43 prescription drugs may soon cost less for some Medicare recipients
National Nurses United also worries the cost will fall onto patients and taxpayers, and warns about the impact on caregivers.
A recent report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research argues that private equity, hedge funds and venture capital getting in the hospital-at-home game without more regulation and enforcement systems means there would be "incentives for financial interests to take advantage of taxpayer subsidies for private gain and at the risk of lower quality care or heightened inequality across diverse populations."
Dr. Leff is a clinical advisor to Medically Home, and Dispatch Health (another at-home health care provider), among others. He says he thinks "it's always good to be suspicious of how money is moving through the health system."
He also added, "There's absolutely some private equity money in this, but a lot of the money is actually coming in the form of investor partners as opposed to private equity. So take Dispatch Health and Humana, take Medically Home with the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente. Those investments are being provided by investor partners who have a strong interest in creating a credible, safe, high-quality model."
The big question is: Does hospital-at-home work? Johns Hopkins' research in their hospital-at-home program showed the cost of hospital-at-home is a couple thousand dollars less, and length of stays were shorter. Cases of delirium — a complication — were dramatically lower.
A 2021 analysis in the Journal of American Medical Association of several studies of hospital-at-home patients found treatment lasted an average of five days longer and had a similar mortality risk. Hospital readmission risk went down 26%.
Limited research shows at-home acute care patients sleep better and have more physical activity. But the latest studies show many patients eligible for at-home acute care are still skeptical. One found more than 60% of patients offered the program turned it down, opting to stay in a hospital.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.abcactionnews.com/what-is-hospital-at-home-and-what-s-the-debate-about-it | 2023-07-29T01:32:14 | 1 | https://www.abcactionnews.com/what-is-hospital-at-home-and-what-s-the-debate-about-it |
Police: Man charged with murder after living with girlfriend’s body in closet for months
LAS VEGAS (KVVU/Gray News) - A man accused of killing his girlfriend told investigators that he lived with her body in a closet for months before she was discovered.
KVVU reports that George Bone faces a murder charge in the death of Beverly Ma.
Police said they discovered Ma’s body after the woman’s family located her in a home on July 26.
Bone was reportedly Ma’s boyfriend, and the two were living together.
The family said they went to the house where the two were to check on the air conditioning unit. They had received an expensive bill and the repair man said no one was answering the door.
They arrived at the home, but Ma still did not answer them.
According to an arrest report, they talked to Bone upstairs, and that’s when he told them that Ma was dead.
While a family member was on hold with 911, she asked Bone why he didn’t call the police and why he stayed in the house with her body, the report said.
He reportedly told the family member that he wanted to prolong his arrest. The family described Bone as being casual about the situation and brushing his teeth while speaking to them.
The woman’s family said they were not close but did keep in touch with Ma as she suffered trauma in the past.
They had last seen her in person in April, but she stopped responding to their messages a couple of months ago.
During Bone’s interview with police, he said he had known Ma since high school, and they developed a romantic relationship in 2019 after he left prison.
He started living with Ma in July 2022 and Bone told police they fought often, the arrest report said.
According to authorities, Ma had called 911 on May 4 at about 4:40 a.m. Dispatchers could hear a woman and a man screaming at each other, but Ma never responded to the dispatcher’s questions and the line went dead.
Officers said they did a door knock at the house. However, no one answered.
During his interview with police, Bone reportedly told investigators he found Ma in the closet with a belt around her neck in May. He responded to text messages on her phone so her family would think she was alive.
He also told police that he was keeping the temperature in the home at 60 degrees because of the number of flies in the house.
According to Bone’s arrest report, investigators didn’t find consistent evidence regarding his story about Ma’s suicide attempt. Police pointed out these inconsistencies to Bone and he said he didn’t know how to dispose of a body.
Eventually, Bone requested an attorney and the police interview ended.
Bone was not granted bail in a July 27 hearing. His next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 1.
Copyright 2023 KVVU via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/29/police-man-charged-with-murder-after-living-with-girlfriends-body-closet-months/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:13 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/29/police-man-charged-with-murder-after-living-with-girlfriends-body-closet-months/ |
‘X’ logo installed atop Twitter building, spurring San Francisco to investigate permit violation
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The city of San Francisco has opened a complaint and launched an investigation into a giant “X” sign that was installed Friday on top of the downtown building formerly known as Twitter headquarters as owner Elon Musk continues his rebrand of the social media platform.
City officials say replacing letters or symbols on buildings, or erecting a sign on top of one, requires a permit for design and safety reasons.
The “X” appeared after San Francisco police stopped workers on Monday from removing the brand’s iconic bird and logo from the side of the building, saying they hadn’t taped off the sidewalk to keep pedestrians safe if anything fell.
Any replacement letters or symbols would require a permit to ensure “consistency with the historic nature of the building” and to make sure additions are safely attached to the sign, Patrick Hannan, spokesperson for the Department of Building Inspection said earlier this week.
Erecting a sign on top of a building also requires a permit, Hannan said Friday.
“Planning review and approval is also necessary for the installation of this sign. The city is opening a complaint and initiating an investigation,” he said in an email.
Musk unveiled a new “X” logo to replace Twitter’s famous blue bird as he remakes the platform he bought for $44 billion last year. The “X” started appearing at the top of the desktop version of Twitter on Monday, but as of Friday the bird icon still appears in many places on the app.
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla, has long been fascinated with the letter “X " and had already renamed Twitter’s corporate name to X Corp. after he bought it in October. One of his children is called “X.” The child’s actual name is a collection of letters and symbols.
On Friday afternoon, a worker on a lift machine made adjustments to the sign and then left.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/29/x-logo-installed-atop-twitter-building-spurring-san-francisco-investigate-permit-violation/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:20 | 0 | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/29/x-logo-installed-atop-twitter-building-spurring-san-francisco-investigate-permit-violation/ |
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.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-salvage-crews-board-a-cargo-ship-burning-off-the-netherlands-the-smoke-and-flames-are-easing/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:20 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-salvage-crews-board-a-cargo-ship-burning-off-the-netherlands-the-smoke-and-flames-are-easing/ |
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two taxi drivers have been arrested in the Mexican city of Cancun for assaulting a van carrying foreign tourists, prosecutors said Friday.
The events in the Caribbean coast resort on Thursday were the latest in a months-long string of assaults on vehicles that medallion-cab drivers suspect of being operated by ride-hailing apps such as Uber.
Prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo said such behavior will not be tolerated.
“Strong action will be taken to ensure that the state is a safe destination for local inhabitants and visitors,” the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Local residents posted video on social media showing at least two uniformed cab drivers bashing a Chevy Suburban with poles and other objects.
The van driver attempts to escape with the vehicle’s tailgate open, according to the footage, and the tourists’ luggage spills into the street. Three women can later be seen retrieving their luggage from the street.
“What are you doing?” cries one woman in English as belligerent cabbies mill around the scene, carrying what looked like improvised cudgels. “That is not okay.”
A local business owner who filmed the incident invited the women to take refuge in her store. The video shows the taxi drivers chasing the driver of the Suburban down the street until he reached a police officer.
The state prosecutors’ office said two taxi drivers were charged with robbery, and causing damage and injuries.
Local media reported the Suburban was not run through a ride-hailing app but by a local, non-medallion limousine service. Past incidents of taxi drivers attacking private vehicles in Cancun were based on the mistaken assumption they were Uber cars.
Cancun residents organized a boycott of medallion taxis in January following a week of blockades and violent incidents by drivers protesting the ride-hailing app Uber.
Road blockades, stone throwing and cabbies physically getting in the way had prevented tourists from boarding Uber vehicles. The U.S. issued a travel advisory warning that “past disputes between these services and local taxi unions have occasionally turned violent, resulting in injuries to U.S. citizens in some instances.”
Ride-hailing app s were blocked in Cancun until January, when a court granted an injunction allowing Uber to operate. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-two-taxi-drivers-arrested-in-mexican-resort-of-cancun-for-assaulting-van-carrying-foreign-tourists/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:24 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-two-taxi-drivers-arrested-in-mexican-resort-of-cancun-for-assaulting-van-carrying-foreign-tourists/ |
2023 Amundi Evian Championship Betting Odds, Favorites & Insights – Round 3
Celine Boutier currently leads the way (-7, +5500 to win) after two rounds of play at the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship .
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Amundi Evian Championship Third Round Information
- Start Time: 1:00 AM ET
- Venue: Evian Resort Golf Club
- Location: Évian-les-Bains, France
- Par/Distance: Par 71/6,527 yards
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Amundi Evian Championship Best Odds to Win
Hyo Joo Kim
- Tee Time: 1:11 AM ET
- Current Rank: 28th (+1)
- Odds to Win: +1400
Kim Round by Round Results
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Nelly Korda
- Tee Time: 1:11 AM ET
- Current Rank: 28th (+1)
- Odds to Win: +1600
Korda Round by Round Results
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Rose Zhang
- Tee Time: 2:17 AM ET
- Current Rank: 12th (-2)
- Odds to Win: +1800
Zhang Round by Round Results
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Linn Grant
- Tee Time: 2:17 AM ET
- Current Rank: 12th (-2)
- Odds to Win: +2000
Grant Round by Round Results
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Ayaka Furue
- Tee Time: 2:28 AM ET
- Current Rank: 52nd (+3)
- Odds to Win: +2000
Furue Round by Round Results
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Amundi Evian Championship Odds (Rest of Field)
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/amundi-evian-championship-lpga-tournament-betting-odds-round-3/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:26 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/amundi-evian-championship-lpga-tournament-betting-odds-round-3/ |
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.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-singapore-hangs-first-woman-in-19-years-after-she-was-convicted-of-trafficking-31-grams-of-heroin/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:26 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-singapore-hangs-first-woman-in-19-years-after-she-was-convicted-of-trafficking-31-grams-of-heroin/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-typhoon-doksuri-makes-landfall-in-china-after-bringing-deadly-landslides-to-philippines/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:30 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-typhoon-doksuri-makes-landfall-in-china-after-bringing-deadly-landslides-to-philippines/ |
A long battle between American Airlines and its pilots seems to finally be nearing its end.
On Thursday, the Allied Pilots Association, the union representing American Airlines pilots, said it reached an agreement on an enhanced version of its previous tentative agreement, now referred to as TA 2.0.
TA 2.0 matches terms of agreements reached by Delta Air Lines and United Airlines pilots — a parity request American Airlines pilots asked for when they postponed the vote to ratify the original TA.
The original TA had been increased to more than $9 billion over four years when the 15,000 pilots in APA indefinitely postponed voting to ratify it until further improvements were made to "bring [them] in line with [their] peers."
Though the first TA had finally brought the airline's pay standards to the same level as United, the APA said other benefits, like "quality-of-life" provisions, didn't match up, pushing the union's board to postpone the vote late Sunday evening.
SEE MORE: Solving the airline pilot shortage may require multiple solutions
The union's board of directors then said it would take days, not weeks, to reach a new agreement, and they stuck to their word.
TA 2.0, APA said, now includes all improvements to the original TA that it was asking for, "along with additional improvements." Those include changes in medical reimbursements, per diem, extended sick leave, and more, along with the obvious pay rate increases.
Now TA 2.0 is contingent again on a ratification vote by the union, which is set for August, and on United pilots ratifying their agreement, which gives employees up to a 40% raise.
American Airlines' pay rate matching with United and Delta leaves Southwest Airlines as the only one of the nation's four biggest carriers to not reach a tentative deal with its pilots. The airline has been in unsuccessful contract negotiations with its pilots for years, and its CEO Robert Jordan said there was "nothing new to report."
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.kivitv.com/american-airlines-again-reaches-tentative-contract-with-pilots | 2023-07-29T01:32:34 | 1 | https://www.kivitv.com/american-airlines-again-reaches-tentative-contract-with-pilots |
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.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-typhoon-doksuri-makes-landfall-in-china-after-bringing-deadly-landslides-to-philippines/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:33 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-typhoon-doksuri-makes-landfall-in-china-after-bringing-deadly-landslides-to-philippines/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-us-proposes-18-fuel-economy-increase-for-new-vehicle-fleet-from-2027-through-2032/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:37 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-us-proposes-18-fuel-economy-increase-for-new-vehicle-fleet-from-2027-through-2032/ |
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved another over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray used to reverse opioid overdose on Friday.
RiVive, made by Harm Reduction Therapeutics, is the second nonprescription naloxone product the FDA has approved. But unlike other opioid overdose products, the 3 milligram treatment will be available for free or low cost, and its sales will bring no profit to its manufacturer.
"We are grateful that FDA granted RiVive approval so we can now achieve what most thought impossible and no other company has: broad delivery of a lower-cost nasal naloxone product without a prescription to save lives that could otherwise be lost to opioid overdose," said Dr. Michael Hufford, co-founder and chief executive officer of Harm Reduction Therapeutics, Inc.
Naloxone products are the standard treatment for rapidly reversing effects of an opioid overdose — a persistent public health issue in the U.S.
In 2020, nearly 75% of drug overdose deaths involved an opioid, according to CDC data. These types of overdose deaths have increased by more than eight times since 1999, and in the past decade, increases have been significantly linked to synthetic opioids mixed with illicitly manufactured fentanyl.
Because of these increased numbers and risks, the FDA has taken multiple steps to support harm reduction practices, like its work in advancing overdose reversal drugs.
In March, the FDA approved the first over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray, Narcan, and in May, it approved the first nalmefene hydrochloride nasal spray, Opvee. Nalmefene is an opioid receptor antagonist that possesses a longer duration of action than naloxone at the same dose, according to the National Institutes of Health. It requires a prescription, however, and is intended for use in health care and community settings.
The newly approved RiVive, according to Harm Reduction Therapeutics, will be available by early 2024, primarily to harm reduction organizations and state governments. But the nonprofit pharmaceutical company said it's looking for additional funding partners to make RiVive even more accessible.
The nonprofit said it's focused on supplying the cheaper option to communities who need it most, and to start, at least 200,000 doses — which is 10% of its projected first year of product production — will be available for free.
SEE MORE: White House announces plan to fight fentanyl laced with xylazine
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.kivitv.com/fda-approves-nonprofit-s-over-the-counter-opioid-overdose-nasal-spray | 2023-07-29T01:32:41 | 0 | https://www.kivitv.com/fda-approves-nonprofit-s-over-the-counter-opioid-overdose-nasal-spray |
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.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-a-notre-dame-professor-sues-a-student-publication-over-its-coverage-of-her-abortion-rights-work/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:41 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-a-notre-dame-professor-sues-a-student-publication-over-its-coverage-of-her-abortion-rights-work/ |
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.
While Chinese diplomats protested the move, Taiwan’s trade office in Washington said the U.S. decision to pull arms and other materiel from its stores provided “an important tool to support Taiwan’s self-defense.” In a statement, it pledged to work with the United States to maintain “peace, stability and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.”
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-us-to-announce-345-million-military-aid-package-for-taiwan/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:43 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-us-to-announce-345-million-military-aid-package-for-taiwan/ |
BOISE, Idaho — Earlier this month, several citizens expressed their desire for a public library branch in the West Boise neighborhood.
Related | West Boise family is leading the charge to get a public library in the area
The group, called Citizens for a Library, created a petition that has almost 1,000 signatures. They presented it to the city council and the library board.
They argue there is a gap in coverage for West Boise citizens. They say most Boise residents live within two miles of a library, except for West Boise citizens.
Here is their map:
“This is fundamental for lifelong learning, not only for the kids that are in school but for those who have never had access to libraries," Said Luci Willits, the city councilwoman representing West Boise. "So what we’re doing today, has the opportunity to change people’s lives because it gives them the opportunity for knowledge.”
Luci Willits has lived in West Boise for 20 years. In 2021 she was elected to represent her neighborhood after the Idaho legislature passed a law that said cities with populations over 100,000 people had to hold city council elections in districts.
Willits says the change gave West Boiseans a voice.
"And what changed when the Idaho Legislature said you have to district if you're over a certain population is that it gave areas of the city more of an identity," Willits told Idaho News 6. "It gave citizens someone to call when they had an issue that didn't really exist before."
Although calls for a library are strong, the process might take a long time.
The Boise Public Library is looking forward to its facilities plan which will look at major changes to the Library system in the next couple of decades.
"We could actually go out and look at, with our new modern zoning code, how is the city of Boise going to continue to grow and where should we be looking to add resources," Jessica Dorr, Boise Public Library Director told Idaho News 6.
As they start their facilities plan, a timeline would become more clear as to if and when a Library in West Boise would become a possibility. The Library told Idaho News 6 any timeline would be speculation at this point. | https://www.kivitv.com/news/citizens-are-calling-for-a-library-in-west-boise-how-are-city-officials-responding | 2023-07-29T01:32:47 | 0 | https://www.kivitv.com/news/citizens-are-calling-for-a-library-in-west-boise-how-are-city-officials-responding |
Churchill Downs to resume racing at fall meet with no changes after horse deaths
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Racing will resume at Churchill Downs in September, with no changes being made after a review of surfaces and safety protocols in the wake of 12 horse deaths, including seven in the days leading up to the Kentucky Derby in May.
The Louisville track suspended racing operations on June 7 and moved the rest of its spring meet to Ellis Park in western Kentucky at the recommendation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the sport’s national overseer.
Training continued at Churchill Downs during the track’s investigation.
Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen called the deaths “a series of unfortunate circumstances” and said the review “didn’t find anything fundamentally wrong or different about our track from previous years.”
“That, in a sense, can sometimes be unsatisfying,” he said. “But that’s business, and that’s sports.”
Two of the horse deaths occurred in undercard races on Derby day. Another five died later.
“The takeaway is, the track is very safe,” Carstanjen said Thursday on an earnings call with CDI investors.
“What we needed to do was spend some of this time in the interim, while we ran the rest of the (spring) meet at Ellis to just go soup to nuts through every single thing we do at the racetrack. There was nothing that jumped out as an apparent cause of the injuries, of the breakdowns; and, as we went through and rebuilt our processes from the ground up to check everything that we do to make extra sure, we didn’t find anything material.”
The track’s fall meet begins Sept. 14 and runs through Oct. 1.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/07/29/churchill-downs-resume-racing-fall-meet-with-no-changes-after-horse-deaths/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:48 | 1 | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/07/29/churchill-downs-resume-racing-fall-meet-with-no-changes-after-horse-deaths/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-variety-revises-article-on-former-cnn-chief-jeff-zucker-that-was-sharply-criticized/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:49 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-variety-revises-article-on-former-cnn-chief-jeff-zucker-that-was-sharply-criticized/ |
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.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-arizona-mom-never-stopped-looking-for-her-missing-daughter-she-showed-up-4-years-later-in-montana/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:49 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-arizona-mom-never-stopped-looking-for-her-missing-daughter-she-showed-up-4-years-later-in-montana/ |
Junior Police Academy holds graduation
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - The Wichita Falls Police Department held a graduation ceremony for its Junior Police Academy.
14 middle school students graduated from the academy’s week-long course.
The course taught the 12 to 14-year-olds all about the duties of officers, from crime scene investigations, to traffic stops and even scuba diving practice at Castaway Cove.
“Monday the kids are quiet, but by day two they’re already opening up and starting to participate even more, and make new friends. and for us, it’s our chance to show kids that, you know, as officers we do a pretty dangerous job, but also too we’re human, and we want to show them what it’s like to be in law enforcement and what all we have to do,” WFPD Officer Brian Aria said.
Everyone that took part in the training got a certificate from the WFPD.
Many of the kids said they had a great time and loved the experience.
Copyright 2023 KAUZ. All rights reserved. | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/07/29/junior-police-academy-holds-graduation/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:51 | 0 | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/07/29/junior-police-academy-holds-graduation/ |
KUNA, Idaho — Kuna man Braydan DuRee lost his life last weekend while climbing in the Grand Teton National Park. Braydan was a family man who had a deeply emotional impact on his family and community.
His 16-year-old son Kaleb and brother-in-law Zach Smith were with him Saturday when he fell 40 to 50 feet while climbing. Rangers responded to the accident, but Braydan's injuries were severe. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
“He passed away; it sounds cliche, but in a place that he loved," said Zach Smith, Braydan’s Brother-in-Law.
As his family and friends prepared for his memorial service, they took time to share with me just how his life affected others.
"He has so much integrity in his life in the scene that what he was on the outside, was, also how he was on the inside,” said Wes Dyer, Braydan’s friend.
Braydan and his family moved to Idaho to plant roots and start their dream farm– throughout their property, family, and friends see reminders of his life in the different projects he took on throughout the years.
"Ever since we moved here, he has been growing vegetables and fruit," said Kaleb DuRee, Braydan’s son.
Both Kaleb and Eliza Braydan’s kids remember their dad as being funny, kind, and giving, having a fruitful garden he would give out his crops to those around him.
"It was a way that he could connect with people. He would give food away and go talk to them," said Kaleb.
One of Braydan’s many projects and hobbies was beekeeping, something his kids say they will always remember him for.
"I would always come out here and stand from a distance and watch him," said Kaleb.
Zach tells me what it felt like to be around Braydan and how encouraging his presence was.
"I felt confident, and just like we can conquer the world, we can get to the top of this mountain," said Smith.
His loss is something that will now be felt as Braydan’s family and friends reflect back on their final months with him and now those without him.
"It was a great year up until the point that he passed away; I was looking forward to the next trip with him," said Smith.
Since Braydan was the sole provider in the family, they are now also feeling the impact financially— with friends now stepping up and putting together a GoFundMe page. | https://www.kivitv.com/news/kuna-man-braydan-duree-lost-his-life-last-weekend-while-climbing-in-the-grand-teton-national-park | 2023-07-29T01:32:53 | 1 | https://www.kivitv.com/news/kuna-man-braydan-duree-lost-his-life-last-weekend-while-climbing-in-the-grand-teton-national-park |
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.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-arizona-teen-alicia-navarro-missing-since-2019-shows-up-safe-at-montana-police-station/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:56 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-arizona-teen-alicia-navarro-missing-since-2019-shows-up-safe-at-montana-police-station/ |
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.”
___
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.
___
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-we-were-in-the-air-mississippi-family-recounts-surviving-tornado-that-tore-mobile-home-apart/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:55 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-we-were-in-the-air-mississippi-family-recounts-surviving-tornado-that-tore-mobile-home-apart/ |
Police: Man charged with murder after living with girlfriend’s body in closet for months
LAS VEGAS (KVVU/Gray News) - A man accused of killing his girlfriend told investigators that he lived with her body in a closet for months before she was discovered.
KVVU reports that George Bone faces a murder charge in the death of Beverly Ma.
Police said they discovered Ma’s body after the woman’s family located her in a home on July 26.
Bone was reportedly Ma’s boyfriend, and the two were living together.
The family said they went to the house where the two were to check on the air conditioning unit. They had received an expensive bill and the repair man said no one was answering the door.
They arrived at the home, but Ma still did not answer them.
According to an arrest report, they talked to Bone upstairs, and that’s when he told them that Ma was dead.
While a family member was on hold with 911, she asked Bone why he didn’t call the police and why he stayed in the house with her body, the report said.
He reportedly told the family member that he wanted to prolong his arrest. The family described Bone as being casual about the situation and brushing his teeth while speaking to them.
The woman’s family said they were not close but did keep in touch with Ma as she suffered trauma in the past.
They had last seen her in person in April, but she stopped responding to their messages a couple of months ago.
During Bone’s interview with police, he said he had known Ma since high school, and they developed a romantic relationship in 2019 after he left prison.
He started living with Ma in July 2022 and Bone told police they fought often, the arrest report said.
According to authorities, Ma had called 911 on May 4 at about 4:40 a.m. Dispatchers could hear a woman and a man screaming at each other, but Ma never responded to the dispatcher’s questions and the line went dead.
Officers said they did a door knock at the house. However, no one answered.
During his interview with police, Bone reportedly told investigators he found Ma in the closet with a belt around her neck in May. He responded to text messages on her phone so her family would think she was alive.
He also told police that he was keeping the temperature in the home at 60 degrees because of the number of flies in the house.
According to Bone’s arrest report, investigators didn’t find consistent evidence regarding his story about Ma’s suicide attempt. Police pointed out these inconsistencies to Bone and he said he didn’t know how to dispose of a body.
Eventually, Bone requested an attorney and the police interview ended.
Bone was not granted bail in a July 27 hearing. His next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 1.
Copyright 2023 KVVU via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/07/29/police-man-charged-with-murder-after-living-with-girlfriends-body-closet-months/ | 2023-07-29T01:32:59 | 1 | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/07/29/police-man-charged-with-murder-after-living-with-girlfriends-body-closet-months/ |
The U.S. Labor Department has released new data showing that wage and salary increases for workers in the United States have slowed in recent months.
A report from the DOL on Fridayshowed that wage and salary growth slowed during the quarter from April to June. This is an indication that employers were feeling less pressure to increase pay for workers.
SEE MORE: US economy grew in 2nd quarter even as interest rates rose
As the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates to try to curb inflation, the central bank said it has also been looking at the employment cost index, which is a gauge of pay.
This spring both pay and benefits rose about 1% in the second quarter, according to government data. That was down from about 1.2%, the rate of growth for the first three months of this year.
Policymakers have actually said they worry that rapidly rising wages could have a negative impact on their work to reduce inflation.
The hope from economists is that in trying to cool the economy down, gains in salaries and wages — along with price hikes — will slow, but not cause a jump in the unemployment rate.
The Labor Department said compensation cost increases for the 12-month window that ended in June of this year was at around 4.1% for construction and natural resources, along with maintenance jobs.
That same figure went up by about 5.3% for service jobs.
Lester Jones of the National Beer Wholesalers Association told the New York Times, "Labor's still a problem, the labor market's still tight out there, but firms are starting to figure out how to make do with what they have."
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.kivitv.com/wage-and-salary-increases-in-the-us-slowed-down | 2023-07-29T01:32:59 | 1 | https://www.kivitv.com/wage-and-salary-increases-in-the-us-slowed-down |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesotans can legally possess and grow their own marijuana for recreational purposes starting Tuesday, Aug. 1, subject to limits meant to keep a lid on things while the state sets up a full-blown legal cannabis industry.
The Democratic-controlled Minnesota Legislature approved a massive legalization bill and Democrat Gov. Tim Walz signed it in May.
At least one Minnesota tribe plans to take advantage of its sovereignty and allow sales right away. But the state projects most legal retail sales won’t begin until early 2025, while it creates as licensing and regulatory system for the new industry.
Legalization followed a debate between critics who fear for the impacts on public safety and young people, and supporters who argue that prohibition of the drug had failed. Backers of the law framed legalization noted that people of color were more likely than whites to be arrested for minor offenses, and to suffer lasting consequences in employment and housing.
Minnesota is the 23rd state to legalize recreational marijuana, more than a decade after Colorado and Washington did so.
It comes as New York struggles to end the illicit trade while failing to quickly license legal shops with a focus on “social equity” and New Mexico punishes retailers for illegally selling weed sourced from California — amid wider gluts and plummeting prices for pot farmers.
Farmers, like members of the public, can’t legally move cannabis across state lines amid the ongoing federal ban.
Here’s a look at what will and won’t change in Minnesota as of Aug. 1:
WHAT’S LEGAL
Adults 21 and older can possess and travel in the state with 2 ounces of cannabis flower, 8 grams of concentrate and 800 milligrams worth of THC-containing edible products such as gummies and seltzers. They can have up to 2 pounds of cannabis flower at home.
Low-potency edibles made with THC from industrial hemp were legalized last year. They’ve been subject to a 10% marijuana tax since July 1.
That tax will apply to other marijuana products as they become licensed for sales, but not on sovereign tribal lands.
It remains illegal under federal law to bring marijuana in from out of state.
RETAIL WEED
The Red Lake Nation plans to sell recreational marijuana at its existing medical cannabis dispensary starting Aug. 1. But that’s on its remote reservation in northwestern Minnesota. It’s not clear yet if other tribes will follow.
While states like New Mexico managed to legalize and regulate marijuana within a year of legalization, Minnesota will take a bit longer.
Like New York, the Minnesota law gives priority to social equity considerations for awarding licenses. That can mean applicants from low-income areas that have felt disproportionate effects from marijuana being illegal, people whose convictions have been expunged, and military veterans who lost their honorable status due to a marijuana-related offense, to name a few.
That includes a long list of license categories for cannabis-related businesses, with application fees ranging from $250 for delivery services to $10,000 for growers and product manufacturers.
Local governments can’t ban cannabis sales, but they can limit the number of retailers to one per 12,500 residents.
MINNESOTA GROWN
Adults can grow up to eight plants at home, with no more than four flowering at a time. The plants must be grown in an enclosed, locked space that’s not open to public view, whether that’s indoors or in a garden.
Retailers can start selling marijuana seeds if they comply with labeling and other requirements set by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
WHERE AND WHERE NOT TO TOKE
Cannabis can be legally consumed on private property, including private homes. Eventually it will be allowed at special events where organizers have permits.
But it’s still illegal to smoke or vape cannabis anywhere that tobacco smoking is prohibited, including most businesses, apartment buildings and college campuses. Nothing in the state law prohibits smoking it on a public sidewalk, but local ordinances might.
Cannabis use remains illegal in all forms while driving, in public schools, on school buses, in state prisons, and on federal property. It can’t be smoked or vaped where a minor could inhale it.
GUNS AND GANJA
Federal law still bars cannabis consumers from owning firearms or ammunition.
That’s despite Second Amendment-friendly provisions in the Minnesota law. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has said that regardless of Minnesota’s new law, a “current user” of marijuana is defined as an “unlawful user” for federal purposes. That means people following state law are still prohibited from having guns and ganja.
Gun purchasers must fill out an ATF form saying whether or not they use marijuana. Lying on the form is a felony under federal law.
CLEANING SLATES
Minor marijuana convictions, like possession of small amounts, will began to be automatically expunged starting in August. More than 60,000 Minnesotans could benefit, but the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says the process could take up to a year to clear everyone’s record.
A special Cannabis Expungement Board will be formed to review felony convictions to determine eligibility case by case.
REGULATING IT
The Office of Cannabis Management will oversee the cannabis industry in Minnesota. It’s starting to list job positions, with applications for the office’s first executive director open through July 31.
The office will also take over the running of Minnesota’s medical marijuana program, which won’t be taxed.
Tribal governments will set their own rules. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-what-to-know-as-recreational-marijuana-becomes-legal-in-minnesota-on-aug-1/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:03 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-what-to-know-as-recreational-marijuana-becomes-legal-in-minnesota-on-aug-1/ |
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.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-as-illegal-crossings-drop-the-legal-challenges-over-bidens-us-mexico-border-policies-grow/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:02 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-as-illegal-crossings-drop-the-legal-challenges-over-bidens-us-mexico-border-policies-grow/ |
Thandiwe Newton starring in a thriller, the return of the TV family wrestling drama “Heels” and a new album from Post Malone are among the new television, movies, music and games now available on a device near you.
Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are comedian Chris Estrada’s series “This Fool” returning for a second season and Zach Galifianakis starring in a movie about the creation of the ultra-collectable Beanie Babies.
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
— Zach Galifianakis takes on a different kind of role in “The Beanie Bubble,” playing Ty Warner, the founder of Ty, Inc. and creator of the Beanie Babies, which in the mid-1990s surged in popularity, and resale value, for several years. The film is not exactly about him however. Based on Zac Bissonnette’s “The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute,” directors Kristin Gore and Damian Kulash Jr. look at the women around Ty — his business partner, played by Elizabeth Banks; a single mother he dates, played by Sarah Snook; and a temp who puts his company online at the beginning of the e-commerce age, played by Geraldine Viswanathan. “The Beanie Bubble” is available on Apple TV+ starting Friday.
— Thandiwe Newton plays a former New Orleans cop-turned-college professor living in a remote part of Montana who catches two hunters trespassing on her property in the thriller “God’s Country,” streaming on Hulu on Friday. Based on James Lee Burke’s short story “Winter Light,” the Julian Higgins-directed film debuted last year at Sundance to largely favorable reviews. In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Daniels wrote that “’God’s Country’ is a film that wants to disarm you at every turn, and it often succeeds with a transfixing, acute spirit of retribution against society’s toxic racial and gender power dynamics.”
— And in honor of “Oppenheimer” debuting in theaters, the programmers over at the Criterion Channel have waived the subscription fee and made Jon Else’s riveting 1981 documentary “The Day After Trinity” available for free until July 31. J. Robert Oppenheimer had died by the time the filmmakers started on this endeavor, but the film features interviews with an army of names that anyone who watched the movie, or read “American Prometheus,” will recognize. They include his brother Frank Oppenheimer, Haakon Chevalier, Hans Bethe, Isidor Rabi and more, reflecting on Oppenheimer and what they created at Los Alamos. It’s an essential historical document and fascinating companion piece to Christopher Nolan’s film.
— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
NEW MUSIC TO STREAM
— The music week belongs to Post Malone, whose new album “Austin,” signals a move away from rap. There’s already been the excellent single synth-pop tune “Chemical,” the hungover ballad “Mourning” and the power rock of ”Overdrive,” where he sings “I’ll remove my tattoos if that’s cool to you/I’ll do anything to be cool to you.” Post Malone says he played guitar on all of the 17-tracks and posted on Instagram: “It’s been some of the funnest music, some of the most challenging and rewarding music for me, at least — trying to really push myself and really do some cool stuff.”
— The Rolling Stones are reissuing their stuffed 2002 album “Forty Licks” digitally for the first time on Wednesday. It’s got over 2 1/2 hours of top-level Stones, including “Satisfaction,” “Miss You,” “Brown Sugar,” “Paint It, Black,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Get Off of My Cloud” and “Angie.” “Forty Licks” would sell seven million copies around the world, and has come to be seen as the definitive anthology of the band’s recording career, bringing together songs from their early days via Decca UK and London US through to the establishment of their own Rolling Stones Records.
— AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy
NEW SERIES TO STREAM
— Comedian Chris Estrada’s “This Fool” drops its 10-episode second season Friday on Hulu. The show is a working-class comedy about Estrada’s character, Julio, living in South Los Angeles, who has the best of intentions but often finds himself in absurd situations. When we first met him in season one, Julio is living with his mother and grandmother, still using his childhood bedroom, and working for a gang rehabilitation group called Hugs not Thugs. In season two, Hugs not Thugs has shuttered. Julio, along with his ex-con cousin and now roommate Luis, and former support group boss, a minister played by Michael Imperioli, decide to open a coffee shop and name it Mugs not Thugs, which employs ex-felons.
— Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig’s family wrestling drama “Heels” is back two years after its debut on Starz. The actors play brothers, Jack and Ace Spade, who are professional wrestlers in a small Georgia town called Duffy, where their drama and rivalry extends outside the ring. Ace, who is the hero character (known as “the face” in wrestling-speak) has the potential to leave their Duffy Wrestling League for the big time while Jack — the villain known as “the heel” — also dreams of stardom but carries the burden of keeping the family business afloat. Season one followed the breakdown of the brothers’ relationship and in season two, debuting Friday on Starz, the two must come together to restore the Duffy Wrestling League. Amell, who starred as Oliver Queen in The CW’s “Arrow,” has said he never thought he would find a role as satisfying as that, and playing Jack is like lightning striking twice.
— Alicia Rancilio
NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
— Disney’s Castle of Illusion, from 1990, was a charming adventure that could have turned Mickey Mouse into the next Mario. Alas, the Mouse House let the series wither, but England’s Dlala Studios has dusted off Mickey’s white gloves for the new Disney Illusion Island. It’s a two-dimensional romp in which Mickey, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy run, jump and bounce across the island in search of three magical books. Parents and kids can team up to play all four characters at once — you can boost a teammate’s health meter with a hug — or you can explore solo. The animation looks more like the Rayman series than classic Disney, but it’s vivid and lively. The frolicking begins Friday on Nintendo Switch.
— Lou Kesten
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Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/entertainment. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-what-to-stream-this-weekend-post-malone-beanie-bubble-this-fool-rolling-stones-and-heels/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:04 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-what-to-stream-this-weekend-post-malone-beanie-bubble-this-fool-rolling-stones-and-heels/ |
A relentless summer with record-breaking sweltering temperatures is putting the human body to the test.
"We are the warmest we have been in 1,000 years based on the best possible data that we have," said Carlos Del Castillo, the NASA Ocean Ecology Laboratory chief.
Scientific data is forecasting that July will be the hottest month globally on record, and possibly the warmest human civilization has ever experienced.
Dr. Pope Moseley is a research professor at Arizona State University and a lung and intensive care unit physician. He is one of two professors studying the impacts of extreme heat on the body in Arizona, using hospital and population data.
"The majority of people who are affected by heat and who seek hospital care or become seriously ill are not captured under the heat-related illness banner," said Moseley. "Heat is the force multiplier of chronic disease."
He says he wants to highlight the health implications of excessive heat beyond just the data on common heat illnesses.
"More than 65% of people have at least one chronic condition, and 40% have two or more. So, these chronic conditions are activated and made worse by heat," said Moseley.
SEE MORE: Over half the US is under extreme heat or flood warnings
He says research shows that during heat waves, blood stream infections go up, suicides rates tick up 1% to 2%, overdoses increase, and hospitalizations for dementia and heart attacks increase.
A recent report published by the American Heart Association also found that the risk of fatal heart attacks may double when combined with fine particle pollution and heat waves.
In Arizona, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s office is at 106% capacity. The coroner's office brought in 10 coolers to store bodies. The county spokesperson says this year is worse than past years, with reports showing 25 heat-associated deaths in the county so far this year.
In April, Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix called on the federal government to add extreme heat to FEMA's list of declarable disasters, a plea that she made again this week to the president. "We would love it if Congress would give you the ability to declare heat a disaster," said Mayor Gallego.
The move would unlock additional resources for emergency relief. Phoenix is forecast to hit or exceed an entire month with temperatures at 110 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. While other parts of the country can expect to cool off this weekend, there is little relief in sight for the Southwest.
"Phoenix is going to be the place that these health issues are solved, because Phoenix is the place that is ground zero for heat waves right now," said Gallego.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.kivitv.com/what-are-some-health-complications-from-extreme-heat | 2023-07-29T01:33:05 | 0 | https://www.kivitv.com/what-are-some-health-complications-from-extreme-heat |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — While Nashville International Airport hums to the tune of live music in a terminal filled with tourists and locals alike, this trendy gateway to Tennessee has quietly confronted an identity crisis.
Under a new state law, there is no clear agreement now about who’s in charge of airport operations. The confusion comes at a time when the airport is booming, its annual passengers having more than doubled over the past decade to 21.8 million by the 2023 fiscal year.
The nonprofit Metro Nashville Airport Authority and state officials argue that a new group of state appointees has lawfully taken over the authority’s board. But federal officials and the city contend the old board picked by Nashville’s mayor still has power.
Both boards met at the same time last week across town from each other.
The dispute heads to a hearing Friday in a state court in Nashville.
Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers approved plans for the state to make enough appointments to control the airport’s board starting in July. The change was among several passed by legislators seeking to curtail the power of the heavily Democratic city, whose metro council sunk a bid to bring the 2024 Republican National Convention to Nashville.
The city has filed suit against the state over the changes to the airport authority, which manages, operates, finances and maintains the international airport and a smaller one in Nashville. In the meantime, the authority installed the new board members on July 1, saying it can’t defy state law without a court order.
Citing the Tennessee Constitution, the city’s lawsuit argues the state violated home rule protections by singling out Nashville without requiring either a local referendum or a two-thirds vote of the metro council for the change.
The state responded that Nashville can’t make its claims because the airport authority is independent of the local government.
City leaders, however, reached out and received input from the Federal Aviation Administration, which can veto certain changes to the airport’s governance. The federal agency said it would keep recognizing the pre-July 1 board until a court decides the lawsuit.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper, a Democrat, has cried foul on the Republican change.
“Nashville’s airport has grown very successfully over the years by the direction of this board, and that’s unquestionable,” Cooper said during a recent meeting of the board he selected. “Any state action is purely about politics.”
Tennessee’s situation isn’t unprecedented. Due to FAA and court action, North Carolina’s 2013 law to shift control of Charlotte Douglas International Airport from the city to a separate regional board never came to fruition. Mississippi’s 2016 law to reconfigure Jackson’s airport remains blocked by an ongoing legal challenge. Georgia lawmakers flirted with flipping the Atlanta airport’s governance in 2019 but opposition sank the proposal.
Nashville officials say the state is upending an airport board without complaints about its performance, even during a time of extensive expansion.
In the 2023 budget year, the airport unveiled a new lobby, added more restaurants and live music, opened an additional parking garage and made progress toward an onsite hotel. The airport hosts country, jazz and bluegrass concerts in its terminals and exhibits the work of local artists.
The facility has endured growing pains, too, marked by passenger pickup lines sometimes stretching well past a nearby interstate exit.
Lawmakers passed the change despite predictions in April by former FAA official Kirk Shaffer that it would create competing boards in “a messy and costly stalemate that damages all involved,” possibly jeopardizing federal grant money.
So far, the fight is largely unfolding in court filings. The city says lost grant money could halt projects to accommodate more flights, spurring cancellations and delays. The state and the airport authority argue the grants aren’t in jeopardy. The authority said Nashville officials are making “sky-is-falling” exaggerations.
Republican lawmakers contend the state deserves more say over the growing airport because of its regional impact. House Speaker Cameron Sexton said lawmakers created “the legally sanctioned board.”
As an intervenor in the lawsuit, the airport authority has remained neutral on whether the new law is unconstitutional. Updates to the FAA have never resulted in the federal agency directing the authority to stop following the state law, while even worse disruptions would result from an order to temporarily return to the preexisting board, the authority wrote.
The state-majority board met at the airport on Wednesday, conducting standard-fare business on contracts and reports. At the same time, the members of the mayoral-picked board gathered in city hall, reiterating that the FAA still acknowledges them while criticizing the state law and approving an outside attorney hire.
In a letter to the Nashville community at large, the authority’s CEO has acknowledged the “frustration and confusion” caused by the dispute. But he said the authority is responsible for staying legally compliant.
“As an airport authority, we do not take political positions,” airport authority President and CEO Doug Kruelen wrote in the July 6 letter. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-whos-in-charge-of-nashvilles-airport-us-and-tennessee-officials-disagree-under-a-new-state-law/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:10 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-whos-in-charge-of-nashvilles-airport-us-and-tennessee-officials-disagree-under-a-new-state-law/ |
Global average sea temperatures are at unprecedented highs.
Ocean heat is contributing to significant ice melt and causing coral die-offs.
In places, our instruments are registering what may be the highest ocean temperatures ever recorded on Earth.
Scientists say the oceanic heat waves that have pushed sea surface temperatures to new records this summer are expected to persist, which may continue to contribute to extreme weather later in the year.
Svenja Ryan, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, told NBC News: "We’re not even at the height of the summer. Typically, the ocean continues to warm until September, so I think certainly we can expect this heat wave to last into the fall."
But experts can't say exactly what exactly to expect in terms of effects — in some cases, the conditions now are unlike anything they've ever seen before.
So researchers are studying whether the warm ocean temperatures are influencing this year's weather. Rainfall patterns may have been affected in places as far apart as Norway, which saw unusually dry conditions this year, and South Asia, where the monsoon that waters rice and other crops has been weaker than usual.
Typically, warmer waters also fuel stronger hurricanes, which draw their energy from the ocean as they move across it.
However, any intensification of this year's storms may be moderated by the characteristic wind shear from the El Niño weather pattern in the Pacific; the competing winds make it difficult for storms to keep their form and strength.
SEE MORE: Rising ocean temps contributing to Florida's dying coral reefs
Looking past just this year's effects, warmer oceans are expected to increase pressure on ocean ecosystems, intensify hurricanes, and accelerate ice loss — which could then cause other imbalances in the climate that we're used to.
Research published this week found that accelerated melting from ice in Greenland is changing the speed of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current, which is expected to eventually destabilize, now possibly as early as midcentury.
A weakening or collapse of the ocean-wide current could disrupt weather patterns on multiple continents, threaten the reliability of agricultural zones and displace millions of people due to sea level rise.
SEE MORE: A major Atlantic Ocean current could collapse as early as 2025
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.kivitv.com/what-does-prolonged-ocean-heat-mean-for-our-weather | 2023-07-29T01:33:11 | 1 | https://www.kivitv.com/what-does-prolonged-ocean-heat-mean-for-our-weather |
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.”
An attorney for Roberts did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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.
Hunter Biden has four other children, including a son, Beau, born by his wife Melissa Cohen in 2020. He was named after the president’s late son who died of cancer in 2015, leaving behind two children.
Biden’s grandchildren have played a distinctive role in his presidency, often accompanying the president or first lady on trips and making regular visits to the White House. The president has also credited his grandchildren with persuading him to challenge then-President Donald Trump for the White House in 2020.
Biden’s statement was first reported by People Magazine. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-biden-openly-acknowledges-7th-grandchild-the-daughter-of-son-hunter-and-an-arkansas-woman/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:10 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-biden-openly-acknowledges-7th-grandchild-the-daughter-of-son-hunter-and-an-arkansas-woman/ |
More patients are skipping the brick-and-mortar hospital to heal at home instead with hospital-at-home programs. And more health care systems are adopting the programs and offering them to patients, especially those 65 and older. The age group makes up a sixth of the U.S. population, and can be at increased risk for secondary infections or falls.
The model is part of health care in other countries too. But critics warn more regulation needs to happen before it is widely adopted in the U.S.
On a recent morning in California, Scripps News met with Pippa Shulman, chief medical officer of Medically Home. The company has partnered with hospital systems like the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente. The decentralized health care company invited the media to see how their hospital-at-home service works.
"It could be anywhere electricity, running water, an access to a bathroom, everything else. We can help mitigate and support the patient," said Schulman.
Hospital-at-home, or acute at-home hospital care is for stable, acute-care patients. It would not be used for someone who could be admitted to a hospital with a bad infection, COPD, or heart failure, for example. The patients are discharged more quickly or stay at home completely to heal in their own dwelling.
The model uses telehealth and technology. Think calls with doctors and nurses, and devices like a watch that reads vitals or a medication dispenser, for example, supplemented by visits from health care workers for therapies or tests.
"We can do in-home ultrasound, we can do in-home blood testing, we can do in-home x-ray," Schulman explained.
SEE MORE: White House to force insurers to increase mental health coverage
On the other end, medical professionals — doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses — are either working from home or in their own command center, having appointments, looking at a patient's vitals, livestreaming, video chatting, and giving them medical advice in real time.
"People think of the tech as sensors and remote this and monitoring," said geriatrician Dr. Bruce Leff."All-important, all true. But I think what they forget, on the other side, is that the tech and the software platforms allow programs to build high-quality, highly safe care, and the ability to coordinate services."
Leff is an early pioneer of hospital-at-home. He started a program at Johns Hopkins in 1994, conducting some of the first clinical research looking into health outcomes for patient care in and out of hospital. The first participants were patients who needed hospital care, but when offered, refused. Hopkins' institutional review board also required the patients to be monitored 24/7 in person.
"Interestingly, more than half the patients refused that because they thought it would be weird to have someone sitting in their home and watching them sleep."
The trend really boomed out of the COVID pandemic, when hospitals were overrun, and some were working with makeshift wards. In November 2020, Medicare rules changed due to the public health emergency. Hospitals were paid the same amount if an acute patient was in the actual hospital room or in their home. Hospitals were also no longer required to provide 24/7 in-person nursing care.
SEE MORE: 1 million dropped from Medicaid as states start post-pandemic purge
Those Medicare rules were extended that same year. They're now set to expire December 2024, and while law requires the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services to evaluate the program by then, what happens after is uncertain.
Nearly 300 hospital at-home programs exist in 37 states. And the market is expected to grow to $254 billion over the next seven years.
"My view ... is that in the future, hospitals will become big ERs, ORs and ICU beds. Everything else could and should be moved out to the community," said Leff. "As the tech gets better, we'll see more acuity taken care of in the home. I think ... we'll have improved approaches for engaging with family members in terms of maybe more standardization across programs ... Better training for caregivers, which I think is something we need to be working towards."
But acute health care at home has been met with criticism. The largest nurses' union calls it "home all alone."
"Acute care means that your condition is likely to change and you are likely to experience, or at high risk to experience, complications. So even if you're feeling well, that could change quickly," explains Michelle Mahon, RN. She's the assistant director of nursing practice for National Nurses United.
SEE MORE: 43 prescription drugs may soon cost less for some Medicare recipients
National Nurses United also worries the cost will fall onto patients and taxpayers, and warns about the impact on caregivers.
A recent report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research argues that private equity, hedge funds and venture capital getting in the hospital-at-home game without more regulation and enforcement systems means there would be "incentives for financial interests to take advantage of taxpayer subsidies for private gain and at the risk of lower quality care or heightened inequality across diverse populations."
Dr. Leff is a clinical advisor to Medically Home, and Dispatch Health (another at-home health care provider), among others. He says he thinks "it's always good to be suspicious of how money is moving through the health system."
He also added, "There's absolutely some private equity money in this, but a lot of the money is actually coming in the form of investor partners as opposed to private equity. So take Dispatch Health and Humana, take Medically Home with the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente. Those investments are being provided by investor partners who have a strong interest in creating a credible, safe, high-quality model."
The big question is: Does hospital-at-home work? Johns Hopkins' research in their hospital-at-home program showed the cost of hospital-at-home is a couple thousand dollars less, and length of stays were shorter. Cases of delirium — a complication — were dramatically lower.
A 2021 analysis in the Journal of American Medical Association of several studies of hospital-at-home patients found treatment lasted an average of five days longer and had a similar mortality risk. Hospital readmission risk went down 26%.
Limited research shows at-home acute care patients sleep better and have more physical activity. But the latest studies show many patients eligible for at-home acute care are still skeptical. One found more than 60% of patients offered the program turned it down, opting to stay in a hospital.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.kivitv.com/what-is-hospital-at-home-and-what-s-the-debate-about-it | 2023-07-29T01:33:17 | 0 | https://www.kivitv.com/what-is-hospital-at-home-and-what-s-the-debate-about-it |
Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on three additional charges in a case that accuses him of illegally possessing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, allegations that add fresh detail to the criminal case initially issued last month.
Here’s a look at the charges, the special counsel’s investigation and how Trump’s case differs from those of other politicians known to be in possession of classified documents:
WHAT ARE THE NEW CHARGES?
There are three new charges against Trump, as well as a new defendant in the case.
Prosecutors accuse the former president of trying to “alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal evidence,” and of inducing another person to do so. They say Trump asked a staffer — Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira — to delete camera footage at his Florida estate in an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into his possession of classified documents.
Prosecutors allege that De Oliveira schemed with Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, to conceal the footage from investigators.
A third count also accuses Trump of willfully retaining national defense information related to a presentation about military activity in another country.
Investigators say Trump showed a classified document during July 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort to the writer and publisher of the memoir of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Details about that document and the meeting were included in the original indictment, but none of the charges had related to it until now.
Trump had returned that document to the government on Jan. 17, 2022 — nearly a year after he left office, according to the indictment.
Trump was indicted last month on 37 counts related to the mishandling of classified documents. The charges include counts of retaining classified information, obstructing justice and making false statements, among other crimes.
Trump is accused of keeping documents related to “nuclear weaponry in the United States” and the “nuclear capabilities of a foreign country,” along with documents from White House intelligence briefings, including some that detail the military capabilities of the U.S. and other countries, according to the indictment. Prosecutors alleged Trump showed off the documents to people who did not have security clearances to review them and later tried to conceal documents from his own lawyers as they sought to comply with federal demands to find and return documents.
The top charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
After leaving office in 2021, the former president showed someone working for his political action committee a map that detailed a military operation in a foreign country, prosecutors allege in the document. On another occasion that year, Trump showed a writer, a publisher and two of his staffers — none of whom had security clearances — a military plan of attack.
HOW IS TRUMP REACTING?
A Trump campaign statement dismissed the new charges as “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration “to harass President Trump and those around him” and to influence the 2024 presidential race.
In an interview Thursday night with Breitbart News, Trump called the superseding indictment “harassment,” repeating his insistence that his activities were “protected by the Presidential Records Act.”
On Friday, Trump and a dozen other Republicans seeking the 2024 presidential nomination were expected at an Iowa GOP event.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
De Oliveira is due in court in Florida on Monday.
Both Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty to the original 38-count indictment.
Their trial is currently scheduled for May 20, 2024 — deep into the presidential nominating calendar, and probably well after the Republican nominee is known — and it was unclear if the addition of a new defendant could result in a postponement.
Prosecutors, who had wanted the case to go to trial in December, wrote in a separate court filing Thursday that the new charges “should not disturb” the May trial date, “and the Special Counsel’s Office is taking steps related to discovery and security clearances to ensure that it does not do so.”
Trump’s lawyers have claimed that he can’t get a fair trial before the 2024 election.
HOW DID THIS CASE COME ABOUT?
Officials with the National Archives and Records Administration contacted representatives for Trump in spring 2021 when they realized that important material from his time in office was missing.
According to the Presidential Records Act, White House documents are considered property of the U.S. government and must be preserved.
A Trump representative told the National Archives in December 2021 that presidential records had been found at Mar-a-Lago. In January 2022, the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents from Trump’s Florida home, later telling Justice Department officials that they contained “a lot” of classified material.
That May, the FBI and Justice Department issued a subpoena for remaining classified documents in Trump’s possession. Investigators who went to visit the property weeks later to collect the records were given roughly three dozen documents and a sworn statement from Trump’s lawyers attesting that the requested information had been returned.
But that assertion turned out to be false. With a search warrant, federal officials returned to Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and seized more than 33 boxes and containers totaling 11,000 documents from a storage room and an office, including 100 classified documents.
In all, roughly 300 documents with classification markings — including some at the top secret level — have been recovered from Trump since he left office in January 2021.
HOW DID A SPECIAL COUNSEL GET INVOLVED?
Last year, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland picked Jack Smith, a veteran war crimes prosecutor with a background in public corruption probes, to lead investigations into the presence of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate, as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to undo the 2020 election.
Smith’s appointment was a recognition by Garland of the politics involved in an investigation into a former president and current White House candidate. Garland himself was selected by Democratic President Joe Biden, whom Trump is seeking to challenge for the White House in 2024.
Special counsels are appointed in cases in which the Justice Department perceives itself as having a conflict or where it’s deemed to be in the public interest to have someone outside the government come in and take responsibility for a matter.
According to the Code of Federal Regulations, a special counsel must have “a reputation for integrity and impartial decision making,” as well as “an informed understanding of the criminal law and Department of Justice policies.”
DIDN’T BIDEN AND FORMER VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE HAVE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, TOO?
Yes, but the circumstances of their cases are vastly different from those involving Trump.
After classified documents were found at Biden’s think tank and Pence’s Indiana home, their lawyers notified authorities and quickly arranged for them to be handed over. They also authorized other searches by federal authorities to search for additional documents.
There is no indication either was aware of the existence of the records before they were found, and no evidence has so far emerged that Biden or Pence sought to conceal the discoveries. That’s important because the Justice Department historically looks for willfulness in deciding whether to bring criminal charges.
A special counsel was appointed earlier this year to probe how classified materials ended up at Biden’s Delaware home and former office. But even if the Justice Department were to find Biden’s case prosecutable on the evidence, its Office of Legal Counsel has concluded that a president is immune from prosecution during his time in office.
As for Pence, the Justice Department informed his legal team this month that it would not be pursuing criminal charges against him over his handling of the documents.
DOES A FEDERAL INDICTMENT PREVENT TRUMP FROM RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT?
No. Neither the indictment itself nor a conviction would prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
And, as his indictment earlier this year in a New York hush-money case showed, criminal charges have historically been a boon to his fundraising. The campaign announced that it had raised over $4 million in the 24 hours after that indictment became public, smashing its previous record after the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-with-trump-newly-indicted-heres-what-to-know-about-the-documents-case-and-whats-next/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:16 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-with-trump-newly-indicted-heres-what-to-know-about-the-documents-case-and-whats-next/ |
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.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-biden-orders-changes-to-the-military-code-of-justice-for-sexual-assault-victims/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:17 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-biden-orders-changes-to-the-military-code-of-justice-for-sexual-assault-victims/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-worker-warned-organizer-someones-going-to-end-up-dead-before-crowd-surge-at-21-travis-scott-show/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:24 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-worker-warned-organizer-someones-going-to-end-up-dead-before-crowd-surge-at-21-travis-scott-show/ |
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The city of San Francisco has opened a complaint and launched an investigation into a giant “X” sign that was installed Friday on top of the downtown building formerly known as Twitter headquarters as owner Elon Musk continues his rebrand of the social media platform.
City officials say replacing letters or symbols on buildings, or erecting a sign on top of one, requires a permit for design and safety reasons.
The X appeared after San Francisco police stopped workers on Monday from removing the brand’s iconic bird and logo from the side of the building, saying they hadn’t taped off the sidewalk to keep pedestrians safe if anything fell.
Any replacement letters or symbols would require a permit to ensure “consistency with the historic nature of the building” and to make sure additions are safely attached to the sign, Patrick Hannan, spokesperson for the Department of Building Inspection said earlier this week.
Erecting a sign on top of a building also requires a permit, Hannan said Friday.
“Planning review and approval is also necessary for the installation of this sign. The city is opening a complaint and initiating an investigation,” he said in an email.
Musk unveiled a new “X” logo to replace Twitter’s famous blue bird as he remakes the social media platform he bought for $44 billion last year. The X started appearing at the top of the desktop version of Twitter on Monday.
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla, has long been fascinated with the letter X and had already renamed Twitter’s corporate name to X Corp. after he bought it in October. One of his children is called “X.” The child’s actual name is a collection of letters and symbols.
On Friday afternoon, a worker on a lift machine made adjustments to the sign and then left. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-x-logo-installed-atop-twitter-building-spurring-san-francisco-to-investigate-permit-violation/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:25 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-x-logo-installed-atop-twitter-building-spurring-san-francisco-to-investigate-permit-violation/ |
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The new prosecutor in Oklahoma’s biggest county announced Friday she’s dropping criminal charges against seven police officers in three separate fatal shootings from 2020, including one in which five officers were charged with killing a 15-year-old boy outside a convenience store.
District Attorney Vicki Behenna’s predecessor and fellow Democrat, David Prater, had filed criminal charges against the police officers before leaving office. Behenna said she hired a use-of-force expert to examine the evidence, and her office spent hundreds of hours reviewing the three cases.
“Under Oklahoma law, these shootings were justified,” Behenna said at a news conference.
“This was not just a quick, spur-of-the-moment decision. This was a very difficult, very fact-intensive decision and review,” she said.
The charges were dismissed with prejudice, which means they are permanently dismissed and can’t be refiled, she said.
A former federal prosecutor and defense attorney from the suburb of Edmond, Behenna is the first woman elected top prosecutor in the state’s most populous county. She defeated conservative Republican Kevin Calvey last year to win a four-year term.
The most high-profile case dismissed Friday involved five Oklahoma City officers charged with first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Stavian Rodriguez. The teen was shot on Nov. 23, 2020, by officers responding to reports of an attempted armed robbery at a convenience store.
TV news reports of the shooting showed video of the boy dropping a gun then reaching toward his waist before being shot.
Willard Paige, the investigator for the previous district attorney, said the officers fired live rounds “unnecessarily,” and that an autopsy determined Rodriguez suffered 13 gunshot wounds.
Initially charged in the shooting were officers Bethany Sears, Jared Barton, Corey Adams, John Skuta and Brad Pemberton. All five have been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.
The teen’s mother, Cameo Holland, said in a statement that she intends to work to change the law to make it easier for police to be criminally charged.
“When the district attorney of Oklahoma County apologizes to your face for the justice system failing you, it’s clear we need changes in the law,” Holland said.
Behenna said Friday that she does not take these decisions lightly.
“These families are grieving,” she said. “No matter what this office does or says, these families are forever changed.”
Holland has a pending civil rights excessive force lawsuit against Oklahoma City and the five officers in federal court.
In another Oklahoma City case, Sgt. Clifford Holman was charged with first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of 60-year-old Bennie Edward.
Holman, who is white, had responded to a call of a Black man harassing customers at a business in north Oklahoma City, according to a police affidavit by homicide detective Bryn Carter. When he arrived at the scene, Holman encountered Edwards, who was holding a knife and refusing officers’ commands to drop it, the affidavit states.
The shooting sparked days of protests and demonstrations by Black Lives Matter groups and other activists.
The third case involved The Village officer Chance Avery, who was charged with second-degree murder in the July 2020 shooting death of Christopher Pool.
Avery was called to the home by Pool’s wife, who was retrieving personal belongings, when Pool ran inside carrying a bat and was shot by Avery after refusing to drop it, police said.
Gary James, an attorney for Avery and Adams, one of the officers charged in the Rodriguez shooting, said he was “ecstatic” about Behenna’s decision.
“We’ve got seven police officers who were just doing their duty, and were placed in a position by all three of the deceased that they had to use deadly force,” James said.
Although criminal charges against police officers are not common, previous district attorney Prater — himself an ex-cop who served 16 years as the county’s top prosecutor — had secured criminal convictions against officers before.
In 2013, Del City police Capt. Randy Harrison was sentenced to four years in prison for second-degree manslaughter after shooting an unarmed teenager in the back as he ran away following a scuffle.
In 2019, another Oklahoma City police sergeant, Keith Sweeney, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a jury convicted him of second-degree murder in the shooting death of an unarmed, suicidal man.
Behenna said that in future cases involving police shootings, she will present evidence to a multi-county grand jury to make a decision on whether to file criminal charges, rather than making that decision herself.
Oklahoma City Police Chief Wade Gourley said the department has implemented “significant changes” since the fatal shootings, such as creating a training unit that has worked with every officer on de-escalation strategies. The chief’s statement Friday said officers are also provided with additional less-lethal equipment, like stun guns and weapons that deploy bean bags, as well as crisis-intervention training. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-charges-dropped-against-7-oklahoma-police-officers-in-3-separate-fatal-shootings/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:25 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-charges-dropped-against-7-oklahoma-police-officers-in-3-separate-fatal-shootings/ |
Amazon Essentials is offering low prices on pink apparel
If you are obsessed with the new “Barbie” movie, you aren’t alone. Not only is it an epic box office hit, but it’s the highest-grossing movie ever by a female director. Anyone who loves the flick understandably wants to update their wardrobe with pink clothing and accessories that Barbie would be proud to wear.
You can show your enthusiasm for Barbie by shopping Amazon’s private clothing line, Amazon Essentials, for deals on pink fashions. The retailer is celebrating with deals on everything from jackets to sandals that are sure to excite fans of all ages. We’ve rounded up our favorite Barbie-friendly fashion deals to help you shop.
Facts about the doll and the movie
“Barbie” has fans young and young at heart flocking to theaters to see what all the buzz is about. Here are a few facts about the movie and the iconic fashion doll:
- Greta Gerwig is the director of “Barbie.”
- Leading actress Margot Robbie is transformed into a real-life version of the beloved doll.
- The film made $470 million globally after only five days in theaters.
- The first Barbie doll was introduced on March 9, 1959, at the New York Toy Fair.
- All shades of pink are associated with Barbie, especially hot pink and bubble gum pink.
- Barbie merchandise is sold in 150-plus countries throughout the world.
Best Barbie pink apparel from Amazon Essentials
Amazon Essentials Pink Pullover Packable Windbreaker
You can sport your love of Barbie pink — even in inclement weather — with this bright pink windbreaker. It offers a pullover style with a protective hood and is packable for easy transport. It’s available at a low price too.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Thong Sandals
These simple thong sandals come in hot pink. They are perfect for hot summer days when you want to sport a splash of pink on casual outings.
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Amazon Essentials Classic Cap Sleeve Wrap Dress
If you want to dress like Barbie, you need a stylish dress in pink. This pretty one has a wrap-style that’s on-trend and figure-flattering. It’s available in a nice selection of sizes, from extra small to 6X.
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Amazon Essentials Neon Pink High-Rise Capri Leggings
With a vibrant pink color, these capri leggings are perfect for any Barbie enthusiast. Pair them with workout gear or a pretty tunic top for stylish looks in and out of the gym.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Knit Pull-On Shorts
These shorts boast a simple pull-style that’s easy to wear. They look great with flirty summer shirts for a warm-weather look that’s Barbie-approved.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Sleeveless Woven Shirt Dress
With a feminine design that offers a button-up front and waist bow, this fashionable dress certainly looks like something Barbie would wear. It has a stylish collar and flowing fit.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Tank Top
This affordable tank top comes in packs of two, which makes it a solid deal. The pink also comes with a white one, both of which can be paired with other pink items in summertime outfits.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Crop Puffer Jacket
Keep your Barbie style going when the weather turns chilly with this puffer jacket. The edgy crop style pairs perfectly with all types of pants and jeans. It has a cozy fill and high collar to lock out the cold.
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Amazon Essentials Hot Pink Swim Top
Pair this swim top with your favorite bikini bottoms for a Barbie look that’s ideal for the pool or beach. It’s made of a nylon blend that washes nicely and dries fast.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Active Seamless Long-Sleeve T-shirt
We love this long-sleeve T-shirt for yearlong wear with jeans, leggings or skirts. Featuring a comfortable fit and a breathable material, this shirt is likely to become your go-to pink top for casual days.
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Jennifer Manfrin writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/apparel-br/shirts-tops-br/amazon-has-barbie-fever-too-and-the-fashion-deals-to-prove-it/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:31 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/apparel-br/shirts-tops-br/amazon-has-barbie-fever-too-and-the-fashion-deals-to-prove-it/ |
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.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-defense-presses-case-that-mental-illness-spurred-pittsburgh-synagogue-massacre/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:31 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-defense-presses-case-that-mental-illness-spurred-pittsburgh-synagogue-massacre/ |
Digital detox for kids
Between remote learning, video games and social media, it’s common for kids to experience digital overstimulation. Digital overload occurs when a child uses tech devices that expose them to more sensory information than they can handle. With this in mind, it’s worth having an occasional digital detox day to help kids unwind with screen-free activities.
While it’s easy to go electronics-free for a digital detox day, it’s essential to have other activities lined up to engage kids. A trip to the park or beach are fun outdoor options, especially when sports or arts and crafts are involved. Popular indoor activities include puzzles, building projects and even hands-on experience in the kitchen.
Shop this article: Intex Underwater Play Sticks, Singer M1500 Mechanical Sewing Machine, Stomp Rocket Dueling Rocket Launcher for Kids
Effects of digital overload on kids
According to a 2021 study from PubMed, overconsumption of tech devices can lead to:
- Insufficient work.
- Bouts of confusion.
- Delayed decision-making.
- Loss of control over information.
- Refusal to take in information.
- Higher tolerance for error.
- Lack of critical thinking of information.
- Mental health challenges such as anxiety and stress.
How unplugging for a day may help kids
Here’s how you can help your kids detox from their devices.
Benefits eye health
Spending long hours in front of screens due to school, video games or watching TV can wear on your eyes. According to the American Optometric Association, prolonged screen time may lead to digital eye strain, dry eyes, headaches or difficulty sleeping.
As a result, it’s recommended to unplug from devices when possible to alleviate these symptoms. A digital detox can help set the stage for what the AOA refers to as healthier “visual hygiene.” Ideally, kids and adults should take a 20-second break from screens every 20 minutes to view an object 20 feet away to minimize digital eye strain.
Boosts activity levels
A 24-hour digital detox challenge often inspires kids to get more active during the day. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that kids between the ages of 6 to 17 years should engage in an hour of “moderate-to-vigorous intense physical activity each day.”
Without the hindrance or distractions of devices, kids may find it easier to enjoy sports and physical activities, whether swimming, running around a park or playing tag. Older kids, namely high school-aged kids, may prefer spending their digital detox day at the gym, track or basketball court.
Encourages family time
Board game
Digital detox isn’t just for kids. Instead, the entire household can participate in and benefit from it.
If everyone unplugs for a day together, there’s more time to bond and talk over board games, story time, or home improvement projects. Or, the digital detox may present the ideal opportunity to enjoy an undistracted day trip, museum visit or outdoor excursion.
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Best toys and activities for 24-hour digital detox challenges
The backyard, park or pool are fun places for kids to play device-free. Investing in a new outdoor toy or game to enjoy during detox day is worth considering, too. Throw Throw Burrito, for example, is a dodgeball-inspired card game for ages 7 and older that keeps kids on their toes as they duck from flying burritos.
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Lego Creator 3-in-1 Space Shuttle Toy to Astronaut Figure to Spaceship
This 144-piece building set that offers three project configurations. Suitable for ages 6 and older and well-received for its realistic details.
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Every household member can play this wacky word association game with outrageous comparisons. It comes with 1,000 cards and you can play with as many as eight players.
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Kids Xplore Nature Exploration Kit
Tap into kids’ curiosity with this kit, which comes with binoculars, magnifying glass, nets and specimen containers. The kit helps kids learn map-reading skills and teaches kids the basics of nature-watching.
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Step up pool-time fun with this set of five quick-sinking toys. They’re made with soft, flexible silicone and have rounded edges for safe handling.
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Giantville Giant Tumbling Timber Toy
These blocks can grow as high as 4 feet when players flex their block-stacking skills. An all-ages-friendly game, it’s considered a favorite option for household-wide detox days spent outdoors.
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KaraoKing Karaoke Machine for Kids
This Bluetooth karaoke machine has plenty of high-tech features kids can enjoy while they belt out their favorite tunes. The machine has a built-in disco ball and connects with most devices for easy streaming.
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If a camping excursion is in the cards, either in the backyard or somewhere local, this tent is a wise investment for its 60-second setup. The tent has a spacious 8 feet by 7 feet interior and fits one queen-size air bed.
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Nerf Elite 2.0 Commander RD-6 Blaster
Take a game of tag to the next level with this popular dart blaster. It’s equipped with a rotating drum that blasts six darts up to 90 feet. As one of the more affordable Nerf blasters, many people invest in several to enjoy all-out blaster battles.
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Creativity for Kids Hide and Seek Rock Painting Kit
The kit comes with 10 rocks and eight colorful paints. Because the paint is weather-resistant, you can place the painted rocks around the yard.
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“The Master Guide to Drawing Anime” By Christopher Hart
The book teaches kids how to draw six popular anime figures, including vengeful bad guys. The book includes step-by-step demonstrations as well as templates and outfit guides. It’s recommended for kids ages 14 and older.
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Mademax Upgraded 79-Inch Splash Pad
Kids will have tons of summer fun with this splash pad. It comes with a storage bag, a repair patch, a hose connector and rubber washers. It’s easy to set up by connecting it to a garden hose or PVC tube.
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Creativity for Kids Grow N’ Glow Terrarium Kit
The kit is perfect for kids that love science. It is designed for kids ages 5 to 8 but can be a fun activity for the entire family. It has a terrarium jar, potting mix, organic chia and wheat grass seeds and more.
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Peter Pauper Press Premium Black Sketchbook
Let your kids’ imagination run rampant with a sketchbook. The pages are 8 ½ by 11 inches, giving kids plenty of space for their creativity. It includes 192 perforated, heavyweight pages and a study book binding.
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Stomp Rocket Dueling Rocket Launcher for Kids
This rocket launcher provides kids with a fun, safe outdoor activity. It launches four rockets 200 feet. It is safe for kids 5 and up, easy to assemble and 100% kid-powered. No batteries are needed for this Science, Technology, Engineering and Math toy.
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Looikoos Walkie Talkies for Kids
Let your kids communicate the old-fashioned way with walkie-talkies. This 3-pack of walkie-talkies come in three colors and a high anti-interference, clear voice technology. It has real-time monitoring, anti-wandering off, an alarm system, and 22 channels. They require four AAA batteries, which are sold separately.
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“Disney Dreams Collection Coloring Book” By Thomas Kinkade
This coloring book is for the ultimate Disney-lover. It features 63 color and black-and-white pages of classic Disney stories. It includes paintings from “The Jungle Book,” “Sleeping Beauty” and others. It is available as a paperback or spiral-bound book.
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Kinetic Sand Beach Sand Kingdom Playset
Bring the beach to your backyard or your kitchen table with this set. It has 3 pounds of beach sand, molds and tools for kids to enjoy. Kids 3 and older can use six molds to build amazing castles.
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This adorable set of whale-shaped bubble guns is sure to keep kids away from their devices. It has four 50-milliliter bubble solutions and three color choices. They are leak- and spill-proof, child-safe and ASTM Safety Test approved.
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The kit lets kids try several science experiments from the comfort of their homes. Safe for kids as young as 3, it includes 30 scientific experiments, such as rainbow rain, erupting volcanoes and bottle-blowing balloons. Kids use the instruction cards to guide them through the experiments.
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Kids can get creative with modeling clay. It includes 50 colors of clay and tools. It is non-toxic, environmentally-friendly, soft and non-sticky. It air dries, so there’s no need for it to be put in the oven to set.
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For the future architect, the magnetic tiles are a great STEM toy to challenge their building skills. This 52 0r 102-piece set can be used to build castles, animals, plants and more. They are made of rounded, high-quality acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic.
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National Geographic Microscope for Kids
Kids can examine various species with this microscope. The microscope has large focus knobs, a soft-touch eyepiece and adjustable platform to view species. It comes with six plant sides, six rocks and minerals and six blank sides. It has tools kids use to conduct experiments.
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“Where’s Waldo? The Ultimate Waldo Watcher Collection” By Martin Handford
Kids can get lost in time searching for Waldo. It includes seven puzzle books requiring kids to find the iconic character as well as other people and items.
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This set has 70 toys to keep kids entertained. Some of the fidget toys include pop bubbles, an infinity cube, fidget spinners, a pop ball, sensory rings and much more. They are great for children with conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, attention-deficit disorder, autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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Hapinest Find and Seek Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are a classic outdoor game that brings tons of fun. The set is designed for two players, including items such as 35 find and seek cards, two instruction cards and a drawstring bag.
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Soppycid Reusable Water Bomb Balloons
These reusable water bombs are an excellent way to have fun in the summer heat. They are offered in a 4-, 6-, 12-, 16-, 18- and 20-pack, and can be used several times. To fill them, simply sink them into water for about a second.
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Made By Me Ultimate Weaving Loom
Kids can develop a new hobby with this weaving kit. It can make up to 25 projects that kids can use or share with their friends. It has 378 pieces to make items such as pencil holders, potholders and friendship bracelets. No sewing is needed and it is kid-friendly.
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Hapray 4-Pack Bird House Crafts for Kids
This craft set lets kids design birdhouses for their animal friends. It includes four unassembled birdhouses, paint, four brushes, a painting palette, four strings and two glues. The birdhouses are made of high-quality, thick plywood and are non-toxic and eco-friendly.
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Let your athletes get some practice in with a punching bag. It comes in three colors and is adjustable to fit the child’s height. It has gloves, a durable stand, a weighted base and a 180-degree spring.
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“Paint by Sticker Kids: Zoo Animals” By Workman Publishing
Keep kids entertained for hours with this picture book. It includes 10 sticker paintings that require kids to find the stickers and place them in the right places to create a work of art.
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Sian Babish writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
BestReviews spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing, and testing products to recommend the best picks for most consumers.
Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/baby-kids-br/health-safety-br/want-to-limit-kids-screen-time-try-a-digital-detox/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:38 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/baby-kids-br/health-safety-br/want-to-limit-kids-screen-time-try-a-digital-detox/ |
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.”
___
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.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-homeless-struggle-to-stay-safe-from-record-high-temperatures-in-blistering-phoenix/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:38 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-homeless-struggle-to-stay-safe-from-record-high-temperatures-in-blistering-phoenix/ |
Written by Laura Duerr
For better sleep without replacing your bed, try one of these mattress toppers
Do you feel like you’re not getting enough sleep, even if the clock says you slept eight hours? A mattress topper may be the solution. Mattress toppers help support your sleeping position, soften firm mattresses and minimize disruptive movement from your partner, all without making you replace your entire bed. Mattress toppers are available in several types of foam, gel and feathers, making it easy to customize your bed for a more comfortable night’s sleep.
Shop this article: Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Adapt Supreme Mattress Topper, Sleep On Latex Pure Green Natural Latex Mattress Topper, Linenspa Gel-Infused Memory Foam Mattress Topper
The best mattress toppers tested
Our BestReviews Testing Lab tried out two popular mattress toppers. Key features to look for in a mattress topper include temperature regulation and the right balance between softness and support. Mattress toppers are generally between 2 and 4 inches thick, though toppers up to 6 inches thick are available. Finally, if you’re hoping to reduce disruption caused by a partner’s restless sleep, look for a memory foam or gel mattress topper with low transmission of movement.
Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Adapt Supreme Mattress Topper review
Made by trusted mattress brand Tempur-Pedic, the Tempur-Adapt Supreme Mattress Topper transformed the tester’s bed into a luxury sleep experience. The soft memory foam delivered uninterrupted sleep and felt deep and soft yet still supportive. Its sturdy corner straps keep the mattress topper from sliding around, and our tester reported that after several weeks of use, the mattress topper felt just as soft and comfortable as it did on the first day.
Testing Sleep On Latex Pure Green Natural Latex Mattress review
This foam mattress topper, made from latex from organically grown rubber trees, provides sturdy support that’s still comfortable to sleep on. Our tester reports that the Pure Green mattress topper helped them sleep more comfortably than ever, thanks to how well it supported their back and bad shoulder. Plus, it was ready to use right away because the foam unrolled and lay flat instantly, without the uncurling period many mattress toppers need.
Best mattress toppers
Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Adapt Supreme Mattress Topper
The memory foam in this mattress topper conforms to support the body while retaining bounce-back comfort. It’s made from moisture-wicking, hypoallergenic materials and adds 3 inches of height to mattresses.
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Sleep On Latex Pure Green Natural Latex Mattress Topper
This 3-inch thick mattress topper is made from organic latex foam and is OEKO-TEX certified free from harmful chemicals. It’s durable and supportive, while small air chambers throughout the pad help promote airflow for a cooler sleep.
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Linenspa Gel-Infused Memory Foam Mattress Topper
This budget-friendly pick is infused with cooling gel, making it good for those who sleep too warm. The extra-soft foam is available in 2- and 3-inch thicknesses.
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Sleep Innovations Dual Layer Memory Foam Mattress Topper
At 4 inches thick, this mattress topper is extremely soft and comfortable. It’s made with a layer of memory foam topped with a down alternative pillow-top cover.
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This popular mattress topper features targeted zones designed to relieve pressure on different body parts. It’s also helpful for temperature regulation and stays in place well.
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/bed-bath-br/bedding-br/these-mattress-toppers-make-upgrading-your-bedroom-easy-and-inexpensive/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:44 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/bed-bath-br/bedding-br/these-mattress-toppers-make-upgrading-your-bedroom-easy-and-inexpensive/ |
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.
___
Associated Press photographer Gerald Herbert and video journalist Stephen Smith contributed to this report. Borenstein reported from Washington and Fassett from Seattle.
___
Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
___
Follow Seth Borenstein, Camille Fasset and Michael Goldberg on Twitter at @borenbears, @camfassett and @mikergoldberg.
___
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.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-homes-that-become-deadly-tornadoes-kill-disproportionately-more-in-mobile-homes-ap-analysis-finds/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:46 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-homes-that-become-deadly-tornadoes-kill-disproportionately-more-in-mobile-homes-ap-analysis-finds/ |
Affordable school supplies and other budget picks
The school year is coming back around, and there’s no better time to start checking items off of your school supply list than right now. Finding affordable school supplies can be somewhat of a chore, but with an understanding of what supplies you need, you can probably find all your needs at a fair price.
From pens and pencils to planners, notebooks and more, being prepared for the back-to-school season doesn’t have to be stressful or break the bank.
Shop this article: Ticonderoga 30-Pack of Yellow Pre-Sharpened Graphite No. 2 Pencils, Blue Sky Academic Planner and Apple iPad Air
Picking your school supply essentials
Student age and grade
Perhaps the main factors for your school supply list are the student’s age, grade and classes. For example, glue is an excellent option for elementary and middle school students who are likely to perform arts and crafts. Older students could benefit from tools with more versatility, such as laptops, tablets or other smart devices. Additionally, a student taking specific classes, such as art or dance, may require more specific materials than what you’ll find on a school supplies list.
School supply options for keeping to your budget
Most school supply lists include several different items, all of which students are expected to have. These costs can add up quickly, though there are a few ways to keep to your budget. If you know the student will use certain disposable items, such as crayons, pens, pencils or erasers, for more than just one school year, you can buy them in bulk to save year after year. Otherwise, consider looking for deals on the student’s essentials.
Choosing your student’s essentials
What constitutes “back-to-school essentials” can vary from student to student, and if they’re too old for elementary school supply lists, then it may be up to you to choose. A few agreed-upon essentials are backpacks, pens and pencils, notebooks and binders. However, this can depend on your student’s classes and may include things ranging from cameras to musical instruments and more.
Best back-to-school supplies on a budget
Ticonderoga 30-Pack Of Yellow Pre-Sharpened Graphite No. 2 Pencils
Pencils are a must-have school supply item, no matter the student’s age. These number two pencils fit most peoples’ budgets and write with the standard lightness used in most schools. They include a useful eraser on the end that’s perfect for math, writing, drawing and other subjects.
Sold by Amazon
Paper Mate InkJoy 100RT Medium Point Ultra Smooth Ink Pens
These pens are super affordable when purchased in bulk and they write very smoothly compared to most other pens. You can buy these pens in either assorted color or black packages, in packs of 12 or 20.
Sold by Amazon
Crayola 24-Pack of Long Barrel Colored Woodcase Pencils
These colored pencils from Crayola are the industry standard, with colors including red, yellow, blue, white and black, among many others still. They come pre-sharpened and are made from all nontoxic materials.
Sold by Amazon
Crayola 152-Pack Ultimate Crayon Collection With Assorted Colors
The price of this massive crayon pack is impressive. It also comes with a crayon sharpener and a useful carrying caddy that makes coloring time easy. You can buy this crayon set in a bundle with a pack of twistable crayons for a little bit more money.
Sold by Amazon
JanSport Student Backpack With 15-Inch Laptop Compartment
This JanSport backpack works great for books and other supplies, and it also has a mesh pocket for holding water bottles and a 15-inch laptop compartment. You can purchase this option in several different colors and styles, each with JanSport’s signature S-curve shoulder straps with adjustable 14.5-inch shoulder drops.
Sold by Amazon
Fiskars Kids Pointed-Tip 5-Inch Safety Scissors In Random Colors
Scissors are another must-have for preschool and K-8 students, and this particular pair is extremely affordable and made blunt for added safety. They come in a random color, either red, blue, light blue or green. This option also comes with a full lifetime warranty, according to the product description.
Sold by Amazon
Gorilla Kids Retractable Disappearing Purple Glue Sticks
For students involved in arts and crafts, glue sticks are a necessity. These disappearing purple glue sticks are ideal for visual projects, offering a strong adhesive in both single packs of six-packs.
Sold by Amazon
Paper Mate 12-Pack Of Large Pink Pearl Classic Pencil Erasers
If a student plans to work in pencil often, another useful tool to keep handy is an eraser. While most pencils include an eraser, these offer a backup solution for when those tiny erasers on your pencil run out.
Sold by Amazon
PowerMe Black Electric Pencil Sharpener for No. 2 Pencils
If you plan to use a pencil, then you will also require a pencil sharpener. This electric sharpener is battery-powered and offers long-term pencil sharpening. You can buy this electric pencil sharpener in black, blue, green, pink, purple or white.
Sold by Amazon
Emraw Four-Pack Of 100-Sheet Black-and-White Marble-Style Cover Composition Books
Composition books are a classic lined paper option for use when taking notes or working on assignments. These lined composition books come with four units, and you can purchase them in black and white or assorted colors.
Sold by Amazon
Blue Sky Academic Year Planner
Academic planners are essential for older kids, and this flexible planner offers weekly and monthly calendar planning. You can buy this planner in 8.5-by-11-inch, 7-by-9-inch or 5-by-8-inch sizes.
Sold by Amazon
Apple 2022 Fifth-Generation 10.9-Inch Purple iPad Air With Wi-Fi
Tablets aren’t exactly cheap, but with Apple offering more budget options than ever, these can make an excellent alternative to laptops for older students. You can buy the iPad Air with either 64 or 256GB of storage, with Wi-Fi or a Wi-Fi and cellular bundle. It’s also available in purple, blue, pink, space gray and starlight.
Sold by Amazon
Acer Aspire 5 15.6-Inch Full Display Slim Laptop With AMD Ryzen 5 Processor
The Aspire 5 is a powerful Acer laptop that comes at a fair price, featuring a powerful processor and multiple bundle options for maximizing your purchase. It also includes 8GB of DDR4 RAM for multitasking and up to 11 hours of battery life off the charger.
Sold by Amazon
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Peter McGuthrie writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/education-br/homeschooling-br/back-to-school-on-a-budget-check-off-your-school-supply-list-with-these-affordable-essentials/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:52 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/education-br/homeschooling-br/back-to-school-on-a-budget-check-off-your-school-supply-list-with-these-affordable-essentials/ |
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.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-justice-alito-says-congress-lacks-the-power-to-impose-an-ethics-code-on-the-supreme-court/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:53 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-justice-alito-says-congress-lacks-the-power-to-impose-an-ethics-code-on-the-supreme-court/ |
These school supplies deals will save you money when you shop for the new school year
Shopping for back-to-school can be expensive. Kids need new clothes, shoes and accessories plus numerous classroom items before the new school year begins. The good news is that you can save on school essentials by finding them on sale.
This time of year, many popular retailers mark down the prices of the things kids need to head to class. Our back-to-school collection of must-have deals includes everything from shirts to calculators to help you stay within your budget as you shop.
Shop this article: Texas Instruments TI 84 Plus CE Graphing Calculator, Adidas Big Boys Iconic Tricot Pants and Castle Art Supplies Set of 72 Colored Pencils
How to shop for back-to-school deals
The key to successful back-to-school shopping is to think about what your kids need and prefer. After all, what good is a discounted jacket or budget-friendly backpack if your favorite students don’t like them or can’t use them? You can take control of your back-to-school shopping endeavors with a few helpful tips.
Look for on-trend styles
It may seem like various types of attire go out of style as quickly as they become hot items, but kids know what is trending. Get their guidance as you shop so they will be happy with any new additions to their wardrobe. When in doubt, you can’t go wrong with the basics such as jeans and T-shirts.
Think about their shoe needs
Most kids need more than one pair of shoes for school. In addition to current styles such as chunky platform shoes and casual sneakers, athletic shoes are necessary for sports or gym class.
Focus on classroom items
Pencils, calculators, notebooks, pens, erasers and highlighters are some of the most popular essentials that students need when they head back to class. This isn’t a complete list, and the items needed vary depending on the age of the student and class requirements. However, now is a good time to find low prices on these classroom must-haves.
Invest in coursework-friendly tech
Students of all ages work on computers or tablets to conduct research and do assignments. Devices such as headphones and earbuds will help them concentrate. What’s more, a simple home printer makes it possible for kids to print assignments to present to their teachers. When you shop early, you can save big on student-friendly tech.
Consider bags and packs
Don’t forget that kids need something to carry their gear to class. Backpacks, lunch boxes, pencil cases and gym bags are on the lists of most parents as they help their kids gather the items they’ll take back to school.
Best back-to-school deals for school supplies and clothing
Texas Instruments TI 84 Plus CE Graphing Calculator
Even if they are dreading it, many students will have to go to advanced math classes when school is back in session. The TI 84 Plus model is perfect for equations that require graphing to solve. A large vivid screen, lightweight build and rechargeable battery are other features students appreciate.
Sold by Amazon
There are good reasons that the Aspire 5 is a popular choice for students. Although it sports a vivid 15.6-inch screen that’s ideal for working on assignments, the design is trim and easy to stash in a backpack. The responsive 11th-generation Intel processor can easily keep up with important work. Parents will also appreciate the budget-friendly price.
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Under Armour Hustle 5.0 Backpack
Kids won’t run out of room in this spacious backpack, as it has ample pockets including one that’s large and padded for a laptop. It even has a lower compartment for stashing gear such as gym shoes.
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Epson WorkForce All-in-One Printer
This printer proves that you don’t have to spend a lot of money for a versatile model. Although inexpensive, it prints, scans and copies. It’s also capable of faxing and double-sided printing. Additionally, it has wireless connectivity and can pair with devices that offer voice control via Alexa or Siri.
Sold by Walmart
Adidas Big Boys Iconic Tricot Pants
Lightweight and comfortable, these classic Adidas pants are practical for warming up, playing sports or heading to class. They feature the iconic three-stripe pattern on the legs. Parents will also love how easy the polyester fabric is to wash.
Castle Art Supplies Set of 72 Colored Pencils
Colored pencils are great for kids who have art classes as part of their schedules. This set is perfect for exploring their creative side, as it’s packed with 72 pencils in every color of the rainbow. It includes a case to keep them organized and ready for use.
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Available in numerous colors, this pencil case features ample space for numerous writing tools and accessories. It has five elastic holders to keep important pencils and pens easy to access. Several smaller interior pockets will keep small items such as change and paper clips organized.
Sold by Amazon
These fan-favorite earbuds distance themselves from competitors for their amazing sound and reliable noise-canceling technology. These features are beneficial to students when using them to hone in on audio assignments or block out interruptive sounds. Transparency mode is there when they need it to hear outside sounds. They are comfortable to wear, too.
Sold by Amazon
Celebrity Pink Juniors’ High-Rise Wide-Leg Frayed Jeans
Pants with wide legs and denim with rips are both in style this year. This pair of jeans offers both, with an ultra-relaxed fit and on-trend frays. In addition to a casual, comfortable fit, they come in a nice selection of sizes and in a choice of two shades of blue.
Sold by Macy’s
Nike Big Kids Court Borough 2 SE Casual Sneakers
Regardless of your kid’s favorite styles, there’s a good chance that these sneakers will look great with them. They are designed for comfort and have laid-back casual looks that are perfect for class or weekends. They come in trendy white with a colorful Nike swoosh.
Sold by Macy’s
Other back-to-school deals worth checking out
- The Tommy Hilfiger Big Girls’ Ruffle Stripped Jersey Dress is perfect for special school days.
- Oxford Spiral Notebooks can be used for multiple classes thanks to their pocket dividers and three subjects.
- The Under Armour Boys’ Pennant Jacket is both stylish and warm.
- This Boys’ Nike Character T-shirt will look great with your little man’s favorite pair of jeans.
- Soundcore Life Q20 Hybrid Active Wireless Noise-canceling Headphones offer a nice blend of affordability and quality.
- A kids’ Bentgo Lunch Box provides room for their favorite foods and snacks.
Want to shop the best products at the best prices? Check out Daily Deals from BestReviews.
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Jennifer Manfrin writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/education-br/test-prep-br/back-to-school-2022-these-retailers-are-offering-deep-discounts-on-clothing-and-supplies/ | 2023-07-29T01:33:59 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/education-br/test-prep-br/back-to-school-2022-these-retailers-are-offering-deep-discounts-on-clothing-and-supplies/ |