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A house in Marlton that sold for $900,000 tops the list of the most expensive residential real estate sales in Evesham in the past week.
In total, 25 residential real estate sales were recorded in the area during the past week, with an average price of $442,250. The average price per square foot ended up at $229.
The prices in the list below concern real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of July 17 even if the property may have been sold earlier. | https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/07/10-most-expensive-homes-sold-in-evesham-july-17-23.html | 2023-07-29T09:20:50 | 1 | https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/07/10-most-expensive-homes-sold-in-evesham-july-17-23.html |
A house in Princeton that sold for $1.6 million tops the list of the most expensive residential real estate sales in Princeton in the past week.
In total, 12 residential real estate sales were recorded in the area during the past week, with an average price of $811,292. The average price per square foot ended up at $322.
The prices in the list below concern real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of July 17 even if the property may have been sold earlier. | https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/07/10-most-expensive-homes-sold-in-princeton-july-17-23.html | 2023-07-29T09:20:56 | 0 | https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/07/10-most-expensive-homes-sold-in-princeton-july-17-23.html |
A house in Vineland that sold for $396,000 tops the list of the most expensive residential real estate sales in Vineland area in the past week.
In total, 12 residential real estate sales were recorded in the area during the past week, with an average price of $263,992. The average price per square foot ended up at $165.
The prices in the list below concern real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of July 17 even if the property may have been sold earlier. | https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/07/10-most-expensive-homes-sold-in-the-vineland-area-july-17-23.html | 2023-07-29T09:21:02 | 0 | https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/07/10-most-expensive-homes-sold-in-the-vineland-area-july-17-23.html |
A house in East Windsor that sold for $690,000 tops the list of the most expensive residential real estate sales in East Windsor in the past week.
In total, eight residential real estate sales were recorded in the area during the past week, with an average price of $438,875. The average price per square foot was $276.
The prices in the list below concern real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of July 17 even if the property may have been sold earlier. | https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/07/eight-most-expensive-homes-sold-in-east-windsor-july-17-23.html | 2023-07-29T09:21:08 | 1 | https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/07/eight-most-expensive-homes-sold-in-east-windsor-july-17-23.html |
Amateur leaders
Editor, The Commercial:
The Commercial's excellent article about problems with the election commission building shined the light of day on a recurring problem ignored by the County Judge and the two before him. I recognize the judge has other priorities and did have roof leak repairs made several years ago, after the loss of thousands of dollars in moisture-damaged voting machines -- twice.
According to that pesky Arkansas Code annotated in §14-14-1102 (b) (1) (B) (i) (3) (A), a county judge is responsible for the care of county property.
The County Board of Election Commissioners does an excellent job conducting fair elections. The chairman is well versed and focused. The two other commissioners support him. They have two trained election coordinators and trained absentee ballot counters and poll workers.
While we read about election commission irregularities in other counties, Jefferson County has never received that type of publicity. Lawsuits, State Board of Election Commissioners and Ethics Commission complaints citing fabricated violations were all dismissed.
Recount totals always matched announced results. The Arkansas Supreme Court in CV 17-949 (May 2018) affirmed the commission's right not to use the services of a county judge-appointed election coordinator. Only an election commission can designate someone as an election official.
The law also requires election commissions to designate coordinators to attend training. However, that has not stopped the current and last two county judges from appointing unqualified election coordinators. This county judge's appointed coordinator is not an election official, not trained in election coordinator duties despite the contention he has and is paid approximately $40,000 annually (including benefits). On occasion when the chairman asks him to get something repaired, even this small task is not accomplished.
What amazes me is the Secretary of State Elections Division, the State Board of Election Commissioners and the Division of Legislative Audit are aware of this waste of tax dollars, but apparently do not have the authority to intercede.
Stu Soffer,
White Hall | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/amateur-leaders/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:11 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/amateur-leaders/ |
A house in Union that sold for $515,000 tops the list of the most expensive residential real estate sales in Union Township area between July 10 and July 23.
In total, 35 residential real estate sales were recorded in the area during the past two weeks, with an average price of $461,823. The average price per square foot ended up at $301.
The prices in the list below concern real estate sales where the title was recorded from the week of July 10 to the week of July 23 even if the property may have been sold earlier. | https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/07/eight-most-expensive-homes-sold-in-the-union-township-area-july-10-july-23.html | 2023-07-29T09:21:14 | 1 | https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/07/eight-most-expensive-homes-sold-in-the-union-township-area-july-10-july-23.html |
CANBERRA, Australia — Four air crew members were missing after an Australian army helicopter ditched into waters off the Queensland state coast during joint military exercises with the United States, officials said Saturday.
The MRH-90 Taipan helicopter went down near Lindeman Island, a Great Barrier Reef tourist resort, at about 11 p.m. Friday, exercise director Australian Army Brigadier Damian Hill said.
A search involving U.S., Canadian and Australian personnel was underway to find the crew who are all Australian men, officials said.
Debris that appeared to be from a helicopter had been recovered, Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Douglas McDonald said.
The Taipan was taking part in Talisman Sabre, a biennial joint U.S.-Australian military exercise that is largely based in Queensland. This year's exercise involves 13 nations and more than 30,000 military personnel.
Defense Minister Richard Marles said the helicopter ditched, which refers to an emergency landing on water.
"Defense exercises, which are so necessary for the readiness of our defense force, are serious. They carry risk," Marles told reporters in Brisbane. "As we desperately hope for better news during the course of this day we are reminded about the gravity of the act which comes with wearing our nation's uniform."
Hill said the exercise was postponed on Saturday morning but had restarted limited activity later in the day. Australia had grounded its Taipan fleet as a precaution, Hill said.
It was the second emergency involving an Australian Taipan this year, after one ditched into the sea off the New South Wales state coast in March. That helicopter was taking part in a nighttime counterterrorism training exercise when it ran into trouble. All 10 passengers and crew members were rescued.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Brisbane for a meeting on Saturday and is due to travel with Marles to north Queensland on Sunday to see the exercise.
Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid tribute to the missing air crew at the outset of a meeting with their Australian counterparts, Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
"It's always tough when you have accidents in training, but ... the reason that we train to such high standards is so that we can be successful and we can protect lives when we are called to answer any kind of crisis," Austin said.
"Our guys tend to make this look easy and they make it look easy because they're so well exercised and rehearsed and trained, and this is unfortunately a part of that, what it takes to get them to where we need them to be," Austin added.
Blinken said, "We're so grateful to them for their dedication, for their service, for everything they've been doing to stand up for the freedom that we share and that is what unites us more than anything else."
Marles thanked the United States for their contribution to the search and rescue effort.
The missing helicopter had just dropped off two Australian commandos before it hit the water, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Australia announced in January that its army and navy would stop flying the European-built Taipans by December 2024, 13 years earlier than originally planned, because they had proven unreliable. They will be replaced by 40 U.S. Black Hawks. Marles said at the time the Lockheed Martin-designed Black Hawks "have a really good proven track record in terms of their reliability."
Australia's Taipans had been plagued by problems since the first helicopter arrived in the country in 2007.
Australia's entire fleet of 47 Taipans was grounded in 2019 to fix a problem with their tail rotor blades. A year later, 27 Taipans were grounded because of a problem with doors.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-29/4-air-crew-members-are-missing-after-an-australian-army-helicopter-ditched-off-coast | 2023-07-29T09:21:17 | 1 | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-29/4-air-crew-members-are-missing-after-an-australian-army-helicopter-ditched-off-coast |
Dr. Robert B. Johnston III, a retired York Hospital pediatrician, swimmer and an accomplished wildlife and flower photographer, died July 22 from renal cell cancer and complications of dementia at his Lutherville home. He was 86.
Dr. Johnston, son of Robert B. Johnston Jr., who sold women’s apparel, and Miriam S. Johnston, a homemaker, was born in raised in Bradford, Pennsylvania.
After graduating from Bradford High School, he earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology in 1958 from Cornell University.
Dr. Johnston served in the Army Medical Corps from 1958 to 1960 at Fort Bliss, Texas, when he was discharged with the rank of lieutenant. He remained a reservist until 1965.
He obtained his medical degree in 1964 from Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed an internship in 1965 in pediatrics at the University of Florida Medical Center in Jacksonville, followed by a residency in 1967 at Buffalo Children’s Center Hospital in Buffalo, New York.
Dr. Johnston also completed a fellowship in child development and neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
From 1973 to 1986, Dr. Johnston was the first coordinator of training at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. He also served as assistant dean of the B.A.-M.D. Programs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1977 to 1983.
“Dr. Bob,” as he was known, joined the staff of what is now WellSpan York Hospital in York, Pennsylvania in 1983 as a pediatrician, while also continuing to be an assistant professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins.
He wrote “Attention Deficits, Learning Disabilities, and Ritalin” and “Learning Disabilities and Myth,” both of which were published in 1987.
Dr. Johnston retired from the practice of medicine in 2003.
In 1990, he married Bonnie R. Ross, an administrative assistant. They shared an interest in swimming which they enjoyed in Baltimore and at Delray Beach, Florida, where they had a second home.
In 1992, Dr. Johnston earned first place in the National Master’s Swimming Championship.
Dr. Johnston combined his love of world travel with photography. He “saw different parts of the world through his heart and lens: wildlife in Africa, lavender fields in France, and the Tuscan light on poppy fields,” according to a biographical profile submitted by his family.
An accomplished photographer whose work was featured in various shows, Dr. Johnston’s most recent photography project was the study of magnolias in all stages of bloom, family members said.
“Bob was an incredible photographer who looked at the world through his own lens, and he loved showing his photography,” said Cheryl Bastinelli, a longtime Lutherville neighbor and friend. “He was just an incredible and interesting guy.”
He had a passion for ice cream and chocolate, family members said, and many of his neighbors paid him in chocolate to take photos of their children.
Dr. Johnston was also known for his quick wit and an ability for telling jokes.
“He had an incredible sense of humor. He’d start to tell a joke and then would start laughing in the middle of it which would get a roomful of people roaring. It was hysterical,” said Ms. Bastinelli.
She said Dr. Johnston often found himself at the center of his wife’s girlfriends, waiting for the appropriate moment to get a word in edgewise.
“We’d all be talking and then he’d raise his hand and say, ‘I’ve have something to say, but I had to wait so long that I’ve forgotten what it was,’ ” Ms. Bastinelli said with a laugh.
[ Norman Elwood Johnson Jr., a retired Baltimore District Court judge, dies ]
“Bob’s legacy is that he was a friend to all whom he came in touch with,” she said.
A viewing will be held from 10 to 11:15 a.m. Aug. 5 which will be followed by a brief service at the Ruck Towson Funeral Home, 1050 York Road.
On addition to his wife of 33 years, Dr. Johnson is survived by a daughter, Laura Muggleton of The Netherlands; two stepsons, Dannie Ross of Lutherville and Stan Ross of Wellington, Florida; and seven grandchildren. A son, Bobby Johnston, died in 2006. An earlier marriage ended in divorce. | https://www.baltimoresun.com/latest/bs-md-ob-robert-johnston-20230729-heymmsvm7vbtrpih4fn3h5f454-story.html | 2023-07-29T09:21:17 | 0 | https://www.baltimoresun.com/latest/bs-md-ob-robert-johnston-20230729-heymmsvm7vbtrpih4fn3h5f454-story.html |
Jake Anchia remembers exactly when he last hit a triple.
He recalls the month he hit it, August 2021, the team it was against, the Vancouver Canadians, and the award, High-A West Player of the Week, that came as a result.
Anchia doubled his career triples total in the Arkansas Travelers' 7-4 win over the Northwest Arkansas Naturals on Friday night at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
Stepping to the plate with the game tied 4-4, Anchia hit the first pitch of pitcher Yefri Del Rosario's night off the left-field wall. It scored two runners to put the Travelers ahead 6-4.
"I knew I hit it well. I knew I hit it really high," Anchia said. "So it was either going to be a home run or he was going to catch it right at the fence or something."
After the ball caromed off the wall, Naturals left fielder Jeison Guzman misplayed the ball as he attempted to get it back into the infield.
"I look over to third base and I saw [third base coach Jose] Umbria sending [Josh] Morgan to home plate, so I was like, 'OK, there's a play here,' " Anchia said. "I peeked again, and he had dropped it again and it was on the floor. And I was like, 'I'm going. Let's see what happens.' "
On the next pitch after the triple, Travelers shortstop Leo Rivas drove Anchia in from third base, giving Arkansas a 7-4 lead.
Anchia is best known for his defenses. So a triple and two RBI were a welcomed addition.
"It always feels great, especially as a catcher," Anchia said. "Like, you got to take your defensive and your offensive parts of the game, and you really got to separate them because you're so important back there with calling the pitches and keeping the pitchers in check and making sure that position players are in the right spot.
"Whenever you can make something happen, get a couple RBIs for the guys and give you a little run-cushion, it always feels nice because you're working so hard behind the plate. It's good to be rewarded on the field with some stuff, too."
Arkansas entered the sixth inning of Friday's game having scored four runs in its previous 24 innings. After a leadoff single by Alberto Rodriguez and a walk to Isiah Gilliam, Robert Perez Jr. was hit by a pitch, meaning the Travelers were poised for their first offensive outburst of the series against the Naturals.
"I was like, 'Alright, we got some momentum now. This is the most action we've had in the last two days, so let's just take advantage of it,' " Anchia said. "And, you know, the boys put some good swings together."
As the offense was finding its groove, Anchia was teaming up with starter Kyle Tyler to keep the Naturals' offense at bay.
Tyler allowed 1 run on 5 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings in his fourth start of July in which he's held an opponent to two or fewer runs.
"Kyle has been doing a great job this month," Anchia said. "And really, it's just him committing to filling up the zone, you know? Like taking pride and putting that first pitch in the middle. He's done a really good job of just throwing it, and it helps when you got really good stuff like he does. All you got to do is put it in the plate early and then it's a whole different ballgame."
At a glance
ARKANSAS TRAVELERS VS. NW ARKANSAS NATURALS
WHEN 7:05 p.m. today
WHERE Dickey-Stephens Park, North Little Rock
RADIO KBZU-FM, 106.7, in Little Rock
ONLINE travs.com, nwanaturals.com
PITCHERS Travs: RHP Shawn Semple (4-5, 5.29 ERA); Naturals: LHP Drew Parrish (5-4, 5.63) | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/anchia-delivers-for-travs/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:17 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/anchia-delivers-for-travs/ |
In the Mount Vernon neighborhood, where distinguished architecture and history seem to jump out on every corner, it’s no surprise that when a prominent institution applies to tear down a block of historic homes it owns, there’s an outcry.
The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation applied for a demolition permit from the city’s Commission for Historic and Architectural Preservation earlier this year for homes that face the cathedral on West Preston Street. The congregation says it wants to make a prayer garden on the site.
The houses in question date to 1892 and are a Baltimore treasure. Designed as an entire row by architect J. Appleton Wilson, they were constructed in a light coffee colored brick with classic dormer windows. Several have Palladian-style windows. The fine looking homes complement the landmark cathedral across the street. It’s quite a successful architectural ensemble.
As the Cathedral has invested heavily in its beautiful sanctuary and in the houses themselves, there is a certain irony in the demolition request.
In the mid-1930s, the cathedral congregation was outgrowing its then home on Homewood Avenue at Chase Street. The elders of the congregation were looking to move.
In a story told in parish historian Nicholas Prevas’ book, “House of God...Gateway to Heaven” there was a vacancy at the old Associate Congregational Church at Preston Street and Maryland Avenue. That congregation had merged, moved on and left a vacant building behind.
Baltimore’s Greek community was ready to buy the empty church and make use of its Port Deposit granite walls.
The only problem was the Continental Oil Co. had an option to buy the old church and erect a filling station. (This part of Mount Vernon was something of an auto sales and repair district. Yellow Cab’s garage was then a block south.)
There was a legal loophole that saved the day. Continental Oil needed Mayor Howard Jackson to sign an ordinance allowing a filling station to be placed at Preston and Maryland.
There was negotiation. The congregation raised a lot of money in the Depression years. Many people did not want to see an iconic structure so perfectly suited for a new congregation to use and love be knocked down for another gas station. Mayor Jackson held off signing the pro-gas station ordinance and an important Baltimore building was saved.
On May 7, 1937, The Sun reported: “Vacant for nearly three years and fated to a filling station, the old Associate Congregational Church ... has been renovated by the Greek Orthodox Congregation at a cost of $12,000. The stone has been cleaned, a new railing built and new evergreens planted on the front lawn.”
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Between 1993 and 2002, the cathedral congregation moved decisively to acquire the row of houses it now wants to demolish.
Nearly 30 years ago the neighborhood was down on its luck. It was a solid boost for Mount Vernon that the congregation took a bold step, bought the rundown homes and invested in the stewardship of these architecturally significant properties.
What the congregation did, in the long run, materially helped Mount Vernon. Annunciation made this neighborhood a better place to live and work. In the past few years, the neighborhood has, block by block, building by building, improved.
“We are one of the few neighborhoods that saw population growth since the last census,” said Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association President Jack Danna.
He joined other residents who visited Preston Street on a recent Sunday morning and passed out leaflets as members of the congregation arrived for services.
“We opened a dialogue,” said Danna. “We were grateful for the opportunity to give out our flyers. We think of the Cathedral as an anchor in our neighborhood.
“At the same time, we are adamantly opposed that these buildings should come down,” Danna said. | https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-kelly-preston-20230729-dmi7gf42ffb4hdq5kfjq4kc5nq-story.html | 2023-07-29T09:21:23 | 1 | https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-kelly-preston-20230729-dmi7gf42ffb4hdq5kfjq4kc5nq-story.html |
BENTONVILLE -- The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday approved a bond issue for National Park College to construct residential housing and a loan issue for Arkansas State University for energy improvement projects.
"The need is there" for more housing at the Hot Springs college, said John Hogan, president of National Park College. The school has capacity to house about 240 students, but there's currently a waiting list of 80 students -- which has reached triple digits in recent years.
Housing is "constrained" in Garland County, which has led to fewer short-term rentals, which -- in turn -- means fewer places to stay for students, Hogan said. Only a quarter of the college's students are online-only, with the rest taking at least some classes on campus, although total credit hours taken by students is currently flat.
National Park College plans to issue bonds not to exceed $6.675 million with a term of 30 years and an interest rate no higher than 6.7%, according to Nick Fuller, assistant director of finance for the Arkansas Division of Higher Education. Proceeds will be used to construct a new 160-180 bed residential housing facility, and the college's board of trustees unanimously approved this financing in May.
Though this is a significant investment, trustees support students and "see the need for housing," Hogan said. This new building should be ready by the fall of 2025.
The 6.7% interest rate listed in the proposal "would be a worst-case scenario," as the college anticipates a rate more like 4.5%, said Kelli Embry, National Park's vice president for administration. Rent for students at the new hall will be well below the median rent in Garland County, which exceeds $1,000.
Debt service on the bond issue will be supported by millage revenue, and "Coordinating Board policy regarding debt service for projects financed by local tax or millage provides that annual net millage revenue should be no less than 120% of the total annual debt service," according to Fuller. Data "demonstrates that National Park College has sufficient millage revenue to support" this bond issue.
The current millage rate is 0.8 mills, and that rate generated roughly $1.5 million in annual revenue five years ago for National Park, Hogan said. However, that rate now generates about $1.9 million annually, and -- of course -- students paying for this housing will also generate revenue to help pay for the building.
Arkansas State, in Jonesboro, plans to secure a 10-year loan of $2.9 million at zero interest, a financing plan approved by the Arkansas State University System board of trustees in June, according to Fuller. Proceeds will provide needed campus-wide energy improvements that include re-roofing and updating air handling systems of multiple existing buildings.
The loan is being sought from the Arkansas Sustainable Building Design Revolving Loan Fund, which is managed by the Arkansas Building Authority, according to Fuller. Data demonstrates that Arkansas State "has sufficient tuition and fee revenue to secure" this loan.
The coordinating board met at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/arkansas-higher-education-coordinating-board-oks/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:23 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/arkansas-higher-education-coordinating-board-oks/ |
Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:
Colson Whitehead channels the paranoia and fear of 1970s NYC in 'Crook Manifesto': "My early '70s New York is dingy and grimy," the Pulitzer Prize-winning author says. Whitehead's sequel to Harlem Shuffle centers on crime at every level, from small-time crooks to Harlem's elite.
Crime writer S.A. Cosby loves the South — and is haunted by it: Cosby's novel All the Sinners Bleed centers on a Black sheriff in a small Southeast Virginia county. The novel was inspired by his own experiences growing up in the shadow of the Confederacy.
You can listen to the original interviews and review here:
Colson Whitehead channels the paranoia and fear of 1970s NYC in 'Crook Manifesto'
Crime writer S.A. Cosby loves the South — and is haunted by it
Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air. | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-29/fresh-air-weekend-colson-whitehead-s-a-cosby | 2023-07-29T09:21:23 | 0 | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-29/fresh-air-weekend-colson-whitehead-s-a-cosby |
George E. Grohs, a retired master carpenter and sports fan, died June 22 at Atlee Hill Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility in Westminster. The longtime Eldersburg resident was 83.
No cause of death was available, according to a daughter, Anita Bradley of Westminster.
George Erwin Grohs, son of George Grohs, a carpenter, and Margarete Grohs, was born and raised in Schwabach, Germany.
He attended school through the eighth grade when he enrolled in a technical school where he studied carpentry.
He left Germany in 1957, and after an 11-day voyage, landed in New York City where he was met by an uncle who drove him to Baltimore.
Mr. Grohs served in the Army as a specialist 4 and sharpshooter from 1959 until being discharged in 1962.
The Morning Sun
In 1963, he married Oslinde J. Model, and in 1981 the couple settled in Eldersburg.
He worked for Charles J. Frank Construction Co. for 40 years until retiring in 1994.
He was an avid soccer, Orioles and Ravens fan.
Mr. Grohs was a member of the Baltimore Kickers, a German social organization.
His wife of 52 years, who was a production worker at the old Maryland Cup Co. in Owings Mills, died in 2015.
A celebration of life service is private.
In addition to Ms. Bradley, Mr. Grohs is survived by another daughter, Chris Smith of Eldersburg; a sister, Anneliese Stocker of Wolkersdorf, Germany; two grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. | https://www.baltimoresun.com/obituaries/bs-md-ob-george-grohs-20230729-k4aq6b2ef5b23ajswdqht2hmnm-story.html | 2023-07-29T09:21:29 | 1 | https://www.baltimoresun.com/obituaries/bs-md-ob-george-grohs-20230729-k4aq6b2ef5b23ajswdqht2hmnm-story.html |
Harrison, circa 1910: First Christian Church was built in 1892 at Pine and Stephenson streets, at a cost of $7,000. The pastor, D.W. Moore, declared, "'Tis a model of beauty and neatness." The congregation left for a larger building in the 1950s. In recent years the building, covered in white stucco, was used as an apartment building -- but it seems it is vacant today, 130 years after opening its doors.
Send questions or comments to Arkansas Postcard Past, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/arkansas-postcard-past/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:29 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/arkansas-postcard-past/ |
LIMA, Peru — Although the top tourist destination in Peru is the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, high in the Andes Mountains, the capital Lima also holds a treasure trove of ancient ruins — so many, in fact, that authorities can't take care of them all.
The city is home to more than 400 known pyramids, temples and burial sites, many of which predate the Incas and and are known in Spanish as "huacas." They sit next to modern shopping centers, hotels and highways or rise up in the middle of neighborhoods in this city of 11 million people. Meanwhile, archaeologists keep digging up new sites.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former Peruvian president who lives across the street from a pyramid called Huallamarca, built around 1,800 years ago, says with a smile: "I know where I am when I wake up in the morning. I'm in Peru!"
Due mostly to budget limitations, Huallamarca is one of only 27 sites in Lima that have been excavated, restored and opened to visitors, according to archaeologists who spoke with NPR.
Many other sites are deteriorating. Squatters have occupied some, and others have become de facto garbage dumps or gathering spots for drug users and homeless people.
"Everywhere you dig, you will find something — because Lima was home to great civilizations," says Micaela Álvarez, director of the museum at Pucllana, a massive pyramid in Lima's business district of Miraflores. "But it's impossible to save everything in a poor country."
Pucllana is one of the exceptions.
Thought to be about 1,500 years old, the pyramid was a ceremonial site for the Lima Indigenous group that gave this city its name. Excavations began in 1981 and continue today.
On a recent morning, workers scraped sand and dirt from part of the site that archaeologists are beginning to explore for the first time. Nearby, guides pointed to the intricate brickwork, which has withstood earthquakes, and then led visitors to the top of the 82-foot-tall pyramid for views of the Pacific Ocean.
Among the visitors was Manuel Larrabure, a professor at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania who was born and raised in Lima but had never been to Pucllana.
"It's very impressive," he said. "The tendency is to look outside of Lima for interesting things, but it's good to look inside and to appreciate our own culture. People are still getting to know these sites."
Before it was restored following the start of excavations some 40 years ago, Pucllana was routinely looted and abused. At one point, a factory was using Pucllana's sand and clay to make bricks. Tour guide Blanca Arista says the pyramid also served as a neighborhood playground — and a motocross track.
"It's unbelievable, but several groups were practicing motocross," she said. "So, imagine different groups riding motorcycles, riding bikes."
Indeed, Lima's ancient Indigenous sites have, more often, been desecrated instead of safeguarded, says Giancarlo Marcone, a Peruvian archaeologist and professor at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lima.
Some were bulldozed to make way for apartment blocks and streets amid a wave of migration from the countryside that began in the 1950s.
"That put a lot of pressure on the city, and we didn't have good planning," Marcone says. "Until recently, we didn't really care about what we had."
Attitudes shifted as Peruvians became more sensitive to their cultural heritage and the country's ancient sites began to attract more international tourists. Janie Gómez, who until April was deputy culture minister, said the government of President Dina Boluarte is committed to preserving these sites.
"Their recovery will prevent them from deteriorating and being invaded," she told the state-run Andina news agency in January. "The millennial history over which Lima was built must not be lost."
However, Peru is struggling to reduce poverty and improve hospitals and schools, Marcone says. Thus, governments have been unable or unwilling to finance robust excavations or to turn more than a few sites into tourist attractions. The result is that many have been left in limbo.
Rosa María Barillas, a Peruvian archaeology student who recently completed fieldwork at an ancient temple on the outskirts of Lima, recalls looters prowling the area.
"I had to chase them away," she says.
Other sites have been colonized by squatters. The archaeological complex at Mateo Salado, near Lima's international airport, features a beautifully restored 1,000-year-old pyramid, but is also home to several modern houses. Until 2013, when major restoration work began, farmers used the site to cultivate roses and neighborhood kids played soccer there.
In the working-class neighborhood of Los Olivos, a dusty, dun-colored archaeological site called Infantas I is hemmed in by streets and houses. Ashes from a campfire are smoldering while trash piles up in several areas. Three youths are smoking crack, and a shirtless man is digging up sand and putting it in sacks. The area is part of a series of temples, but has yet to be excavated.
Benito Trejo, who heads the neighborhood committee, calls Infantas I a headache.
"It's not a good thing, because these sites are ignored by the government which is supposed to look after them," he says.
There was no response to NPR's requests for comment from the Culture Ministry.
For now, archaeologists say that surrounding communities must get more involved in preserving and promoting the sites. Pucllana, for example, has been used for art exhibits, while other sites have hosted film screenings.
At Mateo Salado, fifth graders were recently visiting the site and drawing pictures of the ruins, which are part of their school logo.
"We shouldn't look at these sites simply as relics of the past," says Andrés Ramírez, one of the instructors. "They should be part of everyday society. That's what we are trying to promote."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-29/in-peru-discovery-of-ancient-ruins-outpaces-authorities-ability-to-care-for-them | 2023-07-29T09:21:29 | 0 | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-29/in-peru-discovery-of-ancient-ruins-outpaces-authorities-ability-to-care-for-them |
Opera for the public: Spain’s Teatro Real opera house offers free broadcast to towns and cities
MADRID (AP) — On a night in the middle of July, tenors, sopranos and a choir delighted the crowd in Madrid’s luxurious Teatro Real opera house with Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece, “Turandot.”
After the curtain came down, the audience filed from their plush seats and left the theater’s state-of-the-art air conditioning for the summer swelter outside — only to be met again by the voices of Calaf and Princess Turandot.
The performance they had just seen was being replayed on a giant television screen in the big square at the back of the theater.
Here, the spectators sat on hundreds of plastic chairs. Many wore shorts and sandals. Others, tourists included, sat on the low walls and benches in the square or leaned on the barriers and the nearby subway station’s railings.
Some chewed on rolls of Spanish jam, others played cards. But most were absorbed with the show on the 9- by 5-meter (30- by 16-foot) screen.
The night was part of Teatro Real’s “opera week,” which for eight years has been providing a free broadcast of an opera in the theater to towns and cities across Spain.
More than 100 towns displayed the broadcast of the July 14 “Turandot” performance. All the towns need is a computer, a good Wi-Fi connection and somewhere to project the video.
During the week, the crowds outside the theater in Madrid also got to see other Teatro Real shows, including a ballet and flamenco act. The week cost the theater 107,000 euros ($118,000).
The chief aim is to spread interest in opera.
Opera “is popular music, it was always the total art where literature, music and dance met, (when) there was no television, there was no radio,” said Spanish tenor Jorge de León, who played Calaf.
“We have to remove that label of elitism that opera has, because they (operas) talk about stories, about very understandable things,” he said, sitting on one of the plastic chairs among the spectators in the square.
In Mino de San Esteban, a village of 44 inhabitants about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Madrid, 94-year-old Nemesia Olmos soaked up the projection of “Turandot” on the wall of the town’s Romanesque church.
Cultural life in the village has changed greatly. Gone is the crowded ballroom and visits from traveling theater groups. No longer do residents listen to songs from what was the only radio in the village. For the villagers, the Teatro Real’s offering is a delight.
“We’ve never had it so close. It seemed like we saw it right there, although it is a bit long,” Olmos said, as she left a little before the end.
___
This story has been corrected to say Jorge de León is a tenor, not a soprano.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/opera-for-the-public-spains-teatro-real-opera-house-offers-free-broadcast-to-towns-and-cities/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:32 | 0 | https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/opera-for-the-public-spains-teatro-real-opera-house-offers-free-broadcast-to-towns-and-cities/ |
If he been charged only with the crime he was convicted of, the teenage squeegee worker found guilty of manslaughter for fatally shooting a bat-wielding man in Baltimore would have been tried in juvenile court.
“That’s kind of ironic,” one of the teen’s defense attorneys, Warren Brown, said Friday in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. “Now, people are saying he’s facing 30 years. ... This conviction alone, had he not been charged with murder, would have been juvenile jurisdiction.”
A jury found Brown’s client, a 16-year-old, guilty Thursday of voluntary manslaughter, possession of a firearm by a minor and use of a firearm in a crime of violence. Together, the maximum penalties for those crimes in adult court add up to 35 years in prison.
Brown’s client was 14 on July 7, 2022, when he shot and killed 48-year-old Timothy Reynolds at the busy intersection of East Conway and Light streets. The Sun is not naming the teen because he is a minor. In Maryland, a 14-year-old cannot be tried as an adult for manslaughter — only first-degree rape and first-degree murder, the latter of which the teen was charged with.
What Brown refers to as irony others call injustice, and the verdict in the teen’s highly publicized case has resurfaced demands for wholesale change to the way the state’s criminal legal system handles youths accused of crimes.
“Across the board when it comes to sending children to adult court, Maryland is one of the worst, most punitive and least in line with best practices and evidence in the country,” said Jenny Egan, chief attorney for the juvenile division at the Office of the Public Defender in Baltimore. “It’s not just that we charge young people in adult court but that we charge people as young as 14 automatically in adult court, no matter who that child is or the circumstances, or all the other things, there’s no discretion.”
Maryland’s juvenile justice system has plenty of detractors, but it differs from the adult system in several ways. Cases go to trial quicker — typically within six months of charging. Guilty findings don’t mar a child’s record when they become an adult. Sentences focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment, with programs tailored to individual youths. With no set sentences, the juvenile system’s jurisdiction ends when a person turns 21.
State law requires children as young as 14 to be automatically charged as adults if the crimes they’re accused of carry maximum penalties of life in prison. It also requires that cases of minors aged 16 and 17 begin in adult court if they are charged with handgun violations or any of the 33 offenses defined under the Maryland criminal code as a crime of violence, such as murder, rape, kidnapping and armed carjacking.
Youths charged as adults can move to transfer their cases to juvenile court, but they bear the burden to convince a judge that their case is better suited for juvenile court.
State Sen. Jill Carter, a Democrat who represents East Baltimore, said the teen’s case underscores the type of reform she and other lawmakers, policy experts and youth advocates have been trying to enact for years in attempts to tip the scales and require all cases involving minors to begin in juvenile court.
“The practical reality,” she said, is that in the year since the incident occurred, if the case had been transferred to the juvenile court system, the defendant would have been “uplifting himself and improving his life” and could “fully flesh out what occurred and his reaction to what occurred.”
Those who oppose juvenile court for serious offenses, Carter said, overlook “the fact that, whatever the sentence he receives,” he will be coming back into society “and it makes more sense bringing him back with all the tools” to be a better person.
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger declined to comment specifically on the teen squeegee worker’s case, but said the existing system of starting cases for serious charges in adult court works well. He noted some of those cases are transferred to juvenile court.
“On a Friday night at 11 o’clock and you have a dead person on the ground, and a juvenile holding a gun, you need to err on the side of public safety,” Shellenberger said. “More likely than not the individual is not going to be released, and therefore there will be time built in to figure out if this person is a danger to the rest of the public.”
He cited the case of a 15-year-old Cockeysville teen who pleaded guilty in 2008 to killing his parents and brothers.
“They tried to waive the ... case down to juvenile court. It seems to me that the system works,” he said of the case, which stayed in adult court. “You have a study done on the juvenile’s life, including psychiatric evaluations, it all goes into a waiver summary and then you have two sides who get to argue in front of a neutral judge as to where the best place for this juvenile to be tried is.”
James Bentley, spokesman for Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, defended the office’s decision to charge the teen as an adult. He cited evidence of premeditation presented in court: That the teen grabbed a bag with a firearm in it moment before the altercation and pulled a mask over his face before he shot Reynolds five times.
“This is precisely the type of case that would be tried in adult court,” Bentley said.
Under Bates’ predecessor, Marilyn Mosby, prosecutors offered the teen a plea deal to second-degree murder and at first agreed to resolve the case in juvenile court. Reynolds’ family pushed back, saying they were blindsided by the plea offer and arguing the prosecution should happen in adult court. As a result, Mosby’s prosecutors took a neutral position on the teen’s transfer to juvenile court, rather than supporting the move as they previously had.
At trial, the teen’s attorneys argued he wasn’t the shooter and alternatively that, whoever it was, opened fire in defense of themselves or other squeegee workers from an unprovoked attack from a grown man wielding a metal bat.
The jury’s verdict means it believed he shot Reynolds. But, in acquitting him of murder, they found that he acted in partial defense of himself or others.
Attorneys for the teen did not present evidence at trial about how children’s brains react to threats differently than adults.
Adults and children are “very different” in terms of brain structure and function, said Dr. Joette James, a clinical neuropsychologist in Washington, D.C.
James, who often testifies in court as an expert, likened an adolescent’s brain to having a fully functioning car they can steer and drive, but with brakes that don’t work well. Due to their brain development, she said, adolescents are more prone to impulsive behavior, more emotionally unregulated and are more likely to be led by emotions or others.
“This is what we call the ‘perfect storm,’ where they’re not quite at a place where that structure is developed in that frontal cortex, to slow them down,” James said. “They’re super responsive to emotion and reward, in the face of risk. And so, they tend to make more risky decisions.”
The teen’s case reignited a longstanding debate in Baltimore over what the city should do about the people, mostly Black teenagers, who weave through traffic at busy intersections to wash windshields for quick cash.
Brown believes pressures outside of court factored into decisions that saw his client tried as an adult. As such, he’s not convinced reform would have changed anything about the teen’s case.
“He’s one of those kids, squeegee kids, who are not thought highly of — in fact, they’re viewed as a nuisance,” Brown said. “He shoots this guy, and Baltimore is mired in shootings and homicides and there is this effort, from the top down, to stem the bleeding. And if that means sacrificing this little boy, then that’s what they’re going to do. He represents everything that’s wrong with the city.”
About 81% of minors charged as adults are Black, according to a fact sheet prepared by the Maryland Youth Justice Coalition. What’s more, that organization found that more than 87% of cases where youths were charged as adults between 2017 and 2019 did not end in adult criminal sentences.
“That’s what people have been pushing for for years, is to fix this backward system, because it puts the child and the family and everyone through this enormously costly, public and just very, very tumultuous process only to have to start over again... It’s not good for the child. It’s not good for rehabilitation, and it’s not good for complaining witnesses,” said Egan, the public defender. “It doesn’t allow them the finality they deserve either.”
Maryland Policy & Politics
Research has found that youths convicted as adults reoffend at a much higher rate than those who are tried and adjudicated in juvenile court, according to Egan.
It’s still possible the teen’s case goes back to juvenile court.
Brown, his attorney, said the defense plans to argue for the teen’s case to be transferred to juvenile court for sentencing. The defendant is eligible to make that case because the jury acquitted him of first-degree murder. His defense attorneys will have to convince the trial judge that that the juvenile system is best equipped to help their client return to society.
The law says Circuit Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer, who presided over the trial, must consider the youth’s age, their mental and physical condition, their willingness to receive treatment, the nature of the crimes and public safety — the same conditions Circuit Judge Charles H. Dorsey III evaluated when he decided in November to keep the case in adult court.
Brown said in the fall and maintains now that his client would be better served by the juvenile system. An independent state evaluator found the teen was amenable to juvenile services, and the teen has no criminal record, Brown said. The defense plans to appeal Dorsey’s decision, but they can’t file an appeal on that legal issue until the teen is sentenced.
Advocates say that’s another place the law falls short for minors charged with crimes.
“They’ve already gone to prison,” Egan said. “The damage has already been done, and they can’t go back and do those teenage years.” | https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-squeegee-verdict-juvenile-justice-reform-20230729-fkl5cnicivc3jo7v6x5gipcxea-story.html | 2023-07-29T09:21:35 | 0 | https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-squeegee-verdict-juvenile-justice-reform-20230729-fkl5cnicivc3jo7v6x5gipcxea-story.html |
CANBERRA, Australia -- U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday that the United States stands with countries fighting Chinese "bullying behavior" as he launched bilateral talks in Australia aimed at countering Beijing's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Australian city of Brisbane late Thursday ahead of annual bilateral meetings Friday and today that will focus on a deal to provide Australia, a defense treaty partner, with a fleet of submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.
Ahead of a meeting with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, Austin said both countries share concerns about China's break from international laws and norms that resolve disputes peacefully and without coercion.
"We've seen troubling PRC [the People's Republic of China] coercion from the East China Sea, to the South China Sea, to right here in the Southwest Pacific," Austin told reporters.
"We'll continue to support our allies and partners as they defend themselves from bullying behavior," he added.
China has imposed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers in recent years against Australian exports including coal, wine, barley, beef, seafood and wood.
Meanwhile, the sharing of U.S. nuclear secrets with Australia takes that bilateral relationship to a new level.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is planning state visits to the United States and China before the end of the year.
Under the AUKUS partnership -- an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- Australia will buy three Virginia-class submarines from the United States and build five of a new AUKUS-class submarine in cooperation with Britain.
Australian media have focused on a letter signed by more than 20 Republican lawmakers to President Joe Biden warning that the deal would "unacceptably weaken the U.S. fleet" without a plan to boost U.S. submarine production.
Albanese said he remained "very confident" that the United States would deliver the three submarines.
The prime minister said he'd been reassured by discussions he had with Republicans and Democrats earlier in July at a NATO summit in Lithuania.
"What struck me was their unanimous support for AUKUS, their unanimous support for the relationship between the Australia and United States," Albanese said.
Marles agreed that the AUKUS program was on track.
"Congress can be a complicated place as legislation makes its way through it, but actually we're encouraged by how quickly it is going through it and we are expecting that there will be lots of discussions on the way through," Marles said.
"Fundamentally, we have reached an agreement with the Biden administration about how Australia acquires the nuclear-powered submarine capability and we're proceeding along that path with pace," he added.
Australia understood that there was "pressure on the American industrial base" and would contribute to submarine production, Marles said. The AUKUS deal is forecast to cost Australia up to $246 billion over 30 years. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/at-talks-us-rips-china-bullying/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:35 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/at-talks-us-rips-china-bullying/ |
PHOENIX — A historic heat wave that turned the U.S. Southwest into a blast furnace throughout July is beginning to abate with the late arrival of monsoon rains.
Forecasters expect that by Monday at the latest, people in metro Phoenix will begin seeing high temperatures under 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) for the first time in a month. As of Friday, the high temperature in the desert city had been at or above that mark for 29 consecutive days.
Already this week, the overnight low at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport fell under 90 (32.2 C) for the first time in 16 days, finally allowing people some respite from the stifling heat once the sun goes down.
Temperatures are also expected to ease in Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Death Valley, California.
The downward trend started Wednesday night, when Phoenix saw its first major monsoon storm since the traditional start of the season on June 15. While more than half of the greater Phoenix area saw no rainfall from that storm, some eastern suburbs were pummeled by high winds, swirling dust and localized downfalls of up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) of precipitation.
Storms gradually increasing in strength are expected over the weekend.
Scientists calculate that July will prove to be the hottest globally on record and perhaps the warmest human civilization has seen. The extreme heat is now hitting the eastern part of the U.S, as soaring temperatures moved from the Midwest into the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, where some places are seeing their warmest days so far this year.
The new heat records being set this summer are just some of the extreme weather being seen around the U.S. this month, such as flash floods in Pennsylvania and parts of the Northeast.
And while relief may be on the way for the Southwest, for now it's still dangerously hot. Phoenix's high temperature reached 116 (46.7 C) Friday afternoon, which is far above the average temperature of 106 (41.1 C).
"Anyone can be at risk outside in this record heat," the fire department in Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, warned residents on social media while offering ideas to stay safe.
For many people such as older adults, those with health issues and those without access to air conditioning, the heat can be dangerous or even deadly.
Maricopa County, the most populous in Arizona and home to Phoenix, reported this week that its public health department had confirmed 25 heat-associated deaths this year as of July 21, with 249 more under investigation.
Results from toxicological tests that can takes weeks or months after an autopsy is conducted could eventually result in many deaths listed as under investigation as heat associated being changed to confirmed.
Maricopa County confirmed 425 heat-associated deaths last year, and more than half of them occurred in July.
Elsewhere in Arizona next week, the agricultural desert community of Yuma is expecting highs ranging from 104 to 112 (40 C to 44.4 C) and Tucson is looking at highs ranging from 99 to 111 (37.2 C to 43.9 C).
The highs in Las Vegas are forecast to slip as low as 94 (34.4 C) next Tuesday after a long spell of highs above 110 (43.3 C). Death Valley, which hit 128 (53.3 C) in mid-July, will cool as well, though only to a still blistering hot 116 (46.7 C).
In New Mexico, the highs in Albuquerque next week are expected to be in the mid to high 90s (around 35 C), with party cloudy skies.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kasu.org/environment-infrastructure/2023-07-29/forecasters-say-southwest-temperatures-to-ease-some-with-arrival-of-monsoon-rains | 2023-07-29T09:21:36 | 0 | https://www.kasu.org/environment-infrastructure/2023-07-29/forecasters-say-southwest-temperatures-to-ease-some-with-arrival-of-monsoon-rains |
Shooting in Seattle parking lot injures 5 people, including 2 critically, police chief says
SEATTLE (AP) — A shooting in a Seattle parking lot Friday night wounded five people, including two who were in critical condition, the city’s police chief said.
The Seattle Police Department responded to a reported shooting around 9 p.m. in the 9200 block of Rainier Avenue South.
The shooting started in the parking lot of what was formerly known as King Donuts and was directed at a community event occurring nearby, Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz said at the scene.
The five victims included two who were listed in critical condition and three who appeared to be stable. Four victims were transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and the fifth was treated at the scene, Diaz said.
“We know that there’s dozens and dozens of rounds that were fired,” said Diaz, who noted police were not sure of a possible motive.
“Right now, we’ve really got to get guns off the streets,” Diaz said, explaining the number of shootings in the city has fluctuated but remains an issue.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell thanked community members and police at the scene for working together to protect residents, calling the violence a tragedy.
“These community leaders are putting literally their lives on the line to protect their own community,” Harrell said. “But you see what we’re trying to build here in Seattle with these fine officers working with these fine community leaders, trying to protect their babies here, trying to protect our youth.”
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/shooting-in-seattle-parking-lot-injures-5-people-including-2-critically-police-chief-says/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:38 | 0 | https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/shooting-in-seattle-parking-lot-injures-5-people-including-2-critically-police-chief-says/ |
In a moment of jest, Mike Elias provided a condition in which he would go all in on the 2023 Orioles.
“Unless we have information that the world is ending in November,” Elias quipped, “a big part of my job is worrying about the overall health of the team over the next several years.”
Surely, though, if Earth’s demise was imminent, it wouldn’t be something that an MLB team alone would know. And, naturally, there would be more important matters than a game of stick and ball.
But even without a credible forecast of impending doom, can’t Elias still push his chips to the center of the table?
The throwaway line from the Orioles general manager’s 26-minute news conference was one of many that gave an insight into the thinking of the top executive of the American League’s best team. His answers were unsurprisingly pragmatic.
But, perhaps, this could be the right time for Elias, who has shepherded the Orioles’ radical and rapid transformation in part because of his methodical approach, to lean into the nihilistic impulse he gave a glimpse of Friday. To listen to the devil on his shoulder, throw caution to the wind and let tomorrow’s problems wait for tomorrow.
This seems to be a good spot for a disclaimer: Of course, Elias can’t treat the 2023 trade deadline like a fantasy baseball team — nor will he. The Orioles have seven prospects inside Baseball America’s top 100 list, and he obviously shouldn’t give up too many of them for rentals. It is, as he said, his job to consider past 2023, and there are plenty of good reasons to remain level-headed at this deadline.
However, moments like this one don’t come around often. Baltimore hasn’t won a World Series (or even been to one) in 40 years. A large portion of the fan base wasn’t even alive in 1983 when the Orioles defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in five games. The fans who were have since yearned to experience another.
Having a team — whether ahead of schedule or not — atop the AL standings is a feat not easily achieved, and there’s no guarantee the Orioles will be here again in the future Elias is paid to worry about. But they’re here now, and it’s a rare opportunity that shouldn’t be treated lightly.
Preceding his humorous comment, Elias said the organization’s goal is to “make a deep playoff run” and make the World Series. Immediately following, Elias then explained the “balance” to his trade deadline approach.
“We have tested methodologies that we’ve used now over three organizations to help us make those decisions,” he said. “We’re applying those to weigh the opportunities that come along. Those methods help us weigh the impact of an addition for the 2023 run and the expense of that going out the door and also how much we want to balance that against 2024 and 2025 and 2026. I’m just saying this is kind of the job.”
Now is another good time for a disclaimer: As the deadline stove heats up, it behooves Elias to provide as little revealing information as possible, so as to not tip his hand to a potential seller. But Elias did suggest he could “reach” on a trade if the player and package are a fit. He said the Orioles’ overachieving — with playoff odds that are eightfold what they were to begin the season, according to FanGraphs — has given extra motivation to bolster the 2023 club.
“I think with the position that our players have put us in right here and how well things are going so far and where we are, I think it’s fair to say that if we get within reach of something, we’re going to reach for it a little bit to help this team,” Elias said. “We can’t set the minor league system on fire just because we’re in first place. It’s just our job to balance all that.”
Baltimore Orioles Insider
Elias said the Orioles are in the market for pitching — both to strengthen their young starting rotation and reinforce their middle relief. Pitchers thought to be on the trading block include starters Dylan Cease, Blake Snell, Eduardo Rodriguez and Marcus Stroman, as well as relievers Josh Hader, Scott Barlow, Keynan Middleton and Jordan Hicks.
Of course, when it comes to the trades, the devil is in the details. Elias described the market as “thin” with few “pure sellers.” With an expanded playoff field and the new balanced schedule, more teams are in the postseason hunt — a good thing for the sport, but a bad thing for teams like the Orioles hoping to pillage underperforming teams of their best players. A “seller’s market” means Baltimore would, in theory, have to give up more for a player than otherwise assumed.
But that hasn’t stopped other contending teams from making significant additions, more than what the Orioles have done thus far in acquiring volatile reliever Shintaro Fujinami from the Oakland Athletics. The Houston Astros on Friday acquired back-end reliever Kendall Graveman from the Chicago White Sox. The Los Angeles Dodgers added starting pitcher Lance Lynn and reliever Joe Kelly from the White Sox. The Miami Marlins brought in closer David Robertson from the New York Mets. And the Los Angeles Angels traded for starter Lucas Giolito and reliever Reynaldo López from the White Sox.
None of those teams has a record as good as the Orioles’ mark of 63-40.
“Yes, I do,” Elias said when asked if he believes Baltimore’s roster is capable of competing for a World Series. “Doesn’t mean we don’t want to improve. The Dodgers are pretty good, too, and they’re bringing some extra help in, so obviously we’re looking at that. I think very clearly this team has revealed itself to be as capable as anyone in arguably all of baseball right now to make a playoff run.
“We’re right there with anyone I think.”
The goal at the deadline shouldn’t be to make a move simply to make one. But, for a team with an opportunity to be in a pennant chase, the potential of the long run shouldn’t be the main focus. | https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-mike-elias-orioles-future-analysis-20230729-pj4c6jg2tvhjlisboathqer5ze-story.html | 2023-07-29T09:21:41 | 1 | https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-mike-elias-orioles-future-analysis-20230729-pj4c6jg2tvhjlisboathqer5ze-story.html |
BENTONVILLE -- A Bentonville man was arrested Wednesday and accused of attempting to arrange to have sex with children.
Bradley Winfrey, 26, was being held Friday in lieu of a $100,000 bond in the Benton County jail. He faces charges of internet stalking of a child and conspiracy to commit rape.
A Siloam Springs police detective created a profile on a social media site known for adults meeting and allowing their children to have sex with other adults, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Winfrey contacted the detective on the site, and the two later started exchanging texts, the affidavit says.
Winfrey said he wanted to engage in sex acts with a child but didn't want the child to be younger than 5, the affidavit says.
The detective and Winfrey arranged to meet, and police arrested Winfrey as he was walking next to the meeting location building in Bentonville, the affidavit says.
Winfrey admitted to talking about having sex with a child, but said he wasn't sure he would have gone through with it, the affidavit says. He gave police the passcode to his cellphone and admitted to having videos of adults having sex with children, the affidavit says. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/bentonville-man-26-accused-of-internet-stalking/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:41 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/bentonville-man-26-accused-of-internet-stalking/ |
Ron DeSantis was involved in a traffic accident while in Chattanooga, Tenn., this week raising money for his presidential bid. The candidate was not injured, which may have been the single best piece of news the campaign has had in a while.
The other kind of news for the Florida Republican seemed to be everywhere and all at once. His campaign announced it was shedding a third of its staff and "retooling" its fundraising amid reports of donor desertion. The Associated Press referred to the campaign as "stalled," Rich Lowry of National Review used the words "faltering" and "diminished" in a piece for Politico. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, often a cheerleader for the governor, noted "the headlines say [the campaign] is in an unrecoverable dive."
The media critiques went beyond DeSantis' problems with staffing and fundraising to question his performance on the stump. Stories told of DeSantis "scolding" students at one event for wearing masks and snapping at reporters at a news conference.
Most troubling of all may have been DeSantis' problems with messaging. He has defended his administration's new Florida history curriculum, which alludes to "benefits" that enslaved people may have derived from their life in bondage – such as blacksmithing skills. That drew a rebuke from rival candidate Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who's Black, who said there had been no "silver lining in slavery."
DeSantis may have been expected to stand by his state's curriculum changes, but it was harder to understand why he reached for controversy by saying he might appoint Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as head of the FDA or the CDC. Kennedy, a Democrat, is also a candidate for president, and famous as a vaccine conspiracy theorist, harshly critical of the scientists who lead the federal health agencies.
Most candidates would not consider either slavery or RFK Jr. an issue to emphasize, much less the hill they would choose to die on.
Perceptions prompt comparison to former presidential hopeful Rick Perry
Perceptions of DeSantis have changed greatly since he won reelection in November 2022 by 20 points. In January he was seen as the foremost threat to Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, trailing the former president by just two percentage points in the 538.com average of national polls. As of this week, that gap has widened to 37 percentage points. DeSantis poll numbers have fallen by more than half as other candidates have entered the fray and taken a share. And that trendline has prompted comparisons to the recent history of another Sun Belt governor who had his eyes on the White House, Rick Perry of Texas.
A dozen years ago, Perry entered the GOP lists for the 2012 nomination against incumbent President Barack Obama. Having been elected and reelected in the nation's second most populous state, Perry had a gaudy list of endorsements and wealthy backers. His TV ads were impressive.
But Perry's in-person campaigning did not match expectations. After the first candidate debates of 2007 the buzz was all about his lackluster performances. Vowing to fight on, Perry pointed to a November debate where he hoped to turn things around. That was when he pledged to eliminate three cabinet level departments of the federal government if elected – Education, Commerce ... and he could not remember the third. After a fumbling pause he said: "Oops."
Needless to say, things did not get better after that. Crushed in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, Perry all but ignored New Hampshire to concentrate on South Carolina. But when his poll numbers there also sagged, he dropped out. In 2016, having just retired as the longest-tenured governor in Texas history, he tried again. But in a field of more than 15 candidates dominated by Trump, Perry barely registered. He dropped out before the Iowa caucuses.
Needless to say, no candidate for president wants to be compared to Rick Perry. But on Fox News on June 28, DeSantis told a Fox News host he would eliminate the same three departments as Perry — Education, Commerce and, as Perry had eventually remembered, Energy (which wound up being the department where Perry served as secretary under Trump). DeSantis threw in the IRS, too, which gave him a longer list than Perry's.
Throughout the agonizing train wreck that was the Perry campaign, the candidate seemed unable to understand that the persona and priorities that had lifted him to such success in Texas were not working the same on the national stage.
Can this campaign be saved?
DeSantis' campaign has reached the point where some observers wonder if it's too late to turn his fortunes around. They note that Trump's growing advantage over DeSantis in polls has been driven less by improving numbers for Trump than by deteriorating support for the Floridian.
But there are positives in this picture for the Florida governor. First, it is early — or at least relatively early — in the campaign season. The first voting activity leading to actual delegates being chosen does not happen until January 15, when Iowa holds its caucuses. That gives DeSantis and other candidates still seeking traction more than five months to find it. If the right formula can be found, there is time to follow it.
Second, the field is in some senses still unsettled. While half the Republican electorate may be satisfied with Trump, there is still the other half. And if the ever-mounting legal woes of the former president finally begin to erode the bedrock of his support, it may be possible for a single strong challenger to consolidate the opposition.
Third, there are beacons of hope for troubled candidates in recent presidential campaign history. By choosing to call the latest phase of his effort an "insurgency," DeSantis has acknowledged that he is battling the odds. Of course, when he adopted the campaign motto "The Great American Comeback," he was not expecting it to apply to his campaign.
The term "comeback" has long been associated with the first presidential push of a young Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton. Then 45, Clinton was seeking the Democratic nomination against the sitting president George H.W. Bush in 1992. Bush had been so popular following the success of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 that many ambitious Democrats in Washington thought it better to wait for the 1996 cycle to run. Clinton looked strong in the preliminary phase of the campaign but was on the ropes as the primaries began, battered by two potentially fatal blows.
Newspaper stories had highlighted steps he took to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War, and in a woman he had known in Arkansas named Gennifer Flowers told a supermarket tabloid the two had had a years-long affair. She repeated her story in a televised news conference.
Clinton stumbled to a distant third-place showing in the Iowa caucuses (won by a favorite son candidate, Tom Harkin) and fell far behind in New Hampshire. But on that state's primary night in February, Clinton in second place had closed the gap to single digits and won half the available delegates.
He went on TV to thank New Hampshire for making "Bill Clinton the comeback kid." The national media coverage largely followed that line, much to the distress of the primary's first-place winner, Sen. Paul Tsongas of neighboring Massachusetts. A few weeks later, on Super Tuesday, Clinton won most of the big state primaries, many of them in the South, and the lion's share of the delegates. He was soon cruising to the nomination.
McCain turned his ship around
More directly comparable to DeSantis' situation, and closer to his political home, was the turnaround achieved 16 years later by the campaign of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. A former POW in Vietnam who had made many friends in his time in the Senate, McCain was well known for his spirited "Straight Talk Express" campaign challenging George W. Bush for the GOP nomination in 2000. McCain came up short that time, but his profile was elevated in the Senate and he retained much of his appeal for independents.
But when it came to running another campaign, McCain quickly ran aground. The national agenda had changed over the two terms of the second President Bush, which included the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The man who had been New York City mayor during those attacks, Rudy Giuliani, was now running for president as "America's Mayor" and leading in national polls for a time.
Other notables in the field in 2007 included Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (now a senator from Utah) and Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas. McCain's standing in Iowa had suffered with his opposition to ethanol subsidies and he trailed Romney in polling in New Hampshire.
In the summer of 2007, with his early money drying up and fundraising slowed, McCain saw many news accounts of his flagging campaign. Some were ready to write him off. But that July he revamped his campaign from top to bottom and let go some longtime aides, including close friends, to begin anew. He seemed ready to do whatever it took, including altering his positions on key issues such as immigration.
By the time the campaign reached the voters in January 2008, the McCain operation had righted itself. After conceding Iowa to his rivals, McCain stormed back into contention with a smashing win in New Hampshire that netted him most of the delegates at stake.
As for one-time front-runner Giuliani, he had decided he did not need to go hard at Iowa and New Hampshire and concentrated instead on the late January primary in Florida. Giuliani finished third there, winning no delegates, and withdrew from the race the next day.
The following week brought Super Tuesday and a favorable mix of states for McCain, who won nine states to Romney's seven and Huckabee's five and pocketed most of the delegates. Romney then left the race and urged the other candidates and the party to unite behind McCain.
At such times in the past, struggling campaigns have rescued themselves with the right moves and a dose of luck. At other times, it has taken major missteps by front-running candidates to open the door. In DeSantis' case, it might well require both.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kasu.org/politics/2023-07-29/presidential-primaries-have-seen-dramatic-comebacks-could-desantis-24-be-next | 2023-07-29T09:21:42 | 1 | https://www.kasu.org/politics/2023-07-29/presidential-primaries-have-seen-dramatic-comebacks-could-desantis-24-be-next |
WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden dispatched his national security adviser Jake Sullivan to Saudi Arabia on Thursday for talks with the kingdom's de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the White House pushes for a normalization of relations between the country and Israel.
The White House in a brief statement said that Sullivan arrived Thursday in Jeddah for talks with the crown prince and other Saudi officials. The wide-ranging talks covered initiatives to "advance a common vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous, and stable Middle East," as well as efforts to find a permanent end to the yearslong conflict between the Saudis and Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen, according to the White House.
Sullivan and the prince also discussed the Biden administration's hopes to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to a White House National Security Council official familiar with the matter. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
For its part, the kingdom's state-run Saudi Press Agency acknowledged the meeting, saying only that the two sides "discussed the Saudi-U.S. strategic relations and ways to enhance them in various fields, in addition to the latest regional and international developments of mutual concern."
The kingdom released no images of the meeting, which saw Saudi Arabia's defense and energy ministers attend, along with the head of its Public Investment Fund.
The Saudis have shown hesitance to proceed with normalizing relations with Israel at a time when it is led by the most right-wing government in its history, and tensions have soared with the Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israel remains mired in a political crisis over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to weaken its judiciary -- a move which has unleashed the biggest protests in the country's history.
The Saudis have repeatedly called for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, territories Israel seized in the 1967 war.
Saudi Arabia also has pushed increasingly for a nuclear cooperation deal that includes America, allowing it to enrich uranium in the kingdom -- something that worries nonproliferation experts, as spinning centrifuges open the door to a possible weapons program.
Mohammed already has said the kingdom would pursue an atomic bomb if Iran had one, potentially creating a nuclear arms race in the region as Tehran's program continues to advance closer to weapons-grade levels.
Information for this article was contributed by Jon Gambrell of The Associated Press. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/biden-sends-security-official-to-saudi-arabia/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:47 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/biden-sends-security-official-to-saudi-arabia/ |
President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly acknowledged his seventh grandchild, a 4-year-old girl fathered by his son Hunter with a Batesville 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."
The president's statement was first reported by People Magazine.
Roberts and Hunter Biden settled a child support case in Independence County Circuit Court late last month, agreeing to an amended monthly support payment after Clint Lancaster, Roberts' attorney, filed a motion of contempt last month against Biden alleging that he had failed to provide income information ordered by the court.
Previously, Biden had been paying $20,000 per month to Roberts for child support. The new agreed-upon amount was redacted from court documents.
Also as part of the settlement, Roberts has agreed to abandon efforts to have her daughter use the Biden surname, attorneys said.
The order -- signed by Hunter Biden, Roberts and their attorneys -- stated that both parties reached their agreement June 16, the date that both of them appeared in Little Rock to give separate depositions.
The Arkansas legal battle began in 2019. The paternity case was resolved in 2020 after a DNA test confirmed Biden was the girl's biological father and both sides reached an agreement on monthly child support. The child support case was reopened in September 2022 after Hunter Biden requested the amount be lowered due to "substantial material change" in his finances, according to court filings.
Defense attorneys said in court last month that Hunter Biden has since become a painter and his income at least partially comes from sales of those paintings. One of the sticking points in the lawsuit was that Biden, according to Roberts' attorneys, was not forthcoming about how much money he was collecting from those art sales.
As part of the settlement, Hunter Biden agreed to "assign" some of his paintings to his daughter, according to the order.
Attempts to reach Lancaster, Roberts' attorney, by phone and email Friday evening were not successful.
The president's son wrote about his encounter with Roberts in his 2021 memoir, saying it came while he was deep in addiction to alcohol and drugs, including crack cocaine.
"I had no recollection of our encounter," he wrote. "That's how little connection I had with anyone. I was a mess, but a mess I've taken responsibility for."
The president, who has made a commitment to family central to his public persona, has faced increasing criticism from political rivals and pundits for failing to acknowledge the granddaughter. According to a person familiar with the matter, he was taking the cue from his son while the legal proceedings played out. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.
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.
Information for this article was contributed by Grant Lancaster of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/biden-speaks-on-sons-daughter/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:53 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/biden-speaks-on-sons-daughter/ |
BOULDER, Colo. -- Colorado's return to the Big 12 in 2024 fits right into Deion Sanders' recruiting blueprint, allowing him to get an even better foothold in the teeming Texas and Florida markets.
"I think Colorado is already an exciting team on the recruiting trail with Coach Prime and his experienced staff full of college coaches who have been around for a while and a lot of guys with NFL pedigree," said Steve Wiltfong, national recruiting director for 247Sports. "So I think more than anything it adds to the excitement because it's moving to what is certainly a more stable conference and one that just had a football team (TCU) in the playoff."
Athletic Director Rick George said he kept basketball coaches Tad Boyle and JR Payne in the loop along with Sanders, who's entering his first season in Boulder, before the CU board of regents rubber-stamped Colorado's return to the Big 12 on Thursday.
"I think all of them felt like: Whatever you think's best for us, we're going to play whomever you ask us to play," George said. "I will tell you, there are tremendous benefits for being in the Big 12 for the direction that Coach Prime's going as it relates to recruiting, being able to play in Orlando against UCF, where he's recruiting very heavily (and) the state of Texas has always been a priority for us."
The newfangled Big 12 isn't the same league the Buffs left in 2011 during the initial rounds of conference realignment when Texas A&M, Missouri and Nebraska also left. Texas and Oklahoma are leaving next year for the Big Ten. TCU and West Virginia came on board a decade ago and Cincinnati, Houston, BYU and Central Florida were added this year.
Sanders, who's overseen the biggest roster overhaul in the nation since his hiring this spring, already has strong roots in Florida and Texas.
He was born in Fort Myers and starred at Florida State before embarking on a dual sports career as an NFL defensive back and a Major League outfielder. Some of his best years came during his half decade with the Cowboys from 1995-99 and he still has a home in the Dallas area.
When the Buffaloes return to the Big 12 next year, they will have four conference opponents in the Lone Star State in TCU, Texas Tech, Baylor and Houston, which features one of the nation's largest television markets.
"Houston has always been a favorable market for us in recruiting," said George, who then mentioned a few players from CU's heyday in the late 1980s and early '90s. "You think back to Alfred Williams, Kanavis McGhee and Chris Hudson. That area -- the fifth-largest market in the country -- also was a factor" in Colorado's decision to return to the Big 12.
"Colorado recruits Texas hard because it's an obvious state to go recruit," Wiltfong said, "and now being in the Big 12, with all those Texas teams, it gives them one more inch to say, 'Hey, we're going to be coming to the Lone Star State a lot throughout your career to play some big games.' "
Wiltfong expects Sanders to compete with the big boys when it comes to the recruiting trails of Texas.
"Deion's lived in Texas, right? Deion is going to go where the players are. He's going to recruit nationally because his name is electric," Wiltfong said.
Colorado is the third school to leave the Pac-12 in the last year, joining UCLA and USC, which are going to the Big Ten next year. The moves coincide with the expiration of current media rights deals with ESPN and Fox.
Colorado is expected to get $31.7 million in annual TV revenue in the Big 12, which last year came to an agreement with ESPN and Fox on a six-year extension worth more than $2 billion that runs through 2030-31. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/big-12-move-suits-primes-program/ | 2023-07-29T09:21:59 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/big-12-move-suits-primes-program/ |
In Lafayette, a small house contrasts with a crumbling neighborhood.
It’s a speck of freshly painted blue in a sea of peeling white and gray. A picket fence surrounds its freshly trimmed yard, and a robust security system gives its occupants and their 3-year-old daughter a sense of security.
The house appears to be the epitome of the American dream. But inside, married couple David Keelen and Joellen McClain have been fighting a war for almost a year.
Keelen and McClain, who is a Purdue student, are suing local landlord and adjunct Purdue professor Chaofeng Liu for causing what they call a “vermin invasion” of their home.
The couple believes the disintegrating house next to theirs, which Liu owns and is allegedly suffering from a severe cockroach infestation, is causing an infestation of their own home. They blame Liu for failing to take action to remediate the problem.
“We tried telling (Liu), but he never answered, ” Keelen said Friday. “We don’t want to be in court over this, but we’re willing to go the whole way if we have to.”
But Liu, who owns more than 80 rental properties in Lafayette that mostly seem to have similar dilapidation and infestations, said he believes the lawsuit against him has no legal basis.
“I’m not sure if I should be responsible for this,” he said Wednesday. “I can only control my own property.”
The house
The infestation of the couple’s home started in September, but they say their problems with Liu started long before that.
Keelen and McClain moved into their house from New Jersey about seven years ago and thought they had finally achieved everything they could’ve wanted. Keelen found a job, while McClain decided to pursue her dreams of becoming an entomologist and started attending Purdue.
Together, the couple had their daughter, and they adopted a fat cat named Steve.
But then Liu bought the house next door in 2017. The condition of the property slowly degraded year after year, they said, becoming a crumbling hovel compared to the couple’s own home.
McClain said a stream of tenants would cycle through the home, some better than others, but all having one thing in common: They were low-income and vulnerable. The couple could only watch as tenants moved in and out in waves, sometimes being evicted by Liu, other times leaving on their own.
The couple said tenants were moving into a clearly run-down house and would then leave it in a worse state.
“Early on, someone would come out and fix a thing or two. But then that was it. All of a sudden, everything just kind of stopped,” McClain said. “Nobody ever came back to clean the house. Nobody came back to fix anything.”
Since 2019, the couple say they haven’t seen anything be done.
“Now (Liu) won’t even fix up the house before moving new people in,” Keelen said.
Liu owns more than 80 properties in Greater Lafayette, including two primary residences in which he lives. His rental properties the Exponent has visited all show similarities to the house next door to the couple: run-down, crumbling, inhabited by low-income, vulnerable tenants and showing signs of infestation.
The house in question is a small, single-family dwelling that Liu has owned since 2017, when he bought it for $45,000, according to property records. In 2023, it’s valued at more than $67,000.
Its current tenant has been living there for about a year, the couple said. Since moving in, he’s been battling a roach infestation of his own to no avail. The tenant did not respond to the Exponent’s attempts to contact him.
Keelen said he’s seen Liu send a pest control expert to the house once since then, but never again. The tenant has been left to fight the bugs by himself.
Liu, however, claims he’s sent pest control to the property “many many times” since the infestation again.
“I’ve sent certified pest experts on multiple occasions,” he said.
Either way, McClain said she doesn’t think any tenant should be renting a house with roaches in the first place.
“It’s not fair,” McClain said. “It’s not fair to anybody living there, and it’s not fair to us.”
The infestation
While standing in the kitchen of her home, McClain set two clear jars of alcohol on the table. One had a tiny speck near the bottom.
“That’s a bedbug, but you can’t really see it,” she said, pointing.
The other jar was more clear. Floating at the top was a roach, its body contorted.
“I caught this one in her playroom,” McClain said, gesturing to her daughter. “The alcohol kills it but preserves its color. At least, that’s what the Purdue extension lab told me.”
The couple said they had noticed the first roaches in their daughter’s bedroom in September, on the side of the house closest to Liu’s property next door. It raised alarm bells, but they had no inkling of what it meant.
They immediately got pest control to come look at their house and started a quarterly program to begin systematically eliminating the roach problem. But for a while, they had no idea where the pests were coming from.
“Then I heard someone in between our houses screaming ‘Get back inside!’ ” McClain said. “I looked out the window at (Liu’s house) and saw (the tenant) with a big can of pesticide, and he’s spraying the outside of the window. And cockroaches were literally coming out of his window all over.”
McClain heaved a sigh.
“He was yelling at the cockroaches to get back inside,” she said. “And I just started crying. That was my confirmation right there.”
McClain and Keelen told their pest control company their new theory: The infestation was spreading from the house next door.
It wasn’t long until they were proven right.
“He literally saw insects coming from (Liu’s house), right across our patio and into our own,” McClain said. “We put mouse traps out there, and even they became infested. The pest control guy said he’d never seen anything like that in his entire career.”
In response, the couple increased the treatment of their home, putting poison strips on the walls and traps on the floor. But the infestation only grew, with the pest control company telling them their condition wouldn’t improve until the infestation at Liu’s house was ended.
Eventually, the couple began putting plastic and tape over their windows to keep pests out, but it didn’t help. The bugs began to spread from their daughter’s bedroom to her playroom, and then to the kitchen and other rooms of the house.
While sitting at her kitchen table, McClain gestured to bare walls surrounding her. She said the couple eventually started taking everything off the walls, fearing that roaches would build nests behind pictures and decorations.
“We had to take our wedding pictures down,” McClain said, choking up. “We were just so scared, we started throwing everything away. Everything that mattered to me as a mother, like (the daughter’s) things, we might have to throw away at this point.”
McClain said she and Keelen began considering what things they’d have to get rid of to avoid furthering the infestation, including furniture and toys in their daughter’s playroom.
“As a mom, you want to keep all these newborn things that you love, but I can’t,” she said. “I feel like I have to burn it.”
Over time, the infestation evolved beyond just cockroaches, with rats, mice and bed bugs beginning to show themselves throughout the house. Now, McClain said she is scared to pick anything up off the tables or counters, worrying she’ll find pests underneath.
The worst part for McClain and Keelen, they said, is worrying about the health of their 3-year-old.
“Her two rooms are the most affected, because they’re coming in from that direction,” McClain said. “All night long, I just lay in her bed awake and rub her back, while looking to make sure no bugs are going to swarm her.”
Even when reporters visited the couple’s home on Friday, the effects of the infestation in their daughter’s room were apparent. In the playroom, dead roaches and feces lay scattered in the windowsill behind plastic and tape.
All throughout the home, poison strips litter the walls, well in reach of their toddler. And McClain, an entomology student, said the effects of roaches in homes on children’s health is well documented.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said, struggling to hold back tears. “We worked so hard for everything we have, and we don’t have a lot, you know? And now it’s all going to be gone. We can’t afford to keep replacing things.”
The options
After almost a year of waging a costly battle against a growing infestation, fearing for their daughter’s health and throwing their things away, the couple finally had enough.
Keelen said they first contacted the Tippecanoe County Health Department. They told him they wanted to do something but could only refer him to code enforcement.
Gregory Loomis, the Tippecanoe County health officer, said there isn’t much the health department can do about infestations unless they act as “vectors,” which means the infestation is causing the residents of the home to become sick.
“We want to help, but we tend to just send people to code enforcement,” Loomis said. “Our hands are basically tied.”
Because the tenant in Liu’s house wasn’t showing signs of sickness, Keelen was told to call the Lafayette engineer’s office, which handles code violations and home inspections.
But they couldn’t do anything, either, because McClain and Keelen weren’t Liu’s tenants. And even then, code enforcement would only be able to fine Liu, not force him to fix the problem.
“They said all the right things about how they wanted to help, but there’s just no laws for that,” Keelen said. “I started to think we’d have to tear this place down.”
Realizing no city officials were going to help force Liu to end the infestation next door, the couple decided the fight wasn’t worth it and began looking at options to sell their house.
Knowing about the infestation, no real estate agents would even talk to them.
“I wasn’t going to sell a home without disclosing that information,” McClain said. “That’s not fair to anybody else moving in here that could also be moving in with a child, or even just by themselves.”
McClain and Keelen tried talking to several different realty companies around Lafayette, including the one that had sold them the house seven years ago. Nobody was willing to entertain the offer.
“If we could move out, we would,” McClain said, “but how do you sell your house to somebody, knowing bedbugs are currently laying over 200 eggs inside it, and there’s God knows how many in the house?”
Feeling trapped in their infested home, fighting an unwinnable war, all while balancing work and studies, the couple started to realize they had only one option left.
In May, Keelen sent a letter to Liu directly, describing the situation and warning him that if the landlord didn’t take steps to end the infestation, the couple would sue.
“I’m tired of dealing with your mess,” he wrote. “My wife and I are raising a toddler here and is it not her right to be able to run around the house and play in her yard without the worry of catching asthma or any of the other horrible things linked with roach infestations?”
Liu never responded, Keelen said. And so they went to court.
“Why would I respond?” Liu said when asked about the letter. “I have never heard of this kind of lawsuit.”
The lawsuit
According to court documents, Keelen and McClain are asking for more than $3,400 from Liu to cover pest control costs and property loss in their home. But they say they’re going to keep demanding more the longer the infestation continues.
“Our pest control expert has documented that (Liu’s) property is infested and that is the sole source of the vermin invading our house,” they wrote in the complaint. “This problem will persist until defendant fully exterminates his property.”
Their first hearing is set for Aug. 7, according to court documents.
“We don’t have time with a child to go to court,” McClain said. “This is not something we wanted. We would have worked it out with him, but now we have to do this.”
When asked about the lawsuit, Lafayette building inspector Phil Latshaw said he hopes more people sue Liu in the same way.
“If people start suing him for stuff like that, maybe he’ll either sell all his properties and get out, or he’ll clean them up,” Latshaw said. “I would think (Keelen and McClain) should have a pretty good case if they’re actually serious about suing for it.”
Liu said he’s simply waiting to see what the judge rules, but he doesn’t believe he can legally be held responsible for an infestation at another house.
“If the judge says I have to (pay), I guess I’ll have no choice,” he said, “but I can only control my property.”
McClain, a Purdue student, said the whole ordeal has soured her relationship with her own university.
Seven years ago, she and Keelen had moved from New Jersey so she could pursue her dream of becoming an entomologist. She thought at Purdue she would learn from the “best professors in the world.”
“You work really hard for your degree, you’re really proud of it,” she said, “but now I wonder if I can even be proud of it knowing that a Purdue professor is doing this to us, and Purdue allows him to stay, even if he’s only adjunct.”
McClain said she hopes Purdue is watching Liu and taking note of local uproar surrounding him, because he’s affecting more people than just them.
“I look up to these professors, but now I’m finding out the very thing I’m studying is the thing I’m at war against,” she said. “We’re at war with a Purdue professor.” | https://www.purdueexponent.org/city_state/article_1cf52ee6-2d89-11ee-b49e-4b58344a72c1.html | 2023-07-29T09:22:04 | 0 | https://www.purdueexponent.org/city_state/article_1cf52ee6-2d89-11ee-b49e-4b58344a72c1.html |
Editor's Note: At press time, the following events and meetings were known to be still scheduled. Organizers or appropriate officials are encouraged to contact Sandra Hope at shope@pbcommercial.com or use our newsroom email pbcnews@pbcommercial.com to make additions or changes.
Saturday, July 29
UAMS sets free health event, concert in McGehee
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is hosting Party With a Purpose, free community health screenings and a concert from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 29 at the McGehee Men's Club Community Center at 1 South Airport Road in McGehee. A concert showcasing Arkansas entertainers follows at 7:30 p.m. at the same location. Hepatitis C, HIV and blood pressure screenings, as well as glucose testing and mental health assessments, will be available at the resource fair, according to a news release. Printed materials, games and prizes, and educational activities for children also will be available, and food trucks will provide a free lunch. Attendance is free to the concert for anyone who received a free confidential HIV screening test at the health portion of the event.
Beginning Saturday, July 29
Southeast school reunion set
The 14th Southeast Junior/Senior High School All School Reunion will be celebrated in Pine Bluff this weekend. A special balloon release will be held near the former school at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at 2001 S. Ohio St., according to a news release. Memorial services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Breath of Life Church, 1313 Pine St. Food will be served following the service.
Through Saturday, July 29
Victory Crusade set
Rock of Faith Deliverance Church, 1717 S. Main St., will host Miracles & Deliverance Victory Crusade at 7 p.m. July 27-28 and noon July 29. The featured speaker will be Ricky E. Walker, bishop and pastor of Greater City of Deliverance International Ministries at Lithonia, Ga. The special guest will be recording artist Shanelle. Services will also be on YouTube and Facebook Live. Details: www.victorycrusade.com, according to a news release.
Sunday, July 30
Full Faith to burn mortgage
Full Faith Christian Center Church, 1320 E. 17th Ave., will conduct a Mortgage Burning Ceremony at 3 p.m. Sunday. Isaac L. Barron, the pastor and apostle, will be the speaker. Shirley Sanders, bishop and pastor of Greater Deliverance Global Ministries in Pine Bluff, will do a special prayer. The community is invited to attend. "Come believing God's Word in 3 John 1:2, which says 'Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth,'" a spokesman said. Follow Full Faith Christian Center Church on Facebook.
Deliverance service set
New Community Baptist Church, 321 N. Birch St., will hold a Deliverance Sunday Service at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday. The speaker will be New Community's pastor/apostle Patrick Lockett. The community is invited to attend. The theme is "For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord." (Jer. 30:17.)
Pine Bluff Live Sunday No. 5 set
Pine Bluff Live on Sunday Number 5, an evening of special entertainment, will be held from 5-6 p.m. Sunday at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. The community is invited to attend the showcase of area talent including singers, dancers and poets. "Support our special talent, especially our young people, as they perform songs, dances, and inspiring poems," according to a news release from the Pine Bluff Mayor's Office. Prizes will also be given to audience members during various drawings. Details: (870) 730-2004, mayor's office.
First Baptist to honor retiring pastor
Kenneth Thornton, pastor at First Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, 6501 S. Hazel St., will retire on July 31 after 10 years of service. A retirement reception in honor of Thornton and wife, Ann, will be held July 30, from 2-4 p.m. in the church fellowship hall. "If they have touched your lives in any way, please come and help us honor them by attending this retirement reception," a spokesman said. Details: (870) 534-4741.
Word of Faith sets Family Day
Word of Faith Full Gospel Baptist Church, 1108 S. Poplar St., invites the community to its Family and Friends Day on July 30. Sunday School is at 9:45 a.m. and worship is at 10:45 a.m. with the sermon by the pastor, Henry Land Jr.
Kinsmen appear in concert
The Kinsmen Quartet will be in concert at Summit Baptist Church, 901 Ridgway Road, at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. The quartet sings varieties of southern gospel music. The group includes Bill Hankins of Pine Bluff singing tenor; and the nationally known award-winning Gerald Williams singing bass. All are welcome to attend, according to a news release.
Beginning Sunday, July 30
Watson District holds congress
The Watson District Congress of Christian Education will be held at Union Missionary Baptist Church at Dumas. The agenda includes registration and the opening program at 4 p.m. Sunday with the message by the Rev. Kirby Gulley. Monday through Thursday sessions will begin with 4 p.m. registration and classes from 4:30-6 p.m. The lecture will be by the Rev. Larry Alexander at 6:10 p.m. and evening worship at 7:15 p.m. On Monday there will be youth classes at 9 a.m. and an evening program. Tuesday will feature the Dean's Address. Wednesday features the President's Address. Thursday will feature the Commencement Address by the Rev. Johnny Smith Jr. The moderator is the Rev. Edward Demery. The president is the Rev. Isom Cross Jr. The dean is Barbara Williams Dixon.
Underway
Redfield court offers amnesty
The Redfield District Court will offer an amnesty period to people with active Failure to Appear or Failure to Pay warrants. The amnesty period began July 24. Until Aug. 4, people will be able to resolve outstanding warrants without the risk of being arrested or having to post a professional bond, according to a news release. People with active Failure to Appear or Failure to Pay warrants may go to the Redfield District Court Clerk's office, 113 River Road at the Redfield Police Department from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or call (501) 397-6111. They may schedule a new appearance for court on Aug. 9 from 11 a.m. to noon to resolve their outstanding warrant. Tickets can also be paid online at www.arcourtpay.org or by calling 1-844-507-3631.
LIHEAP available for utility bill help
Entergy Arkansas customers who need help paying their summer utility bills can apply now for up to $475 through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The program's application period is open through Sept. 30 or until funds are depleted, according to a news release. The program is offered in all 75 counties in the state through community-based organizations, which can be found online at https://www.adeq.state.ar.us/energy/assistance/caad.aspx, along with a complete list of eligibility and required documentation to complete the application. In Arkansas, the Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment manages the program, but applications for assistance must be made through a community-based organization. Eligibility is determined by household size and income. For example, a single individual with a maximum monthly countable income of $1,859 and a family of four with $3,574 would both be eligible.
Tuesday, Aug. 1
Urban Renewal board to meet
The Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center, 211 W. Third Ave., according to a news release. Details: (870) 209-0323.
Police to host National Night Out
The Pine Bluff Police Department will present National Night Out and the community is invited to bring the entire family to enjoy free food, activities, and fellowship, according to the police department's Facebook page. National Night out will be held Aug. 1 from 6-9 p.m. at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. The free program will include bounce houses, games and prizes for youth, door prizes, live music, public awareness booths, and refreshments.
Early voting begins in PBSD election
The Pine Bluff School District Special Election will be held Aug. 8 and polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Early voting will be held Aug. 1-7 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.,according to a news release. Voters will decide whether to increase the existing millage rates to 47.7, which would represent a 6-mill increase in the old PBSD and 6.9-mill increase in the old Dollarway School District. Proceeds will go toward construction of a new high school, according to a recent article in The Commercial. Aug. 1 is also the last day to receive applications for absentee voting by mail, fax, or email. Voters must contact the county clerk's office for a new absentee ballot application if they want to vote absentee. People may also visit the website at www.jeffersoncountyar.gov/elections-voter-registration to download an application. Details: Jefferson County Clerk's Office, (870) 541-5322.
Wednesday, Aug. 2
PBSD chief, board to discuss millage
The community is invited to hear Pine Bluff School District Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree and Pine Bluff School Board members answer questions on the Aug. 8 millage election for the proposed high school. The meeting will be held from 6-7 p.m. Aug. 2 at Dollarway High School, 2602 Fluker St. Details: (870) 543.4203.
Pine Bluff Commercial sets church news deadline
Church news is printed in The Commercial on Friday. The deadline to submit church announcements is noon Wednesday. Pastors, ministers or others interested in writing for the Devotional Page may also submit columns for consideration. Column writers should have connections to Southeast Arkansas. Articles should be submitted by email to Sandra Hope at shope@adgnewsroom.com or shope@pbcommercial.com. Details: (870) 534-3400, ext. 5.
Beginning Friday, Aug. 4
Martin/Altheimer School Reunion set
Alumni and Friends of the Martin/Altheimer schools will celebrate their 2023 All School Reunion the weekend of Aug. 4-6, according to a news release. Activities will include: A meet and greet reception Aug. 4 from 7 p.m. to midnight at PJ's Event Center in Pine Bluff. A community picnic at Jones Park in Altheimer Aug. 5 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The reunion banquet will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 5 at PJ's Event Center. The Rev. William "Sonny" Scales (Altheimer Class of 1972) will be the featured speaker. Scales is an associate pastor of the True Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif.The memorial worship service will be held Aug. 6 at 11 a.m. at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church at Altheimer. The featured speaker will be the Rev. Bobby W. Jones (Altheimer Class of 1979), a retired Army colonel and pastor of Thankful Missionary Baptist Church in Savannah, Ga.A farewell reception will be held Aug. 6 at 7 p.m. at PJ's Event Center.
Through Friday, Aug. 4
Redfield court offers amnesty
The Redfield District Court will offer an amnesty period to people with active Failure to Appear or Failure to Pay warrants. The amnesty period began July 24. Until Aug. 4, people will be able to resolve outstanding warrants without the risk of being arrested or having to post a professional bond, according to a news release. People with active Failure to Appear or Failure to Pay warrants may go to the Redfield District Court Clerk's office, 113 River Road at the Redfield Police Department from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or call (501) 397-6111. They may schedule a new appearance for court on Aug. 9 from 11 a.m. to noon to resolve their outstanding warrant. Tickets can also be paid online at www.arcourtpay.org or by calling 1-844-507-3631.
Saturday, Aug. 5
Local woman to be honored
Dee Clay, the Gospel Angel, will be honored in an Appreciation Program at 5 p.m. Aug. 5 at Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, 900 S. Grant St. The theme is "My Job is Working for Jesus" (John 9:4.) "Guests are coming from near and far to honor this great woman of God. Let's show our love," a spokesman said. The community is invited to attend. The Rev. Anthony Craig is pastor of Mt. Carmel.
Beginning Saturday, Aug. 5
UAPB alumni set conference
The 2023 National Alumni Association Summer Conference will be hosted by the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff/AM&N National Alumni Association. Registration is $150. The conference will take place Aug. 3-5 at Pine Bluff and the theme is "UAPB EVERYDAY: One Alumni, One University." A reception at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Pine Bluff will kick off the three-day event. Informative workshops presented by various speakers will take place at the STEM Conference Center at UAPB. Participants will receive updates about the National Alumni Association and UAPB. The conference will be accentuated by a tour of the UAPB Athletic Department and semi-formal Gala at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. Details: UAPB/AM&N National Alumni Association Office at (870) 536-2309 or summerconference@uapbalumni.org.
Blues concert series gets 2nd season
The "Blues By Budweiser" concert series will be back for a second season. In collaboration with MK Distributors and RJ's Grill & Bar, Port City Blues Society will again host live blues concerts the first Saturday of the month at RJ's Grill & Bar, 128 S. Main St. The doors open at 7 p.m. and music begins at 8 p.m. Port City Blues Society members are admitted free. It's a $5 cover charge for non-members. The 2023-2024 concerts include: Aug. 5 -- Fonky Donkey; Sept. 2 -- Robert Kimbrough Sr. Bluesconnection; Oct. 7 -- Garry Burnside Band; Nov. 4 -- Big "A" and the Allstars Blues Band; Dec. 2 -- Johnie B and Queen Iretta Sanders Blues Review; Jan. 6, 2024 -- Charlotte Taylor and Gypsy Rain; and Feb. 3 -- Chad Marshall Band. Details: pc-blues.com or facebook.com/PCBluesSociety.
Sunday, Aug. 6
Art league to feature water color artist
The Pine Bluff Art League will host its monthly meeting from 2-4 p.m. Aug. 6 at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center, 211 W. Third Ave. Artist Marlene Gremillion will demonstrate how to do a mini abstract in watercolor and mixed media. The public is invited to attend.
Tuesday, Aug. 8
Business After Hours set
Business After Hours will be held at the Pine Bluff Country Club from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Aug. 8. Hosts are Southeast Arkansas College and the Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce, according to the Chamber newsletter.
TOPPS to give away food
TOPPS (Targeting Our People's Priorities with Service) Inc., 1000 Townsend Drive, will hold a drive-thru food giveaway Aug. 8 from 10 a.m. until all boxes are distributed. Only one food box per household is allowed. Individuals must complete a registration form and must be present to receive the food, according to a news release. Details: Annette Howard Dove, TOPPS founder/director, (870) 850-6011.
PBSD holds special election
The Jefferson County Clerk's Office reminds all voters that they must contact the clerk's office for a new absentee ballot application if they want to vote absentee. The Pine Bluff School District Special Election will be held Aug. 8 and polls will be open at polling sites 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Voters in the district will decide whether to increase the existing millage rates to 47.7, which would represent a 6-mill increase in the old PBSD and 6.9-mill increase in the old Dollarway School District. Proceeds will go toward construction of a new high school, according to a recent article in The Commercial. The county clerk's office has absentee ballot applications available to the public Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. People may also visit the website at www.jeffersoncountyar.gov/elections-voter-registration to download an application.The application can be mailed, faxed, or scanned and emailed to the Jefferson County Clerk's Office at the Jefferson County Courthouse, 101 W. Barraque Ave., Ste. 101, Pine Bluff, AR, 71601. Details: County Clerk's office, (870) 541-5322.
Friday, Aug. 10
GOP to host senator
The Jefferson County Republican Committee will host U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., as the guest speaker during the 2023 Lincoln-Reagan Dinner. The dinner will be held at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 10 at the White Hall Community Center. Ticket are $60 each. Reserved tables for 8 guests are $480 or tables for 10 guests are $600, according to a news release. For tickets, contact Mandi Martin, (870) 510-4183 or Susan Over, (870) 692-1804. Checks should be payable to JCRC. Mail payments to 5602 Shannon Road, Pine Bluff, Ark., 71603. Tickets can also be purchased at Cycle and Marine Super Center or directly from committee members. Catering will be by The Wood Shed. Details: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064939320107.
Through Thursday, Aug. 10
Community foundation seeks grant requests Nonprofits in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County may download an application for Giving Tree Grants through the Pine Bluff Area Community Foundation, an affiliate of Arkansas Community Foundation. Applications are available at arcf.org/givingtree. The application period began July 10. The deadline to submit applications is Aug. 10, according to a news release.
Through Friday, Aug. 11
Trinity sets summer camp
Registration is underway for Trinity's Learning Center Summer Camp 2023 to be held at Trinity's Annex Building, 2900 W. Sixth Ave. The camp will take place Monday through Friday, June 5 through Aug. 11. Daily sessions will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Breakfast, lunch and a snack will be served, according to a news release. There is a participant limit of 30 to 40 students. The registration fee is $25 per child plus $10 weekly. Details: (870) 534-5669 or (870) 692-1127.
Thursday, Aug. 17
Christian Women's luncheon set
The Christian Women's Connection luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 17 at the Pine Bluff Country Club.The speaker will be Shannon Roberts of Family Church, Pine Bluff. Lauren Robertson, a health coach of LBR Fitness of Pine Bluff will make a presentation. The luncheon costs $21, which includes the meal, tax and gratuity. Everyone is invited to attend. For reservations or cancellations, call Jennifer Keahey at (870) 540-9302. All reservations must be made three days in advance and participants will be charged for reservations not kept, according to a news release.
Saturday, Aug. 19
Sounds of Blue to feature DK Harrell
Port City Blues Society will host a special presentation, "Sounds of Blue--Blues Along the Bayou Bartholomew," at 8 p.m. Aug. 19 at RJ's Grill & Bar, 128 S. Main St. The event is free for all. The event will feature the award winning blues artist, DK Harrell. Harrell recently released an album on Little Village Records, signed with Intrepid Artists International and is now touring in Brazil. At 7 p.m. before the concert, there will be an informal meet and greet, followed by a special Delta art exhibit and presentation on the blues and bayou culture of the region with updates on various cultural projects.
Tuesday, Aug. 22
Civic panel to meet
The Civic Auditorium Complex Commission's regularly scheduled meeting will be held Aug. 22 at noon. The July 25 meeting has been cancelled, according to a news release. Details: Pine Bluff Convention Center, (870) 536-7600.
Town Hall to address GVI plans for youth
The community is invited to a special town hall on the Group Violence Intervention (GVI) Program and how it connects to law enforcement and the community to help youth. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. The city of Pine Bluff is hosting GVI in partnership with the Pine Bluff and Watson Chapel school districts, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, Sixth Division Juvenile Court, Southeast Arkansas Behavioral Health, and the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. GVI will be responsible for going into schools, juvenile court, and streets to connect with young people. GVI workers and volunteers aim to find out the needs of youth on a personal case-by-case basis, and guide them to resources they need, according to the mayor's office.
Tuesday, Aug. 29
Active shooter topic at free seminar
Ed Monk will host a free educational presentation on "The Active Shooter Problem & How to Minimize Victims" from 6-9 p.m. Aug. 29 at the White Hall Community Center, 9801 Dollarway Road.Monk has been researching and providing training on countering the active shooter threat for more than 15 years, according to a news release. The event is free, but attendees must reserve their seats on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lecture-the-active-shooter-problem-how-to-reducevictims-tickets-624099958777.
Friday, Sept. 29
Taste of Southeast Arkansas set
The Taste of Southeast Arkansas will be held Sept. 29 at the Pine Bluff Country Club. The cocktail hour is from 5:30-6:30 p.m. and tasting starts at 6:30 p.m., according to the newsletter from the Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce. The event features dishes from southeast Arkansas chefs. The Jefferson County Young Professionals host the fundraiser. For tickets or details, call the Chamber, (870) 535-0110 or visit www.jeffersoncountyalliance.com.
Through Saturday, Oct. 14
ASC hosts Rosenzweig exhibition
The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas is hosting the 2023 Irene Rosenzweig Biennial Juried Exhibition. The exhibition will be on view in ASC's William H. Kennedy Jr. Gallery through Oct. 14. Admission to ASC's galleries is always free, according to a news release.
Friday, Oct. 20
UAPB alumni plan ceremonies
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff/AM&N National Alumni Association will recognize its Hall of Fame Class of 2023 and hold other ceremonies at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place in conjunction with the Alumni Luncheon and General Membership Meeting and Alumni King and Queen Presentation, according to a news release. Details: https://uapbalumni.org/
Underway
I-530 work requires lane closures
Overnight lane closures were scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. July 9 as crews work to resurface a section of Interstate 530. The estimated completion date is early fall, according to the Arkansas Department of Transportation. The project (Job # 020734) includes resurfacing 11 miles of I-530 from Stagecoach Road in Jefferson to Highway 65B in Pine Bluff. The contract was awarded to Cranford Construction Co. for $9.6 million. Lane closures will be in place from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. until the job is complete. All lanes northbound and southbound are part of this project, but only one lane will be closed at a time.Additional travel information can be found at IDriveArkansas.com.
Covid-19 vaccines, testing available
The Arkansas Department of Health, various pharmacies and healthcare providers offer the covid-19 vaccine, tests and other information about coronavirus. Details: Call the Arkansas Department of Health at (800) 985-6030, visit the website at healthy.arkansas.gov/programs-services/topics/covid-19-vaccination-plan or contact area medical professionals, according to spokesmen.
Tuesdays
Unity Christian offers free financial classes
Unity Christian Fellowship Church (UCFC), 2712 S. Bay St., invites the community to its free Small Business and Personal Financial Education classes at 7 p.m. Tuesdays. Recent subjects included "The Importance of Having a Financial Plan" and "Financial Literacy," according to Stuff in the Bluff website. "You cannot afford to miss out on these life-changing classes. We are practicing social distancing and will have hand sanitizer wipes available," according to the site. Anthony Armstrong is the senior pastor. Details: unitychristianfellowship@live.com or (870) 329-1182. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/calendar/ | 2023-07-29T09:22:06 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/calendar/ |
Indiana State Police are investigating an incident where a dump truck rolled over a man who was working underneath it Thursday along Interstate 465 in Indianapolis.
First responders found a severely injured and unresponsive man lying on the shoulder of the road, police said in a news release. The man was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Preliminary investigation crash reconstructionists have determined the dump truck had become disabled on the side of I-465 eastbound near the 3.3 mile marker, according to a news release. A mechanic arrived to assist and was working on the dump truck when it began to roll, trapping the mechanic between the rear tandem wheels and rolling over him. There were no other vehicles involved in the crash.
The deceased man was identified as 23-year-old Lane S. Grant of Greenville, Indiana.
The eastbound lanes of I-465 were restricted during the investigation for nearly four hours. | https://www.purdueexponent.org/city_state/article_2a05a3c8-2d42-11ee-8fd9-d70754917d39.html | 2023-07-29T09:22:10 | 1 | https://www.purdueexponent.org/city_state/article_2a05a3c8-2d42-11ee-8fd9-d70754917d39.html |
Arizona woman gets life for kid's death
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- An Arizona woman who pleaded guilty to murder in the starvation death of her 6-year-old son was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Thursday after witnesses described the horrors of the tiny closet that reeked of urine where he and his young brother were kept and denied food.
Elizabeth Archibeque's lawyer had asked that her sentence include the possibility of parole after 35 years partly because she had agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder and child abuse in the 2020 death of Deshaun Martinez.
But Coconino Superior Court Judge Ted Reed said that while her expression of remorse was genuine, her "heinous, cruel and depraved behavior" warranted imprisonment for "the rest of your natural life."
Archibeque, 29, who briefly took the witness stand, said she blamed herself for her son's death and fully accepted whatever sentence she received.
"A huge part of me died along with my beautiful child," she said. "Not a day goes by that I do not grieve ... I am so sorry."
Charges dropped in police shootings
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The new prosecutor in Oklahoma County announced Friday that she's dropping criminal charges against seven police officers in three fatal police shootings from 2020.
District Attorney Vicki Behenna's predecessor, David Prater, had filed criminal charges against officers in all three cases before he left office, and Behenna hired a use-of-force expert to examine the evidence.
"I know how highly charged the topic of law-enforcement use of force is in the current environment," Behenna said. "It is critical to evaluate each case independently and make a decision based on facts, not emotion."
Behenna, a Democrat from the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, defeated a conservative Republican last year to win a four-year term as the county's top prosecutor. A former federal prosecutor and defense attorney, she's the first woman to hold the post.
The most high-profile case involved five Oklahoma City officers charged with first-degree manslaughter in the death of 15-year-old Stavian Rodriguez. He was shot outside a convenience store on Nov. 23, 2020, by officers responding to reports of an attempted armed robbery.
TV news video showed the boy drop a gun and then reach toward his waistline before being shot.
After Rodriguez was shot with the "less-lethal" round, while he had one hand in his pocket and the other near his waistline, all five officers "unnecessarily fire[d] lethal rounds at Stavian Rodriguez, striking him numerous times and inflicting mortal wounds," Prater's investigator, Willard Paige, said in an affidavit.
An autopsy determined Rodriguez suffered 13 gunshot wounds, Paige said.
Colorado officer convicted of 2 crimes
DENVER -- A Colorado police officer who put a handcuffed woman in a parked police vehicle that was hit by a freight train was convicted of reckless endangerment and assault. Jordan Steinke was acquitted of the third charge of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter.
Steinke was the first of two officers to go on trial over the Sept. 16, 2022, crash that left Yareni Rios-Gonzalez seriously injured.
Steinke testified that she did not know that the patrol car of another officer she was helping was parked on the tracks even though they can be seen on her body camera footage along with two railroad crossing signs. She said she was focused on the threat that could come from Rios-Gonzalez and her pickup.
Steinke said she put Rios-Gonzalez in the other officer's vehicle because it was the nearest spot to hold her temporarily. She said she didn't know the train was coming until just before it hit.
Deal reached in Murdaugh-tied beer suit
YORK, S.C. -- A fatal boat crash believed to have spun the downfall of Alex Murdaugh has resulted in a $15 million settlement in a lawsuit against a convenience store that sold beer to the disgraced attorney's underage son.
A judge Thursday approved the deal between the victim's family and Parker's Kitchen, according to local media reports. An investigation revealed that a clerk for the Southern chain did not stop Paul Murdaugh from using his older brother's ID to buy beer on the February 2019 night that authorities said the 19-year-old steered a boat into a bridge in Beaufort County, S.C.
The wreck killed Mallory Beach, 19, and injured three others.
Parker's Kitchen did not undertake liability for Beach's death through the settlement. Her family has said it hopes the high total will compel stores to seriously follow alcohol laws.
Paul Murdaugh faced charges of boating under the influence at the time of his death.
Alex Murdaugh is serving a life sentence without parole for the June 2021 killings of his wife, Maggie, and Paul, his youngest son. Prosecutors in this year's double murder trial argued that Alex Murdaugh feared a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the boat crash would uncover that he had stolen millions from his clients and law firm. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/charges-dropped-in-police-shootings/ | 2023-07-29T09:22:12 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/charges-dropped-in-police-shootings/ |
BEIJING -- The Chinese government defended its dealings with Russia as "normal economic and trade cooperation" Friday after a United States intelligence report said Beijing possibly provided equipment used in Ukraine that might have military applications.
The Biden administration has warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping's government of unspecified consequences if it supports the Kremlin's war effort. The latest report cited Russian customs data that showed Chinese state-owned military contractors supplied navigation equipment, fighter jet parts, drones and other goods, but didn't say whether that might trigger U.S. retaliation.
"China has been carrying out normal economic and trade cooperation with countries around the world, including Russia," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. She said Chinese-Russian cooperation "neither targets a third party nor is it subject to interference and coercion by a third party."
Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin declared before the February 2022 invasion that their governments had a "no-limits" friendship. Beijing claims it is neutral in the war, but it has blocked efforts to censure Moscow in the United Nations and has repeated Russian justifications for the attack.
China is an "increasingly important buttress" for Russia, "probably supplying Moscow with key technology and dual-use equipment used in Ukraine," said the report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, referring to equipment that can have both civilian and military applications.
China has stepped up purchases of Russian oil and gas, which helps Putin's government offset lost sales after the United States, Europe and Japan cut off most purchases of Russian energy. Beijing can do that without triggering Western sanctions on its own companies, but Washington and its allies are frustrated that it undercuts economic pressure on Moscow.
China rejects Western trade and financial sanctions on Russia because they weren't authorized by the U.N. Security Council, where Beijing and Moscow have veto power. However, China has appeared to avoid directly defying those sanctions.
"We have also consistently opposed unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction that have no basis in international law and have not been authorized by the Security Council," said Mao. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/china-defends-russia-dealings/ | 2023-07-29T09:22:18 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/china-defends-russia-dealings/ |
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has always had a famous name. Yet until recently, his association with the anti-vaccine movement and fringe theories about the dangers of Wi-Fi has relegated him to the sidelines of America's national discourse.
Why are the presidential candidate's paranoid views suddenly appealing to a wider audience?
It's partly a product of our era. Public health authorities have fumbled Americans' trust. And we live in a time when hyperbole goes viral and reason gets drowned out.
Outrage is Kennedy's main weapon and rhetorical tool. Social media algorithms favor outrage over reason, and the mainstream media tends to follow whatever's trending. So does the popular Joe Rogan show, where Kennedy spent more than three hours stirring outrage over censorship, polluters and vaccines.
The problem with this blanket paranoia is there's no sense of proportion--tenuous risks are lumped in with problems backed by reams of data. And there's no balance of risks and benefits.
In his conversation with Rogan, Kennedy's discussion of the damage caused by mercury in the environment--where lead and mercury contamination is truly harmful--evolved into a discussion of childhood vaccines, which used to contain a mercury compound called thimerosal. As an environmental lawyer, he fought for mothers who worried that their kids had developed autism because of their childhood vaccines.
Those mothers deserved to be heard, but there's now been enough scientific investigation to conclude that vaccines are an astronomically unlikely cause.
But if Kennedy lacks nuance, so do too many people on the other side. That's part of what allows characters like him to flourish. It's probably not an accident that his views are getting more traction post-pandemic. Policymakers imposed too many rules that defied rational explanation, such as masking outdoors when jogging alone and mandating boosters for college students (a low-risk population).
Kennedy has also raised fears about covert bio-weapons programs--and in one now-infamous discussion, he warned that new viruses could be engineered to target certain ethnic groups, and that covid-19 is ethnically targeted and Chinese people and Ashkenazi Jews were "most immune."
He backtracked (sort of), saying he doesn't necessarily know if this virus was designed or targeted, but that data show some ethnic groups are disproportionately affected. Whether his statements are a deliberate attempt to stir up racist conspiracy theories or just an appalling gaffe remain the focus of yet more outrage-filled debate.
Kennedy has long trafficked in outrage, and now his brand of fearmongering with cherry-picked science has found its perfect breeding ground in post-covid social media-saturated America. High levels of outrage and low levels of public trust are fertile soil for conspiracy theories and the rise of paranoid thinking.
That's good news for the purveyors of outrageous theories, apps that monetize our darkest emotions, and politicians who thrive on dividing people. But it's bad news for everyone else. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/columnist-outrage-is-currency-and-rfk-jr-really/ | 2023-07-29T09:22:24 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/columnist-outrage-is-currency-and-rfk-jr-really/ |
Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson has made an immediate impact on his teammates, who say they’re blown away with Richardson’s considerable arm talent.
Indianapolis wide receiver Josh Downs described Richardson as making throws that other quarterbacks can’t make — and doing it effortlessly.
“He flicks his wrist,” Downs said, “and the ball goes 60 yards.”
Richardson and Gardner Minshew have been alternating working with the first-string offense, and not everyone views Richardson as a quarterback who will be ready to start in Week One. But Colts coach Shane Steichen is liking what he’s seeing so far.
“I thought he did a really nice job [Friday],” Steichen said. “The thing we were looking for — obviously he was stacking the days in spring and then you get that time off in the summertime, we didn’t want him to take a step back. And I don’t think he has done that at all. He’s continuing to improve and grow and we gotta keep doing that.”
The talent is there for Richardson to be special. | https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/colts-wr-josh-downs-anthony-richardson-flicks-his-wrist-and-the-ball-goes-60-yards | 2023-07-29T09:22:30 | 0 | https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/colts-wr-josh-downs-anthony-richardson-flicks-his-wrist-and-the-ball-goes-60-yards |
Urban Renewal board to meet
The Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center, 211 W. Third Ave., according to a news release. Details: (870) 209-0323.
Simmons declares dividend
Simmons First National Corp. announced Friday that its board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend on Simmons' Class A common stock of $0.20 per share. The dividend is payable on Oct. 2 to shareholders of record as of Sept. 15. The cash dividend rate represents an increase of $0.01 per share, or 5 percent, from the dividend paid for the same time period last year, according to a news release.
Speed enforcement cameras legal
Beginning Aug. 1, Arkansas law enforcement officers will have a new tool to help enhance safety by utilizing automated speed enforcement cameras in interstate work zones.
The law allows for the use of automated speed enforcement devices to capture images of speeding vehicles in interstate work zones. Information regarding the speeding vehicle will be transmitted to an officer stationed nearby, who will then have the authority to issue a warning or citation, according to a news release from the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
This technology is solely used to assist officers in enforcing speed limits in interstate work zones. It will not be used to issue tickets by mail. An officer must be present for a warning or ticket to be issued.
Signs will alert drivers when they are entering a work zone that may have automated speed enforcement devices in use. The law stipulates that data captured from these devices shall not be retained except when it is used to issue a warning or citation, according to the release. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/community-briefs/ | 2023-07-29T09:22:31 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/community-briefs/ |
BENTONVILLE -- James H.
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Confederate statue returns to public view as James H. Berry Park gets set to open in Bentonville
Memorial wall to join relocated Confederate monument by Mike Jones | Today at 3:09 a.m.
The Confederate statue is seen on Wednesday July 26 2023 behind the sign and locked gate at James H. Berry Park in Bentonville, which will open soon. The statue was displayed for some 100 years on the Bentonville square. It was removed and recently installed at the park, named for James H. Berry. He was a U.S. Senator and 14th governor of Arkansas. Berry died in Bentonville in 1913.
(NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
Print Headline: Berry Park’s opening approaches
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NIAMEY, Niger -- Mutinous soldiers who staged a coup in Niger declared their leader the new head of state Friday, hours after the general asked for national and international support despite rising concerns that the political crisis could hinder the nation's fight against jihadists and boost Russia's influence in West Africa.
Spokesman Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane said on state television that the constitution was suspended and Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani was in charge.
Various factions of Niger's military have reportedly wrangled for control since members of the presidential guard detained President Mohamed Bazoum, who was elected two years ago in Niger's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France.
The coup sparked international condemnation and the West African regional group ECOWAS, which includes Niger and has taken the lead in trying to restore democratic rule in the country, scheduled an emergency summit Sunday in Abuja, Nigeria.
The U.N. Security Council, which is charged with ensuring international peace and security, held emergency closed consultations Friday morning.
Britain's deputy U.N. ambassador James Kariuki, who chaired the meeting, told reporters afterward that all 15 members condemned the military's action and expressed "the need to restore constitutional democracy." Russia is a veto-wielding member.
Extremists in Niger have carried out attacks on civilians and military personnel, but the overall security situation is not as dire as in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso -- both of which have ousted the French military. Mali has turned to the Russian private military group Wagner.
Now there are concerns that Niger could follow suit. Before the coup, Wagner, which has sent mercenaries around the world in support of Russia's interests, already had its sights set on Niger, in part because it's a large producer of uranium.
"We can no longer continue with the same approaches proposed so far, at the risk of witnessing the gradual and inevitable demise of our country," Tchiani said in his address. "That is why we decided to intervene and take responsibility."
"I ask the technical and financial partners who are friends of Niger to understand the specific situation of our country in order to provide it with all the support necessary to enable it to meet the challenges," he said.
If the United States designates the takeover as a coup, Niger stands to lose millions of dollars of military aid and assistance.
The mutinous soldiers, who call themselves the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, accused some prominent dignitaries of collaborating with foreign embassies to "extract" the deposed leaders. They said it could lead to violence and warned against foreign military intervention.
Bazoum has not resigned and he defiantly tweeted from detention on Thursday that democracy would prevail.
It's not clear who enjoys majority support, but the streets of the capital of Niamey were calm Friday.
Even as Tchiani sought to project control, the situation appeared to be in flux. A delegation from neighboring Nigeria, which holds the ECOWAS presidency and was hoping to mediate, left shortly after arriving, and the president of Benin, nominated as a mediator by ECOWAS, has not arrived.
Earlier, an analyst who had spoken with participants in the talks said the presidential guard was negotiating with the army about who should be in charge. The analyst spoke on condition they not to be named because of the sensitive situation.
A western military official in Niger who was not authorized to speak to the media also said the military factions were believed to be negotiating, but that the situation remained tense and violence could erupt.
The coup threatens to starkly reshape the international community's engagement with the Sahel region.
On Thursday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said the country's "substantial cooperation with the Government of Niger is contingent on Niger's continued commitment to democratic standards."
The United States has more than 1,000 service personnel in the country.
While Russia has also condemned the coup, it remains unclear what the junta's position would be on Wagner.
The acting head of the United Nations in Niger said Friday humanitarian aid deliveries were continuing, even though the military suspended flights carrying aid.
Information for this article was contributed by John Leicester, Chinedu Asadu and Edith M. Lederer of The Associated Press. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/coup-leader-claims-power-in-niger/ | 2023-07-29T09:22:43 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/coup-leader-claims-power-in-niger/ |
Marriages
Christopher Musteen, 26, and Sloane Stine, 26, both of Little Rock.
Dennis Martinez Almendarez, 33, and Johana Mejia Jimenez, 26, both of Little Rock.
Charles Davis, 73, and Debra Robinson Mays, 61, both of Jacksonville.
Katoriuos Bluford, 24, and Keiara Pearson, 24, both of Little Rock.
Rede Alexander, 21, of Maumelle, and Casey Lay, 22, of Searcy.
Angela Conway, 41, and Anitria Childs, 40, both of Little Rock.
Terry Lee, 24, and Na'Sya Cogshell, 23, both of Maumelle.
Bobby Burks, 56, of Jacksonville, and Mable Bell, 59, of Little Rock.
Avery McKay, 25, and Blakley Williams, 23, both of Little Rock.
Roland Caston, 49, and Olympia Caston, 42, both of Jacksonville.
Dakota Hillman, 25, and Paris Works, 24, both of Sherwood.
Jabari Shaw, 31, and Tiffany Williams, 32, both of Bauxite.
Divorces
FILED
23-2569. Veronica Weston v. Tremain Robinson.
23-2570. Stephen Duch v. Amber Duch.
23-2572. Kristen Lee v. Anthony Lee.
23-2573. Molly Smith v. Anthony Smith.
23-2574. Sharalene Propps v. Devin Propps.
GRANTED
19-2556. Tyler Forrest v. Amber Forrest.
22-3462. Rebecca Willis v. Matthew Willis.
23-103. Amberlee Wensmann v. Justin Wensmann.
23-1900. Lanesia Lee v. Stacey Lee. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/daily-record/ | 2023-07-29T09:22:49 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/daily-record/ |
WASHINGTON -- House Democrats are demanding the release of a transcript from a new FBI witness that they say contradicts Republicans' claims in the expanding congressional inquiry into President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on House Oversight Committee, sent a letter Friday to Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the committee, asking him to produce the transcribed interview this month with an FBI agent who worked on the investigation into the younger Biden's taxes and foreign business dealings. The witness was interviewed July 17.
"This failure to release a transcript is the latest in your troubling pattern of concealing key evidence in order to advance a false and distorted narrative about your 'investigation of Joe Biden' that has not only failed to develop any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden but has, in fact, uncovered substantial evidence to the contrary," Raskin wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
The Maryland lawmaker claimed the closed interview with the unidentified agent conducted by committee staff "directly undermined" testimony released by Republicans last month from two IRS whistleblowers who allege that the Justice Department interfered with their yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden.
Republicans said the transcript will be released but is not yet ready.
"The transcript is going through the normal review process where the witness reviews it and makes any corrections needed," the GOP majority tweeted Thursday night. "Once that process has been completed, we will release it."
House rules allow only the majority party to release transcribed interviews from a committee investigation, meaning minority Democrats have no direct power over the matter.
Raskin wrote that it is unusual for the release of a transcript to take this long. However, it is not unusual for committee staff to handle whistleblowers cautiously and keep sensitive information tightly held.
The letter from Raskin comes days after Hunter Biden's plea deal in a criminal case unraveled during a court hearing. A federal judge in the case raised concerns about the terms of the agreement. Republicans like Comer claimed vindication, having slammed the agreement as a "sweetheart deal."
"The judge did the obvious thing, they put a pause on the plea deal, so I think that was progress," Comer said Wednesday. "I think it adds credibility to what we're doing."
The president's youngest son was charged last month with two misdemeanor crimes of failure to pay more than $100,000 in taxes on over $1.5 million in income in 2017 and 2018. He was expected to plead guilty Wednesday after he made an agreement with prosecutors, who wanted two years of probation.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that Hunter Biden remains under active investigation, but would not reveal details. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/democrats-demand-transcript-from-fbi-witness-in/ | 2023-07-29T09:22:56 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/democrats-demand-transcript-from-fbi-witness-in/ |
Word around the campfire is that Vladimir Putin & Co.
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Print Headline: How dare they? | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/editorial-how-dare-they-decline-a-kremlin-invite/ | 2023-07-29T09:23:02 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/editorial-how-dare-they-decline-a-kremlin-invite/ |
FAYETTEVILLE -- A Fayetteville man pleaded innocent in Washington County Circuit Court on Friday to capital murder and other charges related to a fatal shooting in Prairie Grove.
Cecedrice Poole, 39, is charged with capital murder, aggravated residential burglary, simultaneous possession of firearms and drugs, possession of cocaine and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Prairie Grove police responded to a call of an armed person and a gunshot victim at a home on Sundowner Ranch Avenue at 10:31 p.m. May 18, according to the preliminary police report.
They found Cedric King, 40, dead.
Police learned King was the boyfriend of the homeowner and Poole is an ex-boyfriend of the homeowner.
The police report said Poole entered the house with a rifle and "clearly targeted the victim by firing numerous rounds." Those in the house at the time were King, the homeowner, two other adults and three juveniles. One of the occupants was Poole's young daughter, according to the report.
The report said Poole had a phone conversation with the homeowner prior to the shooting, and she told him she had company. The report said Poole acted upset because the homeowner had a man at the house around his daughter.
After he shot King, Poole got in his vehicle, drove down the road, turned around and fired more shots as he drove by the residence while a 17-year-old was in the front yard, the report said.
Poole fled in his vehicle, speeding through the subdivision and crashing into several parked vehicles, according to the report. Poole's vehicle was disabled, and he fled on foot, police said. Witnesses told police they saw Poole leaving his vehicle with a rifle in hand.
Police said they caught Poole in a field near the bridge on U.S. 62 in Prairie Grove. He didn't have a weapon, but police found he had a plastic baggie containing 26.8 grams of a white, powdery substance, according to the report. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/fayetteville-man-enters-not-guilty-plea-in-fatal/ | 2023-07-29T09:23:08 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/fayetteville-man-enters-not-guilty-plea-in-fatal/ |
If his health remains robust, Bill Gaither figures retirement can wait until he hits triple digits.
The Southern gospel icon, 87, enjoys music too much and sings too well to exit the stage just yet.
"Probably when I'm 100, I'll have to look at it, but right now I'm feeling pretty good, with the exception of some sinus [issues]," he said.
On Aug. 5 he'll perform with his band at The Center for the Arts in Russellville.
Later in the month, he and his wife, Gloria, will team up in Tulsa for a couple of full-blown Homecoming concerts.
Between the two of them, they've received more than two dozen Grammy nominations over the past 54 years; they've taken the trophy home eight times.
Bill Gaither's first nomination -- best sacred performance (non-classical) -- came in 1969, the year Crosby, Stills and Nash took home best new artist and the 5th Dimension claimed record of the year for "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In."
His most recent nomination, with the Gaither Vocal Band, was in November. (The Tennessee State University Marching Band ultimately won, beating out Gaither, Willie Nelson and others in the best roots gospel category.)
Gaither took home Grammys for his work in 1973, 1975, 1991, 1999, 2001 and 2008, according to the organization's website.
"I never know why we win them. I never know why we lose them," Gaither said. "But we're always grateful when we win."
In the 1960s and 1970s, Bill and Gloria Gaither teamed up to write some of the 20th century's most beloved sacred songs, including "Because He Lives," "The King Is Coming," and "There's Something About that Name."
Over the years, they've collaborated on more than 700 original songs.
As members of the Gaither Trio, they were staples of Christian radio.
In the 1990s, they launched the "Homecoming" series, a franchise that packed arenas and sold CDs and DVDs by the millions.
Since its inception, Gaither Music Group has had total sales of more than 40 million CDs and DVDs. One of its latest releases is: "I Go to the Rock: The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston."
These types of numbers are hard to ignore. The Gaithers have been inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame; they've been awarded more than 40 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards as well.
Last year the state highway that passes through Alexandria, Ind., the Gaithers' hometown, was renamed in their honor.
These days, Bill Gaither tours, predominantly, with the Gaither Vocal Band, which also includes tenors Reggie Smith and Wes Hampton, baritone Todd Suttles and lead singer Adam Crabb.
Gloria prefers not to barnstorm quite so much. She'll appear at a Homecoming concert in Hershey, Pa., in October and join her husband in November for a gospel music Caribbean cruise.
"It's a 61-year-old marriage, and it's worked very well. We love to be together and do a lot of stuff together, but it's kind of nice to be apart and do some things separately, too," he said.
Rather than attempting to fly to Arkansas, Gaither has lined up a tour bus to shuttle him between appearances.
The Russellville concert is sandwiched between an appearance Friday at Kenneth Copeland Ministries' Southwest Believers Convention in Fort Worth and a concert Aug. 6 at First Baptist Church in Covington, La.
In addition to the Gaither Vocal Band, the Russellville crowd will hear from other gospel artists. The tentative lineup includes Ladye Love Smith, Gene McDonald, Kevin Williams, Matthew Holt and Michael Rowsey.
"We're going to have a great time," Gaither said.
Arkansas has long been fertile soil for gospel music, he noted.
E.M. Bartlett, who is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Siloam Springs, wrote "Victory in Jesus" and "Camping in Canaan's Land."
Albert E. Brumley, who studied at Bartlett's Hartford Music Institute in Sebastian County and lived for a time in Harrison, wrote "I'll Fly Away," "Jesus Hold My Hand" and "I'll Meet You in the Morning," among others.
Over the years, the sound evolves, but the message remains unaltered, Gaither said.
"There are hymn-like gospel songs that are organ and piano-driven. ... [More recently] the kids brought the guitars and the drums in. There's country gospel and then there's rock 'n' roll gospel," he said. "The styles, they constantly change, but the message is basically a message of hope. Tough times come. You can make it through the tough times."
[] | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/gospel-icon-bill-gaither-set-to-perform-in/ | 2023-07-29T09:23:15 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/gospel-icon-bill-gaither-set-to-perform-in/ |
HONG KONG -- 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 after the 2019 protests.
But some analysts cautioned that the court's decision Friday does not mean that foreign tech giants can from now on let down their guard in Hong Kong and said 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 Chief Executive John Lee told reporters he asked government lawyers to study the judgment and decide how to respond.
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.
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 that 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 the 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.
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 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.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/hong-kong-judge-refuses-to-ban-song/ | 2023-07-29T09:23:21 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/hong-kong-judge-refuses-to-ban-song/ |
Derrick Van Orden, a freshman congressman from Wisconsin, elicited a bipartisan rebuke from Senate leaders but refused to apologize for yelling and cursing at high school-age Senate pages who were lying down to take photos in the rotunda during a late-night tour of the Capitol.
Peaches Stergo of Champions Gate, Fla., was described by a Manhattan federal court judge as "unspeakably cruel" although she said "I'm sorry" before he sentenced her to four years in prison for draining the life savings of an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor by posing as a love interest.
Bonnie Gooch, 78, of Missouri, charged with robbing a bank for a third time, didn't show up for her court date, and now an autopsy is scheduled after police found a woman dead at her home when they went to check on her.
Jessica Castleberry, a South Dakota state senator, was given 10 days to repay $600,000 in federal covid-19 relief funding that she secured for her Little Nest Preschool, with the state attorney general noting, "The Supreme Court has expressly forbidden such payments to legislators."
Vern Warnke, sheriff of Merced County, Calif., called it "heart-wrenching" after dozens of people apparently smuggled into the country were found working and living in "horrible" conditions at an illegal marijuana plant.
Carlee Russell faces two misdemeanor criminal charges in Alabama after confessing to fabricating a bizarre, headline-grabbing story that she had been kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of an interstate.
Mike Palazzolo, mayor of Germantown, Tenn., a largely affluent suburb of Memphis, apologized for the disruption to the lives of the 40,000 residents, who were informed they can finally drink their tap water again a week after a fuel spill tainted the supply.
Ralph "Ryan" Dover III was convicted of hitting a bicyclist with his SUV and leaving him to die in a ditch in Cedartown, Ga., with officials saying that instead of calling 911, he drove away and called a state legislator who's a friend of his.
Charanjot Tiwana, a New York state trooper based in Jamestown, was denied permission to grow a half-inch beard for his Sikh wedding, so he didn't even ask about a turban, and his union president likened the supervisors' decision to "persecution." | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/in-the-news/ | 2023-07-29T09:23:27 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/in-the-news/ |
TOKYO -- The Japanese government stepped up its alarm over Chinese assertiveness, warning in a report issued Friday that the country faces its worst security threats since World War II as it plans to implement a new strategy that calls for a major military buildup.
The 2023 defense white paper, approved by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet, is the first since the government adopted a new National Security Strategy in December, seen as a break from Japan's postwar policy limiting the use of force to self-defense.
China, Russia and North Korea contribute to "the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II," according to the 510-page report. It states China's external stance and military activities have become a "serious concern for Japan and the international community and present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge."
Russia and China also stepped up strategic ties, the white paper read, noting five joint bomber flights since 2019, and several joint navigations of Chinese and Russian warships it said were "clearly intended for demonstration of force against Japan and of grave concern" to both Japan and the region.
The report predicted that China will possess 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035 and increase its military superiority over Taiwan, in what Japan views as a security threat, especially to its southwestern islands including Okinawa.
While Okinawan Gov. Denny Tamaki has called for U.S. bases there to be reduced and for greater efforts in diplomacy and dialogue with Beijing, the central government has been reinforcing the defenses of the remote southwestern islands, including Ishigaki and Yonaguni, where new bases for missile defense have been installed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who in 2017 set a goal of building a "world-class military" by the mid-21st century, may move the target forward, the report said, noting his call for a rapid advancement of the People's Liberation Army in his speech at the Communist Party congress in October.
North Korea is rapidly progressing in its nuclear and missile development and poses "a graver, more imminent threat to Japan than ever before," the report said. North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles since the start of 2022, including ICBMs, and the report noted it is now believed to have an ability to conduct nuclear attacks on Japan and the continental United States.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the Japanese defense paper interfered in China's internal affairs and "deliberately played up the so-called Chinese threat and created tensions in the region." She urged Tokyo to "stop finding excuses for its military expansion."
She said China's military policy is defensive, and "military cooperation such as joint patrols with relevant countries is in line with international law and practice."
Information for this article was contributed by Joe McDonald and Kim Tong-hyung of The Associated Press. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/japan-says-china-russia-n-korea-threat-is-growing/ | 2023-07-29T09:23:33 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/japan-says-china-russia-n-korea-threat-is-growing/ |
On electric vehicles
It is really sad that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial writers have been so negative about electric vehicles for so long.
You hinted that EVs would need to charge every block. That was and is ridiculous; I have driven my EV to D.C. and back twice. You expressed concern that the grid can’t provide the electricity that will be needed to charge EVs. That was and is ridiculous; the accelerating addition of renewable solar energy by utility companies, cities, schools, businesses, and individuals should provide plenty of electricity for charging EVs. You suggested that the production of large numbers of batteries for EVs may be worse for the environment than driving vehicles powered by gas. That is so ridiculous that it doesn’t even deserve a comment.
Now, in the July 25 editorial, you have stumbled across the information available to most of us for a year or more, that EVs can provide electricity to the home and/or grid, which can serve as a backup source of electricity for homes and can play a role in stabilizing our aging grid.
So finally now the ADG editors are beginning to see that this transition to EVs may not be all bad. That is really pretty sad that it took you so long to wake up.
JIM RICE
Little Rock
Inmate quality of life
An article about the lack of air conditioning in Texas prisons reminded me that in our local discussion of jail expansion, I have seen little concern for the quality of life for inmates. Maybe I missed it, but what I have noticed is about the cost. Overcrowding affects quality of life, but there’s more to it than beds or square feet.
I think it begins with a statutory or constitutional requirement to treat inmates as humans and citizens. Some in local lockups are serving short sentences, but many are awaiting trial to determine innocence or guilt, or are awaiting a vacancy in a state prison.
The story about Texas prisons said voters objected to paying for air-conditioned comfort for prisoners. I believe their views on this are probably similar to a majority of Arkansans.
A guilty verdict and sentence means we deprive a person of freedom for a period of time. That’s all, not to include degradation or mistreatment. We must carry out the sentence regrettably, with a commitment to valuing their humanity.
We should treat inmates in a manner that models how we want them to treat others—the Golden Rule. If we use intimidation, degradation, violence or the threat of violence to manage their behavior, it can only reinforce impulses to do the same.
I know reforms are being made, and volunteers do good work, but we need to spend the money needed to nurture inmates’ humanity at the state and local levels.
We need adequate space, security and funds for staff and operations. We also need careful screening, special training and an appropriate bachelor’s degree requirement and requisite pay for corrections staff. It should be a prestigious career, the same as law enforcement.
HOWELL MEDDERS
Fayetteville
OVERSET FOLLOWS:LEARNS overreach
I was moved by the guest opinion of retired teacher Ms. Shelley Smith of Fox in the July 13 paper. I too am anxious for the LEARNS Act to be placed on the ballot to let the people speak.
Aside from my distaste for taking my property tax money and sending it to private schools and homeschoolers, I oppose it for many more reasons. Sarah Huckabee Sanders labels opposition to this scheme as coming from the “radical left.” Let’s look at this.
A true conservative generally opposes a reallocation of wealth from an individual or government entity like public schools to a private organization like private schools or homeschool enthusiasts. That is not a liberal tenet; it’s conservative.
Additionally, history teaches that once the government sticks its finger into the affairs of a private entity, the government gets more control over said entity. Once the private schools accept the government money, they will become addicted to the handout and slowly but surely lose their independence and autonomy. The addiction will never be kicked, and that’s just human nature. The state will be able to dictate everything from curriculum to books on their shelves. So, private schools, beware. With money comes government control.
Will homeschoolers who get this money have to pay taxes on this income? Will some of these folks order their curriculum from right-wing or left-wing purveyors of curricula? Will some of this homeschool money end up buying lottery tickets, cigarettes, or be used for casino gambling, or, heaven forbid, the local drug dealer?
Such a poorly thought-out piece of legislation. I urge all to sign the petition to let us vote on this government overreach.
DAVID RUSH
New Blaine | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/letters-lr/ | 2023-07-29T09:23:40 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/letters-lr/ |
KYIV, Ukraine -- Moscow said it shot down two Ukrainian missiles over southwestern Russia on Friday, including one that fell and exploded in a city center -- apparently rare instances of Ukraine using such powerful weapons to attack targets inside Russia.
Coming as Ukraine, within its own borders, steps up its counteroffensive against the Russian invaders, the missile attacks could signal a more aggressive effort to expand a war that until now has brought death and destruction almost exclusively to Ukrainian territory.
Russian officials said one downed missile fell in the city of Taganrog, about 80 miles southeast of the nearest front lines, injuring at least nine people, none severely, and damaging some buildings, and that the other fell in "a deserted area" near the city of Azov, which lies some 25 miles farther from the fighting.
Video and photographs circulated by Russian state media and local outlets showed the aftermath of a blast in Taganrog, a port city on the Sea of Azov, including piles of rubble and blown-out windows and garage doors. The regional governor, Vasily Golubev, said the detonation hit near an art museum and a cafe in the city center.
Earlier Friday, Russia's Defense Ministry said it had also shot down a drone aimed at the Moscow region.
On Friday evening, at least one missile strike in the city of Dnipro, in central Ukraine, damaged a high-rise apartment building and an office of the Ukrainian security service, and injuries were reported. "Russian missile terror again," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said on social media. He added, "These bastards will answer."
Neither accepting nor denying responsibility for the explosions in Russia, Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelenskyy, said that "everything happening in Russia, including Taganrog, is an unconditional consequence of the large-scale war initiated by Russia."
A top Ukrainian security official, Oleksiy Danilov, in a statement said, "The events in Taganrog are nothing more than completely illiterate actions of the operators of Russian air defense systems." But there was a hint of sarcasm in his statement, which seemed to deliberately echo the Kremlin denial of responsibility for a missile strike last weekend on a cathedral in Odesa, which it blamed on "illiterate actions of Ukrainian defense forces."
Ukraine has usually declined to publicly confirm or deny attacks within Russia, which are unnerving to Kyiv's Western allies, but officials sometimes acknowledge them on the condition of anonymity, or well after the fact.
Both sides reported continued heavy fighting in southern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have made piecemeal progress in the counteroffensive that began last month and intensified this week, advancing a few miles along two axes through daunting Russian defenses.
Ukraine hopes to punch through and get behind Russia's network of minefields, bunkers, trenches and tank traps, where the occupation forces would be much more vulnerable, and drive a wedge through the territory seized by Moscow. But a more immediate goal, Ukrainians say, is to penetrate deeply enough to get within artillery range of more Russian targets.
The Western mobile rocket launchers like the American-made HIMARS, which were first supplied to Ukraine last year, took a heavy toll on Russian supply depots, command posts and concentrations of troops and vehicles far behind the front lines, forcing the Russians to move them dozens of miles farther back.
ARTILLERY SUPPLIES
The United States has supplied satellite-guided HIMARS rockets with a range of about 50 miles, but Ukrainian forces have a limited number of the launchers and, in an effort to protect them, prefer to keep them some distance back from the front line, limiting their reach. Ukraine's forces this year have acquired Western missiles with much longer ranges, but they are even fewer in number.
Ukraine's commanders are eager to extend the reach of rocket artillery and conventional artillery. Ukraine hopes to push all the way to the Sea of Azov shore, cutting the "land bridge" from Russia to Russian-occupied Crimea, but an advance even part of that distance would put the entire width of the bridge within range of Ukrainian artillery. The only other road or rail connection Russia has to move troops and equipment in and out of Crimea is the Kerch Strait bridge, which Ukraine has attacked twice.
"The main task we face now, in addition to moving forward, is, of course, to weaken the enemy's ability to defend itself," Hanna Malyar, the deputy minister of defense, said on Ukrainian national television. "And in fact, this is what we are doing now."
Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavsky, the commander of Ukraine's military fighting in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, compared the counteroffensive with a boxing match, saying that Ukraine intends to strike with longer-range weapons to "hold the opponent at arm's length" in order to avoid close combat. That represents something of a shift after the early days of the counteroffensive incurred heavy casualties and made little progress.
The United States and some of its allies, wary of being drawn directly into the war, have insisted that their weapons not be used to strike within Russia's internationally recognized borders, although such attacks amount to a tiny fraction of those Russia has made in Ukraine.
For those attacks, Ukraine has used artillery, modified jet-powered surveillance drones left over from the Soviet era that were packed with explosives, bombs planted by people and new, lightweight aerial attack drones, which it has used to carry out several recent strikes in Moscow and other sites.
Except for the jet drones, those are less destructive than the missiles that Russia said were used in Friday's attack, which have warheads weighing several hundred pounds. But missile attacks on Russia have been rare.
In July 2022, Russia said that four civilians were killed after Russian air defenses shot down Ukrainian missiles over the city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border. Golubev said earlier this month that Russian air defenses had shot down a missile in the Rostov region, injuring no one.
The Russian Defense Ministry said both missiles it shot down Friday were versions of the Soviet-era S-200 anti-aircraft missile that had been modified to strike ground targets, a type of weapon that both sides have used since Russia's full-scale invasion 17 months ago. Depending on the model, the S-200 has a range of up to 190 miles.
Air defenses have shot down many of the missiles fired in this war, so they have done little or no harm. But a number of times, missiles that were intercepted midair and missed their intended targets instead fell and did damage elsewhere. Russian officials did not say where the missiles were aimed Friday, but Taganrog has two military airfields, as well as important port and industrial sites.
The Kremlin had little immediate comment on the attack. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the incidents at a summit meeting with African leaders in St. Petersburg, Russia.
REAFFIRMING SOVEREIGNTY
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, marked Ukraine's Statehood Day by reaffirming the country's sovereignty -- a rebuke to 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 Russian Orthodox Church is one of the few institutions in the world still using the old Julian calendar, so its Christmas, Dec. 25, falls on Jan. 7 in the Gregorian calendar that is used by most of the world. Orthodox churches in some other countries have switched to a calendar in line with the Gregorian.
The Orthodox church in Ukraine was part of the Russian Orthodox Church until a few years ago, when an independent Ukrainian church was established -- and adopted the updated calendar. That created a schism, with some priests and parishes following leaders in Ukraine and others -- increasingly treated in Ukraine as a subversive element -- still answering to the patriarch in Moscow.
Zelenskyy announced Friday that Ukraine will now recognize Dec. 25 as Christmas.
Information for this article was contributed by of Marc Santora and Anton Troianovski of The New York Times and by Felipe Dana, Jim Heintz and Andrew Katell of The Associated Press.
Gallery: Images from Ukraine and Russia, month 18 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/moscow-ukrainian-missiles-downed-over-russia/ | 2023-07-29T09:23:46 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/moscow-ukrainian-missiles-downed-over-russia/ |
Japanese pop star Shinjiro Atae said he is gay in an emotional announcement at a fan event that was warmly welcomed in a country where the government does not legally recognize LGBTQ+ equality. "What I'm going to tell you now may not be something you expect or hope to hear. Perhaps some of you may need time to understand," Atae told fans at the event in Tokyo this week. "For years, I struggled to accept a part of myself ... But now after all I have been through, I finally have the courage to open up to you about something," he said. "I am a gay man." As he choked up, fans cheered, saying "Hang in there!" and applauding. Atae performed for 15 years in the hugely popular group AAA before it went on hiatus in 2020. He has been based in Los Angeles lately and is pursuing a solo career in the United States. Atae posted on Instagram that admitting his sexuality took a long time and he worried he might be shunned by society and lose his career if he acknowledged being gay. But he overcame many of those struggles and realized "it is better, both for me and for the people I care about, including my fans, to accept who I truly am and tell you so," Atae said. "I hope people who are struggling with the same feelings will find courage and know they are not alone." LGBTQ+ activists and supporters welcomed Atae's announcement as a big encouragement for the community in Japan. Atae, 34, said he now has a clear message as an artist: to help all those who are struggling, and introduced his new single, "Into the Light." He said proceeds from the song will be donated to LGBTQ+ organizations.
Marla Gibbs has waited a long time to tell her life story. The Emmy-nominated actor known for her roles on "The Jeffersons" and "227" among others has a deal with Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers dedicated to Black stories, for a memoir coming out in fall 2024. Gibbs, 92, is calling the book "It's Never Too Late," in which she traces her rise from Chicago's South Side to long-term success in Hollywood. "My hope is that my memoir will serve as an inspiration to those that continue to show me love and support," Gibbs said this week. "I believe no matter the challenges one faces, it is never too late to turn your life around or make a difference. I am grateful and I am ready to reveal the challenges I overcame as a way of service to those who wish to transform their tests into testimonies." Gibbs' other credits include the films "The Visit" and "Meteor Man" and a recurring role on the daytime soap opera "Days of Our Lives." | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/names-and-faces/ | 2023-07-29T09:23:52 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/names-and-faces/ |
Graduate students in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at the University of Arkansas at Monticello recently launched the first issue of "Shadowplay," a new print literary journal.
The journal was produced by graduate creative writing students and was the culmination of a magazine editing and design class taught by Mary Meriam, a faculty member in the MFA program.
As part of the semester-long course, students determined the focus of the journal they wanted to create and researched the niche the journal might fill in the broader literary community.
After creating the concept for "Shadowplay," students formed an editorial team to produce the first issue, according to a news release.
The editorial team was responsible for the journal and website design, soliciting and reading submissions, the selection of submissions to be included, the final layout and design of the journal, the input into Amazon KDP and marketing and sales distribution.
The editorial staff for the inaugural issue are Jonelle Grace Lipscomb and Christian Chase Garner. Lipscomb's photography was used in the design of the journal, and Garner designed and developed the website.
Lipscomb found the ancient tradition of shadow play puppets to be the perfect metaphor.
"Whereas the audience at a shadow play watches the story unfold on a screen, our readers will watch the author's words come alive on the pages of 'Shadowplay.'
Like the light that must be present for a shadow play to be visible, our 'Shadowplay' illuminates the meaning the authors seek to convey," Lipscomb said.
"Shadowplay" features previously unpublished poetry, fiction and nonfiction.
"We asked for moments unseen and these authors answered in ways that both comfort and grieve, often at the same time," Garner said.
Contributors to the inaugural issue include Sonia Arora, Jim Barnes, Schuyler Brooks, Jeffrey Bryant, Zoe Christopher, Nicholas Claro, F. Brett Cox, Margaret Dornaus, Bart Edelman, Christian Anton Gerard, Cindy Ellen Hill, DeAnn Jordan, Anu Kumar, Mari Maxwell, Mark McDonnell, Wendy Sloan and Yvonne Zipter.
They represent American voices from California to Vermont as well as international authors from Ireland and England.
The editors also obtained permission to reprint the poem "shadows" by the late Lucille Clifton. Clifton wrote a vast number of poetry collections, three of which were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
The first issue of "Shadowplay" is available for purchase on Amazon.
For more information about "Shadowplay" or the MFA in Creative Writing program, contact the UAM School of Arts and Humanities at (870) 460-1078. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/new-literary-journal-launches-at-uam/ | 2023-07-29T09:23:58 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/new-literary-journal-launches-at-uam/ |
BENTONVILLE -- The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved several new programs at a meeting Friday.
The board approved a Certificate of Proficiency in Pre-Biotech: Molecular and Cellular Biology and Technical Certificate in Biotechnology at Northwest Arkansas Community College, the site of Friday's meeting.
Existing infrastructure will be utilized, no new faculty will be required, and new equipment will be funded by grants received by the college, according to the proposal. Students wishing to continue their education "can move seamlessly into the already approved Associate of Applied Science in General Technology" at the college.
Arkansas is in the top quartile of the annual mean wage for biological technicians; demand for biological technician positions has increased 6% and is expected to continually increase until 2030, according to the proposal.
No active, associate-level-or-below Biotechnology programs exist in Arkansas.
The college's projects enrollment of 10 students in 2024-25, growing to 14 by year three. The college's board of trustees approved this offering in February.
The projected enrollment of 10 is "conservative," as "we hope to have more like 30," said Gary Bates, biology/microbiology faculty member at the college. Most of the education will be "hands-on" in labs and classrooms -- the industry desires hands-on experience -- and this offering is targeted at students who "wants to get into science and STEM."
Southeast Arkansas College
The Coordinating Board also approved a certificate of proficiency and technical certificate in Medical Assistant Technology at Southeast Arkansas College, effective in the fall of 2024.
No new faculty will be required, but three new courses will be for the certificate of proficiency, as will four courses for the technical certificate, according to the proposal. The college's board of trustees approved the offerings in May.
Employment of medical assistants is projected to grow 16% from 2021 to 2031, and Jefferson Regional Medical Center -- one of the largest employers in Pine Bluff -- contacted the college to request it offer a Medical Assistant Technology program, according to the proposal. All startup costs will be funded by the college, and one adjunct faculty member will be hired.
"We're trying to support our local businesses and provide a pipeline of students" to the workforce, said Provost Stacy Pfluger. Some courses will be available online, and students will be able to add other certifications to make themselves "even more employable."
Projected enrollment for the certificate of proficiency in the first year is 10, with eight as the projected figure for the first year of the technical certificate, according to the proposal. That should increase to 15 and 12, respectively, by year three.
Forestry Business Graduate Certificate
The Coordinating Board approved a graduate certificate in forestry business at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, effective this fall.
The certificate will prepare individuals to work in consulting forestry, forest industry logistics and supply chain management, and finance and investment in forests, according to the University of Arkansas System. Courses will be in a "hyflex format, simultaneously in person and online."
"We are excited about this opportunity," and this would be "the only program of this nature in the state," Chancellor Peggy Doss explained in May. Students can complete the certification in two semesters, no new faculty is required, and considering starting salaries for those with the certificate range from nearly $80,000 to more than $100,000, it's "a good return on investment" for students.
Only two states -- Maine and Wisconsin -- are more dependent on the forestry economy than Arkansas, "and these jobs [offer] good pay," Matthew H. Pelkki, professor and George H. Clippert Chair of Forestry Director at the Arkansas Center for Forest Business in the College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources at UA-Monticello, said Friday.
Through communication with forestry professionals, it's apparent there's increased demand for people with "the skills and knowledge to provide advanced skills in forest management and operations," and Arkansas is the most timber-dependent state in the South, according to the university. "We anticipate 10-20 students per year enrolled in the initial three years."
However, 40 would be an "optimistic" -- yet still "realistic" -- projection for enrollment, because the program's uniqueness will likely attract out-of-state students, as well, Michael Blazier, dean of the University of Arkansas at Monticello College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources, said Friday. There are "lots of jobs in the forestry realm."
Forestry is a "substantial contributor to the Arkansas economy," and this graduate certificate -- which targets working professionals -- will be unique not only to the state, but in the Southeast, said Blazier. There's "palpable demand for this, [and] I would've done this [graduate certificate] if I had the opportunity."
Carr is "glad you're bringing this" to fruition, he told the UA-Monticello representatives. "It's hard to find a good forester."
UAPB
The Coordinating Board approved a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, effective this fall.
The Bachelor of Science in Engineering will be the first of its kind at the state's only public Historically Black College or University, and it'll include two tracks, Construction Project Management and Industrial Manufacturing, according to the proposal. Existing facilities will be utilized, six new courses will be developed, and a pair of doctorate-level faculty members will be hired.
Starting in the third year, new equipment, expanded laboratory capacity, and additional faculty will be funded by State General Revenue and corporate sponsorships, while a federal grant has been secured to assist with personnel, equipment, software, and travel costs, according to the proposal. The university expects 30 enrolled students in the first year, doubling in year two, and increasing by a third in the third year to roughly 90.
"Engineering programs are generally very strong" in terms of enrollment, said Mason Campbell, chief academic officer of the Arkansas Division of Higher Education.
The engineering degree is "very much needed," as there's high demand, and it promises high wages, Chancellor Laurence Alexander said in May. Faculty and staff "have worked on this for a number of years to get it right."
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects nearly 140,000 new jobs for engineers in this decade, and engineers had a median annual wage of $104,000 in 2021. That was more than double the median wage for other workers.
The Cybersecurity program will be housed in the STEM Research and Conference Center on UAPB's campus; two doctorate-level and two part-time faculty members will be hired to teach in the program, according to the proposal. This program will also employ two Graduate Teaching Assistants, and funding for the program will come from new student tuition and fees as well as a federal grant.
The university projects enrollment of 40 students in the first year, nearly doubling in the second year, and reaching 117 by the third year.
"We're delighted to bring this to our state," as it's based on workforce needs in the state and country, Alexander said Friday. UAPB "serves an underserved population, and we're bringing this to" them.
Programs like this give businesses a reason to invest in Pine Bluff and residents "a reason to stay," he added. The university can act as a bridge between Pine Bluff residents and industry.
The UA System board of trustees approved the new offerings at UA-Pine Bluff and UA-Monticello in May. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/new-programs-approved-for-higher-education/ | 2023-07-29T09:24:04 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/new-programs-approved-for-higher-education/ |
100 years ago
July 29, 1923
Carl Pierce, three-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Pierce ... is in St. Luke's Hospital in a serious condition as the result of an accident at Markham and Denison streets at 10:30 o'clock last night. A car which the little boy was riding and which his mother was driving, turned over. ... Mrs. Pierce, linotype operator in the employ of the Gazette, ... said a large car struck the side of the sedan and threw it against a high embankment. The sedan rolled back into the street, turning over on its side. ... M. A. Glavin ... walked into police headquarters and reported the accident. He told the officers his car was the only one near the scene of the accident, and that no car struck the Pierce Ford. He said Mrs. Pierce drove the car onto the embankment and that it turned over. ... No arrests had been made last night.
50 years ago
July 29, 1973
McALESTER, Okla. -- New violence erupted again Saturday night at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary when a group of inmates roamed through a cellbock hurling firebombs, authorities said. At least two inmates were killed in the riot, the worst in the 70-year history of the prison, and there were reports of possible other deaths. Some 20 persons were injured. A dozen prison buildings were in ruins from fires started by the inmates.
25 years ago
July 29, 1998
CONWAY -- At Carol Smith's home in north Pulaski County, about 20 white egrets huddled together on Tuesday in a makeshift cage. ... For the past several days, Smith has received dozens of egrets, most of them displaced when developers in west Conway bulldozed a large nesting site. Hundreds of birds died. And no matter how hard she tries, Smith knows some of the birds she cares for will die as well. ... The problem began last week when developers of Victoria Place subdivision bulldozed a road and knocked down trees where the birds nested. ... Some people say they find it hard to believe the developers didn't know thousands of birds were in the area. But Hal Crafton, the developer, said Tuesday that the primary nesting area was about 600 feet into the woods. Workers saw only a few birds at first, he said. ... Crafton said he has pulled out all of his equipment and is awaiting word from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service before proceeding. The federal agency is investigating whether the developers violated laws protecting migratory birds, including egrets.
10 years ago
July 29, 2013
The Garland County sheriff's office is searching for a prisoner who escaped through a window at the county jail and got into a van that drove him away Sunday afternoon, said Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Shea Wilson. Derrick Estell, 33, was being transferred by the sheriff's office from the East Arkansas Regional Unit prison in Brickeys to Garland County for a court date this morning. The sheriff 's office did not know Sunday which direction the vehicle had traveled or who the driver might have been other than an unknown female. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/other-days/ | 2023-07-29T09:24:10 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/other-days/ |
The young male black bear known as BB-12 was quite the adventurous traveler during the three months he was tracked by the National Park Service before he was found dead last week.
Where didn't he go? He crossed the 101 and 118 freeways and once audaciously traversed Highway 23 north of the Tierra Rejada Road exit in broad daylight. He made at least two late-night jaunts to beaches near Malibu. He wandered the sand near Leo Carillo Beach and hit Pt. Mugu on another outing.
Each time, he left telltale paw tracks that were discovered by early-morning beachgoers. (And his GPS collar confirmed he was near Pacific Coast Highway.)
He ventured into two counties (L.A. and Ventura) and through three mountain ranges--the Santa Monicas, the Simi Hills and the Santa Susanas. He was an adept crosser of high-traffic freeways, until he wasn't. He was attempting to cross the 101 at the top of the Conejo Grade between Newbury Park and Camarillo, apparently on his way back to the Santa Monica Mountains, when he was struck by a vehicle.
Scientists are pretty sure the first time they ever glimpsed him, he was strolling down a street in Newbury Park. Two years later, they would track him to the western edge of the Santa Monica Mountains and collar him. Estimated to be 3 or 4 years old, he was thought by park service officials to be the only black bear living in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Tracking the many crossings of BB-12 in the last three months will help scientists find the points of connectivity from one habitat to another. These are the places where various wild animals risk their lives crossing busy roads.
For bears, mountain lions and all manner of wildlife, highways and roads with high-speed traffic are treacherous dividers between swaths of habitat necessary for mating and territory. Years of observing how animals repeatedly crossed the 101 at Liberty Canyon--or approached the freeway, thought better of it and turned away--led to a state-of-the-art wildlife corridor under construction there. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is scheduled to be completed in 2025.
There are more safe-crossing efforts afoot. A law passed last year will create a list of areas crucial for wildlife movement and require that any new state transportation projects in those areas mitigate their impact on wild animals.
The more scientists can offer wild animals a safe passageway from one habitat to another, the more they can avoid our vehicles. That's something we want so they can thrive, and we can marvel at their coexistence with us. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/others-say-the-short-life-of-bb-12-could-help/ | 2023-07-29T09:24:12 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/others-say-the-short-life-of-bb-12-could-help/ |
Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:
Colson Whitehead channels the paranoia and fear of 1970s NYC in 'Crook Manifesto': "My early '70s New York is dingy and grimy," the Pulitzer Prize-winning author says. Whitehead's sequel to Harlem Shuffle centers on crime at every level, from small-time crooks to Harlem's elite.
Crime writer S.A. Cosby loves the South — and is haunted by it: Cosby's novel All the Sinners Bleed centers on a Black sheriff in a small Southeast Virginia county. The novel was inspired by his own experiences growing up in the shadow of the Confederacy.
You can listen to the original interviews and review here:
Colson Whitehead channels the paranoia and fear of 1970s NYC in 'Crook Manifesto'
Crime writer S.A. Cosby loves the South — and is haunted by it
Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air. | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-29/fresh-air-weekend-colson-whitehead-s-a-cosby | 2023-07-29T09:24:13 | 0 | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-29/fresh-air-weekend-colson-whitehead-s-a-cosby |
BENTONVILLE -- The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday approved a bond issue for National Park College to construct residential housing and a loan issue for Arkansas State University for energy improvement projects.
"The need is there" for more housing at the Hot Springs college, said John Hogan, president of National Park College. The school has capacity to house about 240 students, but there's currently a waiting list of 80 students -- which has reached triple digits in recent years.
Housing is "constrained" in Garland County, which has led to fewer short-term rentals, which -- in turn -- means fewer places to stay for students, Hogan said. Only a quarter of the college's students are online-only, with the rest taking at least some classes on campus, although total credit hours taken by students is currently flat.
National Park College plans to issue bonds not to exceed $6.675 million with a term of 30 years and an interest rate no higher than 6.7%, according to Nick Fuller, assistant director of finance for the Arkansas Division of Higher Education. Proceeds will be used to construct a new 160-180 bed residential housing facility, and the college's board of trustees unanimously approved this financing in May.
Though this is a significant investment, trustees support students and "see the need for housing," Hogan said. This new building should be ready by the fall of 2025.
The 6.7% interest rate listed in the proposal "would be a worst-case scenario," as the college anticipates a rate more like 4.5%, said Kelli Embry, National Park's vice president for administration. Rent for students at the new hall will be well below the median rent in Garland County, which exceeds $1,000.
Debt service on the bond issue will be supported by millage revenue, and "Coordinating Board policy regarding debt service for projects financed by local tax or millage provides that annual net millage revenue should be no less than 120% of the total annual debt service," according to Fuller. Data "demonstrates that National Park College has sufficient millage revenue to support" this bond issue.
The current millage rate is 0.8 mills, and that rate generated roughly $1.5 million in annual revenue five years ago for National Park, Hogan said. However, that rate now generates about $1.9 million annually, and -- of course -- students paying for this housing will also generate revenue to help pay for the building.
Arkansas State, in Jonesboro, plans to secure a 10-year loan of $2.9 million at zero interest, a financing plan approved by the Arkansas State University System board of trustees in June, according to Fuller. Proceeds will provide needed campus-wide energy improvements that include re-roofing and updating air handling systems of multiple existing buildings.
The loan is being sought from the Arkansas Sustainable Building Design Revolving Loan Fund, which is managed by the Arkansas Building Authority, according to Fuller. Data demonstrates that Arkansas State "has sufficient tuition and fee revenue to secure" this loan.
The coordinating board met at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/panel-oks-bond-issue-at-hot-springs-college/ | 2023-07-29T09:24:18 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/panel-oks-bond-issue-at-hot-springs-college/ |
CANBERRA, Australia — Four air crew members were missing after an Australian army helicopter ditched into waters off the Queensland state coast during joint military exercises with the United States, officials said Saturday.
The MRH-90 Taipan helicopter went down near Lindeman Island, a Great Barrier Reef tourist resort, at about 11 p.m. Friday, exercise director Australian Army Brigadier Damian Hill said.
A search involving U.S., Canadian and Australian personnel was underway to find the crew who are all Australian men, officials said.
Debris that appeared to be from a helicopter had been recovered, Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Douglas McDonald said.
The Taipan was taking part in Talisman Sabre, a biennial joint U.S.-Australian military exercise that is largely based in Queensland. This year's exercise involves 13 nations and more than 30,000 military personnel.
Defense Minister Richard Marles said the helicopter ditched, which refers to an emergency landing on water.
"Defense exercises, which are so necessary for the readiness of our defense force, are serious. They carry risk," Marles told reporters in Brisbane. "As we desperately hope for better news during the course of this day we are reminded about the gravity of the act which comes with wearing our nation's uniform."
Hill said the exercise was postponed on Saturday morning but had restarted limited activity later in the day. Australia had grounded its Taipan fleet as a precaution, Hill said.
It was the second emergency involving an Australian Taipan this year, after one ditched into the sea off the New South Wales state coast in March. That helicopter was taking part in a nighttime counterterrorism training exercise when it ran into trouble. All 10 passengers and crew members were rescued.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Brisbane for a meeting on Saturday and is due to travel with Marles to north Queensland on Sunday to see the exercise.
Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid tribute to the missing air crew at the outset of a meeting with their Australian counterparts, Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
"It's always tough when you have accidents in training, but ... the reason that we train to such high standards is so that we can be successful and we can protect lives when we are called to answer any kind of crisis," Austin said.
"Our guys tend to make this look easy and they make it look easy because they're so well exercised and rehearsed and trained, and this is unfortunately a part of that, what it takes to get them to where we need them to be," Austin added.
Blinken said, "We're so grateful to them for their dedication, for their service, for everything they've been doing to stand up for the freedom that we share and that is what unites us more than anything else."
Marles thanked the United States for their contribution to the search and rescue effort.
The missing helicopter had just dropped off two Australian commandos before it hit the water, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Australia announced in January that its army and navy would stop flying the European-built Taipans by December 2024, 13 years earlier than originally planned, because they had proven unreliable. They will be replaced by 40 U.S. Black Hawks. Marles said at the time the Lockheed Martin-designed Black Hawks "have a really good proven track record in terms of their reliability."
Australia's Taipans had been plagued by problems since the first helicopter arrived in the country in 2007.
Australia's entire fleet of 47 Taipans was grounded in 2019 to fix a problem with their tail rotor blades. A year later, 27 Taipans were grounded because of a problem with doors.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvia.org/news/2023-07-29/4-air-crew-members-are-missing-after-an-australian-army-helicopter-ditched-off-coast | 2023-07-29T09:24:19 | 0 | https://www.wvia.org/news/2023-07-29/4-air-crew-members-are-missing-after-an-australian-army-helicopter-ditched-off-coast |
The Pac-12 Conference issued a statement aimed at stability after Colorado became the third school in a year to announce plans to leave. The nine schools remaining for the 2024-25 season were largely silent Friday.
Colorado on Thursday announced it would join the Big 12 beginning in 2024, joining Big Ten-bound Southern California and UCLA in an exodus that could continue in coming weeks and months. Their departures coincide with the expiration of the league's current media rights deals and the Pac-12 has not yet announced a lucrative deal going forward.
Shortly after CU's regents approved the move to the Big 12, the Pac-12 issued a statement pledging to soldier on. Possible Pac-12 expansion targets could include San Diego State and SMU.
"We are focused on concluding our media rights deal and securing our continued success and growth," the Pac-12 said. "Immediately following the conclusion of our media rights deal, we will embrace expansion opportunities and bring new fans, markets, excitement and value to the Pac-12."
The Pac-12's media rights contract expires at the end of the 2023-24 academic year, and Commissioner George Kliavkoff has not noted any progress in landing a new deal.
Oregon State was the only Pac-12 school to comment following the Colorado announcement. A founding member of the league in 1915, Oregon State is considered one of the least likely schools to be poached by another conference.
"Oregon State Athletics trusts that the Pac-12 will secure a media rights deal that will strongly benefit the institutions that are remaining loyal to this conference," Oregon State Athletic Director Scott Barnes said. "All of us at Oregon State will continue to work hard and diligently to continue the long-term membership and success of our athletic department at a national level."
Oregon State President Jayathi Murthy said her school joins other members in reaffirming its commitment to the Pac-12.
"We are united by our shared values, our passion for the highest level of intercollegiate athletic competition, our leadership roles as Tier 1 research universities and our support for student-athletes' academic and athletic excellence," Murthy said.
The administrations and athletic departments at Utah and Washington declined comment. Arizona State, California and Washington State athletic departments also declined comment, as did the Arizona and Oregon president's offices.
Stanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Arizona, Arizona State and Utah are believed to be potential targets for further Big 12 expansion, though those schools publicly committed to the Pac-12 prior to Colorado's announced departure. The Big 12 has a six-year, $2 billion contract that is projected to net annual revenue of $31 million for each school.
Under then-Commissioner Kevin Warren, the Big Ten still had eyes out west even after landing USC and UCLA, with Oregon and Washington having the most appeal of the remaining Pac-12 schools. But Warren is gone now and his replacement, Tony Pettit, said earlier this week that the Big Ten isn't eager to expand more. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/perturbed-pac-12-ponders-its-future/ | 2023-07-29T09:24:24 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/perturbed-pac-12-ponders-its-future/ |
As an emerging American voice, televangelist Jerry Falwell visited South Carolina in 1980 to promote his new Moral Majority network, while urging evangelicals to back Ronald Reagan, instead of President Jimmy Carter, a Southern Baptist.
Furman University professor John C. Green was intrigued by mixed reactions on three Baptist campuses in Greenville -- his own "moderate" Baptist school, a mainstream Southern Baptist college and the proudly fundamentalist Bob Jones University. For example, Bob Jones, Jr., called Falwell the "most dangerous man in America today," because of his efforts to unite religious groups in political activism.
This potent blend of politics and religion was an obvious topic for political-science research. Colleagues agreed, but one said they needed to act fast, "since these kinds of trends burn out quick," Green recalled, laughing. "Here we are in 2023 and arguments about religion and politics are hotter than ever."
From the start, experts tried to show a clash between religion and secularism, noted Green, author of "The Faith Factor: How Religion Influences American Elections."
The reality is more complex than a "God gap." By the late 1980s, researchers learned that -- while most Americans remain believers -- it's crucial to note how often voters attend worship services. The more fervently Americans support religious congregations with their time and money, the more likely they are to back cultural conservatives.
This "religiosity gap" remains relevant. A new Pew Research Center analysis noted that, in 2022 midterms: "The gap in voting preferences by religious attendance was as wide as it's been in any of the last several elections: 56% of those who said they attend religious services a few times a year or less reported voting for Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterms. ... But GOP candidates were the favorite among those who attend services monthly or more, by more than two-to-one (67%, vs. 31% who voted for Democratic candidates)."
Meanwhile, Protestants supported the "GOP by nearly two-to-one." White evangelical support for Republicans hit 86%, while white Catholics "favored Republican candidates by 25 points, whereas Hispanic Catholics favored Democratic candidates by an even greater margin (34 points)." Jewish voters preferred Democrats -- 68% to 32%. Atheists, agnostics or "nothing in particular" voters remained loyal, with 72% supporting Democrats, and 27% backing Republicans.
In 2012, Green was part of the Pew Research team behind the landmark "Nones on the Rise" study, which documented the stunning growth of the "religiously unaffiliated." The so-called "Nones," he noted then, overwhelmingly reject ancient Judeo-Christian doctrines on marriage and sex. Thus, the unaffiliated have become a stronger presence among Democrats than Black Protestants, white mainline Protestants or white Catholics.
"It may very well be that in the future the unaffiliated vote will be as important to the Democrats as the traditionally religious are to the Republican Party," Green told reporters. "If these trends continue, we are likely to see even sharper divisions between the political parties."
Over time, researchers documented a growing "polarization" in public life, with Americans increasingly divided by their choices in religion, politics, entertainment, news, education and ZIP codes. The new Pew analysis noted: "Ideological polarization by party was nearly complete in 2022: Only 1% of self-described conservative Republicans voted for Democratic House candidates and less than 1% of liberal Democrats voted Republican."
Since 2012, Green has stressed the importance of journalists studying changes in Hispanic voting, especially trends among evangelicals, Pentecostals and Catholics. Again, it's crucial to investigate the differences between those who frequent pews and those who do not.
Now, it's time for pollsters to start asking "religiosity gap" questions about choices made by Black voters, said Green, who in retirement remains active with the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. In a 2020 Bliss poll in cooperation with the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation, it was especially interesting to note differences -- on "education choice," parental rights, gender and other cultural issues -- between Black Ohioans who were churchgoers and those who were not.
"We are starting to see divisions between Democratic Party leaders and foot soldiers at the local level, including many Black Protestants," Green said. "They all agree that Donald Trump is bad, but there are many issues on which they are really divided. When you start asking questions, religion is part of those tensions."
Terry Mattingly leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/pew-gap-remains-reality-in-us-politics-polls-show/ | 2023-07-29T09:24:30 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/pew-gap-remains-reality-in-us-politics-polls-show/ |
PHOENIX — A historic heat wave that turned the U.S. Southwest into a blast furnace throughout July is beginning to abate with the late arrival of monsoon rains.
Forecasters expect that by Monday at the latest, people in metro Phoenix will begin seeing high temperatures under 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) for the first time in a month. As of Friday, the high temperature in the desert city had been at or above that mark for 29 consecutive days.
Already this week, the overnight low at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport fell under 90 (32.2 C) for the first time in 16 days, finally allowing people some respite from the stifling heat once the sun goes down.
Temperatures are also expected to ease in Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Death Valley, California.
The downward trend started Wednesday night, when Phoenix saw its first major monsoon storm since the traditional start of the season on June 15. While more than half of the greater Phoenix area saw no rainfall from that storm, some eastern suburbs were pummeled by high winds, swirling dust and localized downfalls of up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) of precipitation.
Storms gradually increasing in strength are expected over the weekend.
Scientists calculate that July will prove to be the hottest globally on record and perhaps the warmest human civilization has seen. The extreme heat is now hitting the eastern part of the U.S, as soaring temperatures moved from the Midwest into the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, where some places are seeing their warmest days so far this year.
The new heat records being set this summer are just some of the extreme weather being seen around the U.S. this month, such as flash floods in Pennsylvania and parts of the Northeast.
And while relief may be on the way for the Southwest, for now it's still dangerously hot. Phoenix's high temperature reached 116 (46.7 C) Friday afternoon, which is far above the average temperature of 106 (41.1 C).
"Anyone can be at risk outside in this record heat," the fire department in Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, warned residents on social media while offering ideas to stay safe.
For many people such as older adults, those with health issues and those without access to air conditioning, the heat can be dangerous or even deadly.
Maricopa County, the most populous in Arizona and home to Phoenix, reported this week that its public health department had confirmed 25 heat-associated deaths this year as of July 21, with 249 more under investigation.
Results from toxicological tests that can takes weeks or months after an autopsy is conducted could eventually result in many deaths listed as under investigation as heat associated being changed to confirmed.
Maricopa County confirmed 425 heat-associated deaths last year, and more than half of them occurred in July.
Elsewhere in Arizona next week, the agricultural desert community of Yuma is expecting highs ranging from 104 to 112 (40 C to 44.4 C) and Tucson is looking at highs ranging from 99 to 111 (37.2 C to 43.9 C).
The highs in Las Vegas are forecast to slip as low as 94 (34.4 C) next Tuesday after a long spell of highs above 110 (43.3 C). Death Valley, which hit 128 (53.3 C) in mid-July, will cool as well, though only to a still blistering hot 116 (46.7 C).
In New Mexico, the highs in Albuquerque next week are expected to be in the mid to high 90s (around 35 C), with party cloudy skies.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvia.org/news/2023-07-29/forecasters-say-southwest-temperatures-to-ease-some-with-arrival-of-monsoon-rains | 2023-07-29T09:24:32 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/news/2023-07-29/forecasters-say-southwest-temperatures-to-ease-some-with-arrival-of-monsoon-rains |
Pope urges fight against climate change
ATHENS, Greece -- 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 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.
As the situation improved considerably Friday, Greece's minister for the police stepped down, citing "personal grounds."
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.
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.
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.
Cargo ship blaze lessens, crews board
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- 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.
"The fire is still raging but decreasing. The smoke is also decreasing," the coast guard said in a statement.
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 early Wednesday, with some leaping into the sea and being picked up by a lifeboat. The cause of the fire hasn't been established.
The ship was carrying a total of 3,783 new vehicles, including 498 electric vehicles, said Pat Adamson, spokesman for K Line, the company that chartered the ship. 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.
Ferry sailed despite being over capacity
MANILA, Philippines -- The skipper of a Philippine ferry which flipped over in a lake in an accident that killed 27 passengers decided to sail despite knowing that his boat was filled beyond capacity, the coast guard chief said Friday.
Forty-three passengers were rescued after the M/B Aya Express capsized Thursday in Laguna de Bay shortly after leaving Binangonan town southeast of Manila in what should have been a 30-minute cruise to nearby Talim Island, officials said.
Coast guard, police and other government personnel continued to search the lake Friday but said they had no idea whether anyone was still missing because of uncertainties over the number of passengers on the ferry. No more survivors or bodies were found.
Two coast guard inspectors allowed the ferry to sail after being shown a manifest which listed only 22 passengers in addition to the boat's three-member crew, coast guard chief Admiral Artemio Abu said at a news conference.
In addition to the 27 ferry deaths, Typhoon Doksuri left at least 13 people dead, mostly due to landslides, flooding and toppled trees. Twenty people remained missing, including four coast guard personnel whose boat overturned Wednesday while on a rescue mission in hard-hit Cagayan province.
China slammed by Typhoon Doksuri
BEIJING -- Typhoon Doksuri made landfall in China after bringing deadly landslides to the Philippines.
The storm plowed Friday into the eastern province of Fujian 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.
Gallery: Deadly Philippines boat accident | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/pope-urges-fight-against-climate-change/ | 2023-07-29T09:24:32 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/pope-urges-fight-against-climate-change/ |
LIMA, Peru — Although the top tourist destination in Peru is the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, high in the Andes Mountains, the capital Lima also holds a treasure trove of ancient ruins — so many, in fact, that authorities can't take care of them all.
The city is home to more than 400 known pyramids, temples and burial sites, many of which predate the Incas and and are known in Spanish as "huacas." They sit next to modern shopping centers, hotels and highways or rise up in the middle of neighborhoods in this city of 11 million people. Meanwhile, archaeologists keep digging up new sites.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former Peruvian president who lives across the street from a pyramid called Huallamarca, built around 1,800 years ago, says with a smile: "I know where I am when I wake up in the morning. I'm in Peru!"
Due mostly to budget limitations, Huallamarca is one of only 27 sites in Lima that have been excavated, restored and opened to visitors, according to archaeologists who spoke with NPR.
Many other sites are deteriorating. Squatters have occupied some, and others have become de facto garbage dumps or gathering spots for drug users and homeless people.
"Everywhere you dig, you will find something — because Lima was home to great civilizations," says Micaela Álvarez, director of the museum at Pucllana, a massive pyramid in Lima's business district of Miraflores. "But it's impossible to save everything in a poor country."
Pucllana is one of the exceptions.
Thought to be about 1,500 years old, the pyramid was a ceremonial site for the Lima Indigenous group that gave this city its name. Excavations began in 1981 and continue today.
On a recent morning, workers scraped sand and dirt from part of the site that archaeologists are beginning to explore for the first time. Nearby, guides pointed to the intricate brickwork, which has withstood earthquakes, and then led visitors to the top of the 82-foot-tall pyramid for views of the Pacific Ocean.
Among the visitors was Manuel Larrabure, a professor at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania who was born and raised in Lima but had never been to Pucllana.
"It's very impressive," he said. "The tendency is to look outside of Lima for interesting things, but it's good to look inside and to appreciate our own culture. People are still getting to know these sites."
Before it was restored following the start of excavations some 40 years ago, Pucllana was routinely looted and abused. At one point, a factory was using Pucllana's sand and clay to make bricks. Tour guide Blanca Arista says the pyramid also served as a neighborhood playground — and a motocross track.
"It's unbelievable, but several groups were practicing motocross," she said. "So, imagine different groups riding motorcycles, riding bikes."
Indeed, Lima's ancient Indigenous sites have, more often, been desecrated instead of safeguarded, says Giancarlo Marcone, a Peruvian archaeologist and professor at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lima.
Some were bulldozed to make way for apartment blocks and streets amid a wave of migration from the countryside that began in the 1950s.
"That put a lot of pressure on the city, and we didn't have good planning," Marcone says. "Until recently, we didn't really care about what we had."
Attitudes shifted as Peruvians became more sensitive to their cultural heritage and the country's ancient sites began to attract more international tourists. Janie Gómez, who until April was deputy culture minister, said the government of President Dina Boluarte is committed to preserving these sites.
"Their recovery will prevent them from deteriorating and being invaded," she told the state-run Andina news agency in January. "The millennial history over which Lima was built must not be lost."
However, Peru is struggling to reduce poverty and improve hospitals and schools, Marcone says. Thus, governments have been unable or unwilling to finance robust excavations or to turn more than a few sites into tourist attractions. The result is that many have been left in limbo.
Rosa María Barillas, a Peruvian archaeology student who recently completed fieldwork at an ancient temple on the outskirts of Lima, recalls looters prowling the area.
"I had to chase them away," she says.
Other sites have been colonized by squatters. The archaeological complex at Mateo Salado, near Lima's international airport, features a beautifully restored 1,000-year-old pyramid, but is also home to several modern houses. Until 2013, when major restoration work began, farmers used the site to cultivate roses and neighborhood kids played soccer there.
In the working-class neighborhood of Los Olivos, a dusty, dun-colored archaeological site called Infantas I is hemmed in by streets and houses. Ashes from a campfire are smoldering while trash piles up in several areas. Three youths are smoking crack, and a shirtless man is digging up sand and putting it in sacks. The area is part of a series of temples, but has yet to be excavated.
Benito Trejo, who heads the neighborhood committee, calls Infantas I a headache.
"It's not a good thing, because these sites are ignored by the government which is supposed to look after them," he says.
There was no response to NPR's requests for comment from the Culture Ministry.
For now, archaeologists say that surrounding communities must get more involved in preserving and promoting the sites. Pucllana, for example, has been used for art exhibits, while other sites have hosted film screenings.
At Mateo Salado, fifth graders were recently visiting the site and drawing pictures of the ruins, which are part of their school logo.
"We shouldn't look at these sites simply as relics of the past," says Andrés Ramírez, one of the instructors. "They should be part of everyday society. That's what we are trying to promote."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvia.org/news/2023-07-29/in-peru-discovery-of-ancient-ruins-outpaces-authorities-ability-to-care-for-them | 2023-07-29T09:24:33 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/news/2023-07-29/in-peru-discovery-of-ancient-ruins-outpaces-authorities-ability-to-care-for-them |
Ron DeSantis was involved in a traffic accident while in Chattanooga, Tenn., this week raising money for his presidential bid. The candidate was not injured, which may have been the single best piece of news the campaign has had in a while.
The other kind of news for the Florida Republican seemed to be everywhere and all at once. His campaign announced it was shedding a third of its staff and "retooling" its fundraising amid reports of donor desertion. The Associated Press referred to the campaign as "stalled," Rich Lowry of National Review used the words "faltering" and "diminished" in a piece for Politico. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, often a cheerleader for the governor, noted "the headlines say [the campaign] is in an unrecoverable dive."
The media critiques went beyond DeSantis' problems with staffing and fundraising to question his performance on the stump. Stories told of DeSantis "scolding" students at one event for wearing masks and snapping at reporters at a news conference.
Most troubling of all may have been DeSantis' problems with messaging. He has defended his administration's new Florida history curriculum, which alludes to "benefits" that enslaved people may have derived from their life in bondage – such as blacksmithing skills. That drew a rebuke from rival candidate Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who's Black, who said there had been no "silver lining in slavery."
DeSantis may have been expected to stand by his state's curriculum changes, but it was harder to understand why he reached for controversy by saying he might appoint Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as head of the FDA or the CDC. Kennedy, a Democrat, is also a candidate for president, and famous as a vaccine conspiracy theorist, harshly critical of the scientists who lead the federal health agencies.
Most candidates would not consider either slavery or RFK Jr. an issue to emphasize, much less the hill they would choose to die on.
Perceptions prompt comparison to former presidential hopeful Rick Perry
Perceptions of DeSantis have changed greatly since he won reelection in November 2022 by 20 points. In January he was seen as the foremost threat to Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, trailing the former president by just two percentage points in the 538.com average of national polls. As of this week, that gap has widened to 37 percentage points. DeSantis poll numbers have fallen by more than half as other candidates have entered the fray and taken a share. And that trendline has prompted comparisons to the recent history of another Sun Belt governor who had his eyes on the White House, Rick Perry of Texas.
A dozen years ago, Perry entered the GOP lists for the 2012 nomination against incumbent President Barack Obama. Having been elected and reelected in the nation's second most populous state, Perry had a gaudy list of endorsements and wealthy backers. His TV ads were impressive.
But Perry's in-person campaigning did not match expectations. After the first candidate debates of 2007 the buzz was all about his lackluster performances. Vowing to fight on, Perry pointed to a November debate where he hoped to turn things around. That was when he pledged to eliminate three cabinet level departments of the federal government if elected – Education, Commerce ... and he could not remember the third. After a fumbling pause he said: "Oops."
Needless to say, things did not get better after that. Crushed in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, Perry all but ignored New Hampshire to concentrate on South Carolina. But when his poll numbers there also sagged, he dropped out. In 2016, having just retired as the longest-tenured governor in Texas history, he tried again. But in a field of more than 15 candidates dominated by Trump, Perry barely registered. He dropped out before the Iowa caucuses.
Needless to say, no candidate for president wants to be compared to Rick Perry. But on Fox News on June 28, DeSantis told a Fox News host he would eliminate the same three departments as Perry — Education, Commerce and, as Perry had eventually remembered, Energy (which wound up being the department where Perry served as secretary under Trump). DeSantis threw in the IRS, too, which gave him a longer list than Perry's.
Throughout the agonizing train wreck that was the Perry campaign, the candidate seemed unable to understand that the persona and priorities that had lifted him to such success in Texas were not working the same on the national stage.
Can this campaign be saved?
DeSantis' campaign has reached the point where some observers wonder if it's too late to turn his fortunes around. They note that Trump's growing advantage over DeSantis in polls has been driven less by improving numbers for Trump than by deteriorating support for the Floridian.
But there are positives in this picture for the Florida governor. First, it is early — or at least relatively early — in the campaign season. The first voting activity leading to actual delegates being chosen does not happen until January 15, when Iowa holds its caucuses. That gives DeSantis and other candidates still seeking traction more than five months to find it. If the right formula can be found, there is time to follow it.
Second, the field is in some senses still unsettled. While half the Republican electorate may be satisfied with Trump, there is still the other half. And if the ever-mounting legal woes of the former president finally begin to erode the bedrock of his support, it may be possible for a single strong challenger to consolidate the opposition.
Third, there are beacons of hope for troubled candidates in recent presidential campaign history. By choosing to call the latest phase of his effort an "insurgency," DeSantis has acknowledged that he is battling the odds. Of course, when he adopted the campaign motto "The Great American Comeback," he was not expecting it to apply to his campaign.
The term "comeback" has long been associated with the first presidential push of a young Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton. Then 45, Clinton was seeking the Democratic nomination against the sitting president George H.W. Bush in 1992. Bush had been so popular following the success of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 that many ambitious Democrats in Washington thought it better to wait for the 1996 cycle to run. Clinton looked strong in the preliminary phase of the campaign but was on the ropes as the primaries began, battered by two potentially fatal blows.
Newspaper stories had highlighted steps he took to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War, and in a woman he had known in Arkansas named Gennifer Flowers told a supermarket tabloid the two had had a years-long affair. She repeated her story in a televised news conference.
Clinton stumbled to a distant third-place showing in the Iowa caucuses (won by a favorite son candidate, Tom Harkin) and fell far behind in New Hampshire. But on that state's primary night in February, Clinton in second place had closed the gap to single digits and won half the available delegates.
He went on TV to thank New Hampshire for making "Bill Clinton the comeback kid." The national media coverage largely followed that line, much to the distress of the primary's first-place winner, Sen. Paul Tsongas of neighboring Massachusetts. A few weeks later, on Super Tuesday, Clinton won most of the big state primaries, many of them in the South, and the lion's share of the delegates. He was soon cruising to the nomination.
McCain turned his ship around
More directly comparable to DeSantis' situation, and closer to his political home, was the turnaround achieved 16 years later by the campaign of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. A former POW in Vietnam who had made many friends in his time in the Senate, McCain was well known for his spirited "Straight Talk Express" campaign challenging George W. Bush for the GOP nomination in 2000. McCain came up short that time, but his profile was elevated in the Senate and he retained much of his appeal for independents.
But when it came to running another campaign, McCain quickly ran aground. The national agenda had changed over the two terms of the second President Bush, which included the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The man who had been New York City mayor during those attacks, Rudy Giuliani, was now running for president as "America's Mayor" and leading in national polls for a time.
Other notables in the field in 2007 included Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (now a senator from Utah) and Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas. McCain's standing in Iowa had suffered with his opposition to ethanol subsidies and he trailed Romney in polling in New Hampshire.
In the summer of 2007, with his early money drying up and fundraising slowed, McCain saw many news accounts of his flagging campaign. Some were ready to write him off. But that July he revamped his campaign from top to bottom and let go some longtime aides, including close friends, to begin anew. He seemed ready to do whatever it took, including altering his positions on key issues such as immigration.
By the time the campaign reached the voters in January 2008, the McCain operation had righted itself. After conceding Iowa to his rivals, McCain stormed back into contention with a smashing win in New Hampshire that netted him most of the delegates at stake.
As for one-time front-runner Giuliani, he had decided he did not need to go hard at Iowa and New Hampshire and concentrated instead on the late January primary in Florida. Giuliani finished third there, winning no delegates, and withdrew from the race the next day.
The following week brought Super Tuesday and a favorable mix of states for McCain, who won nine states to Romney's seven and Huckabee's five and pocketed most of the delegates. Romney then left the race and urged the other candidates and the party to unite behind McCain.
At such times in the past, struggling campaigns have rescued themselves with the right moves and a dose of luck. At other times, it has taken major missteps by front-running candidates to open the door. In DeSantis' case, it might well require both.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvia.org/news/politics/2023-07-29/presidential-primaries-have-seen-dramatic-comebacks-could-desantis-24-be-next | 2023-07-29T09:24:35 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/news/politics/2023-07-29/presidential-primaries-have-seen-dramatic-comebacks-could-desantis-24-be-next |
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SERVICES
Asbury United Methodist Church, 1700 Napa Valley Drive, has a traditional service Sundays at 9, Sunday School at 10, and a contemporary service at 11 a.m. Services are livestreamed at youtube.com/asburyumclr. (501) 225-9231.
Bethel A.M.E. Church, 815 W. 16th St., celebrates Women's Day at 3 p.m. Aug. 27, featuring a free concert by the St. John MBC Fellowship Ensemble All Women's Choir. (501) 374-2891.
Bullock Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, 1513 S. Park St., livestreams services at 10 a.m. Sundays at btclr.org. (501) 375-1581.
Christ Episcopal Church, 509 Scott St., holds Communion services at 8 and 10:30 a.m. Sundays and 6 p.m. Sundays; and Compline at 7 p.m. Sundays. The church holds a chapel service at 12:05 p.m. Wednesdays and an online prayer service at 12:05 p.m. Thursdays. Livestreamed services are available at christchurchlr.org. (501) 375-2342.
Davidson Methodist Campground, 12 miles west of Arkadelphia off Arkansas 26 West, will hold its 138th annual revival encampment at 11 a.m. and 7:45 p.m. through Aug. 5 with a closing service at 11 a.m. Aug. 6. Bill Cato will preach. Information about RV spots or cabins available is at Blake@batson.me or (870) 345-9711.
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 14411 Taylor Loop Road, posts its schedules for worship, study and support groups at fcclr.live. (501) 225-5656.
First Lutheran Church, 314 E. Eighth Street, worships at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, with the service available on YouTube and Facebook. firstlutheranlr.com. (501) 372-1023.
First Presbyterian Church, 800 Scott St., holds services at 9:30 and 11 a.m. Sundays. (501) 372-1804.
First United Methodist Church, 723 Center St., has services at 9 and 11 a.m. Sundays which are also livestreamed at fumclr.org. (501) 372-2256.
Grace Lutheran Church, 5124 Hillcrest Ave., worships at 10 a.m. Sundays with the service also available on YouTube. gracelutheranlr.org. (501) 663-3631.
Grace Presbyterian Church, 1010 Hogan Lane, Conway, worships at 10:30 a.m. Sundays. (501) 504-6899.
Highland Valley United Methodist Church, 15524 Chenal Parkway, has in-person worship services at 8:30 and 11 a.m. Sundays, with the 11 a.m. service available on YouTube and Facebook. Links are available at hvumc.org.
Hope Lutheran Church, 1904 McArthur Drive, Jacksonville, services at 10 a.m. Sundays; 7 p.m. Wednesdays. hopelutheranjacksonville.org.
Immanuel Baptist Church, 501 N. Shackleford Road, livestreams services at 9 a.m. at ibclr.org and holds in-person services at 9 and 10:30 a.m. Sundays. (501) 376-3071.
Journey Church, 4511 E. 43rd St., North Little Rock, worships at 10:50 a.m. Sundays. Service is livestreamed at tinyurl.com/2p9tuds6. More information at discoverjourneychurch.com.
Lakewood United Methodist Church, 2016 Topf Road, North Little Rock, livestreams its traditional and contemporary services at 9 and modern at 11 a.m. Sundays; links at expandingthelight.org. (501) 753-6186.
Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 1215 S. Schiller St., worships at 10:35 a.m. Sundays. (501) 374-8060.
New Light Missionary Baptist Church, 3110 Battery St., has in-person services and livestreams on Facebook and YouTube at 10 a.m. Sundays. (501) 375-4098.
North Little Rock First United Methodist Church, 6701 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock, offers in-person and livestreamed worship services at 9 and 11 a.m. Sundays, with links at nlrfumc.org.
Park Hill Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 4400 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock, offers in-person and livestreaming services at 9 and 11 a.m. Sundays. bit.ly/37S7AGY (501) 753-1109.
Park Hill Presbyterian Church, 3520 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock, worships at 11 a.m. Sundays. (501) 753-9533.
Pinnacle View United Methodist Church, 20100 Cantrell Road, holds services at 10 a.m. Sundays, which are also livestreamed on Facebook and at pinnacleviewumc.org. (501) 868-4225.
Pulaski Heights Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) offers online-only worship at 10:30 a.m. Sundays on Zoom at 822 3039 7833, passcode 794709. (501) 663-8149 or phcc-lr.org.
Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, 4823 Woodlawn Drive, has worship services Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m., viewable live on Facebook and YouTube. A service also airs at 10:30 a.m. on KATV. phumc.com/worship or (501) 664-3600.
Pulaski Heights Presbyterian Church, 4401 Woodlawn Drive, has worship services at 10:45 a.m. Sundays, viewable at phpreslr.com. (501) 663-8361.
St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 4106 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock, worships at 9:30 a.m. Sundays through Labor Day. stlukeepiscopal.org.
St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 1000 N. Mississippi St., celebrates the Eucharist at 8 and 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sundays. Morning prayer at 8:30 a.m. Monday-Friday in the chapel. Centering prayer in the church at 4:30 p.m. Mondays and at 11 a.m. Thursdays. Noonday prayer on Facebook at noon Monday-Friday. lovesaintmarks.org.
St. Michael's Episcopal Church, 12415 Cantrell Road, has a Communion Service at 10 a.m. Sundays. Livestream link at stmichaels-church.com. (501) 224-1442.
St. Nicholas' Episcopal Church, 2001 Club Manor, Suite N, Maumelle, has services at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sundays. (501) 420-4840.
Second Presbyterian Church, 600 Pleasant Valley Drive, has an 8:30 a.m. contemporary service in the Prayer Garden and a traditional service at 10 a.m. in the sanctuary, also livestreamed at secondpreslr.org. (501) 227-0000.
Sr. Thea Bowman Ecumenical Catholic Church meets in the chapel of Westover Hill Presbyterian Church, 6400 Richard B. Hardie Drive, at 5 p.m. Saturdays. (501) 580-7600.
Theressa Hoover Memorial United Methodist Church, 4000 W. 13th St., worships at 10:30 a.m. Sundays. hooverumc.org.
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 310 W. 17th St., Sundays holds Holy Eucharist Rite I at 8 a.m and Holy Eucharist Rite II with hymns at 10:30 a.m. Information about weekday services can be found at trinitylittlerock.org.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, 4501 Rahling Road, worships at 10:30 a.m. Sundays. (501) 868-5848.
Trinity United Methodist Church, 1101 N. Mississippi St., worships at 9 and 11 a.m. Sundays in person and online at tumclr.org, facebook.com/tumclr and at bit.ly/3bG9CJq. It also has a rummage sale 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and 7:30 a.m. to noon Aug. 5, with proceeds benefiting missions. (501) 666-2813.
Union African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1825 S. Pulaski St., has worship services at 10:30 a.m. Sundays. (501) 374-3528.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Little Rock, 1818 Reservoir Road, meets at 11 a.m. Sundays. (501) 225-1503.
Westover Hills Presbyterian Church, 6400 Kavanaugh Blvd., holds services at 10:25 a.m. Sundays westoverhills.org.
The deadline for Religion calendar submissions is 5 p.m. Monday for Saturday publication. Addresses are in Little Rock unless otherwise indicated. Items must have an address and a phone number and be open to the public. To submit a news release or update a listing, email the information to:
religion@arkansasonline.com | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/religion-calendar/ | 2023-07-29T09:24:38 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/religion-calendar/ |
ROME -- Rome's next luxury hotel has some very good bones: Archaeologists said Wednesday that the ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to in ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of a future Four Seasons Hotel steps from the Vatican.
Archaeologists have excavated deep under the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020 as part of planned renovations on the frescoed Renaissance building. The palazzo, which takes up a city block along the broad Via della Conciliazione leading to St. Peter's Square, is home to an ancient Vatican chivalric order that leases the space to a hotel to raise money for Christians in the Holy Land.
The governor general of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, Leonardo Visconti di Modrone, confirmed during a news conference announcing the archaeological discovery that the incoming hotel chain was the Four Seasons. News reports have said the hotel is expected to be open in time for the Vatican's 2025 Jubilee, when an estimated 30 million people and pilgrims are expected to flock to Rome.
Officials hailed the findings from the excavation as "exceptional," given they provide a rare look at a stratum of Roman history from the Roman Empire through to the 15th century. Among the discoveries: 10th century colored glass goblets and pottery pieces that are unusual because so little is known about this period in Rome.
Marzia Di Mento, the site's chief archaeologist, noted that previously only seven glass chalices of the era had been found, and that the excavations of this one site turned up seven more.
In addition, archaeologists found marble columns and gold-leaf-decorated plaster, leading them to conclude that the Nero's Theater referred to in texts by Pliny the Elder, an ancient Roman author and philosopher, was indeed there, located at the site just off the Tiber River.
Officials said the portable antiquities would be moved to a museum, while the ruins of the theater structure itself would be covered again after all studies are completed.
An archeologist shows pieces of bone used to carve Christian rosary beads, approximately dated to the 14th century A.D., coming from the excavation of ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater, during a press preview, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Season's Hotel, steps from the Vatican, after excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020, as part of planned renovations on the Renaissance building. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Archeologists work on findings coming from the excavation site of the ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater, 1st century AD, during a press preview, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Season's Hotel, steps from the Vatican, after excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020, as part of planned renovations on the Renaissance building. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A double-faced Junus head, approximately dated to the1st century A.D., is seen among other findings coming from the excavation of ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater, during a press preview, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Season's Hotel, steps from the Vatican, after excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020, as part of planned renovations on the Renaissance building. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
An archeologist shows a Medieval glass, dated to the 14th century A.D., coming from the excavation of Roman emperor Nero's theater, during a press preview, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Season's Hotel, steps from the Vatican, after excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020, as part of planned renovations on the Renaissance building. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A fresco is seen on a wall in the excavation site of the ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater, 1st century AD, during a press preview, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Season's Hotel, steps from the Vatican, after excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020, as part of planned renovations on the Renaissance building. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
People walk in the excavation site of the ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater, 1st century AD, backdropped by the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, during a press preview, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Season's Hotel, steps from the Vatican, after excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020, as part of planned renovations on the Renaissance building. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
People walk in the excavation site of the ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater, 1st century AD, backdropped by the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, during a press preview, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Season's Hotel, steps from the Vatican, after excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020, as part of planned renovations on the Renaissance building. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Archeologists work Wednesday in an excavation site of the ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater during a press preview in Rome. (AP/Andrew Medichini)
Medieval artifacts, dated between the 10th and 14th century A.D., coming from the excavation of ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater, are seen during a press preview, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Season's Hotel, steps from the Vatican, after excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020, as part of planned renovations on the Renaissance building. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
1st Century AD Roman artifacts coming from the excavation of ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater, 1st century AD, are seen during a press preview, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Season's Hotel, steps from the Vatican, after excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020, as part of planned renovations on the Renaissance building. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/ruins-of-ancient-neros-theater-discovered-under/ | 2023-07-29T09:24:52 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/ruins-of-ancient-neros-theater-discovered-under/ |
A Searcy apartment building owner arrested last April by police following complaints of drug activity and human trafficking at the complex he owns appeared in federal court Thursday on a federal complaint accusing him of sex trafficking and drug distribution.
Thomas Ray Kelso, 72, owner and manager of the Briarwood Apartments on West Beebe-Capps Expressway in Searcy, was arrested April 18 by agents with the Central Arkansas Drug Task Force after a search of his properties turned up firearms, methamphetamine, fentanyl and drug paraphernalia, according to White County Circuit Court documents. A probable cause affidavit filed in federal court July 31 showed that authorities were told by a confidential source that Kelso was selling drugs and exploiting female residents of the complex into exchanging sex in payment for rent, to keep their electricity connected, or for drugs.
One witness told police, the affidavit said, that Kelso had gotten her to recruit women for him and provided investigators with a list of women Kelso had exploited for sexual favors in her presence. Another witness told authorities that Kelso had offered her an apartment when she was homeless in exchange for oral sex in lieu of rent. Two women gave statements, the affidavit said, telling police that Kelso had given them pills laced with fentanyl that caused them to pass out and each said they woke up to find Kelso sexually assaulting them.
The affidavit said a man told police that he has worked with Kelso in the past and had heard him refer to at least one of the women who accused him of sexually exploiting her as a "worthless whore" and other degrading names and that he once walked into an apartment of a disabled woman to find her performing oral sex on Kelso and said that, "she appeared distressed." The affidavit said the disabled woman told police that she had lived at the Briarwood Apartments for six years and that three months ago, Kelso had disconnected the electricity to her apartment.
She told police that because she has COPD she is dependent upon oxygen to breathe but when she approached Kelso about it, he told her, the affidavit said, "you can have power if you learn to play ball." She admitted to police performing oral sex on Kelso on at least two occasions, the affidavit said, to avoid being kicked out of her apartment.
On the day of his arrest, the affidavit said, police searching his home and office located approximately 10 grams of suspected methamphetamine, 2 loaded syringes, 2 blue M30 pills suspected to have been laced with fentanyl, digital scales, used and unused syringes, multiple shotguns, ammunition and two handguns.
Kelso was charged in White County Circuit Court in June with human trafficking, sexual assault, possession of fentanyl and methamphetamine with intent to distribute and simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms. Court records indicate that as of Thursday night, the case against him in White County remained open with a pre-trial hearing scheduled in White County Circuit Court on Sept. 19 at 1 p.m.
On Thursday, Kelso was in federal court for an initial appearance before Chief U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Ray, who outlined the charges against him contained in the federal complaint and explained his rights under federal law. According to a text entry on the court docket, Kelso, through his attorney, John Wesley Hall Jr. of Little Rock, waived his right to an immediate bond hearing pending resolution of the charges against him in White County Circuit Court. Assistant U.S. Attorney Katie Hinojosa appeared on behalf of the government, standing in for Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant, who is prosecuting the case but was unavailable Thursday due to another hearing.
If convicted on the federal charges, Kelso faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on the sex trafficking count and 10 years on the drug distribution count.
As of Thursday night, Kelso was being held at the White County jail in Searcy, according to the sheriff's office online jail roster, where he has been since his April 18 arrest. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/searcy-apartment-building-owner-facing-federal/ | 2023-07-29T09:24:58 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/searcy-apartment-building-owner-facing-federal/ |
The University of Arkansas has added Southern Mississippi transfer forward Denijay Harris to the men's basketball program. He announced his commitment to the Hogs on social media Friday afternoon.
Harris, 6-7 and 196 pounds, entered the NCAA transfer portal April 25 and committed to New Mexico State, but reopened his recruitment June 12 and later enrolled at Arkansas.
He averaged 8.9 points and 5.7 rebounds while playing 24.1 minutes per game last season. He shot 56.2% from the field and 67.8% from the free-throw line, and missed his only three-point attempt as a redshirt junior.
He appeared in 32 games and started 13 while averaging 2.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and averaging 14.3 minutes as a sophomore. He has a season-high 12 points and had a season-high seven rebounds against Alabama-Birmingham on March 2.
During the 2020-21 season, he played in 22 of 25 games, had 8 starts and averaged 3.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 17.1 minutes per game.
He redshirted in 2019-20 after previously playing two games at Southwest Mississippi Community College before suffering a season-ending injury. He averaged 13 points and 11.5 rebounds in the two games.
He led Columbus (Miss.) High School to the 6A state titles as a sophomore and senior, and earned MVP honors in the state championship game in his final season after scoring 20 of his 26 points in the second half. As a senior he averaged 12.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.2 steals.
He will have two years of eligibility remaining with the Razorbacks.
Harris is the seventh transfer to join the Arkansas roster since the end of the 2022-23 season. The Razorbacks have a full allotment of 13 scholarship players after the announcement that guard Keyon Menifield, a transfer from Washington, would be a non-scholarship redshirt for the upcoming season. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/so-miss-forward-heads-to-arkansas/ | 2023-07-29T09:25:04 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/so-miss-forward-heads-to-arkansas/ |
HOT SPRINGS -- As the seven public school districts in Garland County work to reach unitary status and ultimately end the Garland County School Desegregation Case Settlement Agreement, some superintendents cite a net decrease in students transferring into and out of the districts as a major concern and motivation for a quick resolution.
The Arkansas Department of Education tasked the districts with working toward unitary status, or abandoning the dual status of intentional segregation of students by race, in which they must submit written quarterly reports to the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education detailing their outstanding desegregation obligations and efforts toward obtaining full unitary status and release from court supervision.
According to Section 3-A.10.2 of the division's Standards for Accreditation, if the division is unable to verify the district's efforts to comply with the plan, it will recommend to the state Board of Education whether to place the districts on Accredited-Probation status.
Approved by the federal court in April 1992, the seven districts entered into the agreement and agreed to comply with the School Choice Act's provision that allowed students to transfer to other districts, but included the limitation that "no student may transfer to a nonresident district where the percentage of enrollment for the student's race exceeds that percentage in his resident district."
Superintendents and others involved discussed the status at Thursday's Garland County Education Consortium meeting at the Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.
According to recent school choice data shared by each of the districts, the Hot Springs School District had 34 students coming in for the 2023-24 school year and 145 students going out, for a net loss of 111 students, compared to 104 last year. It had to deny seven students based on the agreement.
"I'll be real transparent and honest, that's very concerning to me," Hot Springs Superintendent Stephanie Nehus, who also serves as the consortium's president, said.
"That was always around 80. We saw a bigger jump last year to Cutter (Morning Star) than we've ever seen, and I attribute that to a four-day school week. That number stayed the same this year. We had a bigger number to Lakeside than we've ever seen. That's been consistently 75 and it was about 98 this year," she said.
The Cutter Morning Star School District adopted a four-day school week calendar last year.
The Lake Hamilton School District also saw a deficit, with 51 students coming in and 93 going out, while denying 10 applications. The Mountain Pine School District accepted 12 students and saw 30 leave, while denying three. The Fountain Lake School District had 20 coming in and 46 going out, while denying 14, with part of the count based on class size.
The Lakeside, Jessieville and Cutter Morning Star school districts each saw a net gain in students coming in.
Lakeside accepted 206 students in, with 64 leaving, for a net gain of 142. It denied 13 applications. Jessieville accepted 29 students -- 20 from Fountain Lake, seven from Mountain Pine, and two from outside Garland County -- and 14 leaving, for a net gain of 15, while denying one. Cutter Morning Star had 109 students coming in and 29 leaving for a net gain of 80, while denying three.
The chairman of the Arkansas Ethics Commission, Scott Irby, who represents the districts, said they committed to filing a petition for unitary status, and if there is going to be a settlement in the case, it needs to be discussed.
"These cases are not intended to last forever. They are intended to give unitary status," he said.
The plaintiffs' attorney, Q. Byrum Hurst Jr., said everyone on both sides has the same goal, which is "trying to give the kids in Garland County the best education that we can."
"We're trying to make sure that those minority students get as good an education as everybody else," Hurst said.
"So we're all on board with that and we know that we have a common goal. Now we may have disagreements if we're getting there or not, because I believe that all of you really try. And we're all trying to get to a unitary status where there are no problems with desegregation. But desegregation now, it is not the same as it was 30 years ago when we filed this," Hurst said.
"Things have changed. But desegregation can be very subtle, and it becomes a thing of looking at the statistics and trying to make sure that everything is run appropriately," he said.
Nehus reported that currently in Garland County, the overall school percentage breakdown is 65% white, 12% Black, 13% Hispanic and 9% other.
"That has really shifted just as you look back, I guess to our first year of data was '94-'95. At that point, there was 87% white in our county, 13% Black, 0% Hispanic, 0% other, which I thought was very interesting. I just thought that was something for us to know how our county statistics have changed," she said.
She noted another issue districts have is school choice applicants filling out a new form and changing their race if they were first denied. She and Lake Hamilton Superintendent Shawn Higginbotham recently had such a situation.
Mountain Pine Superintendent Bobby Applegate said he did, as well.
Nehus also noted the difference in school choice deadline for Garland County schools, which is July 1, and that of districts throughout the rest of the state, which is May 1, which causes problems sometimes.
Hurst said he would rather not comment yet on whether there is a good chance of settling or not, but he said he and the NAACP would work with the districts' attorneys and have more talks. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/student-transfer-numbers-raise-concern-in-garland/ | 2023-07-29T09:25:10 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/student-transfer-numbers-raise-concern-in-garland/ |
The University of Pine Bluff’s Gamma Sigma chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. earned the Edward G. Irvin Undergraduate Chapter of the Year Award in the large chapter category.
The award was presented during the 86th Conclave of Kappa Alpha Psi on July 21. The chapter was also named the National Medium Chapter of the Year in 2021, according to a news release.
This award is the highest Grand Chapter award for outstanding achievement for undergraduate chapters. The conclave is a biannual meeting where members of the organization come together to complete Kappa business and to fellowship with other members from across the world.
Local Kappas participating included Dr. Stephen Broughton Sr., Myles Miller, Jimmy McMikle, Devin Bohannon, Ronald Russell Jr., L’Kenna Whitehead, Carvis Campbell III, Xavier Brown, Reginald Brasfield, Justin Thomasson, Daniel Overton, Larry Culclager, Reuben Shelton, Rhen Bass and William Puder. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/uapb-kappas-earn-award-as-top-chapter/ | 2023-07-29T09:25:16 | 0 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/uapb-kappas-earn-award-as-top-chapter/ |
WASHINGTON -- The United States 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, 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 deter China from considering attacking, by providing Taipei enough weaponry that it would make the price of invasion too high.
The package is in addition to nearly $19 billion in military sales of F-16s and other major weapons systems that the U.S. has approved for Taiwan. Delivery of those weapons has been hampered by supply chain issues that started during the covid-19 pandemic and have been exacerbated by the global defense industrial base pressures created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The difference is that this aid is part of a presidential authority approved by Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles -- so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales. This gets weapons delivered faster than providing funding for new weapons.
The Pentagon has used a similar authority to get billions of dollars worth of munitions to Ukraine.
Taiwan split from China in 1949 amid civil war. Chinese President Xi Jinping maintains China's right to take over the now self-ruled island, by force if necessary. China has accused the U.S. of turning Taiwan into a "powder keg" through the billions of dollars in weapons sales it has pledged.
The U.S. maintains a "One China" policy under which it does not recognize Taiwan's formal independence and has no formal diplomatic relations with the island in deference to Beijing. However, U.S. law requires a credible defense for Taiwan and for the U.S. to treat all threats to the island as matters of "grave concern."
Getting stockpiles of weapons to Taiwan now, before an attack begins, is one of the lessons the U.S. has learned from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Pentagon deputy defense secretary Kathleen Hicks told The Associated Press earlier this year.
Ukraine "was more of a cold-start approach than the planned approach we have been working on for Taiwan, and we will apply those lessons," Hicks said. Efforts to resupply Taiwan after a conflict erupted would be complicated because it is an island, she said.
China regularly sends warships and planes across the center line in the Taiwan Strait that provides a buffer between the sides, as well as into Taiwan's air defense identification zone, in an effort to intimidate the island's 23 million people and wear down its military capabilities.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for China's embassy in Washington, said in a statement Friday 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.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/us-announces-345-million-in-taiwan-military-aid/ | 2023-07-29T09:25:22 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/us-announces-345-million-in-taiwan-military-aid/ |
Waste Management plans to take public safety in Central Arkansas to a new height.
The corporate security team of the national company, which handles trash and recycling collection in many parts of central Arkansas, is training local drivers to work in tandem with law enforcement personnel.
Drivers learn how to be more aware of their surroundings, taking notice of what may seem different or out of place and alert authorities.
Like postman who are out in the streets, Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde said, "we have people who are going through our neighborhoods on a regular basis."
The local program was announced at the adjournment of the quarterly board meeting of the Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District at the Waste Management's Recycling Facility in the Port of Little Rock. Hyde, Pulaski County government's chief executive official, is chairman of the Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District.
The Waste Watch program began in Forest Grove, Oregon, in 2004 and has spread to more than 100 communities across North America since.
According to Jamie Vernon, a representative for Waste Management, 60 route operators in Central Arkansas have already been trained for the new program. While drivers won't have direct communication to law enforcement dispatchers, there will be a radio present in all trucks that will allow operators to reach Waste Management channels, which can be relayed to local law enforcement.
A Sherwood police officer present at the announcement spoke highly of Waste Management's willingness to reveal video evidence to law enforcement in the past. This looks to be continuing with the Waste Watch program, as law enforcement officials will have the ability to access footage from cameras mounted on Waste Management trucks.
The program's emphasis on a "see something, say something" mentality hopes to get more eye witnesses in the case of suspicious activity. The program has some local detectives optimistic about finding more eye witnesses, and in turn building better cases against criminal suspects.
"Eye witnesses go a long way," said Chris Manning, a detective with the Pulaski County sheriff's office. "There are way more eyeballs than there are cameras."
Besides just an increase in witnesses, Manning is also optimistic more cases will be closed thanks to this initiative from Waste Management.
"Having extra eyes in the street, having these extra people see, will most likely help us greatly," Manning said. "Even if it is 1 percent [better]."
Waste Management is attempting to use its strengths. With drivers who see the same homes every single day, they are hoping more drivers will notice when something looks out of place.
"The real bottom line to this, for me, is Waste Management is being the best corporate citizen they can be," Hyde said. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/waste-truck-crews-to-aid-public-safety/ | 2023-07-29T09:25:28 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/waste-truck-crews-to-aid-public-safety/ |
The First Amendment prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and the freedom of assembly.
Today one hears increased rumblings about U.S. Christian nationalism, an anti-democratic notion that the United States is a nation by and for Christians alone.
When thinking about American history, too many people forget about the original indigenous Americans with their religious practices and the fact that, along with Christians, many of the initial immigrants to the North American colonies had Jewish and Muslim backgrounds.
There have been Jewish communities in the United States since colonial times. They were primarily immigrants from Brazil, England, and the Netherlands (Amsterdam). About Muslim "immigrants," scholars estimate that as many as 30 percent of the African slaves brought to the U.S. from West and Central African countries, like Gambia and Cameroon, were Muslim.
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809, was most comfortable not with Christianity but with philosophical Deism, based on rational thought without any reliance on revealed religions or religious authority. He also coined the phrase "wall of separation between church and state" in his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists of Connecticut.
If the founders had not made their stance on this "Christian nation" issue clear enough in the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, they certainly did so in Article 11 of the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli.
Begun by George Washington, signed by John Adams, and ratified unanimously by a Senate still half-filled with signers of the Constitution, this treaty announced firmly and flatly to the world that "the government of the United States of America, is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley recently displayed his Christian nationalism (and historical ignorance) when he tweeted a quote falsely attributed to a "founding father," claiming the United States was founded "on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
In September last year, during a speech titled "Biblical Revolution" at the National Conservatism Conference in Miami, Hawley said, "We are a revolutionary nation precisely because we are the heirs of the revolution of the Bible. ... Without the Bible, there is no America."
At its core, Christian nationalism threatens the principle of the separation of church and state and undermines religion and the state. We would strongly argue that the separation of church and state protects the "church."
Christian nationalism is a virus that threatens many countries worldwide, especially as more countries shift to the far right. We can think immediately of Brazil, Hungary, Poland, and, most alarmingly, Russia.
Thinking about next year's U.S. presidential campaign, we are sure Christian nationalists will be active. We are committed Christians and Americans, but find U.S. Christian nationalism too much associated with racism, white supremacy, and political violence.
Once seen as a fringe viewpoint, Christian nationalism now has a foothold in American politics, particularly in the contemporary Republican Party, according to a 2023 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the Brookings Institution. More than half of today's Republicans believe the country should be a strictly Christian nation, either adhering to the ideals of Christian nationalism (21 percent) or sympathizing with those views (33 percent).
According to the PRRI survey, 50 percent of Christian nationalism adherents, and nearly four in 10 sympathizers, said they support the idea of an authoritarian leader to keep "Christian values" in society. As Robert P. Jones, the president and founder of the nonpartisan PRRI, stressed when the survey results were published in February 2023, "it's a sizeable minority that is not only willing to declare themselves opposed to pluralism and democracy, but are also willing to say, 'I am willing to fight and either kill or harm my fellow Americans to keep it that way.'"
Christian nationalism is a Christian challenge at home and abroad because it is not Christian.
As Christians, we are bound to Christ by citizenship and faith. Far too often, linking religious authority with political authority leads to the oppression of marginalized groups and the spiritual impoverishment of religion.
Christians must speak in one voice condemning Christian nationalism because it is a deceptive and dangerous distortion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
John A. Dick was born and raised in Michigan and currently lives in Belgium, where he is a retired professor of historical theology and religion and values in U.S. society. His most recent book is "Paul's Man in Washington," about Archbishop Jean Jadot, Apostolic Delegate to the United States from 1973 to 1980. Richard Emmel is a Little Rock teacher. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/worldwide-peril/ | 2023-07-29T09:25:34 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/29/worldwide-peril/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — The explosion early on a June morning ignited a blaze that engulfed a New York City shop filled with motorized bicycles and their volatile lithium-ion batteries. Billowing smoke quickly killed four people asleep in apartments above the burning store.
As the ubiquity of e-bikes has grown, so has the frequency of fires and deaths blamed on the batteries that power them, prompting a campaign to establish regulations on how the batteries are manufactured, sold, reconditioned, charged and stored.
Consumer advocates and fire departments, particularly in New York City, are urging the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to establish mandatory safety standards and confiscate noncompliant imports when they arrive at the border or shipping ports, so that unsafe e-bikes and poorly manufactured batteries don't reach streets and endanger homes.
During a forum focused on e-bikes and lithium-ion batteries held Thursday in Bethesda, Maryland, the commission's chair, Alexander D. Hoehn-Saric, said it was an "urgent moment" that requires attention.
“Voluntary standards are not enough," he said, siding with fire officials and other safety advocates who expressed broad support for mandatory standards for batteries and electrical systems in micromobility devices that include battery-powered scooters, bicycles and hoverboards.
These aren't typical fires, said New York City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh. The batteries don't smolder; they explode.
“The number of fire incidents has rapidly increased. Other cities across the country have begun seeing these issues as well, and municipalities that are not yet experiencing this phenomenon may be facing similar incidents in the future," Kavanagh told the commission. "We have reached a point of crisis in New York City, with ion batteries now a top cause of fatal fires in New York."
With some 65,000 e-bikes zipping through its streets — more than any other place in the U.S. — New York City is the epicenter of battery-related fires. There have been 100 such blazes so far this year, resulting in 13 deaths, already more than double the six fatalities last year.
Nationally, there were more than 200 battery-related fires reported to the commission — an obvious undercount — from 39 states over the past two years, including 19 deaths blamed on micromobility devices.
Hoehn-Saric called on Congress to strengthen the commission's authority so it can "move rapidly toward establishing mandatory standards" that could reduce destructive and deadly fires caused by malfunctioning lithium-ion batteries. The task is being spearheaded by Democratic members in New York's congressional delegation, including U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres.
Because mandatory standards don't exist, Schumer said, poorly made batteries have flooded the U.S., increasing the risk of fires.
In many cases, authorities have been challenged to track the source of batteries manufactured overseas, many of them bought online or from aftermarket dealers.
Earlier this year, New York City urgently enacted a sweeping package of local laws intended to crack down on defective batteries, including a ban on the sale or rental of e-bikes and batteries that aren't certified as meeting safety standards by an independent product testing lab.
The new rules also outlaw tampering with batteries or selling refurbished batteries made with lithium-ion cells scavenged from used units.
Meanwhile, New York City officials also announced they had received a $25 million federal grant for e-bike charging stations across the city, which fire marshals hope will reduce the risk of fires.
“When they fail, they fail quite spectacularly," Kavanagh said in interview last week. "Once one of these ignites, there is a huge volume of fire, often so much so that the person in their home can't get out and the firefighters can't get in to get them."
Such was the case in April when two siblings, a 7-year-old boy and his 19-year-old sister, died when a scooter battery ignited a fire in Queens.
Because of the fire hazard, some residential buildings have banned e-bikes. Last summer, the New York City Housing Authority sought to prohibit tenants in all of its 335 developments from keeping or charging e-vehicles in their units, only to back down a few months later after protests from delivery workers.
Use of motorized bicycles grew dramatically in the city during the COVID-19 pandemic as homebound people turned more to food delivery workers for meals and groceries.
With the rash of fires, delivery workers like Lizandro Lopez say they are now more mindful about precautions.
“As soon as the battery is charged, I disconnect it. You shouldn't leave it charging for too long," Lopez said in Spanish, "because if you leave it on there too long, that's when you can cause a fire."
Los Deliveristas Unidos, which represents app-based delivery workers in the New York area, estimates that fewer than 10% of e-bikes sold in the city have been deemed safe by a third-party evaluator, such as UL Solutions, a product testing company that certifies safety compliance for a host of electrical products, including Christmas lights and televisions.
E-bike batteries rely on the same chemistry to generate power as the lithium-ion batteries in cellphones, laptops and most electric vehicles — products that were initially prone to overheating.
Tighter regulations, safety standards and compliance testing drastically reduced the risk of fires in such devices, according to Robert Slone, the senior vice president and chief scientist for UL Solutions.
The same can happen with e-bike batteries, he said, if they are made to comply with established safety standards. One feature most of these batteries lack is the ability to automatically shut off to prevent overheating and "thermal runaways" that lead to explosions and fires.
“We just need to make them safe, and there is a way to make them safe through testing and certification," Slone said, "given the history that we've seen in terms of fires and injuries and unfortunately, deaths as well — not just in New York, but across the country and around the world."
Last year, some 1.1 million e-bikes were imported into the U.S., according to the Light Electric Vehicle Association, an industry group. In 2021, more than 880,000 e-bikes came into the country — about double from the year before and triple the number in 2019.
Many of the batteries now on the road are substandard or aftermarket products that are known fire hazards but are popular with delivery workers because they are cheaper.
PeopleForBikes Coalition, an industry trade group, called on the government Thursday to close off the borders to unsafe lithium-ion batteries.
“If the agency follows through and creates these regulations, those regulations alone won't be enough," Matt Moore, the group's general and policy counsel, told the commission.
Even with new rules and standards, he said, overseas sellers and manufacturers could still ship possibly unsafe products to the United States.
“Our research has shown there are over 400 online sellers of e-bikes who are not our members, companies that are not present in the United States except to sell their products to consumers," he said, including generic products and accessories that falsely claim they are certified. | https://www.postregister.com/features/smart_living/as-e-bikes-proliferate-so-do-deadly-fires-blamed-on-exploding-lithium-ion-batteries/article_4333a0e8-2cde-11ee-879f-07c4ad82feda.html | 2023-07-29T09:25:54 | 1 | https://www.postregister.com/features/smart_living/as-e-bikes-proliferate-so-do-deadly-fires-blamed-on-exploding-lithium-ion-batteries/article_4333a0e8-2cde-11ee-879f-07c4ad82feda.html |
SEATTLE (AP) — In 2016, hospitals in New York state identified a rare and dangerous fungal infection never before found in the United States. Research laboratories quickly mobilized to review historical specimens and found the fungus had been present in the country since at least 2013.
In the years since, New York City has emerged as ground zero for Candida auris infections. And until 2021, the state recorded the most confirmed cases in the country year after year, even as the illness has spread to other places, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data analyzed by The Associated Press.
Candida auris is a globally emerging public health threat that can cause severe illness, including bloodstream, wound and respiratory infections. Its mortality rate has been estimated at 30% to 60%, and it's a particular risk in healthcare settings for people already with serious medical problems.
Last year, the most cases were found in Nevada and California, but the fungus was identified clinically in patients in 29 states. New York state remains a major hotspot.
A prominent theory for the sudden explosion of Candida auris, which was not found in humans anywhere until 2009, is climate change.
Humans and other mammals have warmer body temperatures than most fungal pathogens can tolerate, so have historically been protected from most infections. However, rising temperatures can allow fungi to develop tolerance to warmer environments, and over time humans may lose resistance. Some researchers think this is what is already happening with Candida auris.
The pathogen emerged spontaneously 14 years ago on three continents, in Venezuela, India, and South Africa. Fungal disease expert Arturo Casadevall, a microbiologist, immunologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University, said this was puzzling, because the climates in these places are quite different.
“We have tremendous protection against environmental fungi because of our temperature. However, if the world is getting warmer and the fungi begin to adapt to higher temperatures as well, some ... are going to reach what I call the temperature barrier," Casadevall said, referring to the way mammals' warm body temperatures historically protected them.
When Candida auris was first spreading, said Meghan Marie Lyman, a CDC medical epidemiologist for the mycotic diseases branch, the cases were linked to people who had traveled to the U.S. from other places. Now, most cases are acquired locally — generally spreading among patients in healthcare settings.
In the U.S., there were 2,377 confirmed clinical cases diagnosed last year — an increase of over 1,200% since 2017. But Candida auris is becoming a global problem. In Europe, a survey last year found case numbers nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021.
“The number of cases has increased, but also the geographic distribution has increased," Lyman said. She noted that while screenings and surveillance have improved, the skyrocketing case numbers do reflect a true increase.
In March, a CDC press release noted the seriousness of the problem, citing the pathogen's resistance to traditional antifungal treatments and the alarming rate of its spread. Public health agencies are focused primarily on strategies to urgently mitigate transmission in healthcare settings.
“It's kind of an active fire they're trying to put out," Lyman said.
Dr. Luis Ostrosky, a professor of infectious diseases at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, thinks Candida auris is "kind of our nightmare scenario."
“It's a potentially multi-drug resistant pathogen with the ability to spread very efficiently in healthcare settings," he said. "We've never had a pathogen like this in the fungal infection area."
It is nearly always resistant to the most common class of antifungal medication, and is sometimes also resistant to another medication primarily used for severe catheter fungal infections in hospitals.
“I've encountered cases where I'm sitting down with the family and telling them we have nothing that works for this infection your loved one has," Ostrosky said.
Ostrotsky has treated about 10 patients with the fungal infection but has consulted on many more. He said he has seen it spread through an entire ICU in two weeks.
Researchers, academics, and public health groups are discussing and investigating theories that explain the emergence of Candida auris. Ostrosky said that climate change is the most widely accepted one.
The CDC's Lyman said it's possible the fungus was always among the microorganisms that live in the human body, but because it wasn't causing infection, no one investigated until it recently started causing health problems. She also said there are reports of the fungus in the natural environment — including soil and wetlands — but environmental sampling has been limited, and it's unclear whether those discoveries are downstream effects from humans.
“There are also a lot of questions about there being increased contact with humans and intrusion of humans into nature, and there have been a lot of changes in the environment, and the use of fungi in agriculture," she said. "These things may have allowed Candida auris to escape into a new environment or broaden its niche."
Wherever and however it originated, the fungus poses a significant threat to human health, researchers say. Immunocompromised patients in hospitals are most at risk, but so are people in long-term care centers and nursing homes, which generally have less access to diagnostics and infection control experts.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a collaboration between The Associated Press and Grist exploring the intersection of climate change and infectious diseases.
Candida auris is not only challenging to treat, but also difficult to diagnose. It is quite rare and many clinicians are not aware it exists.
Common symptoms of infection include sepsis, fever, and low blood pressure, which all can have many causes. The fungus is diagnosed with a blood test. Blood is placed in a nutrient-rich medium to allow any infectious organism to grow and become more detectable.
But Ostrosky notes this misses about half the cases. "Our gold standard is a little bit better than flipping a coin," he said, adding there is a newer technology that improves bloodstream detection but it's expensive and not widely available in hospitals.
Beyond the increase in cases, popular culture has helped increase awareness of fungal infections. A popular HBO series, "The Last of Us," is a drama about the survivors of a fungal outbreak. A fungal infection that can transform humans into zombies is a work of fiction, but addressing climate change, which is altering the kinds of diseases seriously threatening human health, is a real world challenge.
“I think the way to think about how global warming is putting selection pressure on microbes is to think about how many more really hot days we are experiencing," said Casadevall of Johns Hopkins. "Each day at (100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 37.7 degrees Celsius) provides a selection event for all microbes affected — and the more days when high temperatures are experienced, the greater probability that some will adapt and survive."
“We've been flying under the radar for decades in mycology because fungal infections didn't used to be frequently seen," said Ostrosky of UTHealth Houston. | https://www.postregister.com/features/smart_living/dangerous-fungus-is-becoming-more-prevalent-scientists-believe-climate-change-could-be-to-blame/article_2e4097ec-2cdc-11ee-a983-5bab6a90e495.html | 2023-07-29T09:26:00 | 1 | https://www.postregister.com/features/smart_living/dangerous-fungus-is-becoming-more-prevalent-scientists-believe-climate-change-could-be-to-blame/article_2e4097ec-2cdc-11ee-a983-5bab6a90e495.html |
Since 2009, the federal minimum wage has stalled at $7.25, or just over $15,000 annually, for full-time hours, leaving individual states to pick up the slack. While minimum wages have been rising steadily in many states and cities across the US, only a few offer salaries that meet their actual living wage.
Some employers overcome this deficit by adjusting starting wages according to region. For example, a forklift operator in San Francisco could earn a higher salary than a forklift operator in Alabama. But even with these wage adjustments, a second source of income is often needed to enjoy a comfortable and financially stable lifestyle.
Research conducted by tech experts Hostinger calculated each state's average wages and compared them to an estimated living wage. A "living wage" includes essential household expenditures and minimal creature comfort needs.
Hostinger's researchers determined the difference between a state's average salaries and their estimated living wage to determine the top 10 states where a side hustle is most needed.
Here are the top 10 states where workers would benefit most from a side hustle or passive income:
MississippiMississippi's living wage is $32,573, but the average annual salary is $40,090. This creates a financial cushion of only $7,517. A steady side hustle such as freelance writing, local food delivery, or independent consulting could add thousands of dollars to the household budget.
South CarolinaSouth Carolina holds the second position on the shortlist, with a living wage of$36,338 and an average salary of $44,380. This leaves a difference of $8,042 per year, so a second source of income would help most households become more comfortable, especially in expensive coastal regions.
HawaiiThe state of Hawaii has long been recognized as one of the most expensive to live and work in, with an estimated living wage o$45,739 and an average salary of $54,930. The $9,191 difference may sound substantial, but the overall cost of living creates a need for additional household income.
ArkansasIn fourth place is Arkansas, with a relatively low living wage of $32,344 but an average salary of $42,690. The $10,346 difference becomes less of a cushion for workers who live in larger metropolitan areas.
LouisianaLouisiana comes in fifth in the study, offering a living wage of $33. 592 and an average salary of $44,170. The higher paying jobs in Louisiana tend to be located in coastal regions, historically more expensive than cities further inland. A $10,378 difference can be bolstered with a steady side hustle or passive income source.
IdahoIdaho ranks sixth on the list, with a living wage of $33,613 and an average salary of $44,890. The $11,277 financial cushion does not consider the number of workers with much lower wages or the cost of living in a more rural state. A side hustle involving remote work is strongly advised.
MaineThe New England state of Maine also made the list, with an estimated living wage of $37,190 and average salaries of $48,470. This leaves only an $11,280 difference, which can make a living in working in Maine's more prominent cities more challenging. Fortunately, there are several opportunities to earn a second income in the tourism trade.
West VirginiaThose who find employment in West Virginia can anticipate an annual living wage of $32,136 and an average salary of $43,420. However, the higher cost of living in one of West Virginia's larger cities affects the real spending power of the $11,284 difference. A good side hustle earning at least $5,000 annually will considerably improve a worker's quality of life.
MontanaMontana is the 9th state where workers may need supplemental income through side hustles or passive income. The state's living wage is estimated at $33.946, with an average salary of $45,370. This leaves a residual wage of $11,424, representing what workers earn after subtracting essential living expenses. A steady side hustle, such as freelance writing or tutoring, can add several thousand dollars to the average household income.
AlabamaAlabama rounds out the list of states where side incomes may be necessary. The calculated living wage is $33,093, with an average salary of $44,930. This represents a residual wage of $11,837, but other factors must be considered. The average salary incorporates high-paying jobs in tech fields and poverty-level unskilled labor. Finding a second source of income in more rural areas could be essential to economic survival.
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Tell us your personal accounts and the history behind articles. | https://www.postregister.com/features/smart_living/do-the-side-hustle-ten-states-where-second-jobs-may-be-necessary/article_03c851aa-2cda-11ee-960c-eb5f0aa774c6.html | 2023-07-29T09:26:06 | 0 | https://www.postregister.com/features/smart_living/do-the-side-hustle-ten-states-where-second-jobs-may-be-necessary/article_03c851aa-2cda-11ee-960c-eb5f0aa774c6.html |
100 years agoHarold Vallrath, 18, was brought back from Pocatello and put in the Bonneville County Jail this week in July 1923 on a charge of grand larceny stemming from his alleged theft of a car. Vallrath was accused of stealing a Ford “Bug” belonging to Olive Nunn from the yard of her Canal Street residence in the early morning hours of July 29. On receiving the report, Sheriff C.E. Criddle immediately alerted the law enforcement in Bannock County, advising them to be on the lookout. Two hours later, the sheriff’s office reported that Vallrath and the car had been located in Inkom. Vallrath reportedly had tried to cash a check in payment for gas. Suspicions aroused, the station operator called the sheriff, who asked for a description. An arrest followed, and Miss Nunn’s car was restored to her possession that afternoon.
75 years agoAn 11-month-old baby was killed and eight members of his family injured in a July 29, 1948, auto accident at Warm River, raising the eastern Idaho traffic death toll for the year to 15. Police said Wilbert Batt, son of Robert and Frieda Batt, was killed when the 1937 Ford sedan being driven by his father plunged off a 92-foot embankment and rolled several times. Fremont County Sheriff’s Deputy Lloyd Smith said the steering mechanism apparently froze. Seven members of the family were treated for shock, bruises and lacerations but not hospitalized. The baby’s uncle, Ronald George, was reported in fair condition.
50 years agoThe Atomic Energy Commission was being guarded with information this week in 1973 about which route nuclear fuel elements were going to take on their way from Las Vegas to the National Reactor Testing Station west of Idaho Falls. AEC’s public information officer said the decision about the mode of transportation and the route the radioactive fuel elements would take would not be made for another three or four months. The AEC had announced earlier in the month that it was sending the fuel to NRTS in order for enriched uranium estimated worth $25 million to be recovered. AEC Spokesman David Miller said the material would be encased in Department of Transportation-approved shipping casks weighing 42,800 pounds apiece, each carrying a payload of 500 pounds.
25 years agoAn electrician at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory was killed and 12 others were injured this week in 1998 when carbon dioxide from a fire suppression system discharged at a site facility. Officials said Kerry K. Austin, 47, died of asphyxiation at a Pocatello hospital following the July 29 accident, the first fatality at INEEL since 1996, when a contractor fell from scaffolding. Paramedics rushed 12 others to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center after the accident, which happened at the Test Reactor Area. Three were hospitalized, with two reported in critical condition and the third listed as serious. A hospital spokeswoman said one man underwent surgery for cuts he suffered from breaking a window as he tried to escape the building. A spokeswoman for INEEL contractor Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies said a crew had been performing routine maintenance when the fire retardant accidentally discharged in the enclosed area. Typically an alarm would have sounded, but a power interruption may have caused the alarm to malfunction, she said.
Paul Menser is the author of “Legendary Locals of Idaho Falls.”
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Every July, we celebrate our nation’s independence with respect for our past and an eye for the future. Too often, we fail to remember a key lesson from our founders. They disagreed vigorously about how to govern our nation in the chambers of Independence Hall. Even as they shared the cost of standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the battlefield, they embraced the challenge of building a country free of unelected kings with citizens empowered to pursue self-governance.
But they did not reach an agreement overnight, and no single individual who participated in the process received 100% of what they wanted. Our modern-day politics need a refresher on this reality.
We disagree daily on a multitude of issues. This disagreement can provide an avenue for finding ways to reach a consensus and improve our state. Unfortunately, we see outsiders attempting to disrupt our healthy disagreement in Idaho with a toxic brand of violence and intimidation.
There are too many examples recently of individuals who reject the due process promised by our Constitution in favor of schoolyard bullying and veiled threats. There is a better way. When we lose campaigns, we work harder next time. When we disagree on policy, we shouldn’t stoop to personal attacks. This approach requires us to stay in the arena and engage on the issues.
Utah’s Gov. Spencer Cox, the current chair of the National Governors’ Association, introduced a new initiative earlier this month called Disagree Better. His proposal isn’t about avoiding hard issues or conflict. Of course, being nicer to each other is needed, but the primary purpose of Disagree Better focuses on how we can make disagreement into something useful that helps us as elected leaders do a better job of solving our problems.
Rather than checking out or refusing to engage on policy when we disagree, we step up and embrace healthy conflict to find a solution to the issues our constituents need solved. We believe that healthy conflict and different perspectives can produce meaningful change for Idahoans. Our Founding Fathers set the example of leading through disagreement and conflict. It’s what the vast majority of Idahoans expect and want from their elected leaders too.
We can deliver this kind of leadership in Idaho, but it will require us to engage more with those who may not see issues the way we see them. No longer can we retreat to the safety of our political tribes. Our doors need to be open, and we can all do better.
This nation was built by people who showed up and stayed in the room until the job was done. We owe it to the heroes who risked everything to make this a more perfect union by turning down the political temperature and engaging in difficult conversations.
Signed by the Main Street Idaho Caucus: Sens. Treg Bernt, Van Burtenshaw, {span}Kevin Cook,{/span} Jim Guthrie, Todd Lakey, Abby Lee, Dave Lent, Doug Ricks, Geoff Schroeder, Chuck Winder, Linda Wright-Hartgen and Julie VanOrden; Reps. Rick Cheatum, Chenele Dixon, Rod Furniss, Dan Garner, Greg Lanting, Lori McCann, Stephanie Mickelsen, Jack Nelsen, Britt Raybould, Jerald Raymond, Mark Sauter, Jon Weber, Josh Wheeler and Julie Yamamoto. Learn more at idahomainstreet.org.
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On Memorial Day at 11 a.m., I suddenly heard my wife’s voice say, “Help!”
She had finished baking cookies, trying to shut off the oven, sensing something was wrong. Her memory had drawn a complete blank. I gave her two aspirins and dialed 911. The response from the paramedics and Fire Department was immediate. At the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center Emergency, a team of expert physicians and assistants immediately performed life-saving care. A stroke had affected her memory and speech. The professionals gave her around-the-clock care the rest of the day and on through the night.
The next day her memory returned, once again speaking to us. Dr. Hills, the neurologist, explained the recovery event that the MRI was showing. He brought many of these professionals into my wife’s room mid-afternoon so they could celebrate the rapid recovery of my wife. Follow-up duties were explained to us to lessen the chance of recurrence. We are grateful to these true professionals: Idaho Falls paramedics and Fire Department, the EIRMC neurologist and cardiologist, consulting physicians, all of the nurses and assistants, Chaplin Pam the Presbyterian, and the friends and family members who prayed for my wife. We thank our Lord, the great physician who is always there to bring us true hope and recovery. A top shelf performance. We are forever thankful. Always.
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Ray Johnson pulled no punches in a letter printed here that excoriates the Post Register. There is no question that there are many more left-leaning contributors published in the Post Register versus those of conservatives. I don’t, however, agree with Ray that the Post Register is not an honest, straight news source.
The Post Register posts every single one of my submissions that are highly critical of leftists. The Post Register printed your letter, Ray. If there is a high number of left submissions versus those on the right printed, I am 100% positive it’s not due to the Post Register suppressing or not publishing right-of-center submissions.
Now if the Post Register were like the Idaho Capital Sun, where there are zero right-of-center contributors and their contributions are 100% curated based on editorial discretion, then perhaps you would have a point, Ray.
I know many right-of-center people who feel that the left bias of the Post Register is too much to handle and have canceled their subscriptions. This is ridiculous on its face, as folks have just decided that if the publication they subscribe to doesn’t believe the way they do and lets people communicate ideas they disagree with, well, we can’t have that, so they cancel their subscriptions. Dumb. Flat out dumb. If you don’t like what you are reading and disagree, the answer isn’t to withdraw from the fight. The answer is to fight back.
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It was late at night, I was miles from the nearest trailhead and fast asleep in my tiny tent not far from a nearby trail when a sound, then a light woke me up. A beam of a headlamp flashed across my tent. I sat up in my sleeping bag and watched a hiker silently disappear down the nearby trail. My clock said it was 2:07 a.m. Weird.
Going on a three-day backpacking trip into the Cecil D. Andrus-White Clouds Wilderness area last week was bittersweet.
I couldn’t stop thinking about taking my beloved golden retriever Sunny into this same area on his last hike before his body said no more because of old age issues. He was always a great and willing adventure buddy.
Last week I decided I needed a “shakedown hike” to test out all my gear and see what was working and what needed tweaking.
My route was a trail off the East Fork of the Salmon River — the south side of the wilderness area. I hiked up the Germania Creek Trail (FS 111) for about 4.5 miles and turned up the Chamberlain Creek Trail (FS 110).
My goal was eventually to get to the famed Chamberlain Basin at the foot of Castle Peak. I started the hike about mid-afternoon so I didn’t expect to get to the basin the first day, but I had serious issues with the Chamberlain Creek Trail. The trail is obviously in need of some TLC. In many sections, it was more of a wish than an actual trail (very overgrown), and its other sections, mega downfall — like giant, foot-thick pickup sticks — covered the trail for 50 yards or more causing hike-arounds that would make me lose the trail for as much as a quarter of a mile at a time. I just kept hiking in the general direction I thought the trail should go, bushwhacking, and maybe a half hour later, finally picking up the trail, only to lose it again. My trail-finding intuition was working overtime.
I wanted to plop down and camp somewhere but didn’t dare after seeing all the downfall. Downed trees everywhere caused me to look at all the trees along this canyon as potential widowmakers ready to crush me in the middle of the night. (As my Dad used to say, “You don’t want to go to sleep and wake up dead.") So I kept hiking and eventually arrived and camped at the first big lake at the foot of Castle Peak. (The fear of widowmakers wasn’t just imagined because I did see one tree crash to the ground during this hike.)
Another thing I learned on this hike is apparently my right leg is tastier than my left. Experts agree two out of three biting flies and mosquitoes prefer munching on Jerry’s right leg over his left. (It still itches several days later.)
I would put Chamberlain Basin on the must-do list of every backpacker in the state of Idaho. Yeah, it’s that good. (Just don’t hike up Chamberlain Creek Trail to get there.)
I had the basin all to myself. There was still enough daylight for me to set up camp, eat and gawk at the view of 11,815-foot Castle Peak. From the basin, it’s in your face.
The next morning, I tried my luck fishing in the lake. I brought along a small, collapsible spinning rod. But no luck. I saw a few risers but they seemed to be way out there.
There is a one-way trail (about 1.5 miles) that visits other lakes in the basin, but I decided that because I didn’t want to return back down the horrific trail FS 110, I would save my energy for the longer hike back along the Livingston Mill-Castle Divide Trail (FS 047), an extra 5 or more miles on the return trip. This route is well-defined, and the way most people get into the basin is by coming from the Fourth of July Lake area. I did take one section of trail between FS 047 and the Washington Lake Creek Trail (FS 203) that was lightly used and often overgrown — causing me to employ my hiker’s intuition again, but not nearly as bad or dire as on FS 110. I also had trouble reconciling my map (National Geographic Sawtooth National Recreation Area 807) with what was actually on the ground. The trail I took looped back into the Germania Creek Trail farther upstream from the ill-fated FS 110 route.
After about 10 miles, I settled into a flat spot to spend the night near the junction with the “trail” FS 110.
After setting up camp, I fished Germania Creek and landed trout and watched a few chasers.
That night I saw the silent hiker pass by at 2:07 a.m. I guessed he was on his way to climb Castle Peak, or maybe he just liked hiking at night.
The only other person I saw on the trail was a few miles from the finish, a dirt biker riding all the way from the Grand Prize area, about 20 miles away.
The quick trip served its purpose to test my gear setup. No matter how much you backpack, every trip seems to teach something new. Perhaps in a future column, I’ll share gear lessons learned. | https://www.postregister.com/outdoors/chamberlain-basins-alpine-beauty-worth-the-hike/article_5e3de3ca-2b04-11ee-885a-1fa1c15f07e9.html | 2023-07-29T09:26:37 | 0 | https://www.postregister.com/outdoors/chamberlain-basins-alpine-beauty-worth-the-hike/article_5e3de3ca-2b04-11ee-885a-1fa1c15f07e9.html |
A quick inspection of the foundation of my home revealed the mother nest of the carpenter ants invading my second-story bedroom. The nest was directly below the window, and although I believe that I have killed the satellite nest, this one was still very active.
If I had been doing even cursory inspections, this nest should have been obvious. Since it was against a concrete foundation, though, I may have paid little attention to it since ants don’t eat concrete. However, I wasn’t doing inspections, and I didn’t understand the significance of what was there — two critical factors in keeping a home safe from spineless invaders.
If you want to protect your home from the creepy and the crawly, there are a number of steps you can take. First, do an inspection of your outside foundation and framing. Look for cracks, dried caulk, holes and separations around windows, doors, pipes, vents and electrical cords that can let invertebrate-sized critters into your home. Realize that it only takes a tiny hole. Once entry points are identified, fill them with the appropriate sealant.
Second, make an occasional inspection on the inside of your house. This is more problematic if it is a crawl space, but still needs to be done. Look for signs of insects such as carcasses, piles of wood dust (such as I found in my window) and obvious nests. If you find more than just a little bit, it is time to call the exterminator.
Next, remove leaves and mulch from around the foundation. Keep this area clear. Experts don’t agree on how far away from your home this clean barrier should be, but a foot out is a good place to start. Also, don’t stack any sort of wood or anything else against the foundation. Keep all of it at least 12 feet from the house.
Don’t store trash cans near the house, and make sure trash is removed routinely. Colonies of creatures such as roaches can multiply quickly in trash where humidity and food availability make for ideal breeding grounds.
Kitchens are often the source of many insect infestations. Crumbs on counters and floors are just free food, there is a trash can with very attractive odors, and there is the kitchen sink with a dark and often dank cabinet underneath it. Some insects thrive in humid conditions such as those provided by a leaky supply or drain pipe, and, face it, who checks under the kitchen sink? A good daily clean-up and quick repair of leaky pipes and damp corners will go far in discouraging six-legged visitors.
I also use sticky traps in strategic places (corners, behind beds and other places where I am not likely to step on them) as much as a monitoring device as actual control. It can be shocking just what you catch over a period of months before dust makes the adhesive ineffective.
Termites, considered the most destructive of all house guests, deserve a section all to themselves. Of the four species in Idaho, the subterranean termite is considered the most damaging and widespread. Watch out for mud tubes (inside or outside the house) that go across concrete, brick or even wood. These termites build colonies underground and transport food — your house — in these tunnels. If you discover mud tunnels, experts say do not disturb them. Colonies can easily move and will do so with little provocation. That means that the hunt for damage begins again. Just note the location and call an exterminator. Another sign of termites is small piles of tiny, pellet-shaped, sawdust-like droppings on the floor near the walls.
Insects, spiders, centipedes and millipedes are all part of the natural web of life. As such, they all play essential roles. By no means am I suggesting an all-out war on invertebrates, but when our homes become their homes, a line has to be drawn. Just remember that insects are the most prevalent life form on the planet. If they so choose, these spineless creatures could overwhelm us fairly quickly. Détente, not annihilation, is the goal.
Terry Thomas is a wildlife biologist and naturalist. You can read more of his work on his website, www.nature-track.com, or pick up a copy of “The Best of Nature,” a collection of more than 100 of Thomas’s best nature essays at the Post Register. Follow him on Facebook, Nature-track.
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In this photo provided by Brian Williams, a whale approaches his father, Kevin Williams, while he was paddleboarding in Prince William Sound near Whittier, Alaska, on July 13, 2023.
Kevin Williams survived a close encounter with a humpback whale, not even getting wet during a tense few seconds caught on camera by friends and family as a whale surfaced near him.
In this photo provided by Brian Williams, a whale approaches his father, Kevin Williams, while he was paddleboarding in Prince William Sound near Whittier, Alaska, on July 13, 2023.
Brian Williams via AP
Kevin Williams survived a close encounter with a humpback whale, not even getting wet during a tense few seconds caught on camera by friends and family as a whale surfaced near him.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska man on a paddleboard escaped a close encounter with a humpback whale, not even getting wet during a tense few seconds caught on camera by friends and family as the giant creature surfaced right in front of him then glided under his board.
“It's just so massive. You're puny against this whale," Kevin Williams of Anchorage said Thursday, a week after his adventure with an adult humpback whale in Prince William Sound. Adult females can weigh up to 70,000 pounds (31,700 kilograms) and average about 49 feet (15 meters) in length, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Males are a little smaller.
Williams said anyone who claims they wouldn't be afraid in that situation is crazy.
“If you have a whale that doesn't know you were there and is that close, that's not a good situation," he said. One flick of the animal's fin "or anything it does could be the end of my life."
Williams, his son Brian and a couple other friends were paddleboarding or kayaking in the sound just off Whittier, located about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Anchorage.
They had seen the whale in the fjord, which is about 2 miles (3 kilometers) wide. Williams said he was slower than his friends, who were about 200 feet (60 meters) ahead of him.
The whale began to approach his friends, but they were close to the shoreline so he figured the whale would run out of room and reverse course. He thought he was in the safest spot since he was trailing the group.
The whale went underwater for about 45 seconds, longer than he had noticed it dive before.
“And it surfaced right in front of me, coming towards me," Williams said. "Whoa! I love to see whales up close, but I'm on a paddleboard."
As the whale slipped below the water again and turned on its side, he could see the white of its belly slowly gliding underneath, about 3 feet (1 meter) under the surface.
The whale's pectoral fin was sticking a few feet out of the water, and Williams feared the creature might flip over as it swam below him, or he might topple off the board and land on its stomach.
“If I fell down, you know, my feet could have easily been on that whale — tickling that whale or whatever," he said.
To steady himself in case the fin hit, he braced his knees together, kneeled, then lowered himself on all fours.
As the whale passed under him "there was hardly any turbulence, and I didn't get wet," he said, adding that it's rare for people to get hurt by whales.
Still, the experience won't keep Williams off the water. He plans another paddleboarding trip later Thursday.
“I'll never stop, and this is once in a lifetime," he said.
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Caught on camera: Bear takes dip in swimming pool during extreme heat
Published: Jul. 29, 2023 at 3:47 AM CDT|Updated: 40 minutes ago
BURBANK, Calif. (CNN) - Humans aren’t the only creatures trying to find ways to stay cool in the extreme hot temperatures.
One bear tried to beat the heat by taking a dip in a jacuzzi.
It happened Friday in Burbank, California.
According to the Burbank Police Department, officers were responding to reports of a bear sighting.
When they arrived, they found the bear sitting in a jacuzzi behind one of the homes.
However, the bear then got out of the hot tub, scaled a wall and climbed a tree.
The city of Burbank is under a heat advisory until Saturday night.
Copyright 2023 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbay.com/2023/07/29/caught-camera-bear-takes-dip-swimming-pool-during-extreme-heat/ | 2023-07-29T09:27:33 | 0 | https://www.wbay.com/2023/07/29/caught-camera-bear-takes-dip-swimming-pool-during-extreme-heat/ |
Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:
Colson Whitehead channels the paranoia and fear of 1970s NYC in 'Crook Manifesto': "My early '70s New York is dingy and grimy," the Pulitzer Prize-winning author says. Whitehead's sequel to Harlem Shuffle centers on crime at every level, from small-time crooks to Harlem's elite.
Crime writer S.A. Cosby loves the South — and is haunted by it: Cosby's novel All the Sinners Bleed centers on a Black sheriff in a small Southeast Virginia county. The novel was inspired by his own experiences growing up in the shadow of the Confederacy.
You can listen to the original interviews and review here:
Colson Whitehead channels the paranoia and fear of 1970s NYC in 'Crook Manifesto'
Crime writer S.A. Cosby loves the South — and is haunted by it
Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air. | https://www.ctpublic.org/2023-07-29/fresh-air-weekend-colson-whitehead-s-a-cosby | 2023-07-29T09:27:38 | 1 | https://www.ctpublic.org/2023-07-29/fresh-air-weekend-colson-whitehead-s-a-cosby |
The barnstorming hockey league that is 3ICE pulled into Agganis Arena on Wednesday night, nearly a half-century after another start-up sports enterprise with high hopes, the Boston Lobsters, landed their World Team Tennis shop around the corner at Walter Brown Arena.
The Lobsters, born as the Philadelphia Freedoms (cue: Elton John), moved here and played four seasons on the Boston University campus — and eventually other New England courts — across four seasons (1975-78). Like the rest of the league, they had a roster with a smattering of headliners, including a 20-year-old Martina Navratilova, Tony Roche, and rising South African star Greer Stevens.
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Yet on Oct. 27, 1978, with WTT unable to establish a foothold in the burgeoning American sports infrastructure, Lobsters owner Robert Kraft called it game, set, and match for his big-time sports hopes. That’s the same Robert Kraft, by the way, who now owns and operates the multibillion-dollar pigskin enterprise along Route 1 in Foxborough.
So, yes, dreams like 3ICE, the league invented by Boston-born E.J. Johnston, certainly can come true. They always take time to mature and typically see their initial business model go through numerous iterations, the latter usually to court and accommodate TV interest.
Above all, more than ever in the 21st century, entrepreneurial dreams require a humongous tub of money and a deep reservoir of courage to spend it.
“Every startup league, you have to be able to muscle through the [financial] losses,” noted an optimistic Johnston, explaining his ambitious 3ICE vision to a visitor at Agganis.
Asked about the timeline to build out 3ICE as he imagines, Johnston added, “Oh, you’ve always got a burn rate, right?”
Amen that. With growth comes the demand to push more money to the middle of the table, all the while hoping, fingers crossed, fans will buy it.
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The last local guy to see a true sports startup bloom in full was Billy Sullivan, the amicable ex-sportswriter who made the AFL’s Boston Patriots a reality in 1959 for the league’s charter franchise fee of $25,000 (roughly the cost then of 10-12 new cars).
That’s another familiar lesson about startups: It’s not always the guy with the vision who enjoys the riches. In 1994, Kraft paid $174 million (roughly half a Jaylen Brown) to purchase the Patriots, but by then the Sullivan family was long out of the business. They could take due pride in what they started. But it was Kraft who ultimately ran that vision off to the bank.
Johnston, son of former Bruins goaltender Eddie Johnston, launched 3ICE last year. It’s a league stocked with largely unknown players, a total of seven on each team (six skaters and a goalie), who play a dizzying three-on-three version of the game. It’s shaped loosely on the three-on-three overtime format used in the NHL. Games are played in two eight-minute halves and in running time, though the clock is stopped for penalty shots — awarded liberally, in lieu of players being sent to the penalty box.
In a league of unknown players, the coaches are the headliners. The stop here had four teams, coached respectively by ex-Bruins star Ray Bourque, former Canadiens pivot Guy Carbonneau, ex-Boston College/NHL sniper Joey Mullen, and ex-Rangers/Team USA general manager Craig Patrick.
Each of the six tour stops this season crowns a champion, and on Wednesday, the Bourques beat the Patricks in the final, 6-3. Earlier in the night, the Bourques beat the Mullens in a squeaker, 5-4, with Team Joey failing to convert a rare pair of penalty shots, the second of which was assessed when the referee slapped a technical on the Team Bourque player for arguing the initial call.
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“Yeah, haven’t seen that before,” Bourque said postgame outside his club’s dressing room. “And you know what? The next one might have been on me if the ref skated by our bench and heard what I was saying.”
Bourque signed on to coach this season in part because it gave him the chance to coach sons Ryan, 32, and Chris, 37, for the first time since their high school days. Chris was in uniform on Wednesday and scored a goal. Ryan, meanwhile, landed a coaching job with the US National Team Development Program, ending his 3ICE tenure.
Papa Bourque, 62, hasn’t decided if he’ll be back for another season, but he is intrigued by the product.
“It’s fun, it’s entertaining, the kids are great,” he said. “The guys in charge are really excited about this. They want to create something for girls, young kids, international play.”
Rich Krezwick, the former president of TD Garden and now 3 ICE adviser, already is booking building dates for next season. There no doubt will be changes in Year 3, he said, as the league looks for more hooks to woo more customers.
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“Every startup is an adventure,” said Krezwick, “and that’s the exciting part.”
CBS has held the TV rights for the first two seasons. Per Johnston, talks begin after this season with CBS and other potential networks about future broadcast rights.
“Our task now is fundraising,” he said. “Raising awareness and getting flag wavers. Flag wavers would be like NHL, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada . . . people we can do solid collaborations with . . . that combo unlocks the value of our business.”
A gathering of just less than 2,000 fans spread out in the Agganis stands for Wednesday night’s show, right in line with the 2,191 who filed into Walter Brown for that first Lobsters home match on May 22, 1975.
Johnston dreamed it, built it, now he finds out if they’ll come.
Next stop for the 3ICE tour: Wednesday night in Clarksville, Tenn. The league championship will be played Aug. 12 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
“They want it to be fun,” said Bourque. “They want it to be big. I think it has a shot.”
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/29/sports/how-three-on-three-hockey-league-is-trying-break-ice/ | 2023-07-29T09:27:38 | 1 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/29/sports/how-three-on-three-hockey-league-is-trying-break-ice/ |
Fresh charges tie Trump even more closely to coverup effort. That could deepen his legal woes
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a stunning new allegation in an already serious case: Former President Donald Trump sought to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation into his handling of classified documents.
The latest criminal charges unsealed Thursday deepen Trump’s legal jeopardy, alleging a more central role for the former president than previously known in a cover-up that prosecutors say was meant to prevent them from recovering top-secret documents he took with him after he left the White House. Coming as Trump braces for possible additional indictments related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the new allegations strengthen special counsel Jack Smith’s already powerful case against Trump while undercutting potential defenses floated by the former president, experts say.
“Before these new charges, you could maybe try some sort of defense that ‘this was all a mistake, it was my staff’ or confusion about what documents he actually had,” said former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason, a George Washington University law professor.
“But especially now, when you’re trying to destroy video footage,” he added, “that’s kind of the final nail in the coffin. I don’t see much in the way of a defense, not a real defense. All he can do is claim he’s being persecuted and hope for a holdout juror or something.”
Trump resorted to that familiar playbook on Friday, writing in a post on his Truth Social platform that “this is textbook Third World intimidation by rabid, lawless prosecutors.” He insisted during an interview with radio host John Fredericks that he did nothing wrong and accused prosecutors of trying to intimidate his staff into making up lies about him.
Later Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Mar-a-Lago security tapes were voluntarily handed over to prosecutors. Trump said he was told they were not “deleted in any way, shape or form.”
The new Florida charges came as a surprise given that Trump and his legal team have been focused on the prospect of an additional indictment in Washington — possibly within days — related to his efforts to cling to power after he lost to President Joe Biden. Trump received a letter this month informing him that he’s a target in that probe, and his lawyers met Thursday with special counsel Jack Smith’s office.
Hours after that meeting, Smith revealed the new classified documents case charges on top of a 38-count indictment issued last month against Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta. The updated indictment includes a detailed chronology of phone conversations and other interactions between Trump, Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira, in the days after the Justice Department last June drafted a subpoena for security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago.
Video from the home would ultimately become vital to the government’s case because, prosecutors said, it shows Nauta moving boxes in and out of a storage room — an act alleged to have been done at Trump’s direction and in an effort to hide records not only only from investigators but Trump’s own lawyers.
The day after a draft subpoena was sent to the Trump Organization, the indictment says, Trump called De Oliveira and spoke with him for about 24 minutes. Though the details of that conversation are not included in the indictment, De Oliveira is described by prosecutors as asking a Mar-a-Lago information technology staffer several days later how long the server retained footage for and is quoted as telling the employee that “the boss” wanted it deleted.
Lawyers for Nauta, who has pleaded not guilty, and De Oliveira declined to comment on the allegations. De Oliveira is expected to make his first court appearance in Miami on Monday.
To the extent that evidence of Trump’s involvement in trying to delete video is circumstantial rather than direct, it might present a challenge for prosecutors, said David Aaron, a former Justice Department national security prosecutor who has worked on cases involving the mishandling of classified documents.
But if they can tie the effort to Trump, he added, “it’s devastating in its own right, because it doesn’t matter at that point what he thought he had the right to do, or whatever other defense he’s going to have about the classified documents. That’s in and of itself very bad.”
It could also help prosecutors establish that Trump knew what he was doing was wrong because “you only delete video of what you’ve done if you think it’s going to get you in trouble,” Aaron said. And Trump’s own accusations against others, like his claims against Hillary Clinton, his opponent in the 2016 presidential race, could boomerang against him.
Trump has claimed that Clinton deleted emails from her private server for the purpose of obstructing a criminal investigation into her own handling of classified information — something the FBI and Justice Department never alleged — but now stands himself accused of scheming to delete evidence he feared would be incriminating.
“He has specifically criticized other public figures for deleting data when he says they thought they were going to be in trouble,” Aaron said. “So if you needed to prove his consciousness of guilt, it’s not just an obvious thing that you would ask the jury to rely on common sense for — he’s actually made statements about what it means when someone does this.”
Trump and Nauta are set for trial next May, though it’s not clear if that date will hold.
Smith’s team also added a new count of willful retention of national defense information related to a classified document about a Pentagon plan of attack on a foreign country prosecutors say Trump showed off during a July 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey resort.
That charge comes after Trump repeatedly claimed he didn’t have any secret documents when he spoke, only magazine and newspaper clippings, even though an audio recording captured him saying “this is secret information.” The document was returned to the government in January 2022, months before the subpoena for classified records.
It’s not clear why prosecutors moved now to indict another one of Trump’s underlings, though bringing charges against De Oliveira that could carry significant prison time adds serious pressure on him, potentially increasing the odds that he could decide to cut a plea deal and cooperate.
“But, you know, Trump seems to inspire a lot of loyalty, at least in some people,” Eliason said. “Maybe they are holding out for the idea that he is reelected and he can pardon them.”
____
Richer reported from Boston.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbay.com/2023/07/29/fresh-charges-tie-trump-even-more-closely-coverup-effort-that-could-deepen-his-legal-woes/ | 2023-07-29T09:27:40 | 0 | https://www.wbay.com/2023/07/29/fresh-charges-tie-trump-even-more-closely-coverup-effort-that-could-deepen-his-legal-woes/ |
Caught on camera: Bear takes dip in swimming pool during extreme heat
Published: Jul. 29, 2023 at 4:47 AM EDT|Updated: 39 minutes ago
BURBANK, Calif. (CNN) - Humans aren’t the only creatures trying to find ways to stay cool in the extreme hot temperatures.
One bear tried to beat the heat by taking a dip in a jacuzzi.
It happened Friday in Burbank, California.
According to the Burbank Police Department, officers were responding to reports of a bear sighting.
When they arrived, they found the bear sitting in a jacuzzi behind one of the homes.
However, the bear then got out of the hot tub, scaled a wall and climbed a tree.
The city of Burbank is under a heat advisory until Saturday night.
Copyright 2023 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wsaz.com/2023/07/29/caught-camera-bear-takes-dip-swimming-pool-during-extreme-heat/ | 2023-07-29T09:28:35 | 1 | https://www.wsaz.com/2023/07/29/caught-camera-bear-takes-dip-swimming-pool-during-extreme-heat/ |
WASHINGTON — Yellow, the beleaguered trucking company that received a $700 million pandemic loan from the federal government, notified staff Friday that it is shutting down and laying off employees at all of its locations.
The move comes before an expected bankruptcy filing by Yellow in the coming days. The closure of the company would mean the loss of approximately 30,000 jobs and mark the end of a business that just three years ago was deemed so critical to the nation’s supply chains that it warranted a federal bailout.
“The company is shutting down its regular operations on July 28, 2023, closing and/or laying off employees at all of its locations, including yours,” the company said in a memo to staff that was reviewed by The New York Times.
Yellow has been locked in protracted labor negotiations with International Brotherhood of Teamsters over a new contract that the company has said is essential to its ability to move forward with a restructuring plan.
As of the end of March, Yellow’s outstanding debt was $1.5 billion, including about $730 million that is owed to the federal government. Yellow has paid approximately $66 million in interest on the loan, but it has repaid just $230 of the principal owed on the loan, which comes due next year.
Yellow is one of the largest freight trucking companies in the United States, and its downfall could have a ripple effect across the nation’s supply chain. Its impending bankruptcy comes days after UPS reached an agreement with the union representing more than 325,000 of its U.S. workers, averting a strike.
Yellow’s management and union negotiators have been trying to reach an agreement over wages and other benefits but failed to clinch a deal.
The fate of Yellow’s assets is not yet clear. In 2020, the Trump administration, which had ties to the company and its executives, agreed to give the firm a pandemic relief loan in exchange for the federal government assuming a 30% equity stake in the company.
Yellow said last month that it sought the assistance of the Biden administration in brokering a deal with the union. The White House had no comment this week on the situation.
A company official said Thursday that Yellow was preparing for “a range of contingencies” but that talks with the union were continuing. On Friday, a spokesperson for the company declined to comment on the firm’s future.
The Teamsters on Friday warned in a letter to local unions representing Yellow workers that the likelihood of the company’s survival was “increasingly bleak.”
“We recommend that all Yellow employees who have personal belongings and tools at the terminals should take them home today,” wrote John Murphy, co-chair of the Teamsters freight industry negotiating committee.
As Yellow’s bankruptcy became more likely this week, shippers were diverting freight away from its network and its stock price plunged.
Analysts at the financial services firm Stephens estimated that the company could be burning through as much as $10 million in cash per day. In a note to clients, the analysts said that the lost business and the threat of a strike had left the trucking company “mortally wounded” and that the firm could reach the “end of the road.”
Financial woes at Yellow, which previously went by the name YRC Worldwide, have been building for years.
In July 2020, the Treasury Department announced it was giving a $700 million loan to the trucking company, helping it to stay afloat. But the loan immediately raised questions, in part because the firm was struggling financially and was being sued by the Justice Department over claims that it had defrauded the federal government for a seven-year period. The company ultimately agreed to pay $6.85 million to resolve those allegations. | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/after-700-million-u-s-bailout-trucking-firm-yellow-is-shutting-down/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2023-07-29T09:28:35 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/after-700-million-u-s-bailout-trucking-firm-yellow-is-shutting-down/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Caught on camera: Bear takes dip in swimming pool during extreme heat
Published: Jul. 29, 2023 at 2:47 AM MDT|Updated: 39 minutes ago
BURBANK, Calif. (CNN) - Humans aren’t the only creatures trying to find ways to stay cool in the extreme hot temperatures.
One bear tried to beat the heat by taking a dip in a jacuzzi.
It happened Friday in Burbank, California.
According to the Burbank Police Department, officers were responding to reports of a bear sighting.
When they arrived, they found the bear sitting in a jacuzzi behind one of the homes.
However, the bear then got out of the hot tub, scaled a wall and climbed a tree.
The city of Burbank is under a heat advisory until Saturday night.
Copyright 2023 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.kmvt.com/2023/07/29/caught-camera-bear-takes-dip-swimming-pool-during-extreme-heat/ | 2023-07-29T09:28:35 | 0 | https://www.kmvt.com/2023/07/29/caught-camera-bear-takes-dip-swimming-pool-during-extreme-heat/ |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Salvage crews were preparing Saturday to tow a car-carrying cargo ship that has been burning for days to an anchor point in the North Sea after flames and smoke on board subsided, the Dutch government said.
Fire erupted in the Fremantle Highway late Tuesday night near a chain of islands in the northern Netherlands and has been blazing ever since. The ship is carrying 3,783 new vehicles, including 498 electric vehicles, the company that chartered the vessel said.
One crew member died and others were injured after the fire broke out on the ship that was heading from Bremerhaven in Germany to Singapore. The crew was evacuated in the early hours of Wednesday. The cause of the fire has not been established.
Measurements Friday showed that heat, flames and smoke had subsided enough for salvage experts to board the ship for the first time and establish a strong towing connection with a tugboat, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management said.
It will be towed, likely over the weekend, to a new position 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of the island of Schiermonnikoog , the ministry said in a statement. The timing of the operation that is expected to take 12-14 hours depends on smoke development and weather, the ministry added. The aim is ultimately “once conditions on board allow,” to tow the ship to a port, though the destination has not yet been decided.
The ministry said the ship is stable and intact below the waterline.
The burning vessel is 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 near the Netherlands’ border with Germany, whose environment minister, Steffi Lemke, has warned of “an environmental catastrophe of unknown proportions,” if the ship were to sink. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/world/burning-cargo-ship-off-dutch-coast-will-be-towed-to-a-new-location-after-flames-and-smoke-subsided/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2023-07-29T09:28:36 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/world/burning-cargo-ship-off-dutch-coast-will-be-towed-to-a-new-location-after-flames-and-smoke-subsided/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
SYDNEY (AP) — At this year’s Women’s World Cup, fans are seeing some greats of the game slow down while younger talents put on a show.
Among the seasoned veterans, Alexander Popp seems to showing no signs of fatigue.
The Germany captain started and scored two goals in her team’s opening 6-0 win over Morocco. Germany plays Colombia on Sunday in a match that should decide the Group H winner.
Having Popp on the field “is really, really dangerous” for Germany’s opponents, said teammate Lina Magull, who played with Popp at VFL Wolfsburg from 2012-2015.
Greats of the game at this Women’s World Cup include U.S. duo Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, Canadian forward Christine Sinclair, and Marta, the Brazilian regarded as possibly the greatest women’s player of all time.
None of these players really ignited their team’s performances in the first week of the tournament. Morgan and Sinclair both have missed penalties. Sinclair was benched for the start of a game for the first time in her international career in Canada’s game against Ireland.
Sam Kerr, Australia’s star striker, missed the Matildas’ first two games because of a calf injury. She announced Saturday she will play in Australia’s must-win match against Canada on Monday.
Popp also has experience of injuries keeping her out of major tournaments and big moments.
In the Euros in 2022, she was injured in the warm-ups ahead of the final against England, possibly costing Germany the championship at a tournament where Popp took the golden boot for top scorer. In 2013 and 2017, Popp missed the Euros due to knee injuries.
“We try to take preventive measures; the players know what they need to do,” Germany coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg said.
Nobody, not even the 32-year-old Popp herself, is sure if this will be her last World Cup. But, unlike other superstars who might be playing on this stage for the final time, Popp is leading the line for her country.
“She radiates a lot of confidence,” Magull said. “She is the leader of the team, that’s why she’s captain.”
One of the younger players in the spotlight in this Women’s World Cup will be on the field with Popp on Sunday. Colombia’s 18-year-old Linda Caicedo, a pacey and skillful Real Madrid winger, showed her talents with a goal against South Korea.
Brazil’s Ary Borges, 23, announced herself to the world with a hat trick and an assist in Brazil’s opening 4-0 win over Panama.
Sophia Smith of the U.S., Lauren James of England, Sophia Braun of Argentina and even Popp’s German teammate Jule Brand are names that people likely will come to know. They all have registered at least one goal or assist at the Women’s World Cup.
Germany hopes experience will prevail over youth, and Popp can lead the team on another Women’s World Cup title run.
Popp won the golden boot in the domestic league with Wolfsburg, tallying 16 goals this season.
Her health and ability to put the ball in the back of the net might be the difference in Germany winning a third Women’s World Cup, and first since 2007. On the squad since 2010, Popp played for Germany when it won the 2016 Olympic gold medal.
“It is great to play together with her,” Magull said. “I appreciate her as a player but especially as a person.”
—-
Clay Witt is a student at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
—-
AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/soccer/germanys-popp-is-one-of-the-greats-shining-among-young-stars-at-the-womens-world-cup/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2023-07-29T09:28:38 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/soccer/germanys-popp-is-one-of-the-greats-shining-among-young-stars-at-the-womens-world-cup/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Fresh charges tie Trump even more closely to coverup effort. That could deepen his legal woes
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a stunning new allegation in an already serious case: Former President Donald Trump sought to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation into his handling of classified documents.
The latest criminal charges unsealed Thursday deepen Trump’s legal jeopardy, alleging a more central role for the former president than previously known in a cover-up that prosecutors say was meant to prevent them from recovering top-secret documents he took with him after he left the White House. Coming as Trump braces for possible additional indictments related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the new allegations strengthen special counsel Jack Smith’s already powerful case against Trump while undercutting potential defenses floated by the former president, experts say.
“Before these new charges, you could maybe try some sort of defense that ‘this was all a mistake, it was my staff’ or confusion about what documents he actually had,” said former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason, a George Washington University law professor.
“But especially now, when you’re trying to destroy video footage,” he added, “that’s kind of the final nail in the coffin. I don’t see much in the way of a defense, not a real defense. All he can do is claim he’s being persecuted and hope for a holdout juror or something.”
Trump resorted to that familiar playbook on Friday, writing in a post on his Truth Social platform that “this is textbook Third World intimidation by rabid, lawless prosecutors.” He insisted during an interview with radio host John Fredericks that he did nothing wrong and accused prosecutors of trying to intimidate his staff into making up lies about him.
Later Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Mar-a-Lago security tapes were voluntarily handed over to prosecutors. Trump said he was told they were not “deleted in any way, shape or form.”
The new Florida charges came as a surprise given that Trump and his legal team have been focused on the prospect of an additional indictment in Washington — possibly within days — related to his efforts to cling to power after he lost to President Joe Biden. Trump received a letter this month informing him that he’s a target in that probe, and his lawyers met Thursday with special counsel Jack Smith’s office.
Hours after that meeting, Smith revealed the new classified documents case charges on top of a 38-count indictment issued last month against Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta. The updated indictment includes a detailed chronology of phone conversations and other interactions between Trump, Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira, in the days after the Justice Department last June drafted a subpoena for security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago.
Video from the home would ultimately become vital to the government’s case because, prosecutors said, it shows Nauta moving boxes in and out of a storage room — an act alleged to have been done at Trump’s direction and in an effort to hide records not only only from investigators but Trump’s own lawyers.
The day after a draft subpoena was sent to the Trump Organization, the indictment says, Trump called De Oliveira and spoke with him for about 24 minutes. Though the details of that conversation are not included in the indictment, De Oliveira is described by prosecutors as asking a Mar-a-Lago information technology staffer several days later how long the server retained footage for and is quoted as telling the employee that “the boss” wanted it deleted.
Lawyers for Nauta, who has pleaded not guilty, and De Oliveira declined to comment on the allegations. De Oliveira is expected to make his first court appearance in Miami on Monday.
To the extent that evidence of Trump’s involvement in trying to delete video is circumstantial rather than direct, it might present a challenge for prosecutors, said David Aaron, a former Justice Department national security prosecutor who has worked on cases involving the mishandling of classified documents.
But if they can tie the effort to Trump, he added, “it’s devastating in its own right, because it doesn’t matter at that point what he thought he had the right to do, or whatever other defense he’s going to have about the classified documents. That’s in and of itself very bad.”
It could also help prosecutors establish that Trump knew what he was doing was wrong because “you only delete video of what you’ve done if you think it’s going to get you in trouble,” Aaron said. And Trump’s own accusations against others, like his claims against Hillary Clinton, his opponent in the 2016 presidential race, could boomerang against him.
Trump has claimed that Clinton deleted emails from her private server for the purpose of obstructing a criminal investigation into her own handling of classified information — something the FBI and Justice Department never alleged — but now stands himself accused of scheming to delete evidence he feared would be incriminating.
“He has specifically criticized other public figures for deleting data when he says they thought they were going to be in trouble,” Aaron said. “So if you needed to prove his consciousness of guilt, it’s not just an obvious thing that you would ask the jury to rely on common sense for — he’s actually made statements about what it means when someone does this.”
Trump and Nauta are set for trial next May, though it’s not clear if that date will hold.
Smith’s team also added a new count of willful retention of national defense information related to a classified document about a Pentagon plan of attack on a foreign country prosecutors say Trump showed off during a July 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey resort.
That charge comes after Trump repeatedly claimed he didn’t have any secret documents when he spoke, only magazine and newspaper clippings, even though an audio recording captured him saying “this is secret information.” The document was returned to the government in January 2022, months before the subpoena for classified records.
It’s not clear why prosecutors moved now to indict another one of Trump’s underlings, though bringing charges against De Oliveira that could carry significant prison time adds serious pressure on him, potentially increasing the odds that he could decide to cut a plea deal and cooperate.
“But, you know, Trump seems to inspire a lot of loyalty, at least in some people,” Eliason said. “Maybe they are holding out for the idea that he is reelected and he can pardon them.”
____
Richer reported from Boston.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wsaz.com/2023/07/29/fresh-charges-tie-trump-even-more-closely-coverup-effort-that-could-deepen-his-legal-woes/ | 2023-07-29T09:28:41 | 1 | https://www.wsaz.com/2023/07/29/fresh-charges-tie-trump-even-more-closely-coverup-effort-that-could-deepen-his-legal-woes/ |
Fresh charges tie Trump even more closely to coverup effort. That could deepen his legal woes
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a stunning new allegation in an already serious case: Former President Donald Trump sought to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation into his handling of classified documents.
The latest criminal charges unsealed Thursday deepen Trump’s legal jeopardy, alleging a more central role for the former president than previously known in a cover-up that prosecutors say was meant to prevent them from recovering top-secret documents he took with him after he left the White House. Coming as Trump braces for possible additional indictments related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the new allegations strengthen special counsel Jack Smith’s already powerful case against Trump while undercutting potential defenses floated by the former president, experts say.
“Before these new charges, you could maybe try some sort of defense that ‘this was all a mistake, it was my staff’ or confusion about what documents he actually had,” said former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason, a George Washington University law professor.
“But especially now, when you’re trying to destroy video footage,” he added, “that’s kind of the final nail in the coffin. I don’t see much in the way of a defense, not a real defense. All he can do is claim he’s being persecuted and hope for a holdout juror or something.”
Trump resorted to that familiar playbook on Friday, writing in a post on his Truth Social platform that “this is textbook Third World intimidation by rabid, lawless prosecutors.” He insisted during an interview with radio host John Fredericks that he did nothing wrong and accused prosecutors of trying to intimidate his staff into making up lies about him.
Later Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Mar-a-Lago security tapes were voluntarily handed over to prosecutors. Trump said he was told they were not “deleted in any way, shape or form.”
The new Florida charges came as a surprise given that Trump and his legal team have been focused on the prospect of an additional indictment in Washington — possibly within days — related to his efforts to cling to power after he lost to President Joe Biden. Trump received a letter this month informing him that he’s a target in that probe, and his lawyers met Thursday with special counsel Jack Smith’s office.
Hours after that meeting, Smith revealed the new classified documents case charges on top of a 38-count indictment issued last month against Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta. The updated indictment includes a detailed chronology of phone conversations and other interactions between Trump, Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira, in the days after the Justice Department last June drafted a subpoena for security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago.
Video from the home would ultimately become vital to the government’s case because, prosecutors said, it shows Nauta moving boxes in and out of a storage room — an act alleged to have been done at Trump’s direction and in an effort to hide records not only only from investigators but Trump’s own lawyers.
The day after a draft subpoena was sent to the Trump Organization, the indictment says, Trump called De Oliveira and spoke with him for about 24 minutes. Though the details of that conversation are not included in the indictment, De Oliveira is described by prosecutors as asking a Mar-a-Lago information technology staffer several days later how long the server retained footage for and is quoted as telling the employee that “the boss” wanted it deleted.
Lawyers for Nauta, who has pleaded not guilty, and De Oliveira declined to comment on the allegations. De Oliveira is expected to make his first court appearance in Miami on Monday.
To the extent that evidence of Trump’s involvement in trying to delete video is circumstantial rather than direct, it might present a challenge for prosecutors, said David Aaron, a former Justice Department national security prosecutor who has worked on cases involving the mishandling of classified documents.
But if they can tie the effort to Trump, he added, “it’s devastating in its own right, because it doesn’t matter at that point what he thought he had the right to do, or whatever other defense he’s going to have about the classified documents. That’s in and of itself very bad.”
It could also help prosecutors establish that Trump knew what he was doing was wrong because “you only delete video of what you’ve done if you think it’s going to get you in trouble,” Aaron said. And Trump’s own accusations against others, like his claims against Hillary Clinton, his opponent in the 2016 presidential race, could boomerang against him.
Trump has claimed that Clinton deleted emails from her private server for the purpose of obstructing a criminal investigation into her own handling of classified information — something the FBI and Justice Department never alleged — but now stands himself accused of scheming to delete evidence he feared would be incriminating.
“He has specifically criticized other public figures for deleting data when he says they thought they were going to be in trouble,” Aaron said. “So if you needed to prove his consciousness of guilt, it’s not just an obvious thing that you would ask the jury to rely on common sense for — he’s actually made statements about what it means when someone does this.”
Trump and Nauta are set for trial next May, though it’s not clear if that date will hold.
Smith’s team also added a new count of willful retention of national defense information related to a classified document about a Pentagon plan of attack on a foreign country prosecutors say Trump showed off during a July 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey resort.
That charge comes after Trump repeatedly claimed he didn’t have any secret documents when he spoke, only magazine and newspaper clippings, even though an audio recording captured him saying “this is secret information.” The document was returned to the government in January 2022, months before the subpoena for classified records.
It’s not clear why prosecutors moved now to indict another one of Trump’s underlings, though bringing charges against De Oliveira that could carry significant prison time adds serious pressure on him, potentially increasing the odds that he could decide to cut a plea deal and cooperate.
“But, you know, Trump seems to inspire a lot of loyalty, at least in some people,” Eliason said. “Maybe they are holding out for the idea that he is reelected and he can pardon them.”
____
Richer reported from Boston.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kmvt.com/2023/07/29/fresh-charges-tie-trump-even-more-closely-coverup-effort-that-could-deepen-his-legal-woes/ | 2023-07-29T09:28:41 | 0 | https://www.kmvt.com/2023/07/29/fresh-charges-tie-trump-even-more-closely-coverup-effort-that-could-deepen-his-legal-woes/ |
CANBERRA, Australia — Four air crew members were missing after an Australian army helicopter ditched into waters off the Queensland state coast during joint military exercises with the United States, officials said Saturday.
The MRH-90 Taipan helicopter went down near Lindeman Island, a Great Barrier Reef tourist resort, at about 11 p.m. Friday, exercise director Australian Army Brigadier Damian Hill said.
A search involving U.S., Canadian and Australian personnel was underway to find the crew who are all Australian men, officials said.
Debris that appeared to be from a helicopter had been recovered, Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Douglas McDonald said.
The Taipan was taking part in Talisman Sabre, a biennial joint U.S.-Australian military exercise that is largely based in Queensland. This year's exercise involves 13 nations and more than 30,000 military personnel.
Defense Minister Richard Marles said the helicopter ditched, which refers to an emergency landing on water.
"Defense exercises, which are so necessary for the readiness of our defense force, are serious. They carry risk," Marles told reporters in Brisbane. "As we desperately hope for better news during the course of this day we are reminded about the gravity of the act which comes with wearing our nation's uniform."
Hill said the exercise was postponed on Saturday morning but had restarted limited activity later in the day. Australia had grounded its Taipan fleet as a precaution, Hill said.
It was the second emergency involving an Australian Taipan this year, after one ditched into the sea off the New South Wales state coast in March. That helicopter was taking part in a nighttime counterterrorism training exercise when it ran into trouble. All 10 passengers and crew members were rescued.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Brisbane for a meeting on Saturday and is due to travel with Marles to north Queensland on Sunday to see the exercise.
Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid tribute to the missing air crew at the outset of a meeting with their Australian counterparts, Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
"It's always tough when you have accidents in training, but ... the reason that we train to such high standards is so that we can be successful and we can protect lives when we are called to answer any kind of crisis," Austin said.
"Our guys tend to make this look easy and they make it look easy because they're so well exercised and rehearsed and trained, and this is unfortunately a part of that, what it takes to get them to where we need them to be," Austin added.
Blinken said, "We're so grateful to them for their dedication, for their service, for everything they've been doing to stand up for the freedom that we share and that is what unites us more than anything else."
Marles thanked the United States for their contribution to the search and rescue effort.
The missing helicopter had just dropped off two Australian commandos before it hit the water, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Australia announced in January that its army and navy would stop flying the European-built Taipans by December 2024, 13 years earlier than originally planned, because they had proven unreliable. They will be replaced by 40 U.S. Black Hawks. Marles said at the time the Lockheed Martin-designed Black Hawks "have a really good proven track record in terms of their reliability."
Australia's Taipans had been plagued by problems since the first helicopter arrived in the country in 2007.
Australia's entire fleet of 47 Taipans was grounded in 2019 to fix a problem with their tail rotor blades. A year later, 27 Taipans were grounded because of a problem with doors.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2023-07-29/4-air-crew-members-are-missing-after-an-australian-army-helicopter-ditched-off-coast | 2023-07-29T09:29:32 | 0 | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2023-07-29/4-air-crew-members-are-missing-after-an-australian-army-helicopter-ditched-off-coast |
PHOENIX — A historic heat wave that turned the U.S. Southwest into a blast furnace throughout July is beginning to abate with the late arrival of monsoon rains.
Forecasters expect that by Monday at the latest, people in metro Phoenix will begin seeing high temperatures under 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) for the first time in a month. As of Friday, the high temperature in the desert city had been at or above that mark for 29 consecutive days.
Already this week, the overnight low at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport fell under 90 (32.2 C) for the first time in 16 days, finally allowing people some respite from the stifling heat once the sun goes down.
Temperatures are also expected to ease in Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Death Valley, California.
The downward trend started Wednesday night, when Phoenix saw its first major monsoon storm since the traditional start of the season on June 15. While more than half of the greater Phoenix area saw no rainfall from that storm, some eastern suburbs were pummeled by high winds, swirling dust and localized downfalls of up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) of precipitation.
Storms gradually increasing in strength are expected over the weekend.
Scientists calculate that July will prove to be the hottest globally on record and perhaps the warmest human civilization has seen. The extreme heat is now hitting the eastern part of the U.S, as soaring temperatures moved from the Midwest into the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, where some places are seeing their warmest days so far this year.
The new heat records being set this summer are just some of the extreme weather being seen around the U.S. this month, such as flash floods in Pennsylvania and parts of the Northeast.
And while relief may be on the way for the Southwest, for now it's still dangerously hot. Phoenix's high temperature reached 116 (46.7 C) Friday afternoon, which is far above the average temperature of 106 (41.1 C).
"Anyone can be at risk outside in this record heat," the fire department in Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, warned residents on social media while offering ideas to stay safe.
For many people such as older adults, those with health issues and those without access to air conditioning, the heat can be dangerous or even deadly.
Maricopa County, the most populous in Arizona and home to Phoenix, reported this week that its public health department had confirmed 25 heat-associated deaths this year as of July 21, with 249 more under investigation.
Results from toxicological tests that can takes weeks or months after an autopsy is conducted could eventually result in many deaths listed as under investigation as heat associated being changed to confirmed.
Maricopa County confirmed 425 heat-associated deaths last year, and more than half of them occurred in July.
Elsewhere in Arizona next week, the agricultural desert community of Yuma is expecting highs ranging from 104 to 112 (40 C to 44.4 C) and Tucson is looking at highs ranging from 99 to 111 (37.2 C to 43.9 C).
The highs in Las Vegas are forecast to slip as low as 94 (34.4 C) next Tuesday after a long spell of highs above 110 (43.3 C). Death Valley, which hit 128 (53.3 C) in mid-July, will cool as well, though only to a still blistering hot 116 (46.7 C).
In New Mexico, the highs in Albuquerque next week are expected to be in the mid to high 90s (around 35 C), with party cloudy skies.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2023-07-29/forecasters-say-southwest-temperatures-to-ease-some-with-arrival-of-monsoon-rains | 2023-07-29T09:29:38 | 1 | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2023-07-29/forecasters-say-southwest-temperatures-to-ease-some-with-arrival-of-monsoon-rains |
LIMA, Peru — Although the top tourist destination in Peru is the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, high in the Andes Mountains, the capital Lima also holds a treasure trove of ancient ruins — so many, in fact, that authorities can't take care of them all.
The city is home to more than 400 known pyramids, temples and burial sites, many of which predate the Incas and and are known in Spanish as "huacas." They sit next to modern shopping centers, hotels and highways or rise up in the middle of neighborhoods in this city of 11 million people. Meanwhile, archaeologists keep digging up new sites.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former Peruvian president who lives across the street from a pyramid called Huallamarca, built around 1,800 years ago, says with a smile: "I know where I am when I wake up in the morning. I'm in Peru!"
Due mostly to budget limitations, Huallamarca is one of only 27 sites in Lima that have been excavated, restored and opened to visitors, according to archaeologists who spoke with NPR.
Many other sites are deteriorating. Squatters have occupied some, and others have become de facto garbage dumps or gathering spots for drug users and homeless people.
"Everywhere you dig, you will find something — because Lima was home to great civilizations," says Micaela Álvarez, director of the museum at Pucllana, a massive pyramid in Lima's business district of Miraflores. "But it's impossible to save everything in a poor country."
Pucllana is one of the exceptions.
Thought to be about 1,500 years old, the pyramid was a ceremonial site for the Lima Indigenous group that gave this city its name. Excavations began in 1981 and continue today.
On a recent morning, workers scraped sand and dirt from part of the site that archaeologists are beginning to explore for the first time. Nearby, guides pointed to the intricate brickwork, which has withstood earthquakes, and then led visitors to the top of the 82-foot-tall pyramid for views of the Pacific Ocean.
Among the visitors was Manuel Larrabure, a professor at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania who was born and raised in Lima but had never been to Pucllana.
"It's very impressive," he said. "The tendency is to look outside of Lima for interesting things, but it's good to look inside and to appreciate our own culture. People are still getting to know these sites."
Before it was restored following the start of excavations some 40 years ago, Pucllana was routinely looted and abused. At one point, a factory was using Pucllana's sand and clay to make bricks. Tour guide Blanca Arista says the pyramid also served as a neighborhood playground — and a motocross track.
"It's unbelievable, but several groups were practicing motocross," she said. "So, imagine different groups riding motorcycles, riding bikes."
Indeed, Lima's ancient Indigenous sites have, more often, been desecrated instead of safeguarded, says Giancarlo Marcone, a Peruvian archaeologist and professor at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lima.
Some were bulldozed to make way for apartment blocks and streets amid a wave of migration from the countryside that began in the 1950s.
"That put a lot of pressure on the city, and we didn't have good planning," Marcone says. "Until recently, we didn't really care about what we had."
Attitudes shifted as Peruvians became more sensitive to their cultural heritage and the country's ancient sites began to attract more international tourists. Janie Gómez, who until April was deputy culture minister, said the government of President Dina Boluarte is committed to preserving these sites.
"Their recovery will prevent them from deteriorating and being invaded," she told the state-run Andina news agency in January. "The millennial history over which Lima was built must not be lost."
However, Peru is struggling to reduce poverty and improve hospitals and schools, Marcone says. Thus, governments have been unable or unwilling to finance robust excavations or to turn more than a few sites into tourist attractions. The result is that many have been left in limbo.
Rosa María Barillas, a Peruvian archaeology student who recently completed fieldwork at an ancient temple on the outskirts of Lima, recalls looters prowling the area.
"I had to chase them away," she says.
Other sites have been colonized by squatters. The archaeological complex at Mateo Salado, near Lima's international airport, features a beautifully restored 1,000-year-old pyramid, but is also home to several modern houses. Until 2013, when major restoration work began, farmers used the site to cultivate roses and neighborhood kids played soccer there.
In the working-class neighborhood of Los Olivos, a dusty, dun-colored archaeological site called Infantas I is hemmed in by streets and houses. Ashes from a campfire are smoldering while trash piles up in several areas. Three youths are smoking crack, and a shirtless man is digging up sand and putting it in sacks. The area is part of a series of temples, but has yet to be excavated.
Benito Trejo, who heads the neighborhood committee, calls Infantas I a headache.
"It's not a good thing, because these sites are ignored by the government which is supposed to look after them," he says.
There was no response to NPR's requests for comment from the Culture Ministry.
For now, archaeologists say that surrounding communities must get more involved in preserving and promoting the sites. Pucllana, for example, has been used for art exhibits, while other sites have hosted film screenings.
At Mateo Salado, fifth graders were recently visiting the site and drawing pictures of the ruins, which are part of their school logo.
"We shouldn't look at these sites simply as relics of the past," says Andrés Ramírez, one of the instructors. "They should be part of everyday society. That's what we are trying to promote."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2023-07-29/in-peru-discovery-of-ancient-ruins-outpaces-authorities-ability-to-care-for-them | 2023-07-29T09:29:44 | 0 | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2023-07-29/in-peru-discovery-of-ancient-ruins-outpaces-authorities-ability-to-care-for-them |
Ron DeSantis was involved in a traffic accident while in Chattanooga, Tenn., this week raising money for his presidential bid. The candidate was not injured, which may have been the single best piece of news the campaign has had in a while.
The other kind of news for the Florida Republican seemed to be everywhere and all at once. His campaign announced it was shedding a third of its staff and "retooling" its fundraising amid reports of donor desertion. The Associated Press referred to the campaign as "stalled," Rich Lowry of National Review used the words "faltering" and "diminished" in a piece for Politico. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, often a cheerleader for the governor, noted "the headlines say [the campaign] is in an unrecoverable dive."
The media critiques went beyond DeSantis' problems with staffing and fundraising to question his performance on the stump. Stories told of DeSantis "scolding" students at one event for wearing masks and snapping at reporters at a news conference.
Most troubling of all may have been DeSantis' problems with messaging. He has defended his administration's new Florida history curriculum, which alludes to "benefits" that enslaved people may have derived from their life in bondage – such as blacksmithing skills. That drew a rebuke from rival candidate Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who's Black, who said there had been no "silver lining in slavery."
DeSantis may have been expected to stand by his state's curriculum changes, but it was harder to understand why he reached for controversy by saying he might appoint Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as head of the FDA or the CDC. Kennedy, a Democrat, is also a candidate for president, and famous as a vaccine conspiracy theorist, harshly critical of the scientists who lead the federal health agencies.
Most candidates would not consider either slavery or RFK Jr. an issue to emphasize, much less the hill they would choose to die on.
Perceptions prompt comparison to former presidential hopeful Rick Perry
Perceptions of DeSantis have changed greatly since he won reelection in November 2022 by 20 points. In January he was seen as the foremost threat to Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, trailing the former president by just two percentage points in the 538.com average of national polls. As of this week, that gap has widened to 37 percentage points. DeSantis poll numbers have fallen by more than half as other candidates have entered the fray and taken a share. And that trendline has prompted comparisons to the recent history of another Sun Belt governor who had his eyes on the White House, Rick Perry of Texas.
A dozen years ago, Perry entered the GOP lists for the 2012 nomination against incumbent President Barack Obama. Having been elected and reelected in the nation's second most populous state, Perry had a gaudy list of endorsements and wealthy backers. His TV ads were impressive.
But Perry's in-person campaigning did not match expectations. After the first candidate debates of 2007 the buzz was all about his lackluster performances. Vowing to fight on, Perry pointed to a November debate where he hoped to turn things around. That was when he pledged to eliminate three cabinet level departments of the federal government if elected – Education, Commerce ... and he could not remember the third. After a fumbling pause he said: "Oops."
Needless to say, things did not get better after that. Crushed in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, Perry all but ignored New Hampshire to concentrate on South Carolina. But when his poll numbers there also sagged, he dropped out. In 2016, having just retired as the longest-tenured governor in Texas history, he tried again. But in a field of more than 15 candidates dominated by Trump, Perry barely registered. He dropped out before the Iowa caucuses.
Needless to say, no candidate for president wants to be compared to Rick Perry. But on Fox News on June 28, DeSantis told a Fox News host he would eliminate the same three departments as Perry — Education, Commerce and, as Perry had eventually remembered, Energy (which wound up being the department where Perry served as secretary under Trump). DeSantis threw in the IRS, too, which gave him a longer list than Perry's.
Throughout the agonizing train wreck that was the Perry campaign, the candidate seemed unable to understand that the persona and priorities that had lifted him to such success in Texas were not working the same on the national stage.
Can this campaign be saved?
DeSantis' campaign has reached the point where some observers wonder if it's too late to turn his fortunes around. They note that Trump's growing advantage over DeSantis in polls has been driven less by improving numbers for Trump than by deteriorating support for the Floridian.
But there are positives in this picture for the Florida governor. First, it is early — or at least relatively early — in the campaign season. The first voting activity leading to actual delegates being chosen does not happen until January 15, when Iowa holds its caucuses. That gives DeSantis and other candidates still seeking traction more than five months to find it. If the right formula can be found, there is time to follow it.
Second, the field is in some senses still unsettled. While half the Republican electorate may be satisfied with Trump, there is still the other half. And if the ever-mounting legal woes of the former president finally begin to erode the bedrock of his support, it may be possible for a single strong challenger to consolidate the opposition.
Third, there are beacons of hope for troubled candidates in recent presidential campaign history. By choosing to call the latest phase of his effort an "insurgency," DeSantis has acknowledged that he is battling the odds. Of course, when he adopted the campaign motto "The Great American Comeback," he was not expecting it to apply to his campaign.
The term "comeback" has long been associated with the first presidential push of a young Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton. Then 45, Clinton was seeking the Democratic nomination against the sitting president George H.W. Bush in 1992. Bush had been so popular following the success of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 that many ambitious Democrats in Washington thought it better to wait for the 1996 cycle to run. Clinton looked strong in the preliminary phase of the campaign but was on the ropes as the primaries began, battered by two potentially fatal blows.
Newspaper stories had highlighted steps he took to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War, and in a woman he had known in Arkansas named Gennifer Flowers told a supermarket tabloid the two had had a years-long affair. She repeated her story in a televised news conference.
Clinton stumbled to a distant third-place showing in the Iowa caucuses (won by a favorite son candidate, Tom Harkin) and fell far behind in New Hampshire. But on that state's primary night in February, Clinton in second place had closed the gap to single digits and won half the available delegates.
He went on TV to thank New Hampshire for making "Bill Clinton the comeback kid." The national media coverage largely followed that line, much to the distress of the primary's first-place winner, Sen. Paul Tsongas of neighboring Massachusetts. A few weeks later, on Super Tuesday, Clinton won most of the big state primaries, many of them in the South, and the lion's share of the delegates. He was soon cruising to the nomination.
McCain turned his ship around
More directly comparable to DeSantis' situation, and closer to his political home, was the turnaround achieved 16 years later by the campaign of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. A former POW in Vietnam who had made many friends in his time in the Senate, McCain was well known for his spirited "Straight Talk Express" campaign challenging George W. Bush for the GOP nomination in 2000. McCain came up short that time, but his profile was elevated in the Senate and he retained much of his appeal for independents.
But when it came to running another campaign, McCain quickly ran aground. The national agenda had changed over the two terms of the second President Bush, which included the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The man who had been New York City mayor during those attacks, Rudy Giuliani, was now running for president as "America's Mayor" and leading in national polls for a time.
Other notables in the field in 2007 included Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (now a senator from Utah) and Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas. McCain's standing in Iowa had suffered with his opposition to ethanol subsidies and he trailed Romney in polling in New Hampshire.
In the summer of 2007, with his early money drying up and fundraising slowed, McCain saw many news accounts of his flagging campaign. Some were ready to write him off. But that July he revamped his campaign from top to bottom and let go some longtime aides, including close friends, to begin anew. He seemed ready to do whatever it took, including altering his positions on key issues such as immigration.
By the time the campaign reached the voters in January 2008, the McCain operation had righted itself. After conceding Iowa to his rivals, McCain stormed back into contention with a smashing win in New Hampshire that netted him most of the delegates at stake.
As for one-time front-runner Giuliani, he had decided he did not need to go hard at Iowa and New Hampshire and concentrated instead on the late January primary in Florida. Giuliani finished third there, winning no delegates, and withdrew from the race the next day.
The following week brought Super Tuesday and a favorable mix of states for McCain, who won nine states to Romney's seven and Huckabee's five and pocketed most of the delegates. Romney then left the race and urged the other candidates and the party to unite behind McCain.
At such times in the past, struggling campaigns have rescued themselves with the right moves and a dose of luck. At other times, it has taken major missteps by front-running candidates to open the door. In DeSantis' case, it might well require both.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2023-07-29/presidential-primaries-have-seen-dramatic-comebacks-could-desantis-24-be-next | 2023-07-29T09:29:50 | 1 | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2023-07-29/presidential-primaries-have-seen-dramatic-comebacks-could-desantis-24-be-next |
Last week I read an online article about feet, though I can’t remember where I read it. It was probably during one of those interweb rabbit holes where I’ll start watching a YouTube video about bicycle repair, and two hours later I’m glued to a music video of Herman’s Hermit’s singing “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” wondering how I ever got there.
On this day the rabbit hole led me to all things feet. More specifically, bare feet. The piece touted the positive effects and beneficial outcomes of spending a substantial amount of time each day walking around barefooted. The author referenced some science and a few studies to back up the claim and it all seemed plausible. Who am I to doubt foot experts?
I once read a book by Wayne Dyer in which he stated the health benefits of walking barefooted on grass for 10 minutes before bedtime. He had findings and data to back his claim, too. But I didn’t need any of that. Walking barefooted on grass is something in which I have a lot of experience. Not much as of late, but I spent my childhood summers sans shoes.
In those days, schools held their final day of the year before Memorial Day and didn’t reconvene until after Labor Day. My generation had three full months of summer vacation. Three very hot months of summer vacation. Three months in which I spent 90% of my time barefooted.
Those summers started out with May feet. May feet were soft and tender and made it difficult to even walk softly without shoes. By the end of the summer, we had August feet. August feet were hard and calloused. May feet had a hard time tiptoeing through Bermuda grass. August feet could run down a gravel road at full speed.
May feet would probably gain a lot of benefit from Dr. Dyer’s walking-in-grass-before-bed principle. August feet, hardened by weeks of exposure to aggregate driveways, ridged sidewalks, and hot August asphalt might not feel the first blade of grass.
There are periods in my youth when the only time I wore shoes in the summer was to go to church. I didn’t go barefooted because a scientific study published in some random medical journal said it was the thing to do. I did it because I am a child of the South, and it was the thing to do. It’s what we all did. It may still be the thing to do. I am much older and much heavier now, and I live in a constant state of May feet. At 61, I may even have February feet.
As a kid I also spent a lot of time walking around on grocery-store feet. For some reason walking barefooted in grocery stores yielded much dirtier feet than walking down a dirt road. I wouldn’t let my kids go barefooted in a grocery store when they were young, but, in my day, it was a common occurrence.
One of the great surprises I have experienced at this stage of my life — I’m not sure when it started, but probably around the time I started receiving unsolicited letters from the AARP — is that my feet are one of my most important body parts. Feet never gained a second thought from me as a kid. Unless I stumped a toe, stepped on a nail, or cut my heel, I never cared much about anything below my knees. Shoes, no shoes, flip flops, support, no support, it didn’t matter. They were a vehicle to get me around, and they did a fine job, and I had other body parts that needed attention. These days I have way since passed the stage of style-over-substance in footwear, and I have become the old guy who doesn’t give a damn about what his shoes look like as long as they are comfortable, have lots of cushion, and offer substantial support. I haven’t started mall walking yet, but I feel the pull as it is beginning to make perfect sense.
Bare feet have their issues. In the mid-1960s, I cut my foot on a broken mayonnaise jar that required several stitches, though I don’t remember that injury ever being a hinderance. A boy came to our door one day, collecting money for charity or a school project, and I saw my mom put a dollar in his jar. Being an entrepreneurial-minded 5-year-old, I went straight to the pantry, grabbed an empty mayonnaise jar, and set out going door-to-door — barefooted, of course — raising money. There was no charity or school project. All I knew is that if I showed up at my neighbor’s doors with a jar, there was a good chance they’d put money in it. They did. “Would you like to give me some money?” That’s all I had to say, and I ended up collecting a lot of money for a 5-year-old in 1967. That is when karma kicked in.
On the way home with my beggings, I dropped the jar. It broke. In the mad scramble to collect the coins — and a few bills — I cut a large gash in the middle of my foot. After getting stitched up at the emergency room, my mother made me limp up and down the sidewalk, from neighbor to neighbor, returning all the ill-gotten gains. It was a good lesson on several levels, but it didn’t stop me from going barefooted for the next decade.
Kids today get somewhere around six weeks of summer vacation. There is a local school that started their “fall” semester last week. That’s mid-July. Their feet hadn’t fully moved from June feet to July fee yet. Kids today are missing out on August feet and grocery store feet.
Beginning today, I think I’ll start going barefoot more. I won’t walk barefooted in my yard before bed because it’s dark out there and there are two dogs who use that back lawn as their toilet, and one of them is over 100 pounds and eats a lot. But maybe I’ll just be the old eccentric guy who walks around town barefooted, even in the grocery store.
My life’s goal these days is to die young — as late as possible. Maybe it’ll be even later if I ditch the shoes and live year-round with August feet.
Onward.
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The Orioles welcomed the Yankees to Camden Yards on Friday for their final series of the season under vastly different circumstances than normal.
Baltimore is atop the American League East, while New York is in its cellar. Friday’s rain-delayed contest didn’t display the disparity between the clubs — that is, until Anthony Santander stepped to the plate in the ninth inning.
With the game scoreless, Santander sent the announced crowd of 34,558 home with a walk-off home run to right field. The switch-hitter clobbered a 2-0 changeup from Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle 425 feet for the Orioles’ fifth walk-off win of the season.
Before Santander’s solo shot — his second walk-off homer and third walk-off hit of his career — the AL East matchup was a pitcher’s duel between Orioles rookie Grayson Rodriguez and Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. Both bullpens followed to keep the game scoreless until Santander’s 18th home run of the season.
Baltimore is 63-40 and remains 1 1/2 games up on the Tampa Bay Rays atop the AL East. The Orioles are nine games ahead of the Yankees.
Rodriguez goes toe-to-toe with Cole
Pitching opposite Cole was nothing new for Rodriguez.
In more starts than not, the 23-year-old rookie has gone up against a top-line starting pitcher, including Jacob deGrom, Dylan Cease, Eduardo Rodriguez, Shohei Ohtani and Shane McClanahan.
On Friday, he matched Cole pitch for pitch, out for out, inning for inning. Both right-handers — the Yankees’ a six-time All-Star, the Orioles’ pitching in his 13th MLB game — held the opposing lineup to three hits.
There are several encouraging signs from Rodriguez’s start, but none more so than his strike total. Seventy of his 97 pitches — 72.2% — went for strikes. Nearly 60% of his pitches were fastballs, a pitch that generated eight swings and misses. He averaged 98.3 mph with the pitch, including topping 100 mph four times in the first two innings. Command and confidence in his fastball were the main improvements the Orioles wanted to see Rodriguez make when they optioned him to Triple-A in late May after he posted a 7.35 ERA in his first 10 starts.
Rodriguez’s efficiency is what allowed him to complete six innings — and pitch into the seventh — for the first time in his nascent big league career. He retired the first 10 batters he faced, escaped a jam in the fourth with a double play, stranded a base runner in the fifth and won an 11-pitch battle with No. 3 hitter Anthony Rizzo to end the sixth.
After allowing a one-out single to DJ LeMahieu, Rodriguez was pulled for newly acquired right-hander Shintaro Fujinami, who walked his first batter before inducing an inning-ending double play. Fujinami, who the Orioles acquired from the Oakland Athletics last week, struggled in his first two outings but has been effective in his past two.
The scoreless start was the third of Rodriguez’s career. In three starts since returning from Triple-A Norfolk, the 6-foot-5 righty has a 3.18 ERA, allowing 13 hits in 17 innings.
Elias provides injury updates on Mullins, Means, Hall and others
Mike Elias began his pre-trade deadline news conference Friday with a bevy of updates about the seven Orioles on the injured list: center fielder Cedric Mullins (right adductor groin strain, 10-day IL), outfielder Aaron Hicks (left hamstring strain, 10-day), starting pitcher John Means (Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery recovery, 60-day), reliever Mychal Givens (right shoulder inflammation, 60-day), right-hander Dillon Tate (elbow flexor strain, 60-day), left-hander Keegan Akin (lower back discomfort, 15-day) and right-hander Austin Voth (elbow discomfort, 15-day).
Baltimore’s executive vice president and general manager said the “hope” for Mullins and Hicks is that they’ll play a “large bit of August” with the Orioles. The groin strain is Mullins’ second; he missed about a month the first time he was out, and Hicks filled in with aplomb after coming over from the Yankees.
Means, the Orioles’ opening day starter in 2021 and 2022, could begin his minor league rehabilitation assignment in the Florida Complex League in early August. Elias said early September is the goal for Means’ return to the majors, but in what role remains unclear.
“I think it’s going to depend on so much that I don’t have right now,” he said. “Obviously he’s a starting pitcher as far as a career standpoint and a skill standpoint, but the circumstances of the team and him will drive that decision.”
Givens and Akin are also on track to begin their rehab assignments in early August. Voth, who has pitched three times since beginning his assignment July 20, still has “a bit more” to go before he’ll be ready to return to the Orioles’ bullpen, if there’s space after the acquisition of Fujinami last week.
The only pitcher Elias didn’t have any sort of timeline on was Tate, who isn’t throwing yet as he’s managed a forearm injury all season and has yet to pitch in the majors. Elias said the Orioles “still have hopes” of Tate pitching for them before the end of the regular season.
Elias also provided an update on left-handed pitching prospect DL Hall, who last month went to the team’s facility in Sarasota, Florida, to focus on strength training and pitch less with the hope of getting his velocity back. He said Hall, who pitched in an FCL game Tuesday, is up a few ticks to the mid-90s mph range.
Like Means, Elias said the organization isn’t sure if they’ll build Hall up to be a starter again or if they’ll focus on shorter outings, perhaps to have him join the Orioles’ bullpen late in the season.
“I think he’s in a better spot than where he started and he’s very healthy and he’s also very fresh for the second half, so that might be nice,” Elias said.
Around the horn
Friday was “Mo Gaba Day” at Camden Yards on the third anniversary of Gaba’s death. Gaba’s mother, Sonsy, threw out the first pitch, caught by former Orioles outfielder Adam Jones.
Jones also spent part of the contest in Section 86, known as the Bird Bath Splash Zone, as the first “guest splasher” of the season. The former center fielder had a custom City Connect jersey with “Capt Splash” on the back. He sprayed fans with water and pied Mr. Splash as Jones often did during postgame celebrations.
This story will be updated.
Yankees at Orioles
Saturday, 7:15 p.m.
TV: Chs. 45, 5
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
() | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/29/orioles-beat-yankees-1-0-behind-anthony-santanders-walk-off-homer-grayson-rodriguezs-stellar-start/ | 2023-07-29T09:30:00 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/29/orioles-beat-yankees-1-0-behind-anthony-santanders-walk-off-homer-grayson-rodriguezs-stellar-start/ |
B&T Extra: Chick is UnderratedPosted on July 27, 2023 On this Bob & Tom Extra: We have The PGA, another David Rush record, and Chick is underrated! | https://www.bobandtom.com/2023/07/27/bt-extra-chick-is-underrated/ | 2023-07-29T09:30:00 | 1 | https://www.bobandtom.com/2023/07/27/bt-extra-chick-is-underrated/ |
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On today’s show we’re joined by comedians Tommy Davidson and @AlJackson ! Plus Jess Hooker brings in phallic potato chips, Ace spoils Planet of the Apes, and the gang listens to Steely Dan all day!
Enjoy every segment of today’s BOB & TOM Show. Join Tom Griswold, Chick McGee, Kristi Lee, Josh Arnold, Pat Godwin, and Willie Griswold for a blend of comedy, talk, news, and sports. Avoid the commercials and get the full show without ads through B&T VIP. Subscribe now at BobandTom.com/VIP. | https://www.bobandtom.com/2023/07/27/full-show-podcast-for-july-27-2023-2/ | 2023-07-29T09:30:06 | 1 | https://www.bobandtom.com/2023/07/27/full-show-podcast-for-july-27-2023-2/ |