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As Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo thundered through a few immortal rock hits at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in November, they noticed an especially enthusiastic fan. Now super fans are expected at every Benatar & Giraldo performance – the icon and her songwriter/guitarist/producer husband have combined for piles of Grammys, platinum records and an astounding 19 Top 40 hits. But this one stood out because, well, it was Pink.
“I just remember looking down and she was giddy,” Benatar told the Herald of spotting the pop star in the crowd. “I didn’t know her, we’d never met, so it was just so fun to look down and see her having such a great time.”
“She was in the front row and dancing,” Giraldo added. “Then when we were leaving she came up and said, ‘I want you two on the road with me. I want you to play dates with me this summer.’”
True to her word, Pink booked Benatar & Giraldo as support at some of her biggest shows – the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers will play Fenway Park with the “Just Give Me a Reason” singer July 31 and Aug. 1.
Pink’s enthusiasm for Benatar acknowledges the trailblazers legacy. Part of a generation of pioneers from Joan Jett to Ann and Nancy Wilson, Benatar came up in an era when music industry executives – almost exclusively male – tried their best to restrict female artists’ freedom. Her partnership, first professional, then romantic, with Giraldo was seen as something dangerous in the late ’70s.
“The record company and especially management started to realize that our alliance was too strong,” Benatar said. “They thought they could control me better if he wasn’t there… That was the sexism that was present. They were thinking that the only reason I was strong was because I had him. I was strong before I had him.”
The two clicked instantly – Benatar remembers she was hooked on Giraldo’s sound from the first chord he played. Not everyone felt the chemistry.
“Disco was still very vibrant (in 1979) and here we come with a girl singer in a rock band and there’s a lot of guitar on the record,” Giraldo said. “We had a very difficult time getting the records played on the radio. They wouldn’t play ‘Heartbreaker’ because they said there was too much guitar on the record.”
There was not too much guitar on the record. And Pat Benatar’s grit and glory won over millions of ears and hearts
After the first two albums, Giraldo took over as producer. The pair married in 1982 and have worked together almost non-stop since. While Benatar hasn’t released an album in 20 years, she and Giraldo have never stopped writing (she estimates the pair have a hundred songs stockpiled).
Will they get to another album? Neither one will commit but don’t rule it out. Life has just been too jam packed (they even debuted a theater production, “Invincible: The Musical,” in 2022, which included old hits and new songs) as they celebrate 44 years of making music together.
“I’m 70, (Giraldo) is going to be 68, and we look at each other every day and go, ‘What the hell?’” Benatar said with a laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever been busier. It’s crazy… But we’re grateful for that. We love to work. I wish I had a little more time to see my grandchildren but I see them enough.”
For tickets and details, visit benatargiraldo.com.
— | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/30/pat-benatar-neil-giraldo-join-pink-for-summer-shows/ | 2023-07-30T05:31:48 | 0 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/30/pat-benatar-neil-giraldo-join-pink-for-summer-shows/ |
Provincetown has a long and rich history, as the first landing spot for the Mayflower, a robust tradition of fishing, an artists’ colony and as an LGBTQ haven.
That last one took some effort, starting in the 1970s.
“This was at a time when Provincetown’s leadership didn’t necessarily understand why it was important to promote the town as a destination for queer travelers, and there were many in town trying to downplay the town’s creative community in an effort to promote it as one of the more well-known ‘straight’ destinations on the Cape,” Provincetown Business Guild Executive Director Stephan Hengst said.
This was born Carnival Week, a way to show town leadership that diversity and inclusion are fun, vibrant and just plain good for business.
“Carnival was the result of the community showing its love and appreciation for the community that called the tip of Cape Cod home,” said Hengst.
This year Ptown is celebrating the 45th anniversary of Carnival Week, from Aug. 12-19. Today, Carnival Week is more of an affirmation than a request. Sponsored since it’s founding by the Provincetown Business Guild (PBG), it is one of the largest LGBTQ+ celebrations in the United States, and the largest event on Cape Cod.
Carnival is welcoming to all, and draws in more than 10,000 visitors of all types – singles, families, straight and LGBTQ+.
The theme this year is Land of Toys.
On Aug. 13 you can start the day in the 5k run/walk, “Feet Over Front Street,” which honors Commercial Street’s original name and winds through the scenic town. Later in the day you can hop aboard the Disco Duck Carnival Cruise, which takes you out on the waters off Ptown for a view of the coast that’s breathtaking.
There will be food, dance and celebrities, including DJ Andrew Haig and NYC nightlife golden-era icon and black trans advocate DJ Lina Bradford.
If you’ve got stamina, there’s a costume kick-off party beginning at 10 p.m. at the iconic Crown & Anchor.
All week long there are special events, celebrity appearances and more.
On Wednesday evening Aug. 16 at 8:30 p.m. fans of Ru Paul’s Drag Race will be thrilled: Show superstar Alyssa Edwards will appear live at Town Hall.
In 2012, Justin Dwayne Lee Johnson, known by the stage name Alyssa Edwards, competed on the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, where she immediately catapulted to fame for her candid testimonials, outrageous tongue-pops and quirky personality. In 2016, Johnson returned as one of 10 contestants in Season 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars, where Alyssa Edwards stole the hearts of the audience, ultimately finishing as fourth runner-up.
Edwards will share stories, comedy and more.
The centerpiece of it all is the annual Carnival Parade, stepping off at 3 pm. on Aug. 17.
Winding its way down Commercial Street from the Harbor Hotel in the East End to the Coast Guard Station in the West End, the parade draws more than 150,000 guests.
Held that first year as a symbol of Provincetown’s inclusiveness, creativity and diversity, the parade has grown over those 45 years to one of the Cape’s biggest events.
It’s a great event for all, said Hengst, as is the entire week. Other events include yoga programs, dance parties, pool parties and more.
There’s also the backdrop: the tip of the Cape that’s beloved by the world. You’ll find plenty of shopping and dining, and endless water views.
If you’re looking for a quick bite to grab, insiders will point you to the hot dogs at FarLand Provisions on Bradford Street. They are massive; 100% beef, and served on a delicious brioche bun; two for less than $10.
And the Provincetown Portuguese Bakery is a must visit for a sweet or savory snack or, as is tradition for many, a breakfast roll that’s out of this world.
“Provincetown is rich in history and culture, and its heritage shines through every day in the lives of the people that call it home,” Hengst said. “When you’re here, you are surrounded by the arts, culture, and so much more, and because Provincetown has always been a melting pot of sorts, everyone is welcome here.” | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/30/provincetown-takes-pride-in-45th-anniversary-of-carnival-week/ | 2023-07-30T05:31:54 | 1 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/30/provincetown-takes-pride-in-45th-anniversary-of-carnival-week/ |
Tim Anderson touched the plate after hitting his first homer of the season and returned to a less than filled Chicago White Sox dugout.
After a moment, teammates spilled back in and greeted the shortstop with high-fives and hugs.
“I was wondering where everybody went,” Anderson said. “But it was a cool moment. I was happy to finally get it out of the way.”
Anderson’s blast leading off the bottom of the first, his first of three hits, served as a jump-start for the Sox in a 7-2 victory against the Cleveland Guardians in front of 26,299 on Saturday at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“I was more so worried about getting my swing back, not really worried about homers,” Anderson said. “I knew if I could try to find my swing then everything else would come back. Just been working on trying to find my swing and it showed tonight.”
It was his first home run since July 15 of last season in Minneapolis, a span of 97 games. He missed most of the last two months of 2022 after undergoing surgery on his left hand in early August.
He was on the injured list from April 11 to May 2 this season with a sprained left knee.
“He’s battled some injuries that I truly believe have hampered him not only this year but last year as well,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “He was feeling pretty good and then he had that injury in Minnesota (in April). That affected his stride.
“He’ll sit here and probably tell you there’s no excuses, but I can talk for him. Sometimes it just throws your balance off, your mechanics off and you just don’t feel it. But huge credit to his work ethic.”
Anderson’s homer wasn’t the only “first since” Saturday.
Sox pitcher Mike Clevinger made his first start since June 14 at the Los Angeles Dodgers. He went on the IL a day later with right biceps inflammation.
“I knew it wasn’t anything too serious because it was biceps,” Clevinger said. “Anything biceps related isn’t something that’s detrimental long term on the IL. The first couple of days of throwing, I had some doubts. I had some real doubts.
“Credit to the training staff for keeping my head on straight. I was in a little bit of a dark place when I was first trying to throw. They helped me. ‘Hey, look this is normal. This is supposed to feel this way.’
“Then things started clicking and started seeing light at the end of the tunnel last couple of weeks.”
Clevinger allowed two hits and struck out three in five scoreless innings. Grifol indicated before the game that Clevinger would be limited to around 80 pitches. He threw 72.
“It was a lot of fun,” Clevinger said. “There were a lot of pitches thrown without having that environment. But it was fun to get back out there with the boys.”
Clevinger received strong defensive support. Left fielder Zach Remillard made a diving catch to rob José Ramírez in the first. Umpires ruled that the relay throw to first was in time to nab Steven Kwan. The Guardians were not allowed to challenge any portion of the play, with umpires indicating time had run out to request a review. Manager Terry Francona argued and was ejected.
Second baseman Jake Burger and third baseman Yoán Moncada made nice fielding plays for outs on back-to-back grounders by Josh Bell and Will Brennan in the fifth.
“That’s who I nominated for player of the game when we came in the clubhouse, the defense,” Clevinger said. “Without them that’s a totally different outlook.”
Moncada appeared to show no side effects from an awkward landing at the plate while trying to score from first base in the fourth. In addition to the defensive play in the top of the fifth, he knocked in two with a single in the bottom of the inning.
Andrew Vaughn hit a two-run homer in the sixth, and the Sox added two runs in the seventh on RBI singles from Luis Robert Jr. and Eloy Jiménez.
The Sox had 12 hits, with Anderson leading the way. He’s 20-for-57 (.351) with two doubles, one home run, six RBIs and eight runs in 14 games since the All-Star break.
He has appreciated the support from his teammates.
“They’ve been there every step of the way,” Anderson said. “They’ve seen the work, the front office has seen the work, everybody knows what I’m capable of and how I’m able to work and continue to try to get better.
“But everybody has been rooting me on from Day 1. I just continue to keep pushing.”
() | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/30/tim-andersons-1st-homer-of-the-season-sparks-the-chicago-white-sox-in-a-7-2-win-against-the-cleveland-guardians/ | 2023-07-30T05:32:00 | 0 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/30/tim-andersons-1st-homer-of-the-season-sparks-the-chicago-white-sox-in-a-7-2-win-against-the-cleveland-guardians/ |
Comedy and comics fans are in luck this week. Here are top picks to watch.
‘Futurama’
After nearly a decade break, Matt Groening’s space odyssey returns with new episodes. The writers make up for lost time with bits aimed at Alexa, Bitcoin, Impossible Burgers and “Black Mirror.” The animated series works best when it takes a break from spoofing everything under numerous suns and zooms in on the characters’ emotions. Hulu
‘Command Z’
Chloe Radcliffe has been a writer for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and been named a TBS Comic to Watch. Now, the Minnesota native has snagged a juicy role in this Steven Soderbergh side project, which dropped on the Oscar-winning director’s own website with little fanfare. Radcliffe plays a reluctant time traveler who could change the fate of the world, if she can manage to leave her cynicism at the wormhole door. In addition to stealing scenes from co-stars such as Roy Wood Jr. and Michael Cera, Radcliffe wrote two of the short episodes. The $7.99 price tag is a bit hefty considering that the entire series clocks in at less than an hour, but all the proceeds go to charity. commandzseries.com
‘Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale’
He may have a reputation as the gentle giant of comedy, but Gaffigan has always had a subversive side. That’s never been more apparent than in his latest special, which kicks off with him riffing on COVID-19 deaths, funerals and the desire to watch Starbucks customers get pummeled. Prime Video
‘Run the Burbs’
The CW, best known these days for superhero shows, is suddenly the place to showcase Canadian TV. The latest, which first premiered on CBC in January 2022, features a mixed-race family who serve as head cheerleaders for the neighborhood, willing to go to great lengths to throw a block party. They’re a valiant bunch — but not a very funny one. This is one export that shouldn’t have crossed the border. 8:30 p.m. Monday, CW
‘Harley Quinn’
Margot Robbie may own this character on the big screen, but Kaley Cuoco is just as memorable in the animated version. In this fourth season, the superhero/supervillain battles have taken a back seat to Quinn’s kooky, kinky relationship with Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) — and we’re not complaining a bit. Max
Star Tribune/Tribune News Service | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/30/watch-to-watch-futurama-returns-after-10-year-break/ | 2023-07-30T05:32:05 | 0 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/30/watch-to-watch-futurama-returns-after-10-year-break/ |
West Baton Rouge Chamber to hold small business event Wednesday
The West Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce will hold its second annual Small Business Summit from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Addis Community Center, 7520 La. Highway 1.
The event will feature a panel discussion featuring local small business owners, an update from Louisiana Economic Development on the State Small Business Credit Initiative, a discussion on tax strategies and a small business update from the candidates running for governor. Former LSU Baseball Coach Paul Mainieri will be the keynote speaker.
Tickets are $50 for chamber members, $75 for nonmembers and admission to the luncheon is $35. Tickets must be purchased in advance at westbatonrougechamber.chambermaster.com/events/details/small-business-summit-2023-1486 or by emailing anna@wbrchamber.org.
BRAC to hold economic inclusion symposium
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber will host its second annual Economic Inclusion Symposium on Aug. 30.
The symposium will be held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Renaissance Baton Rouge, 7000 Bluebonnet Blvd. There will be panel discussions on topics such as creating space for inclusion, empowering a diverse workforce, incorporating diversity and inclusion in a strategic plan and communication and inclusion strategies. There will also be a showcase to connect minority business owners with contracting opportunities.
BRAC will present its annual Diversity Star Awards during the symposium.
Registration is $100 for BRAC investors and $110 for noninvestors. For more information or to register, go to brac.org/events.
LSU Executive Education to offer crisis leadership program
A new certificate program titled Crisis Leadership: From Cyber Breaches to Natural Disasters will be offered by LSU Executive Education from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at the LSU Business Education Complex.
The program is designed to help participants implement realistic and manageable plans for addressing incidents or disaster situations.
The program format consists of classroom discussion. Participants will receive a sample business continuity, disaster recovery and incident response plan they can use in their organizations.
The deadline for early bird registration is Monday and the standard deadline is August 29. Early bird fees are $880, while the standard fee is $940. To register or for more information, go to lsu.edu/business/executive-education/index.php.
Melara Enterprises acquires Launch Media
Melara Enterprises, the multimedia publishing company that produces the Baton Rouge Business Report, 225 and inRegister, has acquired Launch Media, a video and motion media production company.
Julio Melara, president and CEO of Melara Enterprises, said the deal expands the company's service portfolio, increasing capacity for large-scale video projects, and gives clients access to a larger creative team.
"Melara Enterprises shares our vision for creating compelling video content," John Jackson, founder of Launch, said in a statement. "Their robust creative and digital infrastructure combined with our expertise in video production and emerging tech will result in better client experiences and expanded production services."
Bollinger delivers 54th fast response cutter
Bollinger Shipyards has delivered the USCGC William Sparling to the Coast Guard in Key West, Florida.
This is the 180th vessel Bollinger has delivered to the Coast Guard over a 35-year period and the 54th fast response cutter delivered under the current program.
The USCGC Sparling will have its home port in Sector Boston, which is known as "The Birthplace of the Coast Guard."
The sector is responsible for coastal safety, security and environmental protection from the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border south to Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The ship is named after William Sparling, who was awarded the Silver Star for his combat actions during the invasion of Guadalcanal during World War II. Sparling landed his troops, then made three return trips to the island in the face of enemy fire to deliver equipment, ammunition and supplies. | https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/brac-economic-inclusion-event-melara-enterprises-deal/article_261733d0-2a54-11ee-bdab-5350305165ec.html | 2023-07-30T05:32:05 | 1 | https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/brac-economic-inclusion-event-melara-enterprises-deal/article_261733d0-2a54-11ee-bdab-5350305165ec.html |
Camille Bryant, a member of McGlinchey Stafford, has been named vice chair of outreach for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.
Bryant practices in the firm's Labor and Employment practice group in New Orleans. She serves on the Louisiana Board of Ethics and is past president of the Greater New Orleans Chapter of the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society and the New Orleans Association for Women Attorneys.
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Walthena Gosa and Matthew Walton have been named to the board of Open Health Care Clinic.
Gosa is a licensed marriage and family therapist and program manager with Healthy Blue.
Walton is an administrator at Zachary Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center. He previously served as a board member for Trinity Health Centers in Winnfield.
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Christopher DellaFranco has been selected as a member of the Committee of 100 for Economic Development.
DellaFranco is the operations manager for the ExxonMobil Product Solutions Baton Rouge Refinery. He started working for ExxonMobil in 2002 as a mechanical engineer at the Chalmette Refinery.
He earned a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a master's in business administration from Tulane University.
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Leodrey Williams has been named chancellor emeritus of the Southern University Ag Center.
Williams was the first chancellor of the Ag Center, which was formed in 2001. He held the position until 2015.
He started his career in agriculture as a county agent for LSU Cooperative Extension in 1965. He joined the staff at Southern in 1972, when the school started its own extension office.
Williams held several jobs with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, serving on national and international committees and as a consultant in extension education in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.
He earned a bachelor's in vocational agriculture education from Southern and a master's in extension education and a doctorate in extension education/administration, both from LSU.
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Kristie McMath-Hebert was named chairwoman of the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association.
McMath-Hebert, dealer/operator of Arceneaux Ford in New Iberia, is the first woman elected to head the LADA Board of Directors.
She is a third-generation auto dealer. Her father, Tommy McMath, is chair of the LADA Self-Insurers' Trust Fund Board of Trustees. | https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/mcglinchey-stafford-attorney-named-to-diversity-council/article_28cb44c8-2a58-11ee-944d-eb166960cc5a.html | 2023-07-30T05:32:11 | 0 | https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/mcglinchey-stafford-attorney-named-to-diversity-council/article_28cb44c8-2a58-11ee-944d-eb166960cc5a.html |
ARIES (March 21-April 19). Your wants will mesh with the needs of those around you. Communicate to learn how you can help one another. Some will be too proud to express themselves. You’ll have to go first.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). To fully possess your world when you know it will not be the same tomorrow takes courage. Today you have the gravitas to give yourself over to changeable things. You’ll follow your heart and make the commitment.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). To withhold approval or affection until someone does what you want is a shortsighted ploy that usually backfires. You prefer a more honest and direct approach, and will have great success with it today.
CANCER (June 22-July 22). Improvement cannot be forced or magically conjured. It won’t materialize in response to an order nor can it be bought. Things will get better in the same way they always have — with a solid step-by-step plan and the determination to see it through.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). There’s great value exchanged between generations today, much to the benefit of all. You’ll learn from those who are much older or younger than you, and you have plenty to teach the ones who are receptive to it.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Your value never changes because attention is given or taken away. It’s intrinsic. There’s a deep-rooted certainty in you today. It’s not that you know you’re right, but you do know you’re worthy, so there’s nothing to prove.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). There’s a conflict between the responsibility you feel toward the others and the duty you have to do what’s right for you. Make no assumptions and remain calmly optimistic. A constructive conversation will illuminate a way to satisfy all.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). When you really want something, you tend to calculate the risks by minimizing the negatives and glorifying the gains. Take the wanting out of the equation and suddenly there is a much more accurate risk calculation available.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You don’t yet know which way of doing things fits you best. You’ll find out what it is by discovering what it’s not. Trying different methods is research. “This isn’t for me” is the data that gets you closer.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You’ll receive a vision for a relationship. This dream is doable. Though there will be a magical feeling about the process, it will still happen in practical steps. Work back from the picture to outline the steps.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). It is said that true love sees with the heart. Even so, test what you feel might be true against input from other senses. You may accept and love a person and yet find certain behaviors unacceptable.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Don’t be in too much of a rush to learn about how a process works. Knowing more about your pursuit will give you all kinds of advantages, and a perspective that helps you see clever and creative solutions.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (July 30). A paradox: Your life becomes simultaneously simpler and fuller. You’ll get carried away with a single focus and your enthusiasm opens a giant blossom of beauty. More highlights: a coveted membership that keeps you working toward a goal until it’s yours, an investment that triples your money, and renovations to up your game. Gemini and Sagittarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 48, 17, 6, 33 and 28. | https://www.inquirer.com/entertainment/horoscopes/horoscopes-july-30-2023-20230730.html | 2023-07-30T05:32:14 | 0 | https://www.inquirer.com/entertainment/horoscopes/horoscopes-july-30-2023-20230730.html |
Steve Stricker eager to bring big-time game back to 'small-town feel' Ally Challenge
The sixth Ally Challenge is set for Aug. 25-27 at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc.
Steve Stricker will be in Rome in September to see if Team USA can win a second straight Ryder Cup for the first time since the early 1990s. Stricker captained the 2021 team, which won in his native Wisconsin.
It was casually mentioned to him this week, given the way he's playing, that perhaps he should be on the team.
"Not a chance," he said with a smile. "Not a chance."
Fair enough. There aren't many "not a chance" situations for Stricker these days.
The 56-year-old is playing arguably the best golf of his long career, and has the wins to show for it — five this year alone on the 50-and-older Champions Tour, including three senior majors. He's won four of his last six starts, and in 13 starts this season on the Champions Tour, he hasn't finished worse than a tie for eighth.
Stricker will defend his championship at The Ally Challenge next month at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc. He won in 2022 by a stroke over Brett Quigley.
That was his ninth Champions Tour win. Less than a year later, he has 16.
"I've been asked that a few times, and the results are the best throughout my career," Stricker said, when asked if this is the best he's ever played for a sustained stretch. "It's hard to quantify. I had some good runs (on the PGA Tour) where I was the second-ranked player in the world, a top-10 player in the world. It's hard to say which is better, you know? I've had a hard time answering that question.
"Obviously, it's a great run. I'm super jacked. I'm super excited about it, and I love the opportunities I've been getting to try to win golf tournaments," Stricker continued, in an interview this week. "That's been the really fun part of playing, getting in contention and seeing what you have down the stretch. And when you do it, it's a blast. And when you don't, you try to figure out and learn from those mistakes."
Stricker, who also won 12 times on the PGA Tour, headlines an Ally field that also will include Jim Furyk, Bernhard Langer, Justin Leonard, Retief Goosen, Mark O'Meara, David Toms, Jerry Kelly and Lake Orion native Tom Gillis.
This will be the sixth playing for The Ally Challenge (set for Aug. 25-27), and there hasn't yet been a repeat champion in the tournament's history.
The last repeat champion at Warwick was Vijay Singh, who won the PGA Tour's old Buick Open in 2004 and 2005. There's a good chance he has company soon, given the Stricker Steamroller.
"I think you can keep that momentum going from one year to the next, and especially when I start off the year with a win over in Hawaii," said Stricker, who won four times in 2022 and already has topped that in 2023. "It felt like it was just a continuous season for me, and I play a lot of golf in the offseason to keep that going.
"I know I don't have a lot of time left in this game, but I'm trying to maximize all the opportunities I have."
We'll see how much golf Stricker has left.
There's a guy on the Champions Tour, of course, who is defying Father Time. That would be Langer, who earlier this month won the U.S. Senior Open (Stricker finished second) for his 46th Champions Tour victory. That gave Langer the all-time record, one ahead of Hale Irwin.
Langer, of course, is 65. The Ally Challenge is a rare Champions Tour tournament Langer hasn't yet won.
"I told Bernhard the other day, I said, 'I want to be like you when I grow up,'" Stricker said. "He's incredible and we all just shake our head at what he continues to do. That's incredible stuff what he's doing. That's the fun part of watching him and trying to duplicate what he's doing. Something you can strive for really, too.
"He's 65, and he's playing great golf. That puts me with another nine, 10 years of good golf, if I continue to take care of myself and continue to work hard at it."
The Ally is the fourth and final annual major-tour stop in Michigan — following the Meijer LPGA Classic outside of Grand Rapids, the PGA Tour's Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit and the LPGA's Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational in Midland — and like the three others, the Ally continues to grow when it comes to fan support. Part of that is thanks to its annual concert series, which this year has booked country star Miranda Lambert for a Saturday show that is included with the price of that day's ticket.
The Ally also offers free admission and hospitality for active service members and veterans, and has a celebrity shootout that in past years has included golf legend Jack Nicklaus.
And the 17th hole, a par 3, remains a party, even if it isn't quite as rowdy as the old Buick Open days.
Stricker said The Ally has the "small-town feel" that he enjoys.
"We used to have that a lot on the regular tour," he said. "Some of those have gone away over the years. Not there at Ally. That's the same feel of community coming together for a good cause, to raise money for charity, to watch some golf, to have a good time. That's the neatest part about that place.
"It fires me up thinking about Ally and coming back to Warwick Hills, for sure."
The Ally Challenge
➤ When: Aug. 25-27
➤ Where: Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club, Grand Blanc
➤ Defending champion: Steve Stricker
➤ Tickets: Daily passes from $10 to $65 (the $65 tickets for Saturday, Aug. 26, include a Miranda Lambert concert); weekly passes $100. Active military members and veterans get free tickets. Details at theallychallenge.com.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tonypaul1984 | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/golf/2023/07/30/steve-stricker-eager-to-bring-big-time-game-back-to-small-town-feel-ally-challenges/70475522007/ | 2023-07-30T05:32:17 | 0 | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/golf/2023/07/30/steve-stricker-eager-to-bring-big-time-game-back-to-small-town-feel-ally-challenges/70475522007/ |
BATON ROUGE
Dr. Alexander Murashov has joined the faculty of the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine as the head of the comparative biomedical sciences department.
He will be responsible for overseeing the department's extensive biomedical research programs and advanced degree programs.
Murashov had been on the faculty of the the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina State University since 1999.
He earned a doctorate from the Anokhin Institute of Normal Physiology, Academy of Medical Sciences and a medical degree from the Pirogov Moscow 2nd Medical Institute. Murashov completed post-doctoral training at Columbia University, Griffith University and the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology.
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Bridget Gaffney and Jason Suitt have joined the staff of Visit Baton Rouge.
Gaffney is client relationship manager, handling all aspects of the Customer Relationship Management system.
She earned a bachelor's in marketing from Southeastern Louisiana University.
Suitt is director of sports development. He spent the past two years as director of sports marketing and strategic partnerships at Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux. He previously held marketing and promotions jobs in the athletic departments of LSU and the University of Arkansas.
He earned a bachelor's in sports administration from the University of South Carolina.
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Logan Austin has been named chief operating officer of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center.
Austin comes from Community Health Systems, where he served as chief administrative officer for two hospitals and a freestanding emergency clinic in Lee County, Florida. Before that, he held executive leadership roles at hospitals in Birmingham, Alabama; Statesville, North Carolina and Mooresville, North Carolina.
He earned a bachelor's in finance from the University of Alabama, a master's in health administration and a master's in business, both from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
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Jason Welz has been named CEO of GridSource.
He replaces Dusty Johnson, who founded the utility contractor.
Welz has 25 years of experience in the cable, telecommunications and utility industries, having served in senior executive roles at Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Comcast and Alcatel-Lucent.
NEW ORLEANS
Camille Collins is the new executive director of marketing for Ruby Slipper Restaurant Group.
Collins has more than 20 years experience in marketing, communications, event planning and business development experience in the hospitality and food industries. She has worked with Chef Paul Prudhomme at Magic Seasoning Blends as director of business development. She held marketing director positions with Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts, whose properties include Cafe Maspero, Ernst Cafe and Flamingo A Go Go, and the Commander's Family of Restaurants.
Jen Beougher has been promoted to chief administrative officer for Ruby Slipper.
Beougher joined the company in 2018 as its first chief financial officer. Before that she spent more than a decade with Bloomin' Brands, the parent company of Outback Steakhouse, in the accounting, project management and finance departments.
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Nicholas C. Tomlinson has joined Baker Donelson as of counsel in the New Orleans office.
Tomlinson is a member of the Labor & Employment Group and has more than a decade of experience as an in-house benefits counsel for a Fortune 500 company.
He earned a bachelor's in business administration from LSU, a law degree from Gonzaga University School of Law and a master of laws in taxation from the University of Washington School of Law. Tomlinson is an adjunct instructor at the University of New Orleans.
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Dr. William H. Tettelbach has been name chief medical officer for RestorixHealth.
Tettelbach has nearly 30 years of medical experience and is a certified wound specialist. He most recently served as executive medical director, wound & hyperbaric medicine services for HCA Healthcare's Mountain Division.
He has served as medical director for extended care, infection prevention and wound care clinics, including those associated with Intermountain Healthcare in Utah. During that time, he established an undersea & hyperbaric medicine fellowship at Intermountain Health through a collaboration with Duke University. | https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/new-hires-at-our-lady-of-the-lake-lsu-vet-school/article_47601d84-2bd2-11ee-813b-17258434b91d.html | 2023-07-30T05:32:17 | 1 | https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/new-hires-at-our-lady-of-the-lake-lsu-vet-school/article_47601d84-2bd2-11ee-813b-17258434b91d.html |
Dear Abby | Friend’s teasing spouse ducks out during visits
I told him I thought his teasing went too far and to please not do it again.
DEAR ABBY: About 10 years ago, I visited my oldest and dearest friend, who I see a few times a year. The last time, her husband, who I’ve also known for years and who I thought was a friend, started teasing me. I can take a joke, but the teasing got mean. Eventually he stopped, and I continued my visit.
I was really angry at him, but because I didn’t want to involve my friend, I sent him an email. I told him I thought his teasing went too far and to please not do it again. He never replied. Now when I visit my friend, her husband is never there. He stays away. I haven’t seen him in years.
My friend makes silly excuses why he isn’t at home when I visit. In fact, the last time I went I saw him driving away when I drove up! I don’t hold a grudge against the guy. I think it’s sad that he has to run away. Should I say something?
— PERPLEXED IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR PERPLEXED: No. You dealt with your friend’s husband appropriately without involving his wife. Enjoy your visits with her, and do not drag her into this. I see no reason to raise the subject. Your problem is solved.
** ** **
DEAR ABBY: I’m a gentleman who would like to date more than I do. I want to ask a woman in my church choir out for coffee or lunch on a Sunday afternoon. But I get so nervous I get knots in my stomach. I know dating is one of the things I need to leave in God’s hands and have His help in getting over the nerves.
I like my friend in the choir a lot. I think she’s a wonderful and caring person. I want to get to know her better because, even though we’ve said “Hi” and “Bye” and exchanged glances during choir practice on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings, I don’t know her heart and what makes her tick. Can you offer some advice?
— PAINFULLY SHY IN MISSOURI
DEAR PAINFULLY SHY: Start treating the woman as you would a friend rather than a love interest. Asking a fellow choir member to join you for coffee afterward or for a lunch could be a healthy, nonthreatening beginning of a relationship. (Notice I didn’t use the word “romance.”) Because you want to get to know her better, summon your courage and let her get to know YOU better. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
** ** **
DEAR ABBY: I have a friend I occasionally meet for breakfast. She always stops someplace en route and brings takeout coffee into the restaurant. I am often kept waiting because she’s in a drive-through getting that drink. I find it embarrassing that she joins me with drink in hand from elsewhere. How should I handle this?
— EMBARRASSED IN THE EAST
DEAR EMBARRASSED: Ask your friend why she does it. It’s possible she simply doesn’t like the coffee that restaurant serves, although she does enjoy their food and your company. I don’t think you should tell her it embarrasses you, because it is really no reflection ON you. | https://www.inquirer.com/life/dear-abby-friends-teasing-spouse-ducks-out-during-visits-20230730.html | 2023-07-30T05:32:20 | 0 | https://www.inquirer.com/life/dear-abby-friends-teasing-spouse-ducks-out-during-visits-20230730.html |
Saturday's motors: Hamlin says NASCAR's point system encourages aggression
Richmond, Va. – Denny Hamlin is not offering any apologies for the move he made last weekend at Pocono that caused Kyle Larson to hit the wall and let Hamlin sail on to victory.
Truth be told, it's what NASCAR was hoping to see more of when it established the system that divides races into three stages, rewards drivers with points for doing well in those stages and allows them to accrue playoff points, Hamlin said.
“That is what it was geared to do – give us the sense of urgency to ramp up and that regular season performance matters to get to the final four with a shot,” he said at Richmond Raceway. "The system is doing what it was designed to do.”
Hamlin also has changed, he said, after getting spun several times while leading.
“If you have one person willing to be aggressive and one person not, aggressive will win every time," he said.
Larson, who said things are “fine” between he and Hamlin after they exchanged text messages Friday night, agreed that the point system encourages the aggressive approach Hamlin took, but added that it "makes the guys on the receiving end more mad as well just because of what's at stake and what's taken."
Larson said four or five restart battles with Kyle Busch at World Wide Technology Raceway in June showed how cleanly he tries to race other drivers.
“I respect Kyle and that's why I raced him with respect at Gateway, and I respect Denny every bit as much, if not more, or I did,” he said.
“I tend to blow things over pretty quickly," Larson said. “This time, I probably have let it linger on my attitude a little bit this week just because it's happened more often with him than any other driver in my career and also a win was taken.”
Larson won the first Richmond race this season in April.
Points race
William Byron has dropped 30 points behind Martin Truex Jr. in the points race with five races remaining before the playoffs begin. The regular season champion gets a 15-point bonus, but Byron doesn't expect to make any changes to the way he's racing while trying to secure that top spot and bonus.
“It’s really important but we can’t get too focused on the result of the regular season points,” he said. “We obviously want those points, but our process has been like it is to this point, and if we start focusing on that carrot out in front of us too much, it’s going to get us off-track.”
Chasing speed
Chase Elliott said Richmond is “such a weird place” where his car never feels good, but he was pleased to make the second round of qualifying. He'll start fourth.
“Any position you can gain is good ahead of 10th," Elliott said. "I also know this is a place where you can qualify really good and be really bad.”
Elliott missed six races with an injury and another while serving a suspension. He hasn't won yet and likely will need to win to make the playoffs. He's 21st in points.
"There's a few guys that I feel like have been consistently good at this track and the rest of us are kind of hit or miss," Elliott said. “Hopefully we can hit it tomorrow and just put together a solid day, try to get some stage points and just get up in the mix.”
Qualifying
Tyler Reddick won the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.
Reddick turned a fast lap and 113.689 mph on the 0.75-mile oval Saturday to win his first pole position of the season and the fifth of his career. The midday session was held in sunshine that pushed the temperature to nearly 100 degrees.
Kyle Busch, the leader among active drivers with six career victories at Richmond, will also start on the front row after qualifying second, with Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace completing the top five.
“We’ve been really strong when we’ve had the opportunities to qualify this year, and it is nice to get that first pole as a team," Reddick said.
Points leader Martin Truex Jr. will start 10th. William Byron who trails Truex by 30 points, will start sixth.
The race is the first of five remaining in the regular season before the 10-race playoffs.
Xfinity Series
Sam Mayer moved from Wisconsin to North Carolina as a teenager to pursue his racing dreams more seriously with JR Motorsports.
A return to his home state Saturday ended with the 20-year-old's first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory.
Mayer pulled ahead for good in the next-to-last lap of a wild second overtime session to win at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, about an hour's drive from his hometown of Franklin, Wisconsin. That elusive first victory came in his 72nd Xfinity start.
“It took coming all the way back here to win one,” Mayer said. “It's super cool to have that happen, obviously. The fans and everyone in the stands and in victory lane, they were congratulating me non-stop, chanting my name. Stuff like that, you don't see that very often. And to have that happen today at home, it almost leaves you speechless.”
Mayer won by 0.368 seconds over Parker Kligerman on the sprawling 14-turn, 4.048-mile road course. They were followed in order by Austin Hill, Sage Karam and Riley Herbst.
The race included eight caution flags, tying a track record. The final restart occurred during a second overtime session and followed a red flag to clean up oil on the track.
Justin Allgaier, Mayer's JR Motorsports teammate, took the lead on the sixth lap of the scheduled 45-lap race and stayed in front through all those restarts.
“He hauled the mail today,” Mayer said. “He was definitely the best car in the field. I think he set the pace for all for us.”
Then everything went haywire on the last one.
Karam passed Allgaier from the right. Mayer then took the lead as those cars briefly went three wide. Karam pulled back ahead soon thereafter. Kligerman then moved in front.
Then Mayer came from the right and passed Kligerman to regain the lead. Mayer stayed in front the rest of the way.
“It was definitely hectic – going back and forth, back and forth,” Mayer said. “Ending on top, thank God.”
The finish was so frantic in part because so many drivers were chasing milestones. Mayer, Karam and Kligerman all were seeking their first career Xfinity victories.
“We've been close multiple times,” Kligerman said. “If we keep putting ourselves in position like this, even leading for half a corner, one of these days we're going to get that checkered flag. Oh, I really, really wanted this one.”
Allgaier spun out soon after getting passed and faded to 18th place.
Other notable drivers in the field also had tough afternoons.
John Hunter Nemechek, who entered the day as the series’ points leader, got knocked out of the race about two-thirds of the way through after he went off course and damaged the nose of his car.
Hill now leads the standings by 14 points over Nemechek.
AJ Allmendinger took the pole position after setting a track record with his average lap speed of 111.666 mph during Friday’s qualifying. He separated from the pack as soon as the race started, but Allgaier passed him around the sixth lap and stayed in the lead until those frantic final moments.
Allmendinger ended up in ninth.
The day instead belonged to Mayer, who had plenty of history on this track after growing up so close to and having so many memories of this place. His father, Scott Mayer, won a Grand-Am race at Road America in 2013.
"It was super-cool to be a part of that and then, obviously, all the way up to now – to be the better Mayer,” Sam Mayer quipped after the race Saturday.
Until that dramatic finish, it seemed this race would be remembered primarily for all the cautions.
Near the race’s halfway point, an apparent brake failure caused Chandler Smith to go off course and crash into the wall.
With about seven laps left, Alex Labbe had an apparent brake issue that caused him to slam into the wall in Turn 1.
Both Smith and Labbe got out of their cars and were examined and released from the care center. | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/motor/2023/07/29/saturdays-motors-hamlin-says-nascars-point-system-encourages-aggression/70493667007/ | 2023-07-30T05:32:23 | 1 | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/motor/2023/07/29/saturdays-motors-hamlin-says-nascars-point-system-encourages-aggression/70493667007/ |
SANGER, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A dead body was recovered from a canal in Sanger Saturday evening, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies say around 7 p.m. they responded to Newmark and Annadale Avenues for a report of an unresponsive man in the water.
Upon arrival, authorities say they pulled the man out of the water and determined he was dead.
Deputies are actively on scene investigating the incident. | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/dead-body-recovered-from-sanger-canal-deputies-say/ | 2023-07-30T05:32:25 | 1 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/dead-body-recovered-from-sanger-canal-deputies-say/ |
DCFC earns draw against Oakland Roots SC, is in ninth place
Detroit City FC and Oakland Roots SC traded goals in the first five minutes, then settled in for 85 minutes of scoreless soccer culminating in a 1-1 draw Saturday night in a United Soccer League Championship match at Oakland.
Oakland stunned Le Rouge 23 seconds into the game when Johnny Rodriguez let fly a shot from about 25 yards in front of the net that eluded Nate Steinwascher and sailed just inside the upright for a 1-0 lead.
DCFC equalized in the fifth minute when Stephen Carroll took a corner kick that bounced through the penalty area to in front of the far upright and headed it in for a 1-1 tie.
Both Steinwascher and Oakland keeper Paul Blanchette were tested a couple of times with good scoring opportunities but were up to the tests, making strong saves.
The second half was relatively devoid of scoring opportunities until the 89th minute, when DCFC's Maxi Rodriguez curled a shot labeled for the upper corner that Blanchette barely got a hand on, then gobbled up a shot from Rhys Williams on the rebound.
The result left DCFC at 6-11-6, one point behind Indy Eleven for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Miami FC is another point behind in 10th, but Indy has two games in hand over DCFC and Miami has one.
Oakland is 9-6-7, in third place in the Western Conference.
DCFC has two weeks to prepare for its next match, a home game on August 12 against Charleston Battery. Kickoff at Keyworth Stadium is at 7:30 p.m. | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/soccer/2023/07/30/dcfc-earns-draw-against-oakland-roots-sc-is-in-ninth-place/70493713007/ | 2023-07-30T05:32:29 | 0 | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/soccer/2023/07/30/dcfc-earns-draw-against-oakland-roots-sc-is-in-ninth-place/70493713007/ |
New York Mets reach preliminary agreement to trade Max Scherzer to Texas Rangers
The New York Mets took the field five months ago believing they were headed to the World Series with the biggest and fattest payroll in baseball history, a team loaded with Cy Young winners, All-Stars and MVPs.
Who could have imagined they’d turn around and engineer one of the quickest teardowns in baseball history?
The Mets began taking a sledgehammer to the team Saturday by reaching a preliminary agreement with the Texas Rangers to send three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer to the Texas Rangers and opened trade talks with the Astros to send Justin Verlander back to Houston.
Scherzer, who has a complete no-trade clause, informed the Mets that he would accept the deal, two high-ranking officials with direct knowledge of the decision told USA TODAY Sports. The officials requested anonymity because that information hasn't been made public.
The deal won’t become official until Scherzer undergoes a physical and the financial exchange between the parties is finalized.
But it is happening.
And it is the blockbuster hit of the summer.
Just like that, $172 million worth of contracts just flew out the door, and served as a subtle reminder that winning the winter doesn’t mean a single darn thing in the summer as the Mets self-imploded.
The Mets tipped their hand when they traded closer David Robertson on Thursday night to the Miami Marlins, angering Scherzer, who said that he wanted to have a discussion with the Mets front office about its plans.
Well, Scherzer quickly discovered that he wasn't part of their rebuilding plans and was informed Saturday afternoon that the Mets reached a deal to send him to the Rangers. Scherzer waived his no-trade rights later in the day. He is being paid $43.3 million this year and in 2024, and got a nice raise simply playing his home games in Texas, where there are no state taxes instead of New York. He lives during the offseason in Jupiter, Florida, where there also are no state taxes.
The Mets are also working on a deal with the Astros, who would love to have Verlander back if the price is right. A high-ranking Astros official said they would want the Mets to pay a significant portion of his $43.3 million contract this year and next year, that includes a $35 million club option that vests if he pitches at least 140 innings in 2024. The option year, one official said, could be a hang-up in the deal
So, just like that, the Mets are the biggest sellers at the deadline and the Rangers, who dropped $700 million in free agency the last two winters, including $185 million on former Mets Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom, are the biggest buyers.
“We’re trying to balance the best interests of the team but also balance the best interests of the organization,” Mets GM Billy Eppler told reporters. “And sometimes those are more perpendicular than they are parallel. It’s tough.”
The Mets, who now will unload outfielders Tommy Pham and Mark Canha, and start over in the winter with former Brewers GM David Stearns heading to New York to become president of baseball operations. At least now, he’ll have a clean slate with a whole lot of money coming off the books if Verlander departs, too.
Still, there figures to be a whole lot of dead money on the books in exchange for getting better prospects. He already is paying about $55 million to players no longer in the organization, which could double with Scherzer and Verlander.
Certainly, it was an abrupt about-face that no one envisioned.
Really, no one expected the Mets to be this bad, and if the Mets indeed are even slightly rebuilding, Scherzer wants no part of it.
He just turned 39 years old, has been to the postseason nine times, including the last four full seasons, and isn’t about to spend the last few years of his career playing for a rebuilding team.
So Scherzer leaves.
Verlander could join him.
And, oh, how baseball’s trade deadline suddenly lit up the New York skyline.
Follow Nightengale on Twitter @Bnightengale | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/mlb/2023/07/29/max-scherzer-trade-mets-rangers-reach-preliminary-agreement/70493385007/ | 2023-07-30T05:32:44 | 0 | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/mlb/2023/07/29/max-scherzer-trade-mets-rangers-reach-preliminary-agreement/70493385007/ |
DES MOINES, Iowa — A local Des Moines business is witnessing the positive power of social media.
Maccabee's Kosher Deli has seen hundreds of new customers after a TikTok about the restaurant went viral earlier this month.
Sarah Booz, a Des Moines-based TikTok creator, shared her experience at the deli with her 16.6 thousand followers.
"If you need some delicious kosher food in your life, go to Maccabee's Deli," Booz said in the TikTok. "It's on Polk and University, like, right behind the Waveland Cafe. Absolutely recommend it."
As of Saturday evening, Booz' video about Maccabee's has received more than 250,000 views and 34,000 likes.
Booz says she ordered a pastrami on rye with deli mustard and onions. But, it's become so popular with customers that rye and challah bread have run out.
"I'm telling you, it's booming," said Rabbi Yossi Jacobson, who owns the deli. "I have to go up and get more meat to feed the community. We never saw this before."
The increased popularity means some customers have had to wait almost 20 minutes to get their food.
Most people there on Friday afternoon were first-time customers, who had traveled to Des Moines. Some were in town for business, some for pleasure, but all made sure to visit the deli.
"It just got really popular. And when she said they were the best, I had to try it," said Dallas Rogers.
Maccabee's is the only kosher deli in Des Moines, and Jacobson says its the largest deli of its kind in Iowa.
"Maccabee's is the story of Hanukkah. So we hope that this place will be a place that unifies the community, and the community will support it," Jacobson said.
While making sandwiches isn't a normal thing for rabbis, Jacobson said he does it to unify the community through conversation and food.
"My name is Joseph Jacobson-- Yoseph," he said. "In the bible, Joseph fed all the people in Egypt. And what came was--there was a big famine. And his name was also Joseph Jacobson. It was Joseph, the son of Jacob, right? So I'm doing the same thing, just a few 1000 years later." | https://www.weareiowa.com/article/entertainment/dining/maccabees-kosher-deli-des-moines-iowa-restaurant-sarah-booz-tiktok/524-8bdc3945-c690-4b30-9612-4fb9bcf744c7 | 2023-07-30T05:32:44 | 0 | https://www.weareiowa.com/article/entertainment/dining/maccabees-kosher-deli-des-moines-iowa-restaurant-sarah-booz-tiktok/524-8bdc3945-c690-4b30-9612-4fb9bcf744c7 |
DES MOINES, Iowa — More than a dozen GOP presidential hopefuls spoke to a crowd of about 1,200 GOP members and activists at the Lincoln Dinner on Friday night in Des Moines.
No two candidates were allowed on the stage at the same time, allowing each speaker to address the room in hopes of gaining the audience's support.
Republican front-runners Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made headlines as they shared the stage for the first time in Iowa at a campaign event.
Outside of Trump and DeSantis, some GOP underdogs also raised some eyebrows for their stance on reproductive rights.
"I believe the time has come for a minimum national standard of a 15-week ban at the federal level," former Vice President Mike Pence said, receiving minimal applause.
Pence and other candidates -- like politician Ryan Binkley -- talked about a wide array of subjects, but reproductive rights stood out at the event.
"I feel like that [the states] are navigating this," Binkley told Local 5. "They're working this out. Let's let the process happen. You know, give it some time. Every state's trying to figure this out, and I wanna see how that works, and we'll deal with that as it comes."
The discussion of reproductive rights at the Lincoln Dinner comes at a time where abortion remains in limbo in Iowa.
On July 11, Iowa legislators passed a near-total abortion ban after Governor Kim Reynolds called lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special legislative session. The bill effectively bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, around the time a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Then three days later. on July 14, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law. However, district judge Joseph Seidlin put a pause on the new restrictions on July 17.
Reynolds has since then filed an appeal, which was approved by the Iowa Supreme Court.
The state Supreme Court can rule on the temporary injunction alone, or it can decide to fast-forward a decision on merits of the newly passed law itself.
While GOP presidential candidates spoke at the Lincoln Dinner Friday night, Vice President Kamala Harris was also in Des Moines.
Harris met with health care providers, patients, local leaders and abortion advocates in Iowa, while also addressing reproductive rights in the state of Iowa.
"As I travel the country, it is clear to me that so many people in these state legislatures, don't even know how women's bodies work," Vice President Harris said. "The government should not be telling her what to do."
As of late July, abortion remains legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. | https://www.weareiowa.com/article/news/politics/elections/lincoln-dinner-abortion-reproductive-rights-donald-trump-ron-desantis-ryan-binkley-mike-pence/524-b504c78d-c956-462c-8504-c75eda8271ba | 2023-07-30T05:32:51 | 0 | https://www.weareiowa.com/article/news/politics/elections/lincoln-dinner-abortion-reproductive-rights-donald-trump-ron-desantis-ryan-binkley-mike-pence/524-b504c78d-c956-462c-8504-c75eda8271ba |
SAN ANGELO, TX— Angelo State Volleyball hosted day two of their annual team competition camp Saturday at the Junell Center with a record-breaking turnout of fourteen teams.
Over 130 athletes participated in this event to showcase their skills in front of Angelo State Volleyball head coach Chuck Waddington and his team, providing high school girls a chance to prepare for the upcoming volleyball season and gain exposure.
“Mostly local teams. Teams from outside of Lubbock. We have teams from all over within a three-hour area. So, it’s nice it serves the local area. It’s a great way for high school coaches because they can’t coach their teams. They can come to get a glimpse of what they will be looking at this year, and there were about 130 kids here yesterday, and today it’s a pretty big deal. We want to make an impact on the community, especially through volleyball. This is a great way to do it. My players are here, and they are officiating, and the high school girls get to be around some college athletes. It’s a pretty neat experience,” said Waddington. | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/angelo-state-volleyball-hosts-annual-team-competition-camp/ | 2023-07-30T05:37:06 | 1 | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/angelo-state-volleyball-hosts-annual-team-competition-camp/ |
Triple digits once again for the area, with an afternoon high of 102 degrees here in San Angelo. We’re still continuing our above average temps. Skies started the morning very sunny, but we’ve seen a slight increase in our cloud content through the afternoon. Winds have been out of the southeast around 10 mph. Through the evening we will see our temps gradually cool to the mid 70s for our overnight lows. Skies will remain mostly clear and winds will be out of the southeast at 5-10 mph though shifting out of the south southwest after midnight.
For our Sunday as we finish our weekend we’ll see another day similar to what we saw today with afternoon highs in the upper 90s to lower triple digits for our area. Skies will be mostly sunny once again and winds will be out of the southwest at 5-10 mph through the morning and will shift out of the southeast through the afternoon. For the overnight hours our temps will drop to the mid 70s. | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/weather/klst-evening-forecast-saturday-july-29th-2023-2/ | 2023-07-30T05:37:08 | 1 | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/weather/klst-evening-forecast-saturday-july-29th-2023-2/ |
Saturday was a soaker across the region with a general 1 to 2 inches of rain for many, including a little more than an inch and a half in Syracuse. This led to a bit of flash, urban and poor drainage flooding in spots Saturday. Below is a picture from Maria VanRiper in East Syracuse.
Below are some Saturday rainfall reports from the NYS Mesonet stations, weather watchers and the National Weather Service…
...CAYUGA COUNTY... PORT BYRON 2.91 IN 0305 PM 07/29 AWS CATO 1.20 IN 0255 PM 07/29 CWOP ...JEFFERSON COUNTY... WATERTOWN AIRPORT 1.77 IN 0256 PM 07/29 ASOS BELLEVILLE 1.75 IN 0305 PM 07/29 NYSM TYLERSVILLE 1.48 IN 0300 PM 07/29 CWOP ...LEWIS COUNTY... CROGHAN 1.82 IN 0305 PM 07/29 NYSM HARRISBURG 1.70 IN 0305 PM 07/29 NYSM COPENHAGEN 1.29 IN 0305 PM 07/29 NYSM ...WAYNE COUNTY... WILLIAMSON 2.21 IN 0255 PM 07/29 CWOP SODUS POINT 1.64 IN 0304 PM 07/29 AWS ONTARIO 1.54 IN 0305 PM 07/29 NYSM 3 N MACEDON 1.34 IN 0305 PM 07/29 AWS WOLCOTT 1.31 IN 0305 PM 07/29 NYSM NORTH ROSE 1.17 IN 0255 PM 07/29 CWOP 2 NE WOLCOTT 1.16 IN 0300 PM 07/29 AWS | https://www.localsyr.com/weather/rainfall-varied-quite-a-bit-across-cny-saturday/ | 2023-07-30T05:38:29 | 0 | https://www.localsyr.com/weather/rainfall-varied-quite-a-bit-across-cny-saturday/ |
NEW YORK — Six straight days of 12-hour driving. Single digit paychecks. The complaints come from workers in vastly different industries: UPS delivery drivers and Hollywood actors and writers.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated those changes, pushing retailers to shift online and intensifying the streaming competition among entertainment companies. Now, from the picket lines, workers are trying to give consumers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce a show that can be binged any time or get dog food delivered to their doorstep with a phone swipe.
Overworked and underpaid employees is an enduring complaint across industries — from delivery drivers to Starbucks baristas and airline pilots — where surges in consumer demand have collided with persistent labor shortages. Workers are pushing back against forced overtime, punishing schedules or company reliance on lower-paid, part-time or contract forces.
At issue for Hollywood screenwriters and actors staging their first simultaneous strikes in 40 years is the way streaming has upended entertainment economics, slashing pay and forcing showrunners to produce content faster with smaller teams.
“This seems to happen to many places when the tech companies come in. Who are we crushing? It doesn’t matter,” said Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, a screenwriter and showrunner on the negotiating team for the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike since May. Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the writers’ union on the picket line.
Actors and writers have long relied on residuals, or long-term payments, for reruns and other airings of films and televisions shows. But reruns aren’t a thing on streaming services, where series and films simply land and stay with no easy way, such as box office returns or ratings, to determine their popularity.
Consequently, whatever residuals streaming companies do pay often amount to a pittance, and screenwriters have been sharing tales of receiving single digit checks.
Adam Shapiro, an actor known for the Netflix hit “Never Have I Ever,” said many actors were initially content to accept lower pay for the plethora of roles that streaming suddenly offered. But the need for a more sustainable compensation model gained urgency when it became clear streaming is not a sideshow, but rather the future of the business, he said.
“Over the past 10 years, we realized: ‘Oh, that’s now how Hollywood works. Everything is streaming,’” Shapiro said during a recent union event.
Shapiro, who has been acting for 25 years, said he agreed to a contract offering 20% of his normal rate for “Never Have I Ever” because it seemed like “a great opportunity, and it’s going to be all over the world. And it was. It really was. Unfortunately, we’re all starting to realize that if we keep doing this we’re not going to be able to pay our bills.”
Then there’s the rising use of “mini rooms,” in which a handful of writers are hired to work only during pre-production, sometimes for a series that may take a year to be greenlit, or never get picked up at all.
Sanchez-Witzel, co-creator of the recently released Netflix series “Survival of the Thickest,” said television shows traditionally hire robust writing teams for the duration of production. But Netflix refused to allow her to keep her team of five writers past pre-production, forcing round-the-clock work on rewrites with just one other writer.
“It’s not sustainable and I’ll never do that again,” she said.
Sanchez-Witzel said she was struck by the similarities between her experience and those of UPS drivers, some of whom joined the WGA for protests as they threatened their own potentially crippling strike. UPS and the Teamsters last week reached a tentative contract staving off the strike.
Jeffrey Palmerino, a full-time UPS driver near Albany, New York, said forced overtime emerged as a top issue during the pandemic as drivers coped with a crush of orders on par with the holiday season. Drivers never knew what time they would get home or if they could count on two days off each week, while 14-hour days in trucks without air conditioning became the norm.
“It was basically like Christmas on steroids for two straight years. A lot of us were forced to work six days a week, and that is not any way to live your life,” said Palmerino, a Teamsters shop steward.
Along with pay raises and air conditioning, the Teamsters won concessions that Palmerino hopes will ease overwork. UPS agreed to end forced overtime on days off and eliminate a lower-paid category of drivers who work shifts that include weekends, converting them to full-time drivers. Union members have yet to ratify the deal.
The Teamsters and labor activists hailed the tentative deal as a game-changer that would pressure other companies facing labor unrest to raise their standards. But similar outcomes are far from certain in industries lacking the sheer economic indispensability of UPS or the clout of its 340,000-member union.
Efforts to organize at Starbucks and Amazon stalled as both companies aggressively fought against unionization.
Still, labor protests will likely gain momentum following the UPS contract, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which released a report this year that found the number of labor strikes rose 52% in 2022.
“The whole idea that consumer convenience is above everything broke down during the pandemic. We started to think, ‘I’m at home ordering, but there is actually a worker who has to go the grocery store, who has to cook this for me so that I can be comfortable,’” Campos-Medina said.
___
Associated Press video journalist Leslie Ambriz contributed from Los Angeles. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/labor-unrest-hollywood-screenwriters-actors-ups-drivers/07cd7766-2e8e-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:40:48 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/labor-unrest-hollywood-screenwriters-actors-ups-drivers/07cd7766-2e8e-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
While customers might typically visit Chicago's rudest hot dog for a meal or the one-of-a-kind experience, some stopped by on Saturday to meet one of the world's most famous singers.
Fans of Ed Sheeran flocked to The Wiener's Circle, the iconic Lincoln Park hot dog stand known for its sassy staffers, as he manned the counter. With little advanced notice, the singer-songwriter announced that he'd be giving away hot dogs at the establishment Saturday afternoon.
Photos taken by Telemundo Chicago showed a smiling Sheeran as he conversed with fans and customers, something the iconic establishment's employees might not typically do.
Given that, it appears Sheeran didn't live up to the business' standards.
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"Our newest trainee @edsheeran has a lot to learn, he’s way too proper and friendly," the Wiener's Circle tweeted.
Understandably, the new trainee's appearance kept the joint pretty busy.
Entertainment News
Sheeran's visit took place just a few hours before his planned Mathematics Tour stop at Soldier Field, featuring KHALID and Cat Burns. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/ed-sheeran-chicago-the-wieners-circle-soldier-field-concert-saturday/3614434/ | 2023-07-30T05:40:48 | 0 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/ed-sheeran-chicago-the-wieners-circle-soldier-field-concert-saturday/3614434/ |
Most of us have an idea of summer in our heads. It generally involves beaches. Americans head to their coasts — avoiding only fog-shrouded San Francisco — and Europeans to the Mediterranean or Aegean. We all strip down to near nakedness and sit around in the sun, occasionally frolicking in the ocean waves. We aim to return home tanned and toned. If you come from another planet and don’t know what I am talking about, watch the Barbie trailer.
An entire economic system has evolved to meet our needs. Airlines compete to fly us to seaside resorts where hotels provide the shelter and the food. Restaurants with sea views are thronged. Those who can afford a second home compete for waterfront locations. Owning a boat or some other aquatic toy is often part of the deal. There is also a freshwater variant, in which a lake takes the place of the sea. But the basic concept is the same.
This explains why, as Covid restrictions have been lifted over the past two years, people all over the world have flocked back to their favorite beaches. Many warm-weather holiday destinations saw record arrivals by air in 2022 — for example, the Greek island of Mykonos or the American island of Puerto Rico. This was not just because air travel in general made a comeback, as total TSA passenger volume in 2022 was only 90% of 2019 levels. The market share of sun-and-surf destinations went up.
However, rising global temperatures would appear to be killing this version of summer. None of what I have just described is enjoyable if the mercury is above 30 degrees C (86 F). Indeed, sunbathing becomes life-threatening. And who wants a week on Corfu if a large tract of the island is ablaze? This summer in southern Europe has been less Barbie, more Oppenheimer.
Even those who prefer not to think too deeply about climate change notice when their familiar summer holiday morphs into an ordeal akin to being slow roasted. Those who own the capital stock — the hotels, the houses, the boats — naturally cling to the hope that this summer is an aberration and next year will return to normal. But they have been clinging to that hope for quite a few years now. The horrible question keeps suggesting itself: What if this is the new normal?
This is not the place for deep reflection about the complexities and uncertainties of climate-change models. As John Burn-Murdoch pointed out last week, global warming no longer needs to be a theory; it’s a reality. Extreme heat is significantly more common in major cities these days (2019-23) than it was in the early 1950s.
To be precise, there are 2.7 times as many days with mid-afternoon temperatures above 30 C in Athens; 3.7 times in Barcelona; 8.1 times in Paris; and an amazing 10.4 times in London. All these cities are close to the sea, so it is not surprising that popular summer seaside destinations — such as France’s Côte d’Azur and Martha’s Vineyard — have also been notably warmer in recent years than they were in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Nor will I tax the reader’s patience with a reminder that a spate of really large volcanic eruptions — of the sort we have not seen in more than two centuries — could change the situation dramatically, ushering in a period of global cooling. Let us merely focus on the not unlikely scenario that summer as we know it is over.
Take Spain, long a favorite summer destination of British holidaymakers. So far, there have been three heat waves this summer, pushing temperatures into the low 40s C (above 104 F) and rendering the traditional Costa del Sol beach holiday a sweltering misery. Last summer was as bad, if not worse.
“About one-fifth of Spain has desertified,” according to the British journalist Simon Kuper, who has been chronicling the lack of rain in Spain for some years. “That could rise to three-quarters … If Spain were a company, the consultants would say: ‘Your business model no longer works. Either pivot or close the thing down.’” He sees tourism migrating to the country’s northern coast, and the heartland switching from olive groves to solar panels and wind turbines.
More generally, Kuper foresees a geographical shift in holiday destinations. British tourists who once forsook their seaside towns for Spain will return, reviving the likes of St Leonards-on-Sea. The New York Times distilled the thesis into two questions: Stockholm Instead of Rome? October Instead of July?
We should not be surprised if such changes occur. Summer was not always about the seaside and sunbathing. True, there is a long tradition, dating back at least to the Romans, of leaving the city for the seashore in the summer months. Baiae, on the northern tip of the Gulf of Naples, was a favorite haunt of the emperors Augustus, Nero and Caligula. (According to Seneca the Younger, it was a “harbor of vice.”) But activities such as swimming in the sea and stripping semi-naked to lie on the beach are of quite recent provenance.
Moreover, the seaside is not an appealing summer location in much of the world. No sweat-soaked imperial civil servant in British-ruled India would have chosen the Bay of Bengal as his preferred holiday destination. The only way to escape the heat of the summer was — as Rudyard Kipling described — to flee the plains and head northwards to Himalayan “hill stations” such as Simla.
Now that summer in more and more of the world is as searingly hot as India in Kipling’s time, we are all going to have to take a leaf out of his book. The hill station is coming back, and this time it’s global.
To those who already prefer to spend the summer in the Colorado Rockies or the Swiss Alps, this is not exactly breaking news. But the early adopters of the mountain vacation are in for a shock when the masses start showing up. The same goes for the hardy souls who have maintained the Victorian tradition of going to Scotland for the summer (which is like opting out of summer altogether). They, too, may soon find their favorite Highland beauty spots overrun by sunburnt refugees from Malaga. Heat exhaustion can kill you. No one ever died of drizzle.
“Short shores, long hills” sounds like a potentially huge trade. The logic is compelling: Companies that own large numbers of hotels and holiday rentals along overheating coastlines must surely be in trouble. Companies that are developing the American and European equivalents to Simla, on the other hand, are going to make money.
Over dinner with some hedge fund friends last week, we talked about the potential losers of the overheating Mediterranean. Marriott is the largest international hotel chain in Spain with a total of roughly 14,000 rooms, but the Spanish Meliá Hotels has more than twice that number, and has seen its stock fall by half over the last five years. How about the hills to invest in? Aspen is overbought. Try Idaho, but not Sun Valley. According to the property-sharing company Pacaso, the biggest spikes in vacation home prices in 2022 were in Valley County, Idaho, and Cumberland County, Maine.
There are, however, reasons to think twice about this trade. It is rarely a good idea to base a thesis on a) media coverage of the weather, which tends to be over-heated in itself, and b) one’s own personal experience plus “anecdata.” Yes, I felt smug two weeks ago, reading about flaming Corfu as I savored the cooling breeze that often accompanies a Montana sunset. But here are some awkward real data.
First, it’s not clear that this summer is exceptionally bad for Mediterranean and Aegean coastal resorts, though it might look that way on the internet. In a majority of European countries, the number of hectares burnt in forest fires this year is below the average of the period 2006-2022. In Greece, the damaged area is only 7% above average. The countries with exceptionally bad wildfires this summer are, in descending order: Lithuania, Estonia, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany and Ireland — nearly all in northern Europe. Forest fires are down 15% in Spain, 21% in Italy, and 85% in Cyprus.
Second, climate change is not unambiguously good news for mountain resorts. After all, most of them attract many more visitors as ski centers in the winter. But the mountains are seeing temperatures rise roughly as much as the beaches. The effects on snow cover in the Alps are all too familiar to European skiers.
Third, patterns of residence don’t indicate that people flee when temperatures regularly rise above 90 C. It might be more accurate to say they flee when there’s no air conditioning.
Obviously, people will live and work where the jobs are plentiful and/or the taxes are low, even if that means unpleasantly high outside temperatures. In the US, the two fastest-growing states are Texas and Florida, according to Brookings/Census Bureau figures; the next three are North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona. So Americans will move to Miami, regardless of the summer heat and humidity, the rising probability of extreme weather, and the prospect of rising sea levels.
According to Zillow, the real-estate website, half a million homes in Miami could be underwater by the end of the century. We can already see a discount for low-lying Florida properties relative to homes on higher ground. Yet waterfront properties — and especially beachfront properties — remain the most coveted and expensive.
In the same way, people will relocate to Phoenix despite the unendurable temperatures in summer (27 consecutive days above 110 F as of Friday), the rising toll of heat-related deaths, and the growing water shortages.
The paradox is now familiar. To quote a recent Bloomberg report, “Americans are actually choosing to move to Zip codes with a high risk of experiencing wildfire, heat, drought and flood … The US counties with the highest risk of wildfire saw 446,000 more people move in than out over the last two years (a 51% increase from 2019 and 2020). And the counties with the highest heat risk registered a net influx of 629,000, a 17% uptick.”
In the words of the economist Noah Smith, “Increased probability of coastal flooding makes waterfront real estate a bit like a junk bond — something that will probably go up in value, but has a small to moderate chance of going to zero.” That doesn’t stop people buying junk bonds or their residential equivalents.
When you dig into this, you realize how much the US coastal real-estate market is distorted by federal subsidies, tax breaks, low-interest loans, grants and government flood insurance. In his book The Geography of Risk, Gilbert Gaul shows how property on the Jersey Shore tends to increase after hurricanes because the costs of rebuilding are borne by the taxpayer, while the Army Corps of Engineers builds back the beaches, improving them in the process. According to a 2021 Nature paper by Jesse Gourevitch and others, “residential properties exposed to flood risk are overvalued by $121–US$237 billion.”
A different issue is where the inhabitants of junk-bond homes will choose to spend their summers. A home is a long-term investment; a holiday is just a week or two of fun. The vacation market is therefore more fickle. One possibility is that the Sunbelters will remain loyal to the traditional vision of summer on the beach but head northwards to Maine — a less oppressively hot version of home. Another possibility is that European summer resorts will simply install or upgrade their air-con to Sunbelt standards. In Italy, retail sales of air-conditioning products have doubled over the past 12 months.
The obvious problem is that the more air conditioning we install, the harder it becomes to stop global warming. According to the International Energy Agency, global energy demand to cool buildings more than tripled since 1990. Space cooling averages 14% of peak demand across the IEA’s country sample. And the energy demand from space cooling is forecast to triple again by 2050.
I write these lines in New York City, with the temperature exceeding 90 F, before I flee the city for a coastal destination to the north. In that respect, I suppose, I am sticking to the traditional Barbie-and-Ken “beach off” summer. But I still have a gnawing sense that we are living through the twilight of an era.
In “A Tale of Two Cities,” Kipling describes the annual exodus of governing class of the Raj from “the packed and pestilential town” of Calcutta to the green and pleasant hills of Simla:
The Rulers in that City by the Sea
Turned to flee—
Fled, with each returning spring-tide from its ills
To the Hills.
From the clammy fogs of morning, from the blaze
Of old days,
From the sickness of the noontide, from the heat,
Beat retreat.
To me, New York last week felt — and smelt — a lot like Kipling’s Calcutta. I am not sure for how much longer escape to a beach will suffice as a respite from such conditions. Like one of Kipling’s long-suffering “boxwallahs,” confined to stew all summer by the Bay of Bengal, I pine for the hills.
It may not turn out to be the trade of the century. But short shores, long hills feels right.
More From Niall Ferguson at Bloomberg Opinion:
• America Still Leads the World, But Its Allies Are Uneasy
• The Dollar’s Demise May Come Gradually, But Not Suddenly
• The Aliens Have Landed, and We Created Them
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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Niall Ferguson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the author, most recently, of “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe.” He is the founder of Greenmantle, an advisory firm, FourWinds Research, Hunting Tower, a venture capital partnership, and the filmmaker Chimerica Media.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/record-heat-is-killing-summer-vacation-for-hotels-airlines-beaches/7456f356-2e90-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:40:49 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/record-heat-is-killing-summer-vacation-for-hotels-airlines-beaches/7456f356-2e90-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
PAVLIVKA, Ukraine — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars.
Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield.
They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles.
“We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses.
She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region.
“They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed.
But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill.
The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe.
Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable.
That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say.
From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime.
He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said.
“We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.”
Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor.
“The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania.
“If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said.
The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/russia-ukraine-war-grain-farmers-missiles/d017b990-2e96-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:40:52 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/russia-ukraine-war-grain-farmers-missiles/d017b990-2e96-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Shawn Steik and his wife were forced from a long-term motel room onto the streets of Anchorage after their rent shot up to $800 a month. Now they live in a tent encampment by a train depot, and as an Alaska winter looms they are growing desperate and fearful of what lies ahead.
A proposal last week by Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson to buy one-way plane tickets out of Alaska’s biggest city for its homeless residents gave Steik a much-needed glimmer of hope. He would move to the relative warmth of Seattle.
“I heard it’s probably warmer than this place,” said Steik, who is Aleut.
But the mayor’s unfunded idea also came under immediate attack as a Band-Aid solution glossing over the tremendous, and still unaddressed, crisis facing Anchorage as a swelling homeless population struggles to survive in a unique and extreme environment. Frigid temperatures stalk the homeless in the winter and bears infiltrate homeless encampments in the summer.
A record eight people died of exposure while living outside last winter and this year promises to be worse after the city closed an arena that housed 500 people during the winter months. Bickering between the city’s liberal assembly and its conservative mayor about how to address the crisis, and a lack of state funding, have further stymied efforts to find a solution.
With winter fast approaching in Alaska, it’s “past time for state and local leaders to address the underlying causes of homelessness — airplane tickets are a distraction, not a solution,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said in a statement to The Associated Press.
About 43% of Anchorage’s more than 3,000 unsheltered residents are Alaska Natives, and Bronson’s proposal also drew harsh criticism from those who called it culturally insensitive.
“The reality is there is no place to send these people because this is their land. Any policy that we make has to pay credence to that simple fact. This is Dena’ina land, this is Native land,” said Christopher Constant, chair of the Anchorage Assembly. “And so we cannot be supporting policies that would take people and displace them from their home, even if their home is not what you or I would call home.”
Bronson’s airfare proposal caps a turbulent few years as Anchorage, like many cities in the U.S. West, struggles to deal with a burgeoning homeless population.
In May, the city shut down the 500-bed homeless shelter in the city’s arena so it could once more be used for concerts and hockey games after neighbors complained about open drug use, trespassing, violence and litter. A plan to build a large shelter and navigation center fell through when Bronson approved a contract without approval from the Anchorage Assembly.
That leaves a gaping hole in the city’s ability to house the thousands of homeless people who have to contend with temperatures well below zero for days at a time and unrelenting winds blasting off Cook Inlet. At the end of June, Anchorage was estimated to have a little more than 3,150 homeless people, according to the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Last week, there were only 614 beds at shelters citywide, with no vacancies.
New tent cities have sprung up across Anchorage this summer: on a slope facing the city’s historic railroad depot, on a busy road near the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson and near soup kitchens and shelters downtown.
Assembly members are slated to consider a winter stop-gap option in August falling far short of the need: a large, warmed, tent-like structure for 150 people.
Summer brings its own challenges: hungry bears last year roamed a city-owned campground where homeless people were resettled after the arena closed. Wildlife officials killed four bears after they broke into tents.
Bronson said he prefers to spend a few hundred dollars per person for a plane ticket rather than spending about $100 daily to shelter and feed them. He said he doesn’t care where they want to go; his job is to “make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.”
It’s not clear if his proposal will move forward. There is not yet a plan or a funding source.
Dr. Ted Mala, an Inupiaq who in 1990 became the first Alaska Native to serve as the state’s health commissioner, said Anchorage should be working with social workers and law enforcement to discover people’s individual reasons for homelessness and connect them with resources.
Buying the unsheltered a ticket to another city is a political game that’s been around for years. A number of U.S. cities struggling with homelessness, including San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have also offered bus or plane tickets to homeless residents.
“People are not pawns, they’re human beings,” Mala said.
The mayor’s proposal, while focused on warmer cities, also would fund tickets to other Alaska locations for those who want them.
Clarita Clark became homeless after her medical team wanted her to move from Point Hope to Anchorage for cancer treatment because Anchorage is warmer. The medical facility wouldn’t allow her husband to stay with her, so they pitched a tent in a sprawling camp to stay together.
Having recently found the body of a dead teenager who overdosed in a portable toilet, Clark yearns to return to the Chukchi Sea coastal village of Point Hope, where her three grandchildren live.
“I got a family that loves me,” she said, adding she would use the ticket and seek treatment closer to home.
Danny Parish also is leaving Alaska, but for another reason: He’s fed up.
Parish is selling his home of 29 years because it sits directly across the street from Sullivan Arena. Bad acts by some homeless people — including harassment, throwing vodka bottles in his yard, poisoning his dog and using his driveway as a toilet — made his life “a holy hell,” he said.
Parish is convinced the arena will be used again this winter since there isn’t another plan.
He, too, hopes to move to the contiguous U.S. — Oregon, for starters — but not before asking Anchorage leaders for his own plane ticket out.
“If they’re going to give them to everybody else,” Parish said, “then they need to give me one.” | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/30/alaska-natives-homeless-airplane-tickets-winter/d76ce86a-2e90-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:40:53 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/30/alaska-natives-homeless-airplane-tickets-winter/d76ce86a-2e90-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
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Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/1-dead1-critical-after-deadly-stabbing-inside-a-vineland-home/3614441/ | 2023-07-30T05:40:55 | 0 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/1-dead1-critical-after-deadly-stabbing-inside-a-vineland-home/3614441/ |
A nurse and her child, both Americans, have been kidnapped amid crime and unrest in Haiti's capital, a nonprofit connected to the woman said Saturday.
The group, El Roi Haiti, said in a statement that Alix Dorsainvil, a community health nurse married to its founder and director, Sandro Dorsainvil, and the pair's child, were kidnapped Thursday morning from its location near Port-au-Prince.
The organization said the two were taken "while serving in our community ministry."
The State Department said Saturday it's aware of reports of the kidnapping, is in contact with Haitian authorities, "and will continue to work with them and our U.S. government interagency partners."
“The U.S. Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas," the department said in a statement.
The kidnappings took place the same day the State Department ordered nonemergency U.S. government employees and families to leave Haiti “due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure.”
Read the full story on NBCNews.com here. | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/2-americans-have-been-kidnapped-in-haiti-organization-says/3306126/ | 2023-07-30T05:40:55 | 0 | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/2-americans-have-been-kidnapped-in-haiti-organization-says/3306126/ |
SAN MATEO, Calif. (CNN) — A Bay Area man faces a murder charge after allegedly stabbing a woman to death and posting video of her “last moments” on Facebook, San Mateo Police say.
The Nye County Sheriff’s Office in Nevada notified San Mateo Police Wednesday afternoon that a caller reported having witnessed a stabbing on Facebook, police said in a statement.
The caller provided the name and phone number of the man who posted the video, according to San Mateo police. The phone number was traced to an apartment complex in San Mateo.
Investigators later arrested the 39-year-old suspect, Mark Mechikoff, in San Jose, police said.
“While the motive for stabbing the victim is still under investigation, we do know Mechikoff mercilessly filmed the last moments of the victim’s life and posted the video to Facebook, then fled the area,” San Mateo police said in the statement.
Before the arrest, police officers spent nearly three hours going door to door in the large complex before finding the victim in an apartment, the statement said.
The suspect had fled but officers arrested him within two hours of finding the victim, police said.
Mechikoff knew the victim, according to police.
The suspect faces a felony murder charge with enhancements, court records show. He made an initial court appearance Friday and is due back in court August 4. It’s unclear if he has an attorney.
CNN sought comment from Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, but has not received a response.
Anyone with information or security footage related to this homicide is asked to contact the San Mateo Police Department.
----
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- Follow us on Youtube | https://www.kgun9.com/news/national/police-bay-area-man-stabs-woman-to-death-posts-a-video-of-her-last-moments-to-facebook | 2023-07-30T05:40:58 | 0 | https://www.kgun9.com/news/national/police-bay-area-man-stabs-woman-to-death-posts-a-video-of-her-last-moments-to-facebook |
BISMARCK, N.D. — Hundreds of new laws will take effect Tuesday in North Dakota, including greater enforcement of seat belt use and restrictions regarding gender identity, sexual content in public libraries and ownership of farmland by foreign entities.
Among those already in effect are revised laws outlawing all abortions, except in cases where women could face death or a “serious health risk.” Another exception for pregnancies caused by rape and incest applies only in the first six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.
Here is what to know about the new laws taking effect in North Dakota.
SEAT BELTS
North Dakota joins a majority of states with some form of a primary enforcement seat belt law, according to information from the Governors Highway Safety Association.
The state previously had secondary enforcement, meaning officers could cite front seat occupants for not wearing a seat belt only after a previous traffic infraction, though there was primary enforcement for minors in all seats.
The new law will require all vehicle occupants to wear seat belts, not just those in front seats. The fine remains at $20.
The proposed change was a hot debate for years in the Legislature, involving arguments of safety versus personal freedom. The change initially will be one of education before transitioning to enforcement, said Burleigh County Sheriff Kelly Leben, who supported the legislation.
“One of the arguments is people always say we should have personal choice, but we regulate a lot of things in our society, and that’s just part of living in a modern society, is there’s going to be rules, and seat belts are proven, time and time again, that’s the one thing people can do that will make a difference in a crash,” Leben said.
The state government’s Vision Zero initiative aims to mitigate traffic deaths, with seat belts as one component.
North Dakota logged a 20-year low of 98 traffic deaths in 2022, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Transportation. Nearly 82% of front-seat vehicle occupants used seat belts in 2021, according to NDDOT data.
GENDER IDENTITY
The Legislature passed a raft of gender-related bills that will soon take effect.
Those include two bills restricting transgender girls and women from participating on school sports teams matching their gender identity.
Other new laws will restrict sex amendments on birth records and bar transgender people from using restrooms and showers aligning with their identity in correctional facilities and public college dormitories.
Another bill that took effect in May prohibits transgender K-12 students from using restrooms aligning with their gender identity, among other restrictions. The Fargo School Board indicated it will defy the law.
One other bill, which took effect in April, criminalizes sex reassignment surgeries and gender-affirming care for minors.
BOOK BANNING
Republican lawmakers targeted sexual content in public libraries with a new law for removing or relocating “explicit sexual material” from public libraries’ children’s collections.
Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, who vetoed a broader bill allowing misdemeanor charges against librarians, said the new law “standardizes the process for local public libraries to review material when requested by parents, library users or other members of the public — a process already in place and working at nearly all public libraries across the state.”
Fargo Public Library Director Tim Dirks consulted the city attorney regarding the library’s current policies for compliance with the new law, with which he said he feels comfortable. The law requires a “compliance report” from public libraries to a top legislative panel.
“I think the key thing for us is the existing policies and procedures that we have in place,” but it remains to be seen how people will respond, Dirks said. The library has about 300,000 items on its shelves at three branches, plus vast collections of electronic materials.
It’s unclear how many challenges might arise to library materials, Dirks said. Fargo’s public library has had one or two challenges per year.
Republican lawmakers decried books such as “This Book Is Gay” by Juno Dawson and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe.
“What I always found incredible to this whole conversation ... is that in a society with the First Amendment, free and open, you have to understand you are going to run into things that you find offensive,” Dirks told The Associated Press. “Our job as the public library is to be representative as broadly as we can in terms of our society and our community.”
FOREIGN OWNERS OF FARMLAND
Two new laws will ban foreign governments and adversaries from owning land in North Dakota. The legislation came amid concerns of Chinese ties to a company’s proposed corn milling plant near the Grand Forks Air Force Base.
One law has exemptions for Canada and for agricultural research on no more than 160 acres (64.75 hectares).
The other law also bans local government boards from advancing foreign adversaries’ development plans during a two-year legislative study into related issues.
The new laws respond to constituents’ concerns but could create confusion for agribusiness companies with ties to foreign countries, Republican state Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring told the AP.
“It’s not a government that owns them, but it is a foreign entity, and the reality is all the work that they have to do for research ... they have to do at ground zero,” he said.
Goehring noted all land in the U.S. is agricultural land until designated otherwise and an area of 160 acres is not enough for extensive research.
Other states such as Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi and Oklahoma also have laws banning foreign ownership of farmland. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/30/north-dakota-legislature-laws/b44fc22e-2e97-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:40:59 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/30/north-dakota-legislature-laws/b44fc22e-2e97-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
A nurse and her child, both Americans, have been kidnapped amid crime and unrest in Haiti's capital, a nonprofit connected to the woman said Saturday.
The group, El Roi Haiti, said in a statement that Alix Dorsainvil, a community health nurse married to its founder and director, Sandro Dorsainvil, and the pair's child, were kidnapped Thursday morning from its location near Port-au-Prince.
The organization said the two were taken "while serving in our community ministry."
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The State Department said Saturday it's aware of reports of the kidnapping, is in contact with Haitian authorities, "and will continue to work with them and our U.S. government interagency partners."
“The U.S. Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas," the department said in a statement.
The kidnappings took place the same day the State Department ordered nonemergency U.S. government employees and families to leave Haiti “due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure.”
Read the full story on NBCNews.com here. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/2-americans-have-been-kidnapped-in-haiti-organization-says/3614452/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:01 | 0 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/2-americans-have-been-kidnapped-in-haiti-organization-says/3614452/ |
Two people were killed and two others injured Saturday in a midair collision at an airport in Wisconsin.
A Rotorway 162F helicopter and an ELA Eclipse 10 gyrocopter collided shortly after noon local time at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, authorities said. The aircraft belonged to individuals attending the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual fly-in convention in Oshkosh but were not involved in the air show, a statement from the organization said.
The association, citing the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, said two people were killed and two injured. The injured were taken to a local hospital and were in stable condition.
The association said further information would be released as additional details are confirmed. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
Separately, a plane earlier Saturday crashed into Lake Winnebago near Oshkosh, killing two people, according to the sheriff’s office. The NTSB is also investigating that case, which involved a single-engine North American T-6 aircraft. | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/4-dead-2-injured-in-separate-aircraft-accidents-in-wisconsin-authorities-say/3306132/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:01 | 1 | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/4-dead-2-injured-in-separate-aircraft-accidents-in-wisconsin-authorities-say/3306132/ |
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Another structural issue has been located with a large roller coaster that’s been closed for weeks since a large crack in a support column was discovered, a North Carolina agency confirmed on Friday.
A Swiss-based engineering company that designed and built the Fury 325 roller coaster at Carowinds, which sits along the North Carolina-South Carolina border, replaced that steel support column earlier this month, news outlets reported.
But the North Carolina Department of Labor, which inspects the ride and decides whether it can operate, said in an email that the agency has now been notified of a separate “weld indication,” which “could be either a break or a crack.”
“No certificate of operation has been issued nor do we have a timeline of when the certificate of operation will be issued for the Fury 325,” department spokesperson Meredith Watson said, referring other questions to Carowinds.
In a statement released Friday, Carowinds said it was conducting a full maintenance review of the ride while test runs are performed.
“During such reviews, it is not uncommon to discover slight weld indications in various locations of a steel superstructure. It is important to note that these indications do not compromise the structural integrity or safety of the ride,” the statement reads. “Once a repair is completed, it undergoes inspection and approval before the ride is deemed operational.”
Park staff closed Fury 325 on June 30 after a visitor pointed out the sizable crack. State Labor Commissioner Josh Dobson said earlier this month that the crack had been visible for at least a week before it was shut down.
Video of the coaster, which reaches 325 feet (99 meters) in height, had showed a key support beam bending with the top visibly detached as cars with passengers barreled by. The roller coaster runs at speeds of up to 95 mph (150 kph).
The department's Elevator and Amusement Device Bureau said it had conducted its annual inspection of Fury 325 in February and only found a few signage issues, which the park quickly corrected.
Inspections by the park, the engineering company, a third-party testing firm and the Department of Labor have been ongoing. Carowinds has said it’s changing how it inspects rides daily, including the use of drone cameras to examine areas.
While the park straddles the border between the two states, North Carolina regulators inspect Fury 325 because its nearby entrance is in North Carolina.
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- Follow us on Youtube | https://www.kgun9.com/news/national/roller-coaster-with-big-crack-has-a-second-structural-issue-inspectors-say | 2023-07-30T05:41:04 | 0 | https://www.kgun9.com/news/national/roller-coaster-with-big-crack-has-a-second-structural-issue-inspectors-say |
Two horses were euthanized in two days after suffering injuries at the Del Mar Racetrack one week into the 2023 summer racing season, Mac McBride from the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club told NBC San Diego on Saturday.
A 5-year-old mare who came in third during last Saturday's Osunitas Stakes at the Del Mar Racetrack has died after being injured on Friday.
Nevisian Sunrise's death was the first of the 2023 summer season, which started on July 21.
Nevisian Sunrise got loose, ran off and collided with a stationary object. The attending veterinary team found her injuries inoperable and euthanized her, according to McBride.
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On Saturday, a 4-year-old filly (a young female horse) named Ghostem suffered a non-operable musculoskeletal injury to her front right leg during a workout on the main track. The veterinarian team made the decision to euthanize her, McBride told NBC San Diego.
Both bodies of the horses are undergoing necropsies. The results will be reported to the California Horse Racing Board.
The DMTC issued a statement: "Del Mar sends its condolences to the people who owned, trained and cared for both horses."
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
Seven total horse deaths occurred at the Del Mar Racetrack during the 2022-2023 fiscal year, according to the California Horse Racing Board. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/2-horses-dead-in-2-days-at-del-mar-racetrack/3614419/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:07 | 1 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/2-horses-dead-in-2-days-at-del-mar-racetrack/3614419/ |
Shawn Steik and his wife were forced from a long-term motel room onto the streets of Anchorage after their rent shot up to $800 a month. Now they live in a tent encampment by a train depot, and as an Alaska winter looms they are growing desperate and fearful of what lies ahead.
A proposal last week by Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson to buy one-way plane tickets out of Alaska’s biggest city for its homeless residents gave Steik a much-needed glimmer of hope. He would move to the relative warmth of Seattle.
“I heard it’s probably warmer than this place,” said Steik, who is Aleut.
But the mayor's unfunded idea also came under immediate attack as a Band-Aid solution glossing over the tremendous, and still unaddressed, crisis facing Anchorage as a swelling homeless population struggles to survive in a unique and extreme environment. Frigid temperatures stalk the homeless in the winter and bears infiltrate homeless encampments in the summer.
A record eight people died of exposure while living outside last winter and this year promises to be worse after the city closed an arena that housed 500 people during the winter months. Bickering between the city’s liberal assembly and its conservative mayor about how to address the crisis, and a lack of state funding, have further stymied efforts to find a solution.
With winter fast approaching in Alaska, it's “past time for state and local leaders to address the underlying causes of homelessness — airplane tickets are a distraction, not a solution,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said in a statement to The Associated Press.
About 43% of Anchorage’s more than 3,000 unsheltered residents are Alaska Natives, and Bronson’s proposal also drew harsh criticism from those who called it culturally insensitive.
U.S. & World
“The reality is there is no place to send these people because this is their land. Any policy that we make has to pay credence to that simple fact. This is Dena’ina land, this is Native land," said Christopher Constant, chair of the Anchorage Assembly. "And so we cannot be supporting policies that would take people and displace them from their home, even if their home is not what you or I would call home.”
Bronson's airfare proposal caps a turbulent few years as Anchorage, like many cities in the U.S. West, struggles to deal with a burgeoning homeless population.
In May, the city shut down the 500-bed homeless shelter in the city's arena so it could once more be used for concerts and hockey games after neighbors complained about open drug use, trespassing, violence and litter. A plan to build a large shelter and navigation center fell through when Bronson approved a contract without approval from the Anchorage Assembly.
That leaves a gaping hole in the city’s ability to house the thousands of homeless people who have to contend with temperatures well below zero for days at a time and unrelenting winds blasting off Cook Inlet. At the end of June, Anchorage was estimated to have a little more than 3,150 homeless people, according to the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Last week, there were only 614 beds at shelters citywide, with no vacancies.
New tent cities have sprung up across Anchorage this summer: on a slope facing the city’s historic railroad depot, on a busy road near the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson and near soup kitchens and shelters downtown.
Assembly members are slated to consider a winter stop-gap option in August falling far short of the need: a large, warmed, tent-like structure for 150 people.
Summer brings its own challenges: hungry bears last year roamed a city-owned campground where homeless people were resettled after the arena closed. Wildlife officials killed four bears after they broke into tents.
Bronson said he prefers to spend a few hundred dollars per person for a plane ticket rather than spending about $100 daily to shelter and feed them. He said he doesn’t care where they want to go; his job is to “make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.”
It’s not clear if his proposal will move forward. There is not yet a plan or a funding source.
Dr. Ted Mala, an Inupiaq who in 1990 became the first Alaska Native to serve as the state’s health commissioner, said Anchorage should be working with social workers and law enforcement to discover people’s individual reasons for homelessness and connect them with resources.
Buying the unsheltered a ticket to another city is a political game that's been around for years. A number of U.S. cities struggling with homelessness, including San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have also offered bus or plane tickets to homeless residents.
“People are not pawns, they’re human beings,” Mala said.
The mayor's proposal, while focused on warmer cities, also would fund tickets to other Alaska locations for those who want them.
Clarita Clark became homeless after her medical team wanted her to move from Point Hope to Anchorage for cancer treatment because Anchorage is warmer. The medical facility wouldn't allow her husband to stay with her, so they pitched a tent in a sprawling camp to stay together.
Having recently found the body of a dead teenager who overdosed in a portable toilet, Clark yearns to return to the Chukchi Sea coastal village of Point Hope, where her three grandchildren live.
“I got a family that loves me," she said, adding she would use the ticket and seek treatment closer to home.
Danny Parish also is leaving Alaska, but for another reason: He's fed up.
Parish is selling his home of 29 years because it sits directly across the street from Sullivan Arena. Bad acts by some homeless people — including harassment, throwing vodka bottles in his yard, poisoning his dog and using his driveway as a toilet — made his life “a holy hell," he said.
Parish is convinced the arena will be used again this winter since there isn't another plan.
He, too, hopes to move to the contiguous U.S. — Oregon, for starters — but not before asking Anchorage leaders for his own plane ticket out.
“If they’re going to give them to everybody else," Parish said, “then they need to give me one.” | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/as-alaska-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-mayors-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/3306128/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:07 | 1 | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/as-alaska-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-mayors-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/3306128/ |
SALT LAKE CITY — Justin Gaethje knocked out Dustin Poirier with a head kick one minute into the second round to win the main event lightweight bout at UFC 291 on Saturday night.
It was Gaethje’s 20th win by knockout or TKO and his seventh victory in his last nine fights.
Second-ranked Poirier (29-8) entered the rematch between the two former interim lightweight champions as a minus-152 favorite according to FanDuel. He matched Gaethje blow for blow in the first round before being quickly dispatched in the second. With the victory, Gaethje claimed a BMF belt – the second UFC fighter to be awarded that belt.
Beating Poirier opens the door for Gaethje to have a potential title bout against the winner of Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira, who are set to square off at UFC 294 in October.
Gaethje’s BMF win over Poirier headlined five main card bouts.
Alex Pereira defeated Jan Blachowicz by split decision in a light heavyweight bout billed as the co-main event for his eighth win in his last nine fights.
Pereira (8-2), ranked second as a middleweight, made his debut in the light heavyweight division at UFC 291 after losing the middleweight title belt via knockout to Israel Adesanya at UFC 287 in April. Blachowicz (29-10-1) did not make the transition in weight class a smooth one for the former champion.
Derrick Lewis earned a record 14th knockout win over Marcos Rogerio de Lima just 33 seconds into the first round of the heavyweight bout. The No.10-ranked Lewis (27-11) scored an immediate takedown with a flying knee and pummeled 15th-ranked Rogerio de Lima (21-10-1) with repeated punches to score the early finish. He celebrated snapping a three-fight slide by stripping off his shorts and dancing around the Octagon.
Bobby Green beat Tony Ferguson by submission via choke with six seconds left in the third round of the lightweight bout. Green (30-14-1) dominated the final two rounds to earn his second career submission, scoring takedowns in both rounds while raining repeated blows that left his opponent battered. He denied Ferguson (26-9) a shot at earning his first UFC victory since 2019, sending the 39-year-old fighter home with his sixth straight loss.
Kevin Holland made quick work of Michael Chisea to win the welterweight bout. Holland (25-9) beat the 12th-ranked Chisea — fighting for the first time following a two-year hiatus — by submission at 2:39 in the first round. He used his length and striking abilities to trap Chisea (18-7) in a D’arce choke, forcing a quick tap out.
Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, Jazz coach Will Hardy, and former Jazz stars Deron Williams and Karl Malone were among those in attendance at the second UFC pay-per-view event in 11 months in the Beehive State.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/30/mma-ufc291-justin-gaethje-dustin-poirier/420450ce-2e95-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:41:08 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/30/mma-ufc291-justin-gaethje-dustin-poirier/420450ce-2e95-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
PUERTO RICO (CNN) — A federal jury on Friday convicted Olympic boxer Félix Verdejo-Sánchez in the deaths of a woman and her unborn child, according to the US Attorney’s Office in the District of Puerto Rico.
He was found guilty of kidnapping resulting in death and intentionally killing an unborn child, prosecutors said in a press release.
Keishla Rodríguez Ortiz and her unborn child were found dead in the San José Lagoon in Puerto Rico on May 1, 2021. A day later, Verdejo-Sánchez – who competed in the 2012 Olympics – was arrested and charged with their kidnapping, carjacking and killing, federal court documents show, according to CNN’s previous reporting.
A federal jury convicted Verdejo-Sánchez for the federal crimes that arose from Rodríguez Ortiz’s murder, which occurred on April 29, 2021, according to the release.
On the morning of Rodríguez Ortiz’s death, Verdejo-Sánchez carried out a premeditated plan to kill her and her unborn child, according to the release.
A witness told authorities Verdejo contacted him to help terminate a pregnancy after Rodríguez Ortiz told him she had taken a pregnancy test and was expecting his child, according to the criminal complaint.
Prosecutors said Verdejo-Sánchez lured Rodríguez Ortiz into his vehicle where, with help from another person, he assaulted and drugged her, the release stated.
Verdejo-Sánchez drove Rodríguez Ortiz to the Teodoro Moscoso bridge and threw her into the San José Lagoon with the other person’s assistance, according to the release.
Verdejo-Sánchez later jumped into the lagoon to “finish murdering both victims,” prosecutors said in the release.
“The jury determined, according to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Félix Verdejo-Sánchez, along with his co-defendant … aiding and abetting each other, committed a kidnapping that resulted in the death of Keishla M. Rodríguez Ortiz and her unborn child,” the release stated.
Verdejo-Sánchez is facing a mandatory life sentence for each conviction. He is scheduled to be sentenced on November 3.
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- Follow us on Youtube | https://www.kgun9.com/sports/olympic-boxer-felix-verdejo-found-guilty-of-kidnapping-death-of-pregnant-woman-and-unborn-child | 2023-07-30T05:41:10 | 1 | https://www.kgun9.com/sports/olympic-boxer-felix-verdejo-found-guilty-of-kidnapping-death-of-pregnant-woman-and-unborn-child |
Two people were killed and two others injured Saturday in a midair collision at an airport in Wisconsin.
A Rotorway 162F helicopter and an ELA Eclipse 10 gyrocopter collided shortly after noon local time at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, authorities said. The aircraft belonged to individuals attending the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual fly-in convention in Oshkosh but were not involved in the air show, a statement from the organization said.
The association, citing the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, said two people were killed and two injured. The injured were taken to a local hospital and were in stable condition.
The association said further information would be released as additional details are confirmed. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
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Separately, a plane earlier Saturday crashed into Lake Winnebago near Oshkosh, killing two people, according to the sheriff’s office. The NTSB is also investigating that case, which involved a single-engine North American T-6 aircraft. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/4-dead-2-injured-in-separate-aircraft-accidents-in-wisconsin-authorities-say/3614460/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:13 | 0 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/4-dead-2-injured-in-separate-aircraft-accidents-in-wisconsin-authorities-say/3614460/ |
A Florida woman was arrested after biting the top of another woman's ear off during a fight over vape pens and alcohol on July 4th, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies responded to an assault and battery call at a home in Callaway, a suburb of Panama City, just after midnight. An investigation revealed the incident had occurred at a house party next door at 6526 Olokee Street that was thrown by unsupervised minors.
When a fight kicked off between several men at the house party, 23-year-old Macy Regan attempted to leave and walk to her home next door, the sheriff's office said in a news release. It was then that Dixie Stiles, 18, confronted Regan and accused her of stealing vape pens and alcohol.
Regan allegedly pulled out a 9 millimeter gun from her waistband, which Stiles shoved out of the way. A physical altercation ensued where Regan bit the top of Stiles' ear off, the sheriff’s office said in the release.
The women received multiple bruises and lacerations in the fight and Stiles' ear was unable to be re-attached, the sheriff's office said.
Both women were arrested. Stiles was charged with battery while Regan was charged with felony battery causing bodily harm.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com here. | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/florida-woman-arrested-after-biting-ear-off-another-woman-during-fight-over-vape-pens-and-alcohol/3306135/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:13 | 0 | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/florida-woman-arrested-after-biting-ear-off-another-woman-during-fight-over-vape-pens-and-alcohol/3306135/ |
LAS VEGAS — The fight itself didn’t match the hype, but Terence Crawford’s performance exceeded it.
The fight, the most-anticipated boxing match in several years, made Crawford the first undisputed champion in the 147-pound division in the four-belt era that began in 2004.
Crawford (40-0, 31 knockouts) already owned the WBO belt, and took the WBC, WBA and IBF titles from Spence (28-1). Crawford also ran his KO streak to 11 matches, the second-longest active stretch.
Crawford, 35, has won titles at super lightweight and lightweight in addition to welterweight, capturing the latter after moving up in 2018. The Omaha, Nebraska, fighter became the first male boxer to become the undisputed champion in two divisions in the four-belt era.
“I only dreamed of being a world champion,” Crawford said. “I’m an over-achiever. Nobody believed in me when I was coming up, but I made everybody a believer. I want to thank Spence and his team because without him none of this would have been possible.”
A big fight night on the Strip still brings out the stars, with recording artist Andre 3000 of Outkast, NBA star Damian Lillard and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at T-Mobile Arena. They were among the celebrities that also included former boxing champions such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
Eminem introduced Crawford and his song “Lose Yourself” played as he walked into the ring before a sellout crowd of 19,990 at T-Mobile Arena.
Spence was the aggressor early on, but Crawford sent him to the floor with a right hand with 20 seconds left in the second round. Then Crawford went after Spence, but time ran out before he could finish him off.
Crawford, a minus-154 favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, then took control of the fight, landing several major blows, often on counters. But Crawford also picked his spots to go after Spence, his punching power taking a heavy toll.
“He was just better tonight,” Spence said. “I make no excuses. He was throwing a harder jab. He was timing with his jab, and he had his timing down on point.”
In the seventh round, Crawford knocked down Spence twice — with a short right at 1:02 and with another right with just a second left.
The fight was essentially over at that point, though Crawford backed off in the eighth round. He came roaring back in the ninth to end it for sure.
Crawford didn’t waste the chance to gloat afterward, directly responding to his critics.
“They said I wasn’t good enough and I couldn’t beat these welterweights,” Crawford said. “I just kept my head to the sky and kept praying to God that I would get the opportunity to show the world how great Terence Crawford is. Tonight, I believe I showed how great I am.”
Spence, however, said he would be up for a rematch, but wants to move up to the 154-pound division.
“We’ve got to do it again,” Spence said. “I would be a lot better.”
Crawford said he would have no problem moving up a weight class.
“I’m in the hurt business,” Crawford said. “Forty-seven is kind of hard for me, too. I was already talking about moving up in weight and challenging (champion Jermell) Charlo.”
The 33-year-old Spence, who lives in DeSoto, Texas, won the IBF title in 2017, claimed the WBC championship in 2019 and took the WBA championship last year.
In the co-main event, Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (25-2-1) of Mexico beat Chicago resident Giovanni Cabrera (21-1) by split decision in a WBC and WBA lightweight match. Judges Benoit Roussel (114-113) and Don Trella (115-112) scored the fight in favor of Cruz, and Glenn Feldman gave Cabrera the fight by a 114-113 score. Cruz had a point deducted because of a head butt.
Also, Alexandro Santiago (28-3-5) of Mexico won the vacant WBC bantamweight title with a 115-113, 116-112, 116-12 decision over Nonito Donaire (42-8), who lives in Las Vegas.
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AP boxing: https://apnews.com/hub/boxing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/30/terence-crawford-errol-spence-welterweight/bae9d1ca-2e91-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:41:15 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/30/terence-crawford-errol-spence-welterweight/bae9d1ca-2e91-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
Shawn Steik and his wife were forced from a long-term motel room onto the streets of Anchorage after their rent shot up to $800 a month. Now they live in a tent encampment by a train depot, and as an Alaska winter looms they are growing desperate and fearful of what lies ahead.
A proposal last week by Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson to buy one-way plane tickets out of Alaska’s biggest city for its homeless residents gave Steik a much-needed glimmer of hope. He would move to the relative warmth of Seattle.
“I heard it’s probably warmer than this place,” said Steik, who is Aleut.
But the mayor's unfunded idea also came under immediate attack as a Band-Aid solution glossing over the tremendous, and still unaddressed, crisis facing Anchorage as a swelling homeless population struggles to survive in a unique and extreme environment. Frigid temperatures stalk the homeless in the winter and bears infiltrate homeless encampments in the summer.
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A record eight people died of exposure while living outside last winter and this year promises to be worse after the city closed an arena that housed 500 people during the winter months. Bickering between the city’s liberal assembly and its conservative mayor about how to address the crisis, and a lack of state funding, have further stymied efforts to find a solution.
With winter fast approaching in Alaska, it's “past time for state and local leaders to address the underlying causes of homelessness — airplane tickets are a distraction, not a solution,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said in a statement to The Associated Press.
About 43% of Anchorage’s more than 3,000 unsheltered residents are Alaska Natives, and Bronson’s proposal also drew harsh criticism from those who called it culturally insensitive.
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“The reality is there is no place to send these people because this is their land. Any policy that we make has to pay credence to that simple fact. This is Dena’ina land, this is Native land," said Christopher Constant, chair of the Anchorage Assembly. "And so we cannot be supporting policies that would take people and displace them from their home, even if their home is not what you or I would call home.”
Bronson's airfare proposal caps a turbulent few years as Anchorage, like many cities in the U.S. West, struggles to deal with a burgeoning homeless population.
In May, the city shut down the 500-bed homeless shelter in the city's arena so it could once more be used for concerts and hockey games after neighbors complained about open drug use, trespassing, violence and litter. A plan to build a large shelter and navigation center fell through when Bronson approved a contract without approval from the Anchorage Assembly.
That leaves a gaping hole in the city’s ability to house the thousands of homeless people who have to contend with temperatures well below zero for days at a time and unrelenting winds blasting off Cook Inlet. At the end of June, Anchorage was estimated to have a little more than 3,150 homeless people, according to the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Last week, there were only 614 beds at shelters citywide, with no vacancies.
New tent cities have sprung up across Anchorage this summer: on a slope facing the city’s historic railroad depot, on a busy road near the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson and near soup kitchens and shelters downtown.
Assembly members are slated to consider a winter stop-gap option in August falling far short of the need: a large, warmed, tent-like structure for 150 people.
Summer brings its own challenges: hungry bears last year roamed a city-owned campground where homeless people were resettled after the arena closed. Wildlife officials killed four bears after they broke into tents.
Bronson said he prefers to spend a few hundred dollars per person for a plane ticket rather than spending about $100 daily to shelter and feed them. He said he doesn’t care where they want to go; his job is to “make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.”
It’s not clear if his proposal will move forward. There is not yet a plan or a funding source.
Dr. Ted Mala, an Inupiaq who in 1990 became the first Alaska Native to serve as the state’s health commissioner, said Anchorage should be working with social workers and law enforcement to discover people’s individual reasons for homelessness and connect them with resources.
Buying the unsheltered a ticket to another city is a political game that's been around for years. A number of U.S. cities struggling with homelessness, including San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have also offered bus or plane tickets to homeless residents.
“People are not pawns, they’re human beings,” Mala said.
The mayor's proposal, while focused on warmer cities, also would fund tickets to other Alaska locations for those who want them.
Clarita Clark became homeless after her medical team wanted her to move from Point Hope to Anchorage for cancer treatment because Anchorage is warmer. The medical facility wouldn't allow her husband to stay with her, so they pitched a tent in a sprawling camp to stay together.
Having recently found the body of a dead teenager who overdosed in a portable toilet, Clark yearns to return to the Chukchi Sea coastal village of Point Hope, where her three grandchildren live.
“I got a family that loves me," she said, adding she would use the ticket and seek treatment closer to home.
Danny Parish also is leaving Alaska, but for another reason: He's fed up.
Parish is selling his home of 29 years because it sits directly across the street from Sullivan Arena. Bad acts by some homeless people — including harassment, throwing vodka bottles in his yard, poisoning his dog and using his driveway as a toilet — made his life “a holy hell," he said.
Parish is convinced the arena will be used again this winter since there isn't another plan.
He, too, hopes to move to the contiguous U.S. — Oregon, for starters — but not before asking Anchorage leaders for his own plane ticket out.
“If they’re going to give them to everybody else," Parish said, “then they need to give me one.” | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/as-alaska-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-mayors-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/3614456/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:19 | 0 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/as-alaska-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-mayors-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/3614456/ |
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he has been denied Secret Service protection and is casting the decision as an outrage. But there’s a lot more that goes into getting a protective detail than just asking for it — and Kennedy falls short on much of the Secret Service’s public criteria.
Secret Service protection has been extended to candidates for president — and not just presidents themselves — since a law was enacted in 1968, following the assassination of Kennedy’s father during his presidential campaign. According to Secret Service guidance published for the 2020 election, “major presidential and vice presidential candidates” are “eligible” for protection.
But the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security has wide latitude to decide who qualifies and why, after consultation with an advisory committee. The committee is comprised of high-level members of the government including the speaker of the House, the House minority leader, the Senate majority leader, the Senate minority leader and one additional member chosen by the committee.
The Secret Service laid out a number of other factors explaining why not every declared presidential candidate gets a Secret Service detail and what goes into making that decision. The 2020 guidance lists polling thresholds for primary candidates or third-party general election nominees. And it also says the decision could be guided by a specific assessment of threats against that candidate.
Then-candidate Donald Trump received Secret Service protection almost one year prior to the 2016 general election, after being approved in 2015, along with fellow GOP contender Ben Carson, in the lead-up to the Iowa caucuses. In 2020, now-President Joe Biden said that candidates should receive protection earlier than normal, after a protester rushed the stage at an event and his wife ran toward them in defense of her husband.
Like Biden in 2020, Mike Pence once had Secret Service protection as vice president but doesn't have it currently on the campaign trail, nor has he requested it as of now, according to his campaign. Federal law states that vice presidents lose their Secret Service protection six months after leaving office.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com here. | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/how-government-decides-when-presidential-candidates-get-secret-service/3306123/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:20 | 1 | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/how-government-decides-when-presidential-candidates-get-secret-service/3306123/ |
Adelaide, Australia — Stepping onto the field against South Korea in Morocco’s second Women’s World Cup match, defender Nouhaila Benzina made history as the first player to wear a hijab while competing at a senior-level global tournament.
“I have no doubt that more and more women and Muslim girls will look at Benzina and just really be inspired – not just the players, but I think decision makers, coaches, other sports as well,” said Assmaah Helal, a co-founder of the Muslim Women in Sports Network.
Benzina plays professional club soccer for the Association’s Sports of Forces Armed Royal – the eight-time defending champion in Morocco’s top women’s league. She did not play in Morocco’s opening 6-0 loss to Germany in Melbourne, and had to wait six days to finally get her start in the Group H game in Adelaide.
Morocco is the first Arab or North African nation to qualify for the Women’s World Cup.
The Atlas Lionesses were ranked No. 72 in the world ahead of the tournament and were overwhelmed by two-time champion Germany, which is ranked second. But the Morocco team played with more freedom in an afternoon game against South Korea, and scored the opening goal.
“We are honored to be the first Arab country to take part in the Women’s World Cup,” Morocco captain Ghizlane Chebbak told reporters before tournament, “and we feel that we have to shoulder a big responsibility to give a good image, to show the achievements the Moroccan team has made.”
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Cassidy Hettesheimer contributed to this report from Melbourne, Australia.
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Hettesheimer is a student at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
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AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/2023/07/30/womens-world-cup-south-korea-morocco-benzina/10ded6ba-2e93-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:41:21 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/2023/07/30/womens-world-cup-south-korea-morocco-benzina/10ded6ba-2e93-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
Terence Crawford knocked down Errol Spence Jr. three times Saturday night before finally ending the fight at 2:32 of the ninth round on a technical knockout to cement himself as one of the greatest welterweights in history.
The fight, the most-anticipated boxing match in several years, unified the division for the first time in the four-belt era that began in 2004.
Crawford (40-0, 31 knockouts) already owned the WBO belt, and took the WBC, WBA and IBF titles from Spence (28-1). Crawford also ran his KO streak to 11 matches, the second-longest active stretch.
Crawford, 35, has won titles in super lightweight and lightweight in addition to welterweight, capturing the latter after moving up in 2018. The Omaha, Nebraska, fighter became the first male boxer to become the undisputed champion in two divisions.
A big fight night on the Strip still brings out the stars, with recording artists Cardi B and Andre 3000 of Outkast, actor and Las Vegas resident Mark Walhberg, NBA star Damian Lillard and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at T-Mobile Arena. They were among the celebrities that also included former boxing champions such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
Eminem introduced Crawford and his song “Lose Yourself” played as he walked into the ring.
Spence was the aggressor early on, but Crawford sent him to the floor with a right hand with 20 seconds left in the second round. Then Crawford went after Spence, but time ran out before he could finish him off.
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Crawford, a minus-154 favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, then took control of the fight, landing several major blows, often on counters. But Crawford also picked his spots to go after Spence, his punching power taking a heavy toll.
In the seventh round, Crawford knocked down Spence twice — with a short right at 1:02 and with another right with just a second left.
The 33-year-old Spence who lives in DeSoto, Texas, won the IBF title in 2017, claimed the WBC championship in 2019 and took the WBA championship last year.
In the co-main event, Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (25-2-1) of Mexico beat Chicago resident Giovanni Cabrera (21-1) by split decision in a WBC and WBA lightweight match. Judges Benoit Roussel (114-113) and Don Trella (115-112) scored the fight in favor of Cruz, and Glenn Feldman gave Cabrera the fight by a 114-113 score. Cruz had a point deducted because of a head butt.
Also, Alexandro Santiago (28-3-5) of Mexico won the vacant WBC bantamweight title with a 115-113, 116-112, 116-12 decision over Nonito Donaire (42-8), who lives in Las Vegas. | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/terence-crawford-unifies-welterweight-division-with-9th-round-tko-vs-errol-spence/3306130/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:26 | 1 | https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/terence-crawford-unifies-welterweight-division-with-9th-round-tko-vs-errol-spence/3306130/ |
SYDNEY — Some of the biggest names in soccer have yet to show up at the Women's World Cup.
“Mentally, it’s massive. It brings so much to our team and obviously also a lot to the opposition knowing that we have Sam available for this game,” Australia defender Ellie Carpenter said.
Kerr’s injury on the eve of Australia’s opening game against Ireland set the tone for a tournament that hasn’t been kind to some of its biggest stars. She was the face of co-host Australia’s preparations for the tournament, which is also being staged in New Zealand.
She dominated the covers of magazines across newsstands, while the autobiography she released late last year chronicled her rise to become arguably the best player in the women’s game right now. Kerr’s popularity transcends women’s soccer and she is considered a national icon.
So the disappointment was palpable when news broke about an hour before the opening match that Kerr was going to be sidelined at least two games in this tournament.
Kerr’s absence was felt in the 3-2 loss to Nigeria in Australia’s second game, a loss that put the Matildas in danger of elimination. It is not known what her role will be against Canada, but Australia needs Kerr to deliver in the final game of group play.
“I’m definitely going to be available, but how we decide to use that is not to be given to the opposition,” said Kerr.
The World Cup is supposed to be a showcase for the finest talent and biggest names, but injuries have always robbed the tournament of some its star players.
Norway forward Ada Hegerberg has had her playing time curtailed. Often referred to as “the Lionel Messi of women’s soccer,” Hederberg was part of a Norway’s 1-0 upset loss to New Zealand in the opening game of the World Cup.
It got worse for the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner when she suffered a groin injury in the warm-up ahead of Norway’s game against Switzerland, and she’s been ruled out of the final Group A game against the Philippines.
Keira Walsh of England suffered a knee injury against Denmark that will sidenline her for the Lionesses’ final Group D game against China. Described as irreplaceable, it is not known how much she will be able to play.
Even for some stars who have seen plenty of playing time, it has been difficult to make an impact.
American icon Alex Morgan has underwhelmed so far at her fourth World Cup, where she is hoping to help the United States to an unprecedented third consecutive title.
Morgan, the co-leading scorer at the last World Cup, has yet to score at this year’s event and missed a penalty in the 3-0 win against Vietnam. U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski said Morgan was adapting to playing in a forward line with Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman.
“I think it’s not hard to realize that Alex’s role is slightly different than the Alex that we’re used to maybe in the past,” Andonovski said. “She does set up the other two forwards a lot more. It’s not that she’s not capable of scoring goals or getting behind crosses, but we can also see her playing balls to Trinity and Soph, but also getting crosses for them as well.”
Morgan, at 34, is now one of the older players at the tournament.
Christine Sinclair of Canada is also searching for first goal of the tournament. Sinclair is highest scorer in international soccer — men or women — with 190 goals.
Like Morgan, she also missed a penalty, in a 0-0 draw with Nigeria that could still prove costly. She was benched for Canada’s second game against Ireland before coming in as a substitute at halftime as the gold medalist from the Tokyo Olympics logged a come-from-behind 2-1 win.
At 40 years old, Sinclair is having to accept a more limited role for Canada.
Brazil great Marta, at 37, has also been used sparingly in her sixth World Cup.
Her teammate, Debinha, who is also an iconic figure to Brazil fans, has been one of the standout players for her country so far. But she wasn’t able to stop a 2-1 loss to France on Saturday despite scoring in that match.
The gap appears to be closing in the women’s game, with underdogs proving more of a test for the more established nations. That’s one reason some of the big name stars have yet to impress in tournament.
One of the few standouts who has not disappointed so far has been Alexandra Popp, who scored twice in Germany’s 6-0 rout of Morocco.
Major tournaments are traditionally a mix of rising talents coming to the surface, while established stars have the chance to confirm their status among the greats.
Linda Caicedo of Colombia, Lauren James of England and Melchie Dumornay of Haiti have proven their worth as some of the brightest prospects in the game. But as the second round of games nears its completion, it feels like the tournament is still waiting for many of its big hitters to make an impact.
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
___
More AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/2023/07/30/womens-world-cup-stars-kerr-morgan-marta/a2bb452c-2e94-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:41:27 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/2023/07/30/womens-world-cup-stars-kerr-morgan-marta/a2bb452c-2e94-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
A Florida woman was arrested after biting the top of another woman's ear off during a fight over vape pens and alcohol on July 4th, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies responded to an assault and battery call at a home in Callaway, a suburb of Panama City, just after midnight. An investigation revealed the incident had occurred at a house party next door at 6526 Olokee Street that was thrown by unsupervised minors.
When a fight kicked off between several men at the house party, 23-year-old Macy Regan attempted to leave and walk to her home next door, the sheriff's office said in a news release. It was then that Dixie Stiles, 18, confronted Regan and accused her of stealing vape pens and alcohol.
Regan allegedly pulled out a 9 millimeter gun from her waistband, which Stiles shoved out of the way. A physical altercation ensued where Regan bit the top of Stiles' ear off, the sheriff’s office said in the release.
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The women received multiple bruises and lacerations in the fight and Stiles' ear was unable to be re-attached, the sheriff's office said.
Both women were arrested. Stiles was charged with battery while Regan was charged with felony battery causing bodily harm.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com here. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/florida-woman-arrested-after-biting-ear-off-another-woman-during-fight-over-vape-pens-and-alcohol/3614463/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:29 | 0 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/florida-woman-arrested-after-biting-ear-off-another-woman-during-fight-over-vape-pens-and-alcohol/3614463/ |
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Megan Rapinoe is adjusting to her new role at the Women's World Cup, even if it means she’s not on the field as much as she’d like to be.
“Ultimately, we’re at the World Cup. This is where everybody wants to be, whether you’re playing 90 minutes, whether you’re a game changer, whatever,” she said Sunday. “I think it’s a lot similar to what I thought it would be — bringing all the experience that I can, all the experience that I have, and ultimately being ready whenever my number is called up.”
Rapinoe has played limited minutes so far, coming in as a substitute in the 3-0 victory over Vietnam in the tournament opener, which was her 200th career appearance for the team.
She was available but didn’t play in the disappointing 1-1 draw with the Netherlands on Thursday in Wellington. U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski made just one substitution in the match, bringing in midfielder Rose Lavelle after the first half.
“I think all of us on the bench, it’s like we think we should be on the field as much as the players on the field believe that they should be on the field,” Rapinoe said. “Every player on the field that starts the game thinks that they should play 90 minutes, and every player who doesn’t, who is a sub, thinks that they should be on at some point.”
The United States has won the last two World Cups, but the players find themselves in a more precarious position as they chase an unprecedented third consecutive title. The Americans need at least a draw going into the final group match against Portugal on Tuesday at Eden Park in Auckland.
The Americans top Group E, even on points with the Netherlands, but hold the edge because of goal difference. Portugal, which beat Vietnam, could send the United States home early with a win over the Americans.
“We’re unsatisfied with the way we played, but we know there are areas that we can be better and I think there’s some really simple fixes we can do to put ourselves in a better position to have more joy on the ball, especially in the final third,” Rapinoe said. “I think everybody’s looking at this like `Let’s go.’”
At the 2019 World Cup in France, Rapinoe scored six goals over the course of the tournament, including a penalty in a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands in the final. She also finished with three assists and claimed both the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball for the best overall player.
Rapinoe, who is engaged to former WNBA star Sue Bird, has been a leader on and off the field.
She made headlines during the 2019 tournament when she said she wouldn't visit the White House if the United States won. Her decision was based on her disdain for then-President Donald Trump, and the team did not go to the White House after winning its second World Cup.
And in the midst of a dispute with U.S. Soccer over equal pay with the men’s national team, Rapinoe helped the women hold firm on their position.
“I just think back to 2019 in particular. We didn’t really talk about it a lot as a group but we were like, `Well, we have to win. This is kind of like a must-win World Cup for us.’ And I think it did give us confidence,” she said. “It pressured us, but I think we also knew that we could handle it and it was almost a mandatory upping of our level to be able to match everything that we were saying off the field. I think in so many ways we were betting on ourselves.”
Rapinoe has won two Women’s World Cup titles and an Olympic gold medal with the United States. She also took home the Ballon d’Or and the Best FIFA Women’s Player awards — the game’s top individual honors — for her play in 2019.
As a fierce advocate for social justice issues, including gender equity and LGBTQ rights, she was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Joe Biden last year.
“I’ve always tried to use whatever platform we have, and this platform was built long before I got here. We just continue to add to to it, to grow the game, to make the world a better place, to use our voices, to advocate for more,” she said.
At this World Cup, she’s passing that legacy on to younger generation. Fourteen of the U.S. players are playing in their first World Cup. In 2019, Carli Lloyd was in a similar role of a player who was also something of a coach who led by example.
Rapinoe is doing that now.
“Still every day in training I’m like, `I’m gonna try to bust your ass,’ and that makes them better, that makes me better,” she said. “That makes the whole team better. So I think it’s been really rewarding. And I think ultimately, and I think that this gets lost, but I get to play in another World Cup.”
___
AP Women’s World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/2023/07/30/womens-world-cup-united-states-rapinoe/e43746cc-2e99-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:41:29 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/2023/07/30/womens-world-cup-united-states-rapinoe/e43746cc-2e99-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
SANTA MARIA DE JESUS, Guatemala — Presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo stood before a few hundred residents of this small Indigenous community on the slopes of the Agua Volcano and told them they could be the seeds of a brighter, more corruption-free spring in Guatemala.
But it also alludes to Guatemala’s “democratic spring,” considered a more inclusive period in the country’s history during the presidency in the 1940s and early 1950s of his late father, Juan José Arévalo.
Bernardo Arévalo won just 11% of the vote in the presidential election’s first round June 25, but it was enough to give him the surprise second slot in the Aug. 20 runoff ballot. He will face Sandra Torres, a conservative and former first lady who was the leading vote-getter in the first round and is making her third bid for the presidency.
Arévalo’s recent speech in Santa Maria de Jesus was similar to those he has given in Guatemala’s capital, but the imagery could be especially important in rural Indigenous communities as he seeks to rapidly expand his largely urban, youthful base before the runoff.
He won in Guatemala City and other important cities, including Sacatepequez and Quetzaltenango. It remains to be seen whether he can convince people in rural communities that he can address their daily problems.
The delayed certification of the first round results shortened the already small window that Arévalo has to reintroduce himself to much of the country as his opponents rush to paint their own negative picture.
“Do you feel what is happening?” Arévalo told the crowd in Santa Maria de Jesus. “The new spring is arriving, that’s what you feel, and you all are the seeds of that new spring.”
“A new spring that is going to bring us well-being, the water we lack, the education they owe us, the health that they have denied us thanks to those corrupt contracts that serve few,” Arévalo said, standing in front of an old, damaged Roman Catholic church, in a wide-brimmed hat and untucked shirt against the tropical heat.
Among those listening was Juana Orón, a 67-year-old homemaker of the Kaqchikel people. She is one of the older voters who remember hearing about Arévalo’s father, one of only two leftist presidents in Guatemala’s democratic era.
The elder Arévalo, who governed from 1945 to 1951, is credited with establishing key social programs that remain in place today, including Guatemala’s labor code and social security. Guatemala’s democratic spring was cut short in 1954 by the CIA-backed overthrow of his successor, President Jacobo Arbenz.
Under Juan José Arévalo, the state advocated for rights for Indigenous peoples and others beyond the country’s small elite.
“I remember I was little and (my parents) said he had done good things,” said Orón whose first language as a child was Kaqchikel. If his father was good, Arévalo could be a good president, too, she said.
Opponents have tried to frame Arévalo’s candidacy as a step toward some of the region’s more notorious leftist regimes, such as Cuba and Nicaragua. They warn that the progressive candidate will bring expropriations, abortion and same-sex marriage to the conservative country.
Arévalo has been the election’s surprise.
In the days before the June 25 vote, he was polling below 3% and trailing at least seven of the other 21 candidates. But his anti-corruption message resonated in the country where gains against corruption have been erased and the justice system reoriented to pursue the prosecutors and judges who formerly led that fight.
In the month since that initial result, the Attorney General’s Office announced an investigation into his party and had a judge suspend its legal status until the Constitutional Court stepped in to block that move.
In Santa Maria de Jesus, people wanted to compare Arévalo in person to what they were hearing about him. Some handed him flowers, posed for photos or reached out to touch him as he made his way through the throng.
Arévalo pushed back against attempts to frame him as a left-wing radical — he has said private property rights are not up for discussion — and pounded the issue of corruption.
“Let us work, let us get ahead on our own effort, let’s get rid of the corrupt once and for all,” he said.
For Francisco Jiménez, a political scientist at Rafael Landivar University, Arévalo will need concrete proposals to make inroads with the base of Torres, who has spent two decades assembling it.
“He will have to make governing proposals with a social agenda, where the people see that he is going to have an impact on their lives and communities,” Jiménez said. “The other part is continuing to present himself as the different model. That has been his success, someone totally different from the other candidates.”
Evangelical churches in Guatemala have painted Arévalo as an existential threat to the family.
Gladys Sunun, a 35-year-old Kaqchikel vendor from an evangelical family, said she came to hear Arévalo for herself. She said she had heard that Arévalo would convert Guatemala into another Cuba or Nicaragua, but left feeling that might not be true, though she wants to investigate more.
“He came to tell us not to worry,” she said. “It sounds real, but we don’t know.”
Her sister July Sunun said she wanted to hear more about Arévalo’s positions on gender ideology. “As a mother I’m afraid, because we’ve grown up with a Christian background. I don’t want to marry my daughter with another woman,” she said.
July Sunun acknowledged that Arévalo said he would respect the identities and decisions of the people, “but what he hasn’t said is that he won’t allow (same-sex marriage) to happen here.” | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/30/guatemala-election-bernardo-arevalo/cb469638-2e8d-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html | 2023-07-30T05:41:35 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/30/guatemala-election-bernardo-arevalo/cb469638-2e8d-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he has been denied Secret Service protection and is casting the decision as an outrage. But there’s a lot more that goes into getting a protective detail than just asking for it — and Kennedy falls short on much of the Secret Service’s public criteria.
Secret Service protection has been extended to candidates for president — and not just presidents themselves — since a law was enacted in 1968, following the assassination of Kennedy’s father during his presidential campaign. According to Secret Service guidance published for the 2020 election, “major presidential and vice presidential candidates” are “eligible” for protection.
But the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security has wide latitude to decide who qualifies and why, after consultation with an advisory committee. The committee is comprised of high-level members of the government including the speaker of the House, the House minority leader, the Senate majority leader, the Senate minority leader and one additional member chosen by the committee.
The Secret Service laid out a number of other factors explaining why not every declared presidential candidate gets a Secret Service detail and what goes into making that decision. The 2020 guidance lists polling thresholds for primary candidates or third-party general election nominees. And it also says the decision could be guided by a specific assessment of threats against that candidate.
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Then-candidate Donald Trump received Secret Service protection almost one year prior to the 2016 general election, after being approved in 2015, along with fellow GOP contender Ben Carson, in the lead-up to the Iowa caucuses. In 2020, now-President Joe Biden said that candidates should receive protection earlier than normal, after a protester rushed the stage at an event and his wife ran toward them in defense of her husband.
Like Biden in 2020, Mike Pence once had Secret Service protection as vice president but doesn't have it currently on the campaign trail, nor has he requested it as of now, according to his campaign. Federal law states that vice presidents lose their Secret Service protection six months after leaving office.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com here. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/how-government-decides-when-presidential-candidates-get-secret-service/3614439/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:35 | 0 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/how-government-decides-when-presidential-candidates-get-secret-service/3614439/ |
PITTSBURGH — The Phillies lost Saturday's game against the Pirates for numerous reasons — Aaron Nola didn't have it, the defense was costly at three different spots, too many runners were stranded — but two of their struggling hitters were at the forefront of a frustrating night.
Trea Turner, who had gone hitless in three consecutive games and entered the day with his lowest batting average (.242) in nearly two months, was moved down in the lineup from second to seventh. He won't reclaim his spot toward the top of the order until he shows improvement at the plate, manager Rob Thomson said earlier in the day.
Nick Castellanos, who took Turner's place in the two-hole Saturday as Thomson attempted to get him more pitches to hit in front of Bryce Harper, had another rough night. He went 0-for-5, struck out three times, stranded the bases loaded in the sixth inning and the tying and go-ahead runs to end the eighth. He also misplayed a ball in right field that went over his head.
Castellanos is 10-for-85 over his last 21 games, hitting .118 with two extra-base hits, two walks and 33 strikeouts.
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"Just been no good, man, honestly," he said postgame. "Hard time just finding that consistent rhythm. Since the second half, it's been bad. Sometimes I find myself in a hole and I want to get out of it and the harder I try, the deeper I get. Just got to stay at it and stay working."
Castellanos sixth-inning strikeout with the bases loaded was particularly ugly. He went down 0-2 in the count and swung at a slider well off the plate. That was the way teams attacked him throughout 2022 because he couldn't lay off the low-and-away breaking ball consistently. He'd get himself out time after time.
"I think that teams are just not wanting to throw me strikes because I'm anxious and I want to hit so bad that I'm not letting myself get anything to hit," he said.
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Turner had a better night, going 1-for-3 with a stolen base, a run scored and a walk. He accepted Thomson's decision to move him down and it's not as if he was surprised by it. At no point this season has Turner deluded himself from the reality of his underperformance. He's spoken candidly about the adjustments he's made and flaws he's seen in his swing or approach. He just hasn't been able to turn it around.
Asked if he thought the lineup change could help him, Turner said, "I think it can help the team, maybe."
"If I did my job better, then we wouldn't have had that conversation. Me personally, I just have to put together good at-bats, swing at good pitches, find that swing and kind of build some momentum.
"For me, it's stack good days on top of each other. I haven't been able to do that this year. Good game, bad game, good game, bad game, good stretch, bad stretch, but not long enough."
A lot of this is stuff Turner has never experienced. He was a .300 career hitter entering the season. He hit .311 from 2019-22. He's about 70 points south of that in 2023.
Did he even think it was possible that Trea Turner could be hovering between .240 and .250 as he's done this summer?
"The farthest thing from my mind just based on how the last four, five seasons have been," he said. "I think my worst season in my eyes was 2018 and I would take that year way over this year. I never really thought we'd be here but what we are. Got to grind it out. I can't get it all back in one day. Got to build on small things and try to win some ballgames."
It will be interesting to see which direction the Phillies go with the No. 2 spot in their batting order. Thomson still believes their best lineup has Turner hitting second, just not at this moment. Castellanos doesn't look like the right fit based on his July. J.T. Realmuto isn't getting on base enough. You can't realistically move Bryson Stott up top unless you also move Kyle Schwarber because you'd have three consecutive lefties in Stott, Schwarber and Harper.
"I think I'll leave Casty right there," Thomson said. "I like (Alec) Bohm and Stott where they're at because they're going to put the ball in play with runners in scoring position. We've got to get Casty going, that's all." | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/mlb/philadelphia-phillies/nick-castellanos-trea-turner-phillies-pirates/3614421/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:41 | 1 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/mlb/philadelphia-phillies/nick-castellanos-trea-turner-phillies-pirates/3614421/ |
CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. – A tree uprooted and fell on a Midlothian home as a powerful line of storms moved through Central Virginia Saturday evening.
It happened at a home along the 2600 block of Radstock Road.
Sources said that when the tree crashed through a room of the home that some of the debris hit a woman inside.
The woman was not seriously injured, according to to those sources.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip. | https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/tree-falls-on-radstock-road-home-midlothian-july-30-2023 | 2023-07-30T05:41:44 | 1 | https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/tree-falls-on-radstock-road-home-midlothian-july-30-2023 |
(NerdWallet) – On July 14, 804,000 longtime student loan borrowers began receiving word that their $39 billion in remaining debt would be forgiven as the result of the Education Department’s income-driven repayment (IDR) account adjustment. This one-time program, first announced in April 2022 to repair past missteps in the IDR system, is counting more past repayment periods toward income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness. Many borrowers will be at least three years closer to IDR forgiveness — and some will automatically see their loans forgiven altogether.
“At the start of this Administration, millions of borrowers had earned loan forgiveness but never received it. That’s unacceptable,” Department of Education Under Secretary James Kvaal said in a July 14 press release announcing the news. “Today we are holding up the bargain we offered borrowers who have completed decades of repayment.”
This is just the tip of the iceberg. More than 4.4 million borrowers have been repaying their loans for at least 20 years, and 2.3 million of these borrowers have never defaulted or been delinquent on their loans, according to April 2021 Education Department data provided to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. However, there’s not yet a final count of total borrowers who will receive the IDR account adjustment forgiveness, says Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC).
While the Supreme Court recently struck down President Joe Biden’s up-to-$20,000 student debt cancellation plan, no one has challenged this account adjustment since it was introduced in April 2022, and future legal roadblocks are highly unlikely, Pierce says.
“If I were a borrower, I would feel pretty good about this happening, but you know, we never say never,” Pierce says. “This is something that has never been put in front of a federal judge, and we have not seen any signs that it’s going to.”
All this is occurring as borrowers gear up for student loan payments to resume in October. Here’s what you need to know about the next waves of loan forgiveness under the IDR account adjustment and what qualified borrowers can do to prepare for it.
When will IDR adjustments be made?
The Education Department said it will notify waves of loan forgiveness recipients about every two months. Since the first major batch was announced on July 14, borrowers can expect the next announcement by mid-September.
The department plans to apply the account adjustment by the end of 2023 to all borrowers who’ve reached enough payments for forgiveness; all other borrowers will receive at least three additional years of credit toward IDR loan forgiveness in 2024.
Will I get IDR account adjustment forgiveness?
To find out whether you’ll receive loan forgiveness under the one-time IDR account adjustment, you must count your past payments yourself.
Generally, borrowers with undergraduate loans will receive loan forgiveness if they’ve made at least 240 monthly student loan payments, and those with some graduate loans will reach forgiveness if they’ve made at least 300 payments, Pierce says.
From July 1994 onward, the adjustment counts the following periods toward the 240 or 300 payments needed to reach forgiveness:
- Any month a borrower was in repayment, even if the payments were late or partial. The type of repayment plan also doesn’t matter.
- Time spent in forbearance, either periods lasting 12 or more consecutive months or a cumulative 36 or more months.
- Any month spent in deferment other than in-school deferment before 2013.
- Any month spent in economic hardship or military deferments on or after Jan. 1, 2013.
- Any months in repayment, forbearance or a qualifying deferment before a loan consolidation.
Months spent in default will generally not be included in the recount, though borrowers who enroll in the temporary Fresh Start program to get out of default will get IDR credit from March 2020 through the date they leave default.
Log in to your Federal Student Aid (FSA) account at StudentAid.gov to see how long you’ve been in repayment. To see detailed information, including descriptions of the specific forbearance or deferment periods, request your account history from your servicer.
How to prepare for the IDR account adjustment
The loan forgiveness will be largely automatic for most eligible federal borrowers with older direct loans, federally held Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans and parent PLUS loans. These borrowers don’t need to take any action to qualify or receive loan forgiveness.
“The good news is, for most people, you don’t actually need to be an expert on this program to benefit from it,” Pierce says. “If you have a loan that’s owned by the Department of Education, it’s just gonna work for you.”
But there are some small steps you can take to be proactive.
Update your contact information
Regardless of the type of federal student loans you have, check that your current contact information is listed in both your FSA and servicer accounts. While you’re at it, make sure you still have the password to these accounts, and reset your login credentials if needed.
Forty-four percent of federal borrowers were transferred to a new servicer during the pandemic payment pause, according to a June estimate from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, so now is also a good time to see if your servicer changed.
You’ll likely be notified by email if and when your loans are forgiven under the IDR account adjustment, but student loan communications may also arrive by mail.
Consolidate commercially managed federal loans
Some federal loans are not held by the government, but by a private entity. Borrowers with these commercially managed federal loans won’t benefit from the recount automatically — they’ll need to consolidate these loans to qualify. The account adjustment will count periods of repayment prior to consolidation toward IDR forgiveness.
Commercially held loans include certain FFELP loans, Perkins loans and Health Education Assistance Loan (HEAL) Program loans. You can see what type of loans you have on the dashboard of your FSA account or servicer portal.
You have until the end of 2023 to consolidate commercially held loans, but don’t delay. The full consolidation process can take from 30 to 60 days, Pierce says. Get started by submitting a direct loan consolidation application on the Federal Student Aid office website.
Consolidate newer parent PLUS loans
Parent PLUS loans are included in the IDR account adjustment. If you reach 300 payments — or 120 payments if you’re eligible for PSLF — your parent PLUS debt will be discharged automatically this year, regardless of whether or not your PLUS loans are consolidated.
But if you have fewer payments than that, you’ll need to act. Consolidate your parent PLUS loans before the end of 2023 to benefit from the adjustment, and enroll in an IDR plan called Income-Contingent Repayment to continue making progress toward forgiveness.
Apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Borrowers eligible for PSLF are also eligible for the account adjustment; they can receive IDR loan forgiveness after just 10 years, or 120 eligible payments. PSLF-eligible borrowers with direct loans, including parent PLUS loans, will benefit automatically. Those with either federally or commercially managed FFELP loans must consolidate them into a direct consolidation loan by the end of 2023 to get PSLF credit under the account adjustment.
After the adjustment is applied to your account, you’ll see credit toward PSLF for any month after October 2007 during which you were in repayment and had qualifying employment.
“If you’ve applied or will apply for PSLF and certify your employment, you may see the benefits of this adjustment to your qualifying payment count,” writes the office of Federal Student Aid. Do so as soon as possible to ensure you benefit from the recount.
Check your state’s tax policy
The federal government won’t tax any debt forgiven as a result of the IDR account adjustment.
However, certain states, including Indiana and Mississippi, treat forgiven student loans as taxable earned income, and thus may tax the amount of forgiven debt you receive. The vast majority of states don’t do this, so check the rules in your state.
If you’re concerned about a state tax bill, you can opt out of loan forgiveness. You have 30 days to do so after you receive notice that your remaining debt will be forgiven under the IDR account adjustment. | https://www.qcnews.com/education/more-student-loan-forgiveness-coming-for-longtime-borrowers/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:47 | 1 | https://www.qcnews.com/education/more-student-loan-forgiveness-coming-for-longtime-borrowers/ |
Terence Crawford knocked down Errol Spence Jr. three times Saturday night before finally ending the fight at 2:32 of the ninth round on a technical knockout to cement himself as one of the greatest welterweights in history.
The fight, the most-anticipated boxing match in several years, unified the division for the first time in the four-belt era that began in 2004.
Crawford (40-0, 31 knockouts) already owned the WBO belt, and took the WBC, WBA and IBF titles from Spence (28-1). Crawford also ran his KO streak to 11 matches, the second-longest active stretch.
Crawford, 35, has won titles in super lightweight and lightweight in addition to welterweight, capturing the latter after moving up in 2018. The Omaha, Nebraska, fighter became the first male boxer to become the undisputed champion in two divisions.
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A big fight night on the Strip still brings out the stars, with recording artists Cardi B and Andre 3000 of Outkast, actor and Las Vegas resident Mark Walhberg, NBA star Damian Lillard and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at T-Mobile Arena. They were among the celebrities that also included former boxing champions such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
Eminem introduced Crawford and his song “Lose Yourself” played as he walked into the ring.
Spence was the aggressor early on, but Crawford sent him to the floor with a right hand with 20 seconds left in the second round. Then Crawford went after Spence, but time ran out before he could finish him off.
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Crawford, a minus-154 favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, then took control of the fight, landing several major blows, often on counters. But Crawford also picked his spots to go after Spence, his punching power taking a heavy toll.
In the seventh round, Crawford knocked down Spence twice — with a short right at 1:02 and with another right with just a second left.
The 33-year-old Spence who lives in DeSoto, Texas, won the IBF title in 2017, claimed the WBC championship in 2019 and took the WBA championship last year.
In the co-main event, Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (25-2-1) of Mexico beat Chicago resident Giovanni Cabrera (21-1) by split decision in a WBC and WBA lightweight match. Judges Benoit Roussel (114-113) and Don Trella (115-112) scored the fight in favor of Cruz, and Glenn Feldman gave Cabrera the fight by a 114-113 score. Cruz had a point deducted because of a head butt.
Also, Alexandro Santiago (28-3-5) of Mexico won the vacant WBC bantamweight title with a 115-113, 116-112, 116-12 decision over Nonito Donaire (42-8), who lives in Las Vegas. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/terence-crawford-unifies-welterweight-division-with-9th-round-tko-vs-errol-spence/3614458/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:47 | 1 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/terence-crawford-unifies-welterweight-division-with-9th-round-tko-vs-errol-spence/3614458/ |
(KOIN) – She’s just gonna shake, shake, shake the earth.
Taylor Swift’s July 22 and 23 concerts in Seattle allegedly produced seismic activity on par with a 2.3 magnitude earthquake, according to a Western Washington University geology professor and seismologist.
Jackie Caplan-Auerbach tracked the seismic activity emanating from Swift’s Lumen Field performances earlier this month, finding similar and overlapping seismic waves on both dates. She later added that she couldn’t be sure whether the fans or the sound systems had caused the activity, but plans to continue investigating.
“I’m not yet convinced that it’s all dancing – the signals between the two nights are ridiculously similar and people tend to be messy,” Caplan-Auerbach wrote on Twitter.
She added that concertgoers were likely unaware of any geological activity at the time, saying the data recorded by the seismometer was “mostly below the range of human hearing.”
Swift’s Seattle concerts, which were attended by over 144,000 people in total, broke Lumen Field’s attendance records, according to The Seattle Times.
Caplan-Auerbach also compared the quake, which she dubbed the “Seismic Swift,” to 2010’s “Beast Quake,” when Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch scored a last-minute touchdown during a playoff game. Activity produced by Seahawks fans registered on a seismograph at a 2.0 magnitude.
The next step for Caplan-Auerbach is attempting to line up the seismic activity beat-by-beat with Swift’s setlist to see how the songs impacted the shake, she said. She’s set up a Google Drive to collect videos to help with her research. | https://www.qcnews.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-concerts-in-seattle-produced-seismic-activity-on-same-scale-as-a-small-earthquake-seismologist-finds/ | 2023-07-30T05:41:53 | 1 | https://www.qcnews.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-concerts-in-seattle-produced-seismic-activity-on-same-scale-as-a-small-earthquake-seismologist-finds/ |
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(The Hill) — More than 20 states across the U.S. are under heat advisories as of Saturday.
From the California coast to the Midwest to the Southeast and the North- and Mid-Atlantic, 110 million Americans are facing scorching temperatures that could even get up to triple digits, according to ABC News.
Earlier in the week, the National Weather Service warned of “continued excessive summer heat” across the country in a forecast discussion. In the Washington, D.C. region, daily highs sat around 96 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the NWS. In New York City, temperatures topped out at 90 degrees.
“Triple-digit heat continues across the southern half of the Plains to the eastern Gulf Coast while cool and unsettled weather continues across the northern Plains toward the Midwest,” the NWS said in their latest forecast discussion on upcoming weather between Monday and Tuesday.
The NWS said cooler temperatures will arrive in the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Sunday. However, they said these cooler temperatures will be preceded by thunderstorms as a result of the cold front creeping south.
“However, prior to the arrival of the cool air, the cold front will trigger strong to severe thunderstorms along with locally heavy downpours which may be accompanied with gusty winds and/or squalls as they move through the aforementioned areas from west to east through tonight,” the NWS aid in the forecast discussion. | https://www.qcnews.com/news/national-news/more-than-20-states-in-us-still-suffering-from-excessive-heat/ | 2023-07-30T05:42:07 | 1 | https://www.qcnews.com/news/national-news/more-than-20-states-in-us-still-suffering-from-excessive-heat/ |
Some see the issue of cutting Mississippi’s grocery tax as a partisan divide.
After all, in three of the past four gubernatorial elections, the Democratic candidate has advocated cutting or eliminating Mississippi’s 7% sales tax on groceries while the Republican standard bearer has touted reducing the income tax.
This year, Republican incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves is again advocating for the elimination of the income tax. Brandon Presley, his Democratic opponent, wants to eliminate the sales tax on food.
But the issue of cutting Mississippi’s highest-in-the-nation, state-imposed sales tax on groceries is not always a partisan fight. And it is definitely not a partisan issue for Mississippi’s four contiguous states.
While Mississippi politicians have argued about and flirted with cutting the grocery tax only to be stymied at some point in the process, all four of Mississippi’s neighbors have reduced or eliminated the state-imposed grocery tax. All were led at least in part by Republicans. The first to act was Louisiana, where the tax was eliminated in 2003 under Republican Gov. Mike Foster.
Earlier this year, Alabama, led by an overwhelming Republican majority in its Legislature and by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, cut its 4% state grocery tax to 3% beginning in September. The tax will be reduced by another 1% in future years and a special committee will look at the complete elimination of the tax.
Republicans and Democrats in Arkansas have worked together to cut the grocery tax to a minuscule 0.125%. In Tennessee, Republican leaders have not completely eliminated the grocery tax, but last year they imposed a one month tax holiday on grocery purchases. This year, the holiday when the sales tax on grocery purchases will be eliminated will be three months, beginning on Aug. 1.
Mississippi’s partisan divide on the grocery tax goes back to at least the 1995 gubernatorial election. Democratic Secretary of State Dick Molpus proposed reducing the grocery tax while Republican incumbent Gov. Kirk Fordice advocated for a cut in the income tax.
Molpus lost the election.
In Fordice’s second term, the Legislature did provide an income tax cut for married couples by changing the tax code so that married couples filing jointly did not pay more in state taxes than did two single people living together. That bill was authored by then-Senate Finance Chair Hob Bryan, D-Amory.
While Bryan led the effort to eliminate the so-called marriage penalty on the income tax, in recent years he has advocated for cuts to the grocery tax.
According to a Siena College/Mississippi Today poll conducted earlier this year, 58% of Mississippians say they would only vote for a candidate who supports eliminating the grocery tax, while 7% say they would only vote for a candidate opposed to eliminating the tax.
On the other hand, less than a majority — 45% — say they would only vote for a candidate who supports eliminating the income tax, while 17% would only vote for a candidate opposed to the income tax elimination.
And to illustrate that it is not necessarily a partisan issue in Mississippi, bills to cut the sales tax on food have been introduced by Republican legislators in recent years, and Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has voiced support for reducing the grocery tax.
The closest Mississippi has come to eliminating the grocery tax occurred in 2006, and that effort was led by Republicans. That year Republican Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck stunned the Capitol when her lieutenants, at her behest, introduced legislation to eliminate the grocery tax and to offset the lost revenue by increasing the cigarette tax, which at 18 cents per pack was one of the lowest rates in the nation.
Twice, Tuck got grocery tax cut proposals through the Legislature by more than the two-thirds majority needed to override a governor’s veto. But on both occasions Republican Gov. Haley Barbour changed enough votes in the Senate to uphold his vetoes.
Barbour, a former cigarette lobbyist, gave a lot of reasons for opposing the reduction in the grocery tax, including that the grocery tax was fair because everyone had to pay it.
But not all Republicans bought that argument.
The late Sen. Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, opposed for moral reasons placing a food tax on poor people.
Nunnelee, who died in 2015 while serving in the U.S. House, told The New York Times in 2007 the sales tax on groceries “is just the most cruel tax any government can impose.”
Before his term ended, Barbour eventually acquiesced to an increase in the cigarette tax, but he never yielded in his opposition to cutting the grocery tax.
Since then, there have been enough Republicans in leadership opposed to cutting the grocery tax to ensure it did not happen. But the tax cut was not opposed by all Republicans.
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Error! There was an error processing your request. | https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/you-wouldn-t-know-it-but-grocery-tax-cut-can-be-bipartisan/article_19af8dee-2d66-11ee-b6d5-eb7403879eff.html | 2023-07-30T05:44:10 | 0 | https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/you-wouldn-t-know-it-but-grocery-tax-cut-can-be-bipartisan/article_19af8dee-2d66-11ee-b6d5-eb7403879eff.html |
Doyel: Jonathan Taylor joins Andrew Luck, Victor Oladipo as star athletes receiving bad advice
Colts running back Jonathan Taylor completed his 180-degree pivot from face-of-the-franchise to jackass Saturday when he asked Colts owner Jim Irsay for a trade, the latest and least surprising escalation in a conflict that has little to do with Taylor and less to do with the Colts.
The star of this immorality play is Taylor’s new agent, some dude named Malki Kawa, who promises on his website to get things done for his clients. Good news, Malki: You can show future clients just what you've done for Taylor:
From Colts protagonist to pariah in two months.
Impressive, really.
Before we go farther on this dude named Malki Kawa – and I’m going farther, believe me – let’s be clear about something: This is Jonathan Taylor’s fault. And because of that, this is crushing. Taylor is, or was, everything you could have wanted in a franchise star and community pillar: super intelligent, kind, generous with his time and money, unselfish.
But then he approached the final year of his four-year NFL rookie contract, replaced his agent with the same guy who helped Shaq Leonard get a $99 million contract from the Colts in 2021, and changed. I mean, Taylor changed like that. He started passively aggressively whining on Twitter about money. He shocked the Colts into deciding he should begin the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list. He even changed his wardrobe when he reported to training camp last week, making it clear he was playing for the team on the front of his T-shirt:
Welcome to Taylortown.
Insider:Colts RB Jonathan Taylor requests trade, team owner Jim Irsay says they won't deal him
Malki Kawa is the guy behind the scenes, the one pulling the strings, the one whispering into Taylor’s ear that the Colts are disloyal, that he deserves better.
But Taylor is the one listening. And without having met this dude named Malki Kawa – wouldn’t know him if I saw him – I’m saying this: Jonathan Taylor is smarter than Kawa, because he’s smarter than almost everyone. While one of Kawa’s social media sites says he “studied at Miami Dade College,” Taylor was accepted into Yale and Harvard. He wanted to major in astrophysics at Wisconsin, but the school didn’t offer it, so after considering a double major (astronomy and physics, duh), he chose a degree that centers entirely on deep thinking:
Philosophy. He left school after three years, but has his degree. The guy’s brilliant, I’m telling you – Taylor, not that dude named Malki Kawa.
So I’m asking you, Jonathan: Have you thought deeply about what you’re doing? Do you know what you’ve done, thanks to some dude name Malki Kawa?
You’ve trashed your name in this city, the only one that cares about you in an NFL that is growing less interested in running backs by the day.
Malki Kawa may be the smartest guy in the room, but only if he’s in there alone.
What’s your excuse, JT?
NFL is full of lemmings; remember 2021 here?
First Nyheim Hines, now Jonathan Taylor.
Remember Hines? He was Taylor’s backup, one of the best No. 2 running backs in the league, a weapon in the return game and as a receiver, and an underrated ball carrier between the tackles. Hines wanted more than his slow-growing stardom here, though, and asked for a trade late last season.
The Colts gave him what he wanted, and not because they’re weak. No, they did it because Nyheim Hines is weak. In today’s professional sports marketplace, once a player has mentally checked out on his team – once he lets the team know he has checked out – that player has to go. An NFL locker room, no matter what its muscular and macho inhabitants want to believe, is like the any large room in the world: Only as strong as its weakest link.
Doyel on Wednesday:Colts RB Jonathan Taylor knows he won't get a huge contract and isn't taking it well
And like any room with 75 or so people, there are some weak links in there. Followers, you might say of a decent number of NFL players. Cavities, I call them.
Look, do you want the truth or don’t you? These are things I’ve thought, I’ve known, for years. Never had the chance, or the desire, to write them until now, until Jonathan Taylor goes like a lemming over the cliff.
Whatever you think about Covid and the vaccine, you have to see how it worked out in the NFL: Players followed other players. Here in 2021, the Colts had a quarterback and an offensive line coach – both now gone – who were deeply religious and strongly anti-vaccination. Hey, what do you know? Almost the entire Colts starting offensive line decided it was anti-vax, too. Coincidence? Nope.
Follow the leader? That’s what that team did, like lemmings, right over the 2021 postseason cliff.
Doyel in 2022:Colts' anti-vaxxers cost them spot in 2021 playoffs
The Colts talk so much about their “locker room culture.” They work so hard to find strong leaders like Zaire Franklin, DeForest Buckner and, once upon a time, Jonathan Taylor, because they know a handful of cavities can ruin the whole room.
Nyheim Hines was a cavity in November 2022. He had to go.
Once upon a time Jonathan Taylor was the sturdiest molar in this team's mouth. But since changing agents he's been walking like a cavity, talking like a cavity and quacking like a cavity. And what do you know? On Saturday, Taylor approached Jim Irsay and said, basically, “I’m a cavity.”
Yank him out, Mr. Irsay.
Good riddance.
Need a ride to the airport, JT?
Doyel in 2021:No vaccine for you, Carson Wentz? Here, let me drive you to the airport
Malki Kawa represents pro wrestlers for god's sake
About this agent.
About this dude named Malki Kawa.
He’s impressive, perhaps, in that he’s earned a lot of money. But by that definition Elon Musk would be the most impressive person on the planet, and Musk isn’t that. He’s poisonous, belching wherever he wants and being congratulated for it by toadies and falling in love with the smell of his own burps. Richest idiot in the world, that guy.
So anyway, Malki Kawa. He founded First Round Management in 2008. Today the agency has dozens of employees, according to the company website, with 10 people devoted to MMA and eight to football, though most of those are listed as NIL specialists. Two of Kawa's employees work with "influencers." Two others work with professional wrestlers.
Read those last two sentences again, before you read this next one.
What is it with the best athletes in our market, putting their careers in the hands of the incompetent?
Look, I’m not calling Malki Kawa incompetent as an MMA agent. He represented Jonathan Jones and Jorge Masvidal, among others. They’ve done well. MMA could be Kawa’s calling. Or maybe professional wrestling or "influencers," whatever they are. And in football, yes, he helped Shaq Leonard get that $99 million contract from the Colts.
But let’s see what he’s done lately:
Turned Jonathan Taylor into a cavity.
Kawa is the latest bizarre operative to help torpedo a promising sports career around here. This discussion starts with beloved Andrew Luck, a former Stanford star who for some reason chose a Stanford surgeon to repair his shoulder. Never mind the small list of world-famous surgeons who’ve successfully taken care of NFL quarterbacks for years. Nope, Luck went with his guy. How’d that turn out?
Then you have Victor Oladipo, who became the first major client of his young IU buddy, and almost overnight went from happy, lovable NBA star to a quitter who was openly asking opposing teams to trade for him … during games.
Turns out, a locker room isn’t the only thing as strong as its weakest link. So is a professional athlete, someone like Jonathan Taylor, a one-man $50 million corporation in the right hands, assuming he’s surrounded by a team of wise leaders. The evidence about Taylor’s current advisory team points in the other direction, with a new agent who has gone on Twitter to taunt the Colts and now has a client in search of a new team – in a marketplace losing interest in running backs, never mind a back as disgruntled as Jonathan Taylor.
Irsay says he won't trade Taylor, but we'll see. Culture is delicate, cavities are destructive, and running backs are replaceable. And in Malki Kawa, Taylor has an agent who misjudges Taylor's worth, not to mention his own intelligence. But Kawa can offer clients their own barber. His name is Edgar. His name’s on the company website and everything.
That Edgar guy better be good with the clippers, because Jonathan Taylor needs a makeover.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar. | https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2023/07/29/colts-rb-jonathan-taylor-requests-trade-upon-bad-advice-from-agent/70493644007/ | 2023-07-30T05:48:02 | 0 | https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2023/07/29/colts-rb-jonathan-taylor-requests-trade-upon-bad-advice-from-agent/70493644007/ |
Colts camp observations: Anthony Richardson, passing game takes center stage
WESTFIELD — With Jonathan Taylor’s trade request looming over Colts training camp, Anthony Richardson, Gardner Minshew and the Indianapolis passing game took center stage in Saturday night’s practice, a session focused on third-down situations.
And the division of first-team snaps changed again.
For the first time in training camp, Richardson and Minshew traded off first-team snaps within the same practice. Richardson took the first-team snaps in the first 11-on-11 session and the first 7-on-7 session, while Minshew took the first-team snaps in the other three 11-on-11 periods.
Richardson completed 9 of 15 passes in 11-on-11, hitting Mo Alie-Cox twice, Kylen Granson twice, Mike Strachan twice, Isaiah McKenzie, Vyncint Smith and Evan Hull. The rookie also potentially took two “sacks,” although the defense cannot hit the quarterbacks in practice, and Richardson’s mobility makes it hard to judge if a sack likely would have occurred.
Minshew completed 13 of 17 throws, hitting Alec Pierce twice, Michael Pittman Jr., Alie-Cox, Granson, Jelani Woods, Drew Ogletree, Ashton Dulin, Ethan Fernea, Zavier Scott, Hull, Strachan and finishing it up with two completions to Deon Jackson. Two of those completions were improvisational shovels in the final period of the day, hitting Granson and Jackson while moving up in the pocket.
Pierce, in particular, made two nice catches on plays over the middle, including a nice adjustment to grab and run with a ball that Minshew left behind him. Veteran receiver Breshad Perriman earned Minshew another completion, stopping and turning back to make a lunging catch of an underthrown ball downfield.
But the receivers also dropped more passes than they have in any practice so far. Dulin, Zack Moss, Ethan Fernea and Malik Turner dropped passes in 11-on-11, and Smith couldn’t quite adjust to a deep ball from Richardson, losing the ball when it hit the ground in 7-on-7 on what would have been the rookie’s longest play of the day.
Richardson largely looked in rhythm Saturday night after timing issues on Friday, but the rookie still had a few rough moments, including an overthrown ball that missed an open Smith and a pair of runs that went nowhere, swallowed up by linebacker Grant Stuard and defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad.
More:Jim Irsay holds hour-long bus chat with Jonathan Taylor amid contract and trade requests
Moore II shining in thin cornerback group
Kenny Moore II was frustrated by the way his 2022 season played out, frustrated by his play and the ankle injury that ended his season prematurely.
But he’s been a disruptive force in the first three days of training camp.
Moore II opened the practice by blowing through a block to stop Alie-Cox for a short gain on a completion from Richardson, broke up a pass during 7-on-7 and made the first pass breakup of 1-on-1 drills, stopping Pittman after giving up a catch on his first snap against the team’s No. 1 wide receiver.
“He’s an electric player,” Steichen said. “He’s a great cover guy, he makes a lot of plays, and it’s hard to throw against him.”
The Colts cornerbacks need it from Moore right now. An already-young cornerback group was missing rookies JuJu Brents and Darius Rush due to injury Saturday night, and in the first 1-on-1 period of training camp against the wide receivers, the cornerbacks largely struggled. The wide receivers made 18 catches on 23 attempts in the 1-on-1 drill, an impressive number even in a drill where the receivers have a distinct advantage.
Only Moore II and seventh-round pick Jaylon Jones had passes broken up in the drill, and Jones flashed a little bit later by breaking up the Richardson bomb.
Doyel:Jonathan Taylor joins Andrew Luck, Victor Oladipo as star athletes receiving bad advice
Rigoberto returns
Veteran Colts punter Rigoberto Sanchez has been kicking in training camp during practice.
But Saturday was the first time he’d done it in a team setting since suffering a torn Achilles tendon in his punting leg in training camp last year, and the significance of the moment wasn’t lost on his teammates.
When Sanchez cut loose on his first offering, a moonshot that carried deep into the end zone and pushed punt returner Isaiah McKenzie back to catch it, the rest of the Colts punt team started cheering while the ball was in the air, cognizant of the significance for a punter whose presence was sorely missed last season.
Sanchez has been fully cleared, and he appeared to have all the tricks in his bag, hitting several directional punts to the left sideline, the way he’s done for so many years in Indianapolis. McKenzie and rookie receiver Josh Downs did the returning.
More:Colts RB Jonathan Taylor requests trade, team owner Jim Irsay says they won't deal him
Injury report
The Colts do not expect Rush’s injury to be a big deal.
“He’s got a little shoulder,” Steichen said. “He should be fine.”
Rush, Brents (hamstring), strong safety Julian Blackmon (hamstring) and defensive end Samson Ebukam (knee) sat out the practice due to injury. Taylor (ankle), defensive end Tyquan Lewis (knee) and rookie tight end Will Mallory (foot) remain on the active/physically unable to perform list.
Quick hitters
Smith, a veteran of four seasons with the Texans and Jets, has quietly turned in a nice start to training camp, and he made the highlight catch of the first week Saturday night, going up deep to haul in a deep ball from Sam Ehlinger in 11-on-11. … Veteran defensive end Genard Avery had another nice rush, leading to a potential sack. … Kevin Toliver II made a nice play on a ball, breaking up a throw by Minshew. … Undrafted linebacker Liam Anderson made a nice play on a short throw to Smith by Ehlinger, limiting the wide receiver to a stop at the line of scrimmage. | https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2023/07/29/colts-camp-anthony-richardson-passing-game-takes-center-stage/70460169007/ | 2023-07-30T05:48:08 | 1 | https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2023/07/29/colts-camp-anthony-richardson-passing-game-takes-center-stage/70460169007/ |
Jim Irsay holds hour-long bus chat with Jonathan Taylor amid contract and trade requests
WESTFIELD -- Jim Irsay spent close to an hour on a luxury bus parked at the edge of the Colts training camp practices talking to Jonathan Taylor. He didn't want to disclose what the meeting was about, but moments later, everything became clear.
Taylor requested a trade from the Colts, a source confirmed to IndyStar.
This meeting was supposed to be a clearing of the air.
But with how far apart the two sides appear now -- Irsay told IndyStar, "We will not trade Jonathan Taylor. That is a certainty. Not now, or not in October" -- it's fair to wonder exactly what the meeting accomplished.
"I felt a need not to clear the air but that nobody treats their players as well as this franchise," Irsay said of the meeting. "... Everyone knows that no organization -- and I mean no organization -- treats their past or present players like the Colts do. ... I represent each player and it's my responsibility to be fair and to make sure everyone is treated as fairly as can be to get their piece of the cap."
Taylor has spent the past couple months asking for actions to prove these ideas for himself. He first asked for a contract extension that would align with his value as a top-tier running back, which based on current contracts would pay between $12 and $16 million. Then this week, in lieu of not receiving any offer, he asked for a trade.
Irsay has dealt a star running back before, sending Pro Bowler Marshall Faulk to the Rams for second- and fifth-round draft picks following the 1998 season.
But in his 14-minute conversation from a golf cart with local media Saturday, Irsay dug in on how he wants Taylor to play out this season on his rookie contract, which will pay him $4.3 million. He emphasized that so many of his players, including its stars, have to prove themselves after last year's 4-12-1 faceplant.
Taylor appears to be in that same boat in his eyes. After two straight 1,000-yard seasons to begin his career and a rushing title in 2021, Taylor fell to 861 yards and four touchdowns last season. He dealt with a porous offensive line and a high-ankle sprain for much of the season and ended up missing six games. But he did show he had room to grow as a pass protector and receiver.
Irsay wants to see Taylor develop a run game with Anthony Richardson, the No. 4 pick in this spring's draft. The two, in theory, could form a dynamic duo on zone-read plays given their elite speed and burst. But given Taylor's request and the fact that he hasn't practiced yet while sitting on the Physically Unable to Perform List, it's up to question when anyone will get to see that develop.
"We're looking forward to a great season and hoping Jonathan's a part of that," Irsay said.
But not all of his comments were in a hopeful tone.
"If I die tonight and Jonathan Taylor's out of the league, nobody's going to miss us," Irsay said. "The league goes on. We all know that. The National Football League rolls on. It doesn't matter who comes and who goes, and it's a privilege to be a part of it."
The implicit message to Taylor is that he needs to suit up and play and feel proud to do so. It's not been the message any top running back has been happy to hear lately, though, as Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Tony Pollard and Austin Ekeler have all found themselves at odds with their current contract situations as the running back market has frozen. They've all struggled to find much new compensation with names like Ezekiel Elliott, Dalvin Cook and Kareem Hunt available in free agency.
The reasons for Irsay's stand are less hard to decipher. He continually brought up challenges with the salary cap and made a reference to the 2011 Colts, who had to cut Joseph Addai in order to keep together a collection of talent that included Pro Bowlers Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark.
But the current Colts aren't paying veteran players like that at the positions that command high money such as quarterback, left tackle, wide receiver or cornerback. The Colts currently have $19 million in cap space available for 2023 and will have Richardson on a rookie contract for the next five seasons.
His roster isn't completely void of stars, of course, and he was happy to point out a couple of those.
"Both Jonathan and Quenton Nelson, I don't mind saying it, they're two guys who have a legitimate chance of making the Hall of Fame," Irsay said. "But there's a long way to go to get to that. A long way. But the talent is there, and you see the magic and the special talent."
A year ago at this time, Nelson was in the spot Taylor is now entering the final year of his rookie contract. The Colts made it clear that they wanted to get an extension done and did the night before the season began in the form of the biggest contract for a guard in NFL history at four years and $80 million with $60 million guaranteed.
Irsay declined to answer a question about how he can claim to be fair with all players if he won't extend Taylor on the same timeline of an extension as Nelson received, which was the same for center Ryan Kelly, cornerback Kenny Moore II, right tackle Braden Smith, running back Nyheim Hines and linebacker Shaquille Leonard as well.
This spring, Stephon Gilmore requested a trade and the Colts granted it, sending him to the Cowboys for a fifth-round pick.
Irsay was willing to admit his current roster has loads of questions.
"Unless you were on this roster in 2020, you've never played in a playoff game," Irsay said. "There is a lot of road to cover before we can start claiming and getting back to where we have a group of players that are playoff war-torn and ready to win an AFC championship."
None of it was likely what Taylor wanted to hear. He foreshadowed the trade request in June, when he said, "You see why guys request trades." That statement came weeks after he switched agencies to First Round Management, and this week, his agent, Malki Kawa, tweeted "I doubt it" to an NFL.com story about how Irsay hopes he can mend the relationship with Taylor.
The conversation on the bus was about trying to do that solely with words. Irsay has always spoken directly to his star players, and he said he did his best to smooth over the emotions that are clearly running hot.
"I told Jonathan, and I told all players who are here, you guys raised me," Irsay said. "I was 13 years old. You guys told me how to act when I became owner because you were my big brothers." | https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2023/07/29/colts-irsay-holds-bus-chat-with-taylor-amid-contract-trade-requests/70493384007/ | 2023-07-30T05:48:14 | 0 | https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2023/07/29/colts-irsay-holds-bus-chat-with-taylor-amid-contract-trade-requests/70493384007/ |
Jason Aldean's Massachusetts concert temporarily evacuated due to severe weather
Jason Aldean's show at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield resumed two and half hours later
Jason Aldean's concert in Mansfield, Massachusetts got off to a rocky start after the venue was temporarily evacuated due to severe weather.
The 46-year-old country star, who was set to take the stage at the Xfinity Center at 7:30pm ET, shared a screenshot of the evacuation announcement to his Instagram Story shortly after 8pm.
"Severe Weather Alert. We are evacuating the venue. Calmly proceed to the nearest exit and seek shelter in your vehicles. Please stay tuned to the venue social networks for updates," the announcement read.
The Xfinity Center also posted the announcement on its social media accounts. A tweet from the venue noted that the evacuation was "due to severe weather & approaching lightning."
JASON ALDEAN RECOVERING AFTER ABRUPT CONCERT EXIT DUE TO HEAT EXHAUSTION: ‘IT WAS PRETTY INTENSE’
The account later provided an update in a tweet that read: "If you are still in the venue, please seek shelter. Do not attempt to evacuate. We are still under a shelter in place with the hope to continue the show once it is safe." In another update, the Xfinity Center's Twitter account told concert-goers that a decision had yet to be made if it was safe to proceed with the show.
Around 9:30PM, Aldean revealed that the show would resume as he shared another announcement from the venue.
"GOOD NEWS! Tonight's Jason Aldean concert will continue! Doors are open now. Please make your way to the gates and have your tickets open on your phone and ready for scanning to help ease entry back into the venue. Jason Aldean will be on stage at 10:00PM."
The evacuation comes a little over a week after the "You Make It Easy" hitmaker's concert at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio on July 21 was postponed until Sept.17 due to a severe storm that tore through Northeast Ohio, causing heavy rains and flooding.
Aldean's concert on July 17 in Hartford, Connecticut was abruptly cut short after the singer suffered heat exhaustion and ran off-stage mid-song. In a video that he later shared to social media, he informed his fans that he was "doing fine" and had received IV fluids. The following day, the concert was rescheduled for July 30 and the Georgia native performed that night in Saratoga Springs, New York as scheduled.
The five-time Grammy Award nominee is currently on his 31-date "Desperado Highway Tour," which kicked off July 14 in Bethel Woods, NY. Aldean's concert woes come after the music video release of his song "Try That In A Small Town" sparked backlash.
In the music video, Aldean touts how small towns wouldn't put up with the kind of riots and lawlessness many cities across the country faced during the summer of 2020.
Last week, Aldean denied that "Try That In A Small Town" has racial undertones after critics voiced disdain for the new music video.
"In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests," Aldean shared with his nearly 8 million fans across social media.
"These references are not only meritless, but dangerous."
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Country Music Television (CMT) pulled the video from rotation three days after initially airing the video, representatives confirmed with Fox News Digital. CMT did not provide more information about why the video was removed from the air.
However, Aldean's streams for "Try According to Luminate, which tracks streams and music sales, the audio and video streams from Aldean's latest song went from 987,000 to 11.7 million, a 999% increase in the week after the release of the music video.
JASON ALDEAN ADDRESSES CRITICISM OF COUNTRY MUSIC VIDEO: 'THIS ONE GOES TO FAR’
Luminate also confirmed to Fox News Digital that sales for "Try That In A Small Town" have spiked as well. The week before Aldean released the music video, it sold 1,000 tracks. Last week, the country music song sold 228,000 tracks. "Try that In A Small Town" has jumped 999% since the song became a trending topic online.
Another major accomplishment for Aldean came on Monday. "Try That In A Small Town" was second on Billboard's Hot 100 list. This marks the country music singer's first No. 2 spot on the chart, with "Dirt Road Anthem" getting the seventh spot in July 2011.
On Monday, Aldean thanked his fans for their unwavering support in a post he shared to Twitter. He uploaded a video montage that included clips of some of his recent shows with the song playing in the background.
"Thank u guys. Ready to see u back out there this weekend!" Aldean wrote, adding an American flag and a rocker-hand emoji.
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Included in the video was a clip of Aldean addressing his fans at one of his recent shows.
"So, somebody asked me, ‘Hey man, do you think you’re going to play this song tonight?'" Aldean is heard saying in one portion of the video. "The answer was simple. The people have spoken and you guys spoke very, very loudly this week."
Fox News Digital's Caroline Thayer and Tracy Wright contributed to this report. | https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/jason-aldeans-massachusetts-concert-temporarily-evacuated-severe-weather | 2023-07-30T05:49:41 | 0 | https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/jason-aldeans-massachusetts-concert-temporarily-evacuated-severe-weather |
Anchorage homeless face cold and bears. A plan to offer one-way airfare out reveals a bigger crisis
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Shawn Steik and his wife were forced from a long-term motel room onto the streets of Anchorage after their rent shot up to $800 a month. Now they live in a tent encampment by a train depot, and as an Alaska winter looms they are growing desperate and fearful of what lies ahead.
A proposal last week by Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson to buy one-way plane tickets out of Alaska’s biggest city for its homeless residents gave Steik a much-needed glimmer of hope. He would move to the relative warmth of Seattle.
“I heard it’s probably warmer than this place,” said Steik, who is Aleut.
But the mayor’s unfunded idea also came under immediate attack as a Band-Aid solution glossing over the tremendous, and still unaddressed, crisis facing Anchorage as a swelling homeless population struggles to survive in a unique and extreme environment. Frigid temperatures stalk the homeless in the winter and bears infiltrate homeless encampments in the summer.
A record eight people died of exposure while living outside last winter and this year promises to be worse after the city closed an arena that housed 500 people during the winter months. Bickering between the city’s liberal assembly and its conservative mayor about how to address the crisis, and a lack of state funding, have further stymied efforts to find a solution.
With winter fast approaching in Alaska, it’s “past time for state and local leaders to address the underlying causes of homelessness — airplane tickets are a distraction, not a solution,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said in a statement to The Associated Press.
About 43% of Anchorage’s more than 3,000 unsheltered residents are Alaska Natives, and Bronson’s proposal also drew harsh criticism from those who called it culturally insensitive.
“The reality is there is no place to send these people because this is their land. Any policy that we make has to pay credence to that simple fact. This is Dena’ina land, this is Native land,” said Christopher Constant, chair of the Anchorage Assembly. “And so we cannot be supporting policies that would take people and displace them from their home, even if their home is not what you or I would call home.”
Bronson’s airfare proposal caps a turbulent few years as Anchorage, like many cities in the U.S. West, struggles to deal with a burgeoning homeless population.
In May, the city shut down the 500-bed homeless shelter in the city’s arena so it could once more be used for concerts and hockey games after neighbors complained about open drug use, trespassing, violence and litter. A plan to build a large shelter and navigation center fell through when Bronson approved a contract without approval from the Anchorage Assembly.
That leaves a gaping hole in the city’s ability to house the thousands of homeless people who have to contend with temperatures well below zero for days at a time and unrelenting winds blasting off Cook Inlet. At the end of June, Anchorage was estimated to have a little more than 3,150 homeless people, according to the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Last week, there were only 614 beds at shelters citywide, with no vacancies.
New tent cities have sprung up across Anchorage this summer: on a slope facing the city’s historic railroad depot, on a busy road near the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson and near soup kitchens and shelters downtown.
Assembly members are slated to consider a winter stop-gap option in August falling far short of the need: a large, warmed, tent-like structure for 150 people.
Summer brings its own challenges: hungry bears last year roamed a city-owned campground where homeless people were resettled after the arena closed. Wildlife officials killed four bears after they broke into tents.
Bronson said he prefers to spend a few hundred dollars per person for a plane ticket rather than spending about $100 daily to shelter and feed them. He said he doesn’t care where they want to go; his job is to “make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.”
It’s not clear if his proposal will move forward. There is not yet a plan or a funding source.
Dr. Ted Mala, an Inupiaq who in 1990 became the first Alaska Native to serve as the state’s health commissioner, said Anchorage should be working with social workers and law enforcement to discover people’s individual reasons for homelessness and connect them with resources.
Buying the unsheltered a ticket to another city is a political game that’s been around for years. A number of U.S. cities struggling with homelessness, including San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have also offered bus or plane tickets to homeless residents.
“People are not pawns, they’re human beings,” Mala said.
The mayor’s proposal, while focused on warmer cities, also would fund tickets to other Alaska locations for those who want them.
Clarita Clark became homeless after her medical team wanted her to move from Point Hope to Anchorage for cancer treatment because Anchorage is warmer. The medical facility wouldn’t allow her husband to stay with her, so they pitched a tent in a sprawling camp to stay together.
Having recently found the body of a dead teenager who overdosed in a portable toilet, Clark yearns to return to the Chukchi Sea coastal village of Point Hope, where her three grandchildren live.
“I got a family that loves me,” she said, adding she would use the ticket and seek treatment closer to home.
Danny Parish also is leaving Alaska, but for another reason: He’s fed up.
Parish is selling his home of 29 years because it sits directly across the street from Sullivan Arena. Bad acts by some homeless people — including harassment, throwing vodka bottles in his yard, poisoning his dog and using his driveway as a toilet — made his life “a holy hell,” he said.
Parish is convinced the arena will be used again this winter since there isn’t another plan.
He, too, hopes to move to the contiguous U.S. — Oregon, for starters — but not before asking Anchorage leaders for his own plane ticket out.
“If they’re going to give them to everybody else,” Parish said, “then they need to give me one.”
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.kaaltv.com/news/political-news/anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ | 2023-07-30T05:49:51 | 1 | https://www.kaaltv.com/news/political-news/anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ |
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Emmett Till would have turned 82 today. Till was tortured and murdered in Mississippi after a white woman accused the Black 14-year-old of whistling and grabbing at her. Till and his mother's willingness to share the brutality Till suffered marked a pivotal moment in the early Civil Rights Movement. Mamie Till Mobley described her decision in a 2003 interview with The Chicago Project.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MAMIE TILL MOBLEY: Let the people see what I've seen. And I want open casket viewing from now until the time we take Emmett for burial.
KELLY: Now, almost 70 years after Till was beaten, shot, had a cotton gin tied around his body and was thrown in the Tallahatchie River, Till and his mother are being memorialized in the form of three monuments in Chicago and Mississippi. President Biden signed the proclamation designating the sites earlier today. Patrick Weems is the executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Miss. He was at the White House when President Biden put pen to paper. We spoke before he headed to that event.
Patrick Weems, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
PATRICK WEEMS: Thank you, Mary Louise.
KELLY: You've come to D.C. for this event at the White House, and you picked up the Till family en route.
WEEMS: We drove from Chicago to D.C. to be here today, and I couldn't think of a more memorable trip to be here with Wheeler Parker, who's one of the most gracious, forgiving human beings and probably one of the most important people alive.
KELLY: So tell me about the three locations. There are two in Mississippi, one in Illinois. Start with the one that marks the site where Till's body was believed to have been pulled from the Tallahatchie River. What will visitors see there?
WEEMS: Yeah, well, hopefully what they won't see is a bullet-riddled sign. You know, we've had a lot of history of this site being desecrated, being shot up. We were able to put a bulletproof marker there recently in the last couple of years. But more significant is that the site where Till's body came out of the Tallahatchie River will now be a part of the National Park Service system. And to know that it will be federally protected - to make sure that if someone does vandalize our signs, it won't be a local sheriff. It will be the federal government that will get involved. But this is the big bang of the Civil Rights Movement, as Jesse Jackson talked about. This is a site where so many Black bodies were thrown into rivers. But Emmett's miraculously emerged. An 18-year-old fisherman found the body and brought it to the banks of the Tallahatchie River, where his body was initially identified because he had his father's ring on his finger. But then later, Mamie Till made sure the body came to Chicago, where she said, this is my son. I know my son.
KELLY: Yeah. And that's - the site in Illinois is the site where she insisted on an open casket. Describe what we'll see there.
WEEMS: Yeah. So, I mean, public officials wanted to bury Emmett in Mississippi. The sheriff had a directive to make sure the body was buried in Money, Miss. Mamie refused. She wanted to have a very private mourning for her son, first and foremost. But she also took that moment to remember and kind of resist white supremacy, resist the Jim Crow system by having a public funeral, having an open casket to show the world what they did to her son.
KELLY: And then the last location is also in Mississippi, back in Tallahatchie County.
WEEMS: That's right. So the site of the injustice - right? - so the miscarriage of justice took place in our courtroom in 1955. And it's also the site where people like Willie Reed, an 18-year-old sharecropper who witnessed the murder. He testified at the trial, and he whispered his testimony because he was scared to death. He later had a nervous breakdown, changed his name and moved to Chicago and didn't talk about this until 30 years later. And so, you know, it's a low point in American history, the fact that these men get off without any penalty. But it also is a testimony to people like Medgar Evers, Willie Reed, Mose Wright, Mamie Till, Dr. T.R.M. Howard - people who did the right thing that day and had the courage to at least try to get some attempt at justice.
KELLY: You know, I'm thinking about how this monument designation comes as a national conversation is underway about how to teach Black history in our schools. Do you think these monuments might help inform that conversation?
WEEMS: They already are. I mean, this is American history. We have young people visit these sites already. This will only amplify and make it easier for young people to come. It takes the best of us to talk about the worst of us. And if we're going to have a true democracy and multicultural democracy, we have to understand where we've stumbled. And we stumbled badly in 1955. And no matter party affiliation, I think we should all agree that what took place in 1955 was wrong. The system was wrong. Mississippi was wrong. The United States was wrong. But we can be better. It's our hope that this memorial marks a line in the sand that says, never again, and that if we want to hold and cherish our democracy, we need to learn about Mose Wright and Mamie Till.
KELLY: Patrick Weems. Thank you.
WEEMS: Thank you, Mary Louise. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. | https://www.wboi.org/2023-07-25/the-journey-for-the-emmett-till-and-mamie-till-mobley-national-monuments | 2023-07-30T05:49:55 | 1 | https://www.wboi.org/2023-07-25/the-journey-for-the-emmett-till-and-mamie-till-mobley-national-monuments |
Updated July 28, 2023 at 4:15 PM ET
Extreme heat is baking much of the U.S. and the National Weather Service has dubbed this a summer of "excessive" weather.
If you're in a place with a heat advisory, you should try to stay indoors as much as you can. But if you need to go outside, or if you're somewhere with more moderate heat, remember that high temperatures can be dangerous. It might be OK to mow the lawn or go to a cookout, but "don't overdo it," warns John Schumann, a primary care physician in Tulsa, Okla. "Heat can envelop and pummel you."
And there are a lot of misconceptions about the best ways to protect yourself, warns David Eisenman, a physician at UCLA who is co-director of the UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions. Here are mistakes to avoid and ways to plan ahead to protect yourself from the heat.
1. Too much, too soon: You need to acclimatize
When a heat wave strikes, your body needs time to adjust, says Neil Gandhi, a physician at Houston Methodist Hospital: "You can't do too much too soon."
If you go from mostly spending time in air conditioning to an outdoor activity in the sweltering heat, you could be caught off guard. Your body isn't "acclimatized to handle the stress," Gandhi says. And every year, about 650 people die from heat-related illness in the United States.
Fortunately, once acclimatized, the body gets better at fending off heat-related illness. "Our body starts to sweat sooner at a lower body temperature and at a greater rate," explains Eisenman. Also, blood flow to the skin improves, which has the effect of cooling us down by carrying heat out of the body's core. And your thirst increases, so you're less likely to get dehydrated.
But this doesn't happen immediately. "It's going to happen over the space of several days of exposure," Eisenman says. So if you're planning a hiking trip, summer sightseeing or any other extended exposure to heat, plan to spend short periods in the heat each day in the days leading up to your outdoor adventure.
And note that kids acclimatize much more slowly than adults, says Eisenman, so give them extra days to prepare.
2. Failing to pre-hydrate (and rehydrate!)
Hydrate in advance, says Wafi Momin, a cardiologist at Memorial Hermann Health System in Katy, Texas. "Grab a glass of water or a sports drink before you head out to the outdoors," he says.
And bring plenty of water with you, and don't wait until you're thirsty to start drinking during an outdoor activity. "The moment you begin to feel thirsty, you're likely anywhere between 10 to 25% dehydrated already," says Gandhi.
Most people aren't even hydrated enough on a normal day, Eisenman notes, so it's easy to start at a deficit on a hot day. His advice is to double the amount you'd drink in a typical day. The best test of hydration is to check the color of your urine. "Make sure that you're peeing frequently and that your urine is pale" — almost clear, says Eisenman.
Water is the best way to hydrate — and it's free! Sports drinks add electrolytes and can be helpful if you've gotten overheated or if you're participating in a marathon or other endurance event — but they're not necessary when you're simply trying to stay hydrated throughout the day, says Schumann, who also serves as a medical director for Oak Street Health, a chain of primary care clinics. In Tulsa, he says, in recent weeks they've seen bouts of 100-degree weather.
"In these heat-dome times, though I pooh-pooh all the millennials who carry water bottles everywhere, the kids — they're right about this," he says.
3. Don't be the frog in the boiling pot (i.e., your car)
You may not realize how hot it's getting inside your car.
Cars heat up so fast even in moderate heat because of a "mini greenhouse effect," Eisenman explains.
"The sun is coming through those windows, and then the heat is getting bounced around and getting trapped inside. It turns into a different wavelength of heat and doesn't go back out the windows," he says. "And on a day of moderate temperatures, say like 75 degrees outside, in 25 minutes it will become 100 degrees inside your car."
Each year, about 50 children die when left in a car. So do not underestimate the dangers, especially if you're distracted by finishing up a phone call, says Eisenman. "Even with the air conditioner running, even with the windows cracked, it can become hot in there very quickly," he adds.
4. Heat + (certain) medications don't mix
Certain medications can make people more vulnerable to heat, explains Momin.
Some heart medications such as blood pressure drugs, which millions of people take, are diuretic, he explains. "Those medications are trying to get rid of fluid from your body because of underlying heart issues," he says. And if you then add heat, which also causes you to lose excessive amounts of fluid, "that can cause a very dangerous situation."
Other types of medications can have this effect too, says Schumann. These include anticholinergic medications, anticonvulsants, bladder medications and sedatives. "Lots of medicines work by dehydrating us — excreting excess fluid. Be careful!" he warns.
In general, older people are more vulnerable to heat, so if you're older and on these medications, take extra precautions to stay cool and hydrated. Ask your doctor whether any of your medicines could be dehydrating.
5. Don't ignore the early signs of heat-related illness
The first few signs that you're getting overheated may not feel too alarming: sweating, fatigue, dizziness and headache. You might feel nauseous or lightheaded. But "those are the telltale signs of heat exhaustion creeping in," says Momin.
"You may just blow it off, saying, you know, it's hot and I've felt this way before, but the worst of the symptoms can come on very quickly without realizing it," he says. "And all of a sudden, your body's overheating to a point where you won't really be able to drink enough fluids at that juncture to reverse what's already gone on."
Symptoms of heat exhaustion can quickly become more serious. They can include muscle cramping, increased fatigue and accelerated heart rate. "You may start to weaken and just kind of get out of breath as you exert yourself," Gandhi says.
6. Know when to seek medical attention
If you're with someone who begins to show signs of heat-related illness, move the person to a cool place, give them water or a sports drink and moisten their skin. You can also remove unnecessary clothing such as shoes, socks and jackets.
Then, observe them. Their symptoms should start to improve in about 30 minutes, Eisenman says. If they don't get better in that time or if at any point they start having more worrisome symptoms, call for medical help. "I think sometimes people wait too long to call 911," says Eisenman.
"If their heart rate is going fast, if they're breathing quickly, if they seem at all confused, those are all indicators they've had more exposure to the heat than you can handle," Eisenman says.
When heatstroke sets in, people can even lose consciousness or pass out — in this case, seek immediate medical attention.
You really want to avoid heatstroke: With heatstroke, your core body temperature can rise quickly to 103 to 105 degrees or more, says Gandhi. When this happens, "you can start to experience some organ damage pretty quickly."
7. Wear loose, light clothing
If you're spending time in the heat, what you wear matters. "I would seek lighter colors because those tend to reflect heat rather than absorb heat compared to darker colors such as blacks and dark blues," says Momin. And stay away from tight clothing, which can block airflow.
"Loose-fitting clothing allows for the heat to evaporate off your body more easily," adds Eisenman.
8. Alcohol is a bad call
If you're at an outdoor party, resist that ice-cold margarita. Go for mocktails instead. "Alcohol will dehydrate you much faster" in the heat, says Schumann.
If you're determined to have something with a little kick in it, "drink some water for every drink you have to avoid trouble," he says. "If you wind up having to pee a lot, it'll be worth it. If you don't, you might be getting into trouble."
"Alcohol is very problematic" if you're outdoors in the heat, agrees Momin. Not only does it cause you to lose fluids, but "it can also impair your judgment." And when that happens, you might miss the signs of heat-related illness.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wboi.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-07-12/8-mistakes-to-avoid-if-youre-going-out-in-the-heat | 2023-07-30T05:50:01 | 1 | https://www.wboi.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-07-12/8-mistakes-to-avoid-if-youre-going-out-in-the-heat |
After missing for years, Alicia Navarro walked into the Havre Police Department on July 23.
She told officers she wanted to identify herself and clear her name from the missing person's list.
Glendale Police have been in Havre, Montana working to figure out where Navarro, who's now 18, has been for almost four years.
"It was pretty big news for us too," said Harve native Ron Turner.
The town has a population of approximately 9,000 people and is about 40 miles from the Canadian border.
In a video released by Glendale Police, you can hear Alicia tell officers no one had hurt her and she was thankful to the officers for offering her help.
The teen has been missing from the Valley since 2019.
Her mom, Jessica Nunez, told ABC15 in 2020 that her daughter was autistic and relied on medicine and family.
Glendale police wasted no time starting the investigation. This week officers served a search warrant at a home in the small Montana town.
Turner told ABC15 he watched the search happen.
"This guy gets out, he’s got an FBI vest on and pulls out an assault rifle," said Turner. "Then some police pull up and everyone had their guns drawn."
Turner said this happened Wednesday night.
He told ABC15 that police searched an apartment at the building across the street from his home.
"They went in with like ARs and body armor," said Johnathan Michaelson.
Michaelson is a student, but he lives in the same apartment building.
Both Tuner and Michaelson said officers came to ask them questions.
"He eventually came up, one of the guys while I was talking with my neighbors, that was supposedly undercover," said Michaelson. "[He] told me he was up here from Arizona. Pretty much what he wanted to know was how well I knew my neighbors. Whether or not there was a girl that had been living there, late teens."
Turner told ABC15 he also saw a woman he believes was Navarro speaking with officers.
He said police were at the apartment for hours.
"I know they were taking pictures because I could see in the front door, and there was a flash going off," said Turner.
Turner said he saw a man in handcuffs, but Glendale police have said no one has been arrested or detained.
Police did confirm officers interviewed four people.
"Patience is the key word," said Trent Steele, president of the Anti-Predator Project.
He's the private investigator who has been working on Navarro's case since 2020.
Steele said getting answers will take time, adding the teen's family is still overwhelmed.
"The family is putting this together, starting their healing journey," said Steele. "They are taking it one day at a time like everybody else."
ABC15 did reach out to the Glendale Police Department for an update, but a PIO said they would not be giving an update until Monday. | https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/neighbors-describe-seeing-search-as-police-investigate-alicia-navarros-disappearance | 2023-07-30T05:50:05 | 0 | https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/neighbors-describe-seeing-search-as-police-investigate-alicia-navarros-disappearance |
Of all extreme weather conditions, heat is the most deadly. It kills more people in the U.S. in an average year than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined. The human body has a built-in cooling mechanism – sweat. But that system can only do so much, especially in soaring temperatures with high humidity.
Here's a look at what happens to the human body in extreme temperatures – and the three main pathways to fatal consequences.
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Organ failure caused by heatstroke
When the surrounding temperatures approach your internal body temperature – which is about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit for most of us – your body starts to cool off through evaporative cooling, better known as sweating. But when it's very humid out, that sweat won't evaporate as well and cool you down.
When your body is exposed to heat, it will try to cool itself down by redirecting more blood to the skin, says Ollie Jay, a professor of heat and health at the University of Sydney, where he directs the Heat and Health Research Incubator. But that means less blood and less oxygen are going to your gut. If these conditions go on long enough, your gut can become more permeable.
"So, nasty things like endotoxins that usually reside and stay inside the gut start leaking out of the gut, entering the circulation. And that sets off a cascade of effects that ultimately result in death," Jay says.
For example, those toxins can activate white blood cells, says Camilo Mora, a climate scientist and professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who has researched how heat can turn fatal. "They say, Oh my God, we're getting attacked right now. And the white blood cells are going to attack this contamination in the blood, creating coagulation" – or blood clots, Mora says. Those clots can lead to multiple organ failure.
"And at that point, it's pretty irreversible," Jay adds.
Cardiovascular collapse
The second way people die in high heat also has to do with your body pumping more blood to the skin. Your heart has to pump faster – which can make you feel lightheaded – to keep your blood pressure up.
"We might have a heart rate of 60 beats per minute, all of a sudden, we might be asking the heart to contract 100 times per minute, 110 times per minute. So now you're asking the heart to do a lot more work," Jay says.
Those spikes in the heart rate can be triggers for a heart attack, he says, especially for the elderly and those with underlying heart conditions.
Fluid loss leading to kidney failure
The third deadly danger has to do with the fluids your body is losing in extreme heat. People can sweat as much as a liter and half per hour, Jay says. And if you don't replenish those fluids, you get dehydrated and your blood volume shrinks, which makes it harder to maintain blood pressure. That can strain your heart and your kidneys.
"People with kidney disorders can be at greater risk of a negative health outcome during extreme heat exposure," Jay says.
Mora notes another danger to the kidneys that people who work physically demanding jobs in high heat outdoors face. Rhabdomyolysis causes muscle tissue to break down, releasing proteins into the blood that can clog kidneys. This usually occurs in the acute phase of heatstroke. Jay says there's also some evidence that habitually working outdoors in high heat without proper hydration can increase the risk of chronic kidney disease.
What you can do to stay safe
Watch for the first signs of mild heat exhaustion:
If that happens, Jay says, get out of the heat and into the shade or indoors ASAP. Drink plenty of water and wet your clothes and skin. Immersing your feet in cold water can also help.
Jay says the goal is to cool down so you don't progress to severe heat exhaustion, where you might start vomiting or seem to lose coordination – signs of neurological disturbance.
If your core body temperature rises to about 104 degrees Fahrenheit, Jay says, that's where you risk heatstroke.
How hot is too hot?
Experts say there's no absolute temperature at which extreme heat can turn dangerous.
"It depends on the individual," says Lewis Halsey, a professor of environmental physiology at the University of Roehampton in the U.K. "It depends on how acclimated they are to heat. It depends how long they're exposed to the heat for. It depends on how they're experiencing this heat."
If sweating is our superpower to keep cool, then "the kryptonite to that superpower is humidity," Halsey says.
So a person might start feeling overwhelmed much sooner in higher humidity at lower temperatures than if they're in dry heat, he says. Direct sunlight will heat us up faster than when we're in the shade. A nice breeze could help sweat evaporate and cool us off.
The elderly and very young are considered particularly vulnerable in the heat. But Mora of the University of Hawaii at Manoa notes heat stress can hit anyone.
He points to the story of a young family who died after becoming dangerously overheated while hiking on a day in August 2021 when temperatures reached 109 degrees Fahrenheit in Northern California. The husband, wife, their one-year-old daughter and even the family dog were found dead two days later.
Mora says those kinds of conditions could kill within a few hours — even if you are young and healthy.
"The military has done a lot of research into heat exposure and they find the first symptoms of heat exhaustion, heatstroke after only a few hours, even among the healthiest of people," Mora says.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wboi.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-07-23/how-heat-kills-what-happens-to-the-body-in-extreme-temperatures | 2023-07-30T05:50:07 | 0 | https://www.wboi.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-07-23/how-heat-kills-what-happens-to-the-body-in-extreme-temperatures |
Russia says 3 Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow
The Russian government has said the capital, Moscow, came under attack from three Ukrainian drones on Sunday.
The Russian state-owned TASS news agency said one person — a security guard — was injured. The alleged attack caused the temporary suspension of flights at Moscow's Vnukovo International Airport.
If confirmed, it would be the fourth such attempt at a strike on the capital region this month and the third this week. Moscow is about 500 km (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The incident is likely to fuel fears in Russia that its invasion of Ukraine, now in its 18th month, could increasingly make its own territory the target of retaliatory attacks.
What do have we been told so far?
According to TASS, Russia's Defense Ministry said one of the drones was destroyed in the air over the Odintsovo district in the Moscow region and two others crashed in the capital city itself.
Photos from the crash site showed a damaged skyscraper facade. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin two buildings in the Moscow City district were "insignificantly damaged."
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials. Kyiv rarely, if ever, takes responsibility for attacks on Russian soil.
tj/wd (Reuters, AP) | https://www.dw.com/en/russia-says-3-ukrainian-drones-attacked-moscow/a-66386692 | 2023-07-30T05:50:12 | 0 | https://www.dw.com/en/russia-says-3-ukrainian-drones-attacked-moscow/a-66386692 |
A jury has ordered anti-government extremist Ammon Bundy and associates to pay more than $50 million in damages to Idaho's largest hospital in connection with armed protests last year that led to a security lockdown.
The decision handed down late Monday follows a ten day civil trial in which Bundy was a no show and where attorneys with St. Luke's Hospital outlined what they called an extensive campaign of bullying, intimidation and disinformation directed at doctors and medical staff that they say continues today.
"Standing up to threats, bullying, intimidation, disruption and self serving actions was necessary. Inaction would have signaled that their menacing behavior was acceptable," said Chris Roth, CEO of St. Luke's Health System, in a statement.
The drama goes back to March of 2022 when Bundy led a series of tense protests against the hospitalization of one of his associate's infant grandkids who state social workers said was malnourished. According to court documents, protesters, some armed, tried to force their way into the hospital's locked exits. Some held "wanted" signs naming individual doctors and nurses and even blocked an ambulance entrance as car horns blared.
At the trial, the hospital's security director, Abbey Abbondandolo told the jury that he ordered a security lockdown and diverted all incoming ambulances to other hospitals because he feared Bundy and his militia followers were close to taking over the hospital and carrying out a "Pizzagate" style attack.
"This is not just a guy going rogue. He's like a military leader who's able to coordinate actions and mobilize people on different fronts," Abbondandolo said.
The jury trial offered a window into the dark world of far-right extremism, with intimidation and threats being directed at top officials even in one of the most conservative states in the nation.
Ammon Bundy, who ran for governor in Idaho in 2022, receiving some 90,000 votes, routinely attacks the state's Republican leaders, including its conservative governor, on social media. Bundy and his followers frequently spread Q Anon conspiracy theories that St. Luke's and its staff who cared for the infant grandson were part of a global child sex trafficking cabal.
Meanwhile, it's unclear how much if any of the $50 million in damages, half of them punitive, will ever get paid. St Luke's says it plans to donate the money upon collection to one of its child health services organizations.
Bundy, who has defied a civil arrest warrant, appears to remain holed up in his home in a rural area outside Boise where he's been claiming erroneously that he has no assets left to be taken.
"People in a jury deciding how much St. Luke's is going to take from those who exposed the truth about them is a mockery to justice. When a baby is born he or she does not become property of the state or hospital executives," Bundy said in a tweet responding to the verdict.
This is just the latest legal drama for Bundy, who a jury actually acquitted in 2016 for leading a 41 day armed takeover of a federal bird sanctuary in Oregon. Bundy has also been arrested for trespassing in the Boise area several times more recently, even leading to his being banned from the Idaho state capitol for one year.
"They are, to some degree, terrorists in the way that they're acting. And then he turns around and makes himself the martyr or the victim, which is just ludicrous," says Gary Raney, a retired sheriff in Ada County, Idaho's most populous.
Leading up to the civil trial, Raney was advising local law enforcement to wait things out and not immediately go in and serve the warrant. The local sheriff had warned earlier this year that Bundy was becoming increasingly aggressive toward his deputies.
Raney told NPR he thinks Bundy will get served soon but there's no rush while tempers are flaring.
"The predicament is just keeping the community safe over there with all these - I'll use the technical term - yahoos that are over living on Bundy's property, trying to protect him from who knows what," Raney said.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wboi.org/npr-news/2023-07-25/ammon-bundy-ordered-to-pay-50-million-but-will-the-hospital-ever-see-the-money | 2023-07-30T05:50:13 | 1 | https://www.wboi.org/npr-news/2023-07-25/ammon-bundy-ordered-to-pay-50-million-but-will-the-hospital-ever-see-the-money |
NEW YORK (AP) — Six straight days of 12-hour driving. Single digit paychecks. The complaints come from workers in vastly different industries: UPS delivery drivers and Hollywood actors and writers.
But they point to an underlying factor driving a surge of labor unrest: The cost to workers whose jobs have changed drastically as companies scramble to meet customer expectations for speed and convenience in industries transformed by technology.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated those changes, pushing retailers to shift online and intensifying the streaming competition among entertainment companies. Now, from the picket lines, workers are trying to give consumers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce a show that can be binged any time or get dog food delivered to their doorstep with a phone swipe.
Overworked and underpaid employees is an enduring complaint across industries — from delivery drivers to Starbucks baristas and airline pilots — where surges in consumer demand have collided with persistent labor shortages. Workers are pushing back against forced overtime, punishing schedules or company reliance on lower-paid, part-time or contract forces.
At issue for Hollywood screenwriters and actors staging their first simultaneous strikes in 40 years is the way streaming has upended entertainment economics, slashing pay and forcing showrunners to produce content faster with smaller teams.
“This seems to happen to many places when the tech companies come in. Who are we crushing? It doesn’t matter,” said Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, a screenwriter and showrunner on the negotiating team for the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike since May. Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the writers’ union on the picket line.
Actors and writers have long relied on residuals, or long-term payments, for reruns and other airings of films and televisions shows. But reruns aren’t a thing on streaming services, where series and films simply land and stay with no easy way, such as box office returns or ratings, to determine their popularity.
Consequently, whatever residuals streaming companies do pay often amount to a pittance, and screenwriters have been sharing tales of receiving single digit checks.
Adam Shapiro, an actor known for the Netflix hit “Never Have I Ever,” said many actors were initially content to accept lower pay for the plethora of roles that streaming suddenly offered. But the need for a more sustainable compensation model gained urgency when it became clear streaming is not a sideshow, but rather the future of the business, he said.
“Over the past 10 years, we realized: ‘Oh, that’s now how Hollywood works. Everything is streaming,’” Shapiro said during a recent union event.
Shapiro, who has been acting for 25 years, said he agreed to a contract offering 20% of his normal rate for “Never Have I Ever” because it seemed like “a great opportunity, and it’s going to be all over the world. And it was. It really was. Unfortunately, we’re all starting to realize that if we keep doing this we’re not going to be able to pay our bills.”
Then there’s the rising use of “mini rooms,” in which a handful of writers are hired to work only during pre-production, sometimes for a series that may take a year to be greenlit, or never get picked up at all.
Sanchez-Witzel, co-creator of the recently released Netflix series “Survival of the Thickest,” said television shows traditionally hire robust writing teams for the duration of production. But Netflix refused to allow her to keep her team of five writers past pre-production, forcing round-the-clock work on rewrites with just one other writer.
“It’s not sustainable and I’ll never do that again,” she said.
Sanchez-Witzel said she was struck by the similarities between her experience and those of UPS drivers, some of whom joined the WGA for protests as they threatened their own potentially crippling strike. UPS and the Teamsters last week reached a tentative contract staving off the strike.
Jeffrey Palmerino, a full-time UPS driver near Albany, New York, said forced overtime emerged as a top issue during the pandemic as drivers coped with a crush of orders on par with the holiday season. Drivers never knew what time they would get home or if they could count on two days off each week, while 14-hour days in trucks without air conditioning became the norm.
“It was basically like Christmas on steroids for two straight years. A lot of us were forced to work six days a week, and that is not any way to live your life,” said Palmerino, a Teamsters shop steward.
Along with pay raises and air conditioning, the Teamsters won concessions that Palmerino hopes will ease overwork. UPS agreed to end forced overtime on days off and eliminate a lower-paid category of drivers who work shifts that include weekends, converting them to full-time drivers. Union members have yet to ratify the deal.
The Teamsters and labor activists hailed the tentative deal as a game-changer that would pressure other companies facing labor unrest to raise their standards. But similar outcomes are far from certain in industries lacking the sheer economic indispensability of UPS or the clout of its 340,000-member union.
Efforts to organize at Starbucks and Amazon stalled as both companies aggressively fought against unionization.
Still, labor protests will likely gain momentum following the UPS contract, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which released a report this year that found the number of labor strikes rose 52% in 2022.
“The whole idea that consumer convenience is above everything broke down during the pandemic. We started to think, ‘I’m at home ordering, but there is actually a worker who has to go the grocery store, who has to cook this for me so that I can be comfortable,’” Campos-Medina said.
___
Associated Press video journalist Leslie Ambriz contributed from Los Angeles. | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-30T05:52:04 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China accused the United States of turning Taiwan into an “ammunition depot” after the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taipei, and the self-ruled island said Sunday it tracked six Chinese navy ships in waters off its shores.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement late Saturday opposing the military aid to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.
“No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office.
“Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” the statement said.
China’s People’s Liberation Army has increased its military maneuvers in recent years aimed at Taiwan, sending fighter jets and warships to circle the island.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked six Chinese navy ships near the island.
Taiwan’s ruling administration, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, has stepped up its weapons purchases from the U.S. as part of a deterrence strategy against a Chinese invasion.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Taiwan has never been governed by China’s ruling Communist Party.
Unlike previous military purchases, the latest batch of aid is part of a presidential authority approved by the U.S. Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales.
While Taiwan has purchased $19 billion worth of weaponry, much of it has yet to be delivered to Taiwan. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles to Taiwan. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/china-says-us-military-aid-to-taiwan-will-not-deter-its-will-to-unify-the-island/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-30T05:52:10 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/china-says-us-military-aid-to-taiwan-will-not-deter-its-will-to-unify-the-island/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
BISMARCK, N.D. — In the championship of the class AA state tournament, Fargo Post 2 used a nine-run first inning to secure the championship over the Williston Keybirds.
Championship Score
BISMARCK, N.D. — In the championship of the class AA state tournament, Fargo Post 2 used a nine-run first inning to secure the championship over the Williston Keybirds.
Championship Score
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Subscribe Now | https://www.kxnet.com/sports/local-sports/baseball-fargo-post-2-wins-class-aa-state-championship/ | 2023-07-30T05:52:12 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/sports/local-sports/baseball-fargo-post-2-wins-class-aa-state-championship/ |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organized peace summit in early August seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country, an official said Saturday night. The kingdom and Kyiv did not immediately acknowledge the planned talks.
The summit will be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as no authorization had been given to publicly discuss the summit.
Those taking part in the summit will include Ukraine, as well as Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries, the official said. A high-level official from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration also is expected to attend, the official said. Planning for the event is being overseen by Kyiv and Russia is not invited, the official said.
Details regarding the summit, however, remain in flux and the official did not offer dates for the talks. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the summit, said the talks would take place Aug. 5 and 6 with some 30 countries attending, citing “diplomats involved in the discussion.”
Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, nor did Ukraine’s Embassy in Riyadh. News of the summit comes after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan visited the kingdom on Thursday.
The official who spoke to the AP said the summit would be the next step after talks that took place in Copenhagen in June.
Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the talks come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in May attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah to press those nations to back Kyiv. Arab nations largely have remained neutral since Russia launched the war on Ukraine in February 2022, in part over their military and economic ties to Moscow.
Saudi Arabia also has maintained a close relationship with Russia as part of the OPEC+ group. The organization’s oil production cuts, even as Moscow’s war on Ukraine boosted energy prices, have angered Biden and American lawmakers.
But hosting such talks also help raise the profile of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to reach a détente with Iran and push for a peace in the kingdom’s yearslong war in Yemen. However, ties also remain strained between Riyadh and the West over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, which U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Prince Mohammed ordered.
___
Madhani reported from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/official-tells-ap-that-saudi-arabia-will-host-a-ukrainian-organized-peace-summit-in-august/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-30T05:52:17 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/official-tells-ap-that-saudi-arabia-will-host-a-ukrainian-organized-peace-summit-in-august/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
BISMARCK, N.D. — Day two of the Class A state tournament took place in Kindred on Saturday. Wahpeton continues its winning ways and Kindred upsets Casselton, setting up a battle between the two on Sunday.
Class A Tournament Scores
BISMARCK, N.D. — Day two of the Class A state tournament took place in Kindred on Saturday. Wahpeton continues its winning ways and Kindred upsets Casselton, setting up a battle between the two on Sunday.
Class A Tournament Scores
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Subscribe Now | https://www.kxnet.com/sports/local-sports/baseball-wahpeton-kindred-improve-to-2-0-at-class-a-state-tourney-on-saturday/ | 2023-07-30T05:52:18 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/sports/local-sports/baseball-wahpeton-kindred-improve-to-2-0-at-class-a-state-tourney-on-saturday/ |
Russian authorities say three Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow in the early hours on Sunday, injuring one person and prompting a temporary closure for traffic of one of four airports around the Russian capital.
It was the fourth such attempt at a strike on the capital region this month and the third this week, fueling concerns about Moscow’s vulnerability to attacks as Russia’s war in Ukraine drags into its 18th month.
The Russian Defense Ministry referred to the incident as an “attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime” and said three drones targeted the city. One was shot down in the surrounding Moscow region by air defense systems and two others were jammed. Those two crashed into the Moscow City business district in the capital.
Photos from the site of the crash showed the facade of a skyscraper damaged on one floor. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the attack “insignificantly damaged” the outsides of two buildings in the Moscow City district. A security guard was injured, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency officials.
No flights went into or out of the Vnukovo airport on the southern outskirts of the city for about an hour, according to Tass, and the air space over Moscow and the outlying regions was temporarily closed for any aircraft. Those restrictions have since been lifted.
Moscow authorities have also closed a street for traffic near the site of the crash in the Moscow City area.
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials, who rarely if ever take responsibility for attacks on Russian soil.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported shooting down a Ukrainian drone outside Moscow on Friday. Two more drones struck the Russian capital on Monday, one of them falling in the center of the city near the Defense Ministry’s headquarters along the Moscow River about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Kremlin. The other drone hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting several upper floors.
In another attack on July 4, the Russian military said four drones were downed by air defenses on the outskirts of Moscow and a fifth was jammed by electronic warfare means and forced down. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/world/overnight-drone-attack-on-moscow-injures-1-prompts-temporary-airport-closure/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-30T05:52:23 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/world/overnight-drone-attack-on-moscow-injures-1-prompts-temporary-airport-closure/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kuwait said Thursday it executed five prisoners, including an inmate convicted over the bombing of a Shiite mosque in 2015 that killed 27 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.
The inmates were hanged at the Central Prison, Kuwait's Public Prosecution said in a statement. Prosecutors said the five include the mosque attacker, three people convicted of murder and a convicted drug dealer.
One of the convicted murderers was Egyptian, another was Kuwaiti, and the convicted drug dealer was from Sri Lanka. The statement didn't provide the nationality of the mosque attacker or the third convicted murderer, saying only that they were in Kuwait unlawfully.
The 2015 bombing occurred during midday Friday prayers inside one of Kuwait’s oldest Shiite mosques. The Islamic State group, which at the time controlled large areas in both Syria and Iraq, claimed the attack, which was carried out by a suicide bomber. The Sunni extremist group views Shiites as apostates deserving of death.
It was the first militant attack in Kuwait in more than two decades. The attack was likely intended to foment unrest between Kuwait's Sunni and Shiite Muslim populations, but instead it was widely condemned and reawakened a sense of national solidarity not seen since Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of the small, oil-rich country.
The extremist group no longer controls any territory following a grueling military campaign by an array of local and international forces, but continues to carry out sporadic attacks in Syria and Iraq. It also boasts affiliates in several Asian and African countries.
Executions are relatively rare in Kuwait, which put seven inmates to death last November. Before that, the last mass execution was in 2017, when Kuwait executed seven prisoners, including a ruling family member.
The executions last November, which coincided with a visit by a European Commission official, drew condemnation from the European Union and human rights groups, derailing discussions around exempting Kuwaiti travelers from having to obtain EU visas. The 27-member bloc and many rights groups view the death penalty as a form of cruel and unusual punishment that should be abolished.
Kuwait and other Gulf nations are known to carry out executions for murder as well as nonviolent drug-related crimes. Saudi Arabia executed 61 people in the first half of this year, according to the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, and 196 people in 2022, including 81 in one day.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/27/kuwait-executes-5-prisoners-including-a-man-convicted-in-2015-islamic-state-claimed-mosque-bombing | 2023-07-30T05:52:23 | 1 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/27/kuwait-executes-5-prisoners-including-a-man-convicted-in-2015-islamic-state-claimed-mosque-bombing |
The five most expensive cards from The Dark 49th annual Capital A’Fair in Bismarck announced Do Americans support age limits on the presidency? Jamestown walkaway apprehended in South Dakota Video
49th annual Capital A’Fair in Bismarck announced Do Americans support age limits on the presidency? Jamestown walkaway apprehended in South Dakota Video
Do Americans support age limits on the presidency? Jamestown walkaway apprehended in South Dakota Video
Baseball: AA state Cinderella, Williston, secures … Softball: Minot State announces new head coach Video Baseball: Class AA championship spots up for grabs … Video Baseball: Class A state tournament begins Friday Video
Softball: Minot State announces new head coach Video Baseball: Class AA championship spots up for grabs … Video Baseball: Class A state tournament begins Friday Video
Baseball: Class AA championship spots up for grabs … Video Baseball: Class A state tournament begins Friday Video
by: Carolyn Gurske Posted: Jul 29, 2023 / 10:27 PM CDT Updated: Jul 29, 2023 / 10:27 PM CDT Storms have dissipated as we head into the evening hours, but more showers are on the way. Learn more in your full forecast.
6 best pop-up camping gear you need before your next … A pop-up camper provides a tent-like experience without having to sleep on the ground. Before you book a campsite, read this detailed guide.
Must-have camera accessories for your next vacation From camera bags to straps, having the right camera accessories will be sure to save you headaches while traveling.
Best five-year anniversary gifts for her Tradition dictates that the five-year wedding anniversary gift is wood, but you don’t have to stick to that. Read on for the best anniversary gifts for her. | https://www.kxnet.com/weather/carolyns-full-forecast-at-10pm-7-29/ | 2023-07-30T05:52:24 | 1 | https://www.kxnet.com/weather/carolyns-full-forecast-at-10pm-7-29/ |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Shawn Steik and his wife were forced from a long-term motel room onto the streets of Anchorage after their rent shot up to $800 a month. Now they live in a tent encampment by a train depot, and as an Alaska winter looms they are growing desperate and fearful of what lies ahead.
A proposal last week by Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson to buy one-way plane tickets out of Alaska’s biggest city for its homeless residents gave Steik a much-needed glimmer of hope. He would move to the relative warmth of Seattle.
“I heard it’s probably warmer than this place,” said Steik, who is Aleut.
But the mayor’s unfunded idea also came under immediate attack as a Band-Aid solution glossing over the tremendous, and still unaddressed, crisis facing Anchorage as a swelling homeless population struggles to survive in a unique and extreme environment. Frigid temperatures stalk the homeless in the winter and bears infiltrate homeless encampments in the summer.
A record eight people died of exposure while living outside last winter and this year promises to be worse after the city closed an arena that housed 500 people during the winter months. Bickering between the city’s liberal assembly and its conservative mayor about how to address the crisis, and a lack of state funding, have further stymied efforts to find a solution.
With winter fast approaching in Alaska, it’s “past time for state and local leaders to address the underlying causes of homelessness — airplane tickets are a distraction, not a solution,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said in a statement to The Associated Press.
About 43% of Anchorage’s more than 3,000 unsheltered residents are Alaska Natives, and Bronson’s proposal also drew harsh criticism from those who called it culturally insensitive.
“The reality is there is no place to send these people because this is their land. Any policy that we make has to pay credence to that simple fact. This is Dena’ina land, this is Native land,” said Christopher Constant, chair of the Anchorage Assembly. “And so we cannot be supporting policies that would take people and displace them from their home, even if their home is not what you or I would call home.”
Bronson’s airfare proposal caps a turbulent few years as Anchorage, like many cities in the U.S. West, struggles to deal with a burgeoning homeless population.
In May, the city shut down the 500-bed homeless shelter in the city’s arena so it could once more be used for concerts and hockey games after neighbors complained about open drug use, trespassing, violence and litter. A plan to build a large shelter and navigation center fell through when Bronson approved a contract without approval from the Anchorage Assembly.
That leaves a gaping hole in the city’s ability to house the thousands of homeless people who have to contend with temperatures well below zero for days at a time and unrelenting winds blasting off Cook Inlet. At the end of June, Anchorage was estimated to have a little more than 3,150 homeless people, according to the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Last week, there were only 614 beds at shelters citywide, with no vacancies.
New tent cities have sprung up across Anchorage this summer: on a slope facing the city’s historic railroad depot, on a busy road near the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson and near soup kitchens and shelters downtown.
Assembly members are slated to consider a winter stop-gap option in August falling far short of the need: a large, warmed, tent-like structure for 150 people.
Summer brings its own challenges: hungry bears last year roamed a city-owned campground where homeless people were resettled after the arena closed. Wildlife officials killed four bears after they broke into tents.
Bronson said he prefers to spend a few hundred dollars per person for a plane ticket rather than spending about $100 daily to shelter and feed them. He said he doesn’t care where they want to go; his job is to “make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.”
It’s not clear if his proposal will move forward. There is not yet a plan or a funding source.
Dr. Ted Mala, an Inupiaq who in 1990 became the first Alaska Native to serve as the state’s health commissioner, said Anchorage should be working with social workers and law enforcement to discover people’s individual reasons for homelessness and connect them with resources.
Buying the unsheltered a ticket to another city is a political game that’s been around for years. A number of U.S. cities struggling with homelessness, including San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have also offered bus or plane tickets to homeless residents.
“People are not pawns, they’re human beings,” Mala said.
The mayor’s proposal, while focused on warmer cities, also would fund tickets to other Alaska locations for those who want them.
Clarita Clark became homeless after her medical team wanted her to move from Point Hope to Anchorage for cancer treatment because Anchorage is warmer. The medical facility wouldn’t allow her husband to stay with her, so they pitched a tent in a sprawling camp to stay together.
Having recently found the body of a dead teenager who overdosed in a portable toilet, Clark yearns to return to the Chukchi Sea coastal village of Point Hope, where her three grandchildren live.
“I got a family that loves me,” she said, adding she would use the ticket and seek treatment closer to home.
Danny Parish also is leaving Alaska, but for another reason: He’s fed up.
Parish is selling his home of 29 years because it sits directly across the street from Sullivan Arena. Bad acts by some homeless people — including harassment, throwing vodka bottles in his yard, poisoning his dog and using his driveway as a toilet — made his life “a holy hell,” he said.
Parish is convinced the arena will be used again this winter since there isn’t another plan.
He, too, hopes to move to the contiguous U.S. — Oregon, for starters — but not before asking Anchorage leaders for his own plane ticket out.
“If they’re going to give them to everybody else,” Parish said, “then they need to give me one.” | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-07-30T05:52:29 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has launched a major push to dislodge Russian forces from the country's southeast as part of its weekslong counteroffensive, committing thousands of troops to the battle, according to Western and Ukrainian officials and analysts.
The surge in troops and firepower has been centered on the region of Zaporizhzhia, a Western official said late Wednesday.
The official was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Fighting has intensified in recent weeks at multiple points along the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line as Ukraine deploys Western-supplied advanced weapons and Western-trained troops against the deeply entrenched Russian forces who invaded 17 months ago.
Ukrainian officials have been mostly silent about battlefield developments since they began early counteroffensive operations, though Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said troops are advancing toward the city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhizhia region.
Though that movement could be a tactical feint, and both governments have used disinformation to gain battlefield advantages, such a maneuver would be in line with what some analysts had predicted.
They envisioned a counteroffensive that would try to punch through the land corridor between Russia and the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, moving towards Melitopol, which is close to the coast of the Azov Sea.
That could split Russian forces into two halves and cut off supply lines to the units that are located further to the west.
The intense fighting is taking place in areas in the south and east of Ukraine, far from the capital Kyiv, and it was not possible to verify either side’s claims.
The Institute of Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, reported that Ukrainian forces launched “a significant mechanized counteroffensive operation in western Zaporizhzhia region” on Wednesday, adding that they “appear to have broken through certain pre-prepared Russian defensive positions.”
It cited Russian sources, including the Russian Ministry of Defense and several prominent Russian military bloggers.
U.S. officials, who have provided Kyiv with weapons and intelligence, declined to comment on the latest developments, though they have previously urged patience as Ukraine seeks to grind down the deep Russian defenses featuring minefields, trenches and anti-tank obstacles.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a visit to Papua New Guinea that Kyiv’s effort to retake land seized by Russia since its February 2022 full-scale invasion would be “tough” and “long,” with successes and setbacks.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “an intense battle” is taking place but declined to provide details.
“We believe that tools, the equipment, the training, the advice that many of us have shared with Ukrainians over many months puts them in good position to be successful on the ground in recovering more of the territory that Russia has taken from Ukraine,” Blinken said during a visit to New Zealand.
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Aamer Madhani in Washington D.C., Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia and Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/27/kyiv-is-said-to-have-launched-a-major-push-against-russian-forces-in-southeastern-ukraine | 2023-07-30T05:52:30 | 0 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/27/kyiv-is-said-to-have-launched-a-major-push-against-russian-forces-in-southeastern-ukraine |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Papua New Guinea leaders on Thursday to discuss developing the Pacific Island nation’s military strength and deepening security ties, as the United States competes with China for influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Austin is the first U.S. defense secretary to visit the nation of 10 million people that was fiercely fought over during World War II and is gaining strategic importance in the U.S. struggle against Beijing.
The retired four-star general met with Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape and discussed implementing the Defense Cooperation Agreement signed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the capital, Port Moresby, in May.
Blinken had stepped in for Joe Biden, who was to become the first U.S. president to visit Papua New Guinea but canceled to deal with the then-unresolved debt crisis in Washington, D.C.
Austin said the United States was “not seeking permanent basing” on Papua New Guinea but would help the country expand its military capability, modernize its forces and increase their interoperability with the U.S. military.
“The Indo-Pacific is our priority theater and partnerships like ours are critical to keeping this vital region free and open,” Austin told reporters in Port Moresby.
The United States has increased its diplomatic focus on the Pacific since China signed a security pact last year with Papua New Guinea’s neighbor, Solomon Islands.
Marape ruled out forging a bilateral security agreement with Beijing, saying Papua New Guinea’s relationship with China would remain economic.
The Chinese “have not made any request to us for military relationships,” Marape said.
Marape added that the Chinese government through its embassy in Papua New Guinea said it had “no issue whatsoever with us signing the DCA with the U.S.A."
The signing of that agreement sparked student protests in Papua New Guinea’s second-largest city, Lae. Many in the Pacific are concerned about the increasing militarization of the region.
Marape said that U.S. Defense Department officials would visit Lae in September to plan upgrading infrastructure. Papua New Guinea wants fuel storage facilities and energy security to receive priority in a 15-year infrastructure plan.
Austin said Papua New Guinea would be provided with a U.S. Coast Guard cutter next month to help enforce maritime law.
Marape said his people were “hypersensitive” to the possibility the U.S. could wage war against China from Papua New Guinea. He added that the U.S. does not need Papua New Guinea “to be a launching pad for any offense anywhere else in the world.”
“I want to give assurance to everyone here, including our friends from Asia, that this is not about setting up for war. Rather, it’s about setting up presence for nation-building in Papua New Guinea and this part of Planet Earth and in the Pacific,” he added.
Austin and Blinken traveled to Brisbane, Australia, for annual bilateral talks on Friday and Saturday with their Australian counterparts.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would also meet the two Americans on Friday.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/27/us-defense-secretary-austin-meets-with-papua-new-guinea-leaders-about-boosting-security-ties | 2023-07-30T05:52:36 | 1 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/27/us-defense-secretary-austin-meets-with-papua-new-guinea-leaders-about-boosting-security-ties |
Animals at Rio Verde Foothills sanctuary struggling with heat
RIO VERDE FOOTHILLS, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - The animals at the Hangry Donkey Sanctuary in Rio Verde Foothills have survived neglect and abuse, but the founder, Rosemary Carroll, is worried for their safety during the historic heatwave. “It’s been a struggle, especially this summer. It’s brutal,” she said.
She said the 24 donkeys and horses at the sanctuary struggle to stay cool, even under the shade, with fans turned on. Carroll said the animals won’t drink warm water, so she uses frozen gallons of water as ice cubes in their troughs. “We survive day to day here. I wake up in the morning thinking, ‘Okay, how are we going to get through today with no rain?’” she said.
Like the rest of the community, the non-profit has depended on hauled water for years. In January, the City of Scottsdale cut them off from its water supply due to its drought management plan, something Rio Verde Foothills residents had been warned about for years.
Under a bill signed by Governor Katie Hobbs in June, a third-party company will temporarily distribute water to Rio Verde Foothills until EPCOR takes over. But when would that begin? “Best case scenario? Probably a couple more weeks or end of Fall,” said Carroll.
Carroll fears she won’t have enough to cover the costs of hauling in water for the rest of the summer. She said the animals drink a lot of water and sometimes need to be hosed down to stay cool. “We use about 500 gallons a day. Last year, at this time, it was about $500 (a month), which is high. But now, it’s three times as much. This month, it’s going to be over $1,500,” she said.
The sanctuary does have a well, which Carroll said has been a Godsend. However, it’s drying up. It also requires a filter to purify the water and is no longer doing a good job. Carroll showed Arizona’s Family how dirty the water supply from the well currently is. “Usually donkeys don’t have that much problem with the heat if they’re healthy and young, but these guys, they do,” she said.
She explained the animals were rescued after being neglected and abused for years. They require medications for chronic illnesses, which the heat can compromise.
Last week, Carroll said an older donkey had to be put down after its illness flared up due to the heat. She’s trying her best to keep that from happening to the rest. “One thing I promised them when they come here is that they’ll never be in a bad situation again. They’ll never suffer like that again, and I wasn’t sure if I could keep my promise this year. It’s kept me up at night,” she said.
Carroll began a GoFundMe page to cover the sanctuary’s water bill. Since Arizona’s Family shared the link on Saturday, the goal has been surpassed by thousands of dollars. If you would like to donate, you can click here. Carroll said there might be enough money left to buy misters for the animals.
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Copyright 2023 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved. | https://www.azfamily.com/2023/07/30/animals-rio-verde-foothills-sanctuary-struggling-with-heat/ | 2023-07-30T05:55:32 | 0 | https://www.azfamily.com/2023/07/30/animals-rio-verde-foothills-sanctuary-struggling-with-heat/ |
Of all extreme weather conditions, heat is the most deadly. It kills more people in the U.S. in an average year than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined. The human body has a built-in cooling mechanism – sweat. But that system can only do so much, especially in soaring temperatures with high humidity.
Here's a look at what happens to the human body in extreme temperatures – and the three main pathways to fatal consequences.
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Organ failure caused by heatstroke
When the surrounding temperatures approach your internal body temperature – which is about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit for most of us – your body starts to cool off through evaporative cooling, better known as sweating. But when it's very humid out, that sweat won't evaporate as well and cool you down.
When your body is exposed to heat, it will try to cool itself down by redirecting more blood to the skin, says Ollie Jay, a professor of heat and health at the University of Sydney, where he directs the Heat and Health Research Incubator. But that means less blood and less oxygen are going to your gut. If these conditions go on long enough, your gut can become more permeable.
"So, nasty things like endotoxins that usually reside and stay inside the gut start leaking out of the gut, entering the circulation. And that sets off a cascade of effects that ultimately result in death," Jay says.
For example, those toxins can activate white blood cells, says Camilo Mora, a climate scientist and professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who has researched how heat can turn fatal. "They say, Oh my God, we're getting attacked right now. And the white blood cells are going to attack this contamination in the blood, creating coagulation" – or blood clots, Mora says. Those clots can lead to multiple organ failure.
"And at that point, it's pretty irreversible," Jay adds.
Cardiovascular collapse
The second way people die in high heat also has to do with your body pumping more blood to the skin. Your heart has to pump faster – which can make you feel lightheaded – to keep your blood pressure up.
"We might have a heart rate of 60 beats per minute, all of a sudden, we might be asking the heart to contract 100 times per minute, 110 times per minute. So now you're asking the heart to do a lot more work," Jay says.
Those spikes in the heart rate can be triggers for a heart attack, he says, especially for the elderly and those with underlying heart conditions.
Fluid loss leading to kidney failure
The third deadly danger has to do with the fluids your body is losing in extreme heat. People can sweat as much as a liter and half per hour, Jay says. And if you don't replenish those fluids, you get dehydrated and your blood volume shrinks, which makes it harder to maintain blood pressure. That can strain your heart and your kidneys.
"People with kidney disorders can be at greater risk of a negative health outcome during extreme heat exposure," Jay says.
Mora notes another danger to the kidneys that people who work physically demanding jobs in high heat outdoors face. Rhabdomyolysis causes muscle tissue to break down, releasing proteins into the blood that can clog kidneys. This usually occurs in the acute phase of heatstroke. Jay says there's also some evidence that habitually working outdoors in high heat without proper hydration can increase the risk of chronic kidney disease.
What you can do to stay safe
Watch for the first signs of mild heat exhaustion:
If that happens, Jay says, get out of the heat and into the shade or indoors ASAP. Drink plenty of water and wet your clothes and skin. Immersing your feet in cold water can also help.
Jay says the goal is to cool down so you don't progress to severe heat exhaustion, where you might start vomiting or seem to lose coordination – signs of neurological disturbance.
If your core body temperature rises to about 104 degrees Fahrenheit, Jay says, that's where you risk heatstroke.
How hot is too hot?
Experts say there's no absolute temperature at which extreme heat can turn dangerous.
"It depends on the individual," says Lewis Halsey, a professor of environmental physiology at the University of Roehampton in the U.K. "It depends on how acclimated they are to heat. It depends how long they're exposed to the heat for. It depends on how they're experiencing this heat."
If sweating is our superpower to keep cool, then "the kryptonite to that superpower is humidity," Halsey says.
So a person might start feeling overwhelmed much sooner in higher humidity at lower temperatures than if they're in dry heat, he says. Direct sunlight will heat us up faster than when we're in the shade. A nice breeze could help sweat evaporate and cool us off.
The elderly and very young are considered particularly vulnerable in the heat. But Mora of the University of Hawaii at Manoa notes heat stress can hit anyone.
He points to the story of a young family who died after becoming dangerously overheated while hiking on a day in August 2021 when temperatures reached 109 degrees Fahrenheit in Northern California. The husband, wife, their one-year-old daughter and even the family dog were found dead two days later.
Mora says those kinds of conditions could kill within a few hours — even if you are young and healthy.
"The military has done a lot of research into heat exposure and they find the first symptoms of heat exhaustion, heatstroke after only a few hours, even among the healthiest of people," Mora says.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-07-23/how-heat-kills-what-happens-to-the-body-in-extreme-temperatures | 2023-07-30T05:56:44 | 1 | https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-07-23/how-heat-kills-what-happens-to-the-body-in-extreme-temperatures |
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Emmett Till would have turned 82 today. Till was tortured and murdered in Mississippi after a white woman accused the Black 14-year-old of whistling and grabbing at her. Till and his mother's willingness to share the brutality Till suffered marked a pivotal moment in the early Civil Rights Movement. Mamie Till Mobley described her decision in a 2003 interview with The Chicago Project.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MAMIE TILL MOBLEY: Let the people see what I've seen. And I want open casket viewing from now until the time we take Emmett for burial.
KELLY: Now, almost 70 years after Till was beaten, shot, had a cotton gin tied around his body and was thrown in the Tallahatchie River, Till and his mother are being memorialized in the form of three monuments in Chicago and Mississippi. President Biden signed the proclamation designating the sites earlier today. Patrick Weems is the executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Miss. He was at the White House when President Biden put pen to paper. We spoke before he headed to that event.
Patrick Weems, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
PATRICK WEEMS: Thank you, Mary Louise.
KELLY: You've come to D.C. for this event at the White House, and you picked up the Till family en route.
WEEMS: We drove from Chicago to D.C. to be here today, and I couldn't think of a more memorable trip to be here with Wheeler Parker, who's one of the most gracious, forgiving human beings and probably one of the most important people alive.
KELLY: So tell me about the three locations. There are two in Mississippi, one in Illinois. Start with the one that marks the site where Till's body was believed to have been pulled from the Tallahatchie River. What will visitors see there?
WEEMS: Yeah, well, hopefully what they won't see is a bullet-riddled sign. You know, we've had a lot of history of this site being desecrated, being shot up. We were able to put a bulletproof marker there recently in the last couple of years. But more significant is that the site where Till's body came out of the Tallahatchie River will now be a part of the National Park Service system. And to know that it will be federally protected - to make sure that if someone does vandalize our signs, it won't be a local sheriff. It will be the federal government that will get involved. But this is the big bang of the Civil Rights Movement, as Jesse Jackson talked about. This is a site where so many Black bodies were thrown into rivers. But Emmett's miraculously emerged. An 18-year-old fisherman found the body and brought it to the banks of the Tallahatchie River, where his body was initially identified because he had his father's ring on his finger. But then later, Mamie Till made sure the body came to Chicago, where she said, this is my son. I know my son.
KELLY: Yeah. And that's - the site in Illinois is the site where she insisted on an open casket. Describe what we'll see there.
WEEMS: Yeah. So, I mean, public officials wanted to bury Emmett in Mississippi. The sheriff had a directive to make sure the body was buried in Money, Miss. Mamie refused. She wanted to have a very private mourning for her son, first and foremost. But she also took that moment to remember and kind of resist white supremacy, resist the Jim Crow system by having a public funeral, having an open casket to show the world what they did to her son.
KELLY: And then the last location is also in Mississippi, back in Tallahatchie County.
WEEMS: That's right. So the site of the injustice - right? - so the miscarriage of justice took place in our courtroom in 1955. And it's also the site where people like Willie Reed, an 18-year-old sharecropper who witnessed the murder. He testified at the trial, and he whispered his testimony because he was scared to death. He later had a nervous breakdown, changed his name and moved to Chicago and didn't talk about this until 30 years later. And so, you know, it's a low point in American history, the fact that these men get off without any penalty. But it also is a testimony to people like Medgar Evers, Willie Reed, Mose Wright, Mamie Till, Dr. T.R.M. Howard - people who did the right thing that day and had the courage to at least try to get some attempt at justice.
KELLY: You know, I'm thinking about how this monument designation comes as a national conversation is underway about how to teach Black history in our schools. Do you think these monuments might help inform that conversation?
WEEMS: They already are. I mean, this is American history. We have young people visit these sites already. This will only amplify and make it easier for young people to come. It takes the best of us to talk about the worst of us. And if we're going to have a true democracy and multicultural democracy, we have to understand where we've stumbled. And we stumbled badly in 1955. And no matter party affiliation, I think we should all agree that what took place in 1955 was wrong. The system was wrong. Mississippi was wrong. The United States was wrong. But we can be better. It's our hope that this memorial marks a line in the sand that says, never again, and that if we want to hold and cherish our democracy, we need to learn about Mose Wright and Mamie Till.
KELLY: Patrick Weems. Thank you.
WEEMS: Thank you, Mary Louise. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. | https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-07-25/the-journey-for-the-emmett-till-and-mamie-till-mobley-national-monuments | 2023-07-30T05:56:51 | 1 | https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-07-25/the-journey-for-the-emmett-till-and-mamie-till-mobley-national-monuments |
Plentiful sunshine in the forecast to wrap up the weekend and head into a new workweek. Temperatures will top off in the upper 70s for both Sunday and Monday with a light, pleasant wind around 5 to 15 mph out of the northwest. The wind turns around to the south by Tuesday and brings our temperature closer to 80 degrees. It will be a little gusty on Tuesday as well, with those gusts around 20 mph. Warmer yet on Wednesday with temperatures climbing into the lower or mid 80s. This will also bring a chance of a few showers or thunderstorms. Wind will be out of the west on Wednesday with gusts as high as 20 mph. Sunshine to end the workweek with summerlike high temperatures near 80 degrees.
Sunshine to end the weekend
Tracking a sunny end to July with warmer temperatures into August.
ADVERTISEMENT | https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/weather/sunshine-to-end-the-weekend | 2023-07-30T06:00:01 | 1 | https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/weather/sunshine-to-end-the-weekend |
BOISE, Idaho — A pair of events have been drawing thousands throughout the weekend and into Sunday to celebrate community, heritage and history.
The Canyon County Fair in Caldwell is an event older than the Gem State itself, dating back around 136 years.
"There's a lot of history there, we've been around for a while," Canyon County Fair Marketing Director, Rebecca Coulter said. "We really do strive to keep our ag heritage alive. We have a really strong agricultural presence in Canyon County."
The fair offers plenty to do, with indoor and outdoor exhibits, traditional fair foods, rides, stage acts – including hypnotists, magicians, jugglers, exotic animals and concerts – and a new way to beat the heat with a 45,000 square-foot expo center.
The fair continues Sunday with the Latino Fair Festival, a day dedicated to Latin culture.
"It's an annual Latino Fair Festival that we have at the Canyon County Fair, where you can come and enjoy folkloric dancing, Aztec dancers and a lot of variety of foods to choose from," Coulter said. "So, that's going to be pretty exciting."
In downtown Boise, there's another cultural celebration happening this weekend.
The last weekend in July, the Basque Block is filled with live music, dancing, sports and good food and drinks. It is all for the San Inazio Basque Festival, an annual street festival celebrated in the Basque Country and right here in Boise.
It's called San Inazio because Saint Ignatius is the Patron Saint of the Basque people. The festival is around the day of the Saint's Feast Day, which falls on July 31.
Jean Flesher and his band are performing Saturday and Sunday night at the festival, honoring their Basque roots.
"We play the music that our parents taught us when we were growing up," Flesher said. "They came here to be sheep herders or work in Basque restaurants, Basque hotels and different things like that. When they came here, they had their Basque music, but they also had the music that they were listening to here when they came in the 50's and 60's. So, we play a medley of Basque stuff - modern Basque music, old Basque music, and old American music."
2023 San Inazio Basque Festival Sunday schedule:
- 7 p.m. - Fronton Women's Handball Exhibition Doubles
- 7 p.m. - Basque Block Txan Txan Gorriak Basque Musicians
- 7:30 p.m. - Basque Block Bertsolari
- 8 p.m. - Basque Block Sunday Street Dance featuring "Jean Flesher and Band"
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Stream Live for FREE on FIRE TV: Search ‘KTVB’ and click ‘Get’ to download. | https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/canyon-county-fair-san-inazio-basque-festival-local-events/277-9ed813fb-fb6b-49ac-aecd-6eee14702e71 | 2023-07-30T06:02:13 | 1 | https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/canyon-county-fair-san-inazio-basque-festival-local-events/277-9ed813fb-fb6b-49ac-aecd-6eee14702e71 |
- West Coast membership of the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union of Canada voted down a tentative deal late Friday in a two-day vote
- The ILWU, Canada chapter is calling on the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association to come back to the table and negotiate
- The 14-day strike has hit hard U.S. trade that is imported through the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert with rail delays in upwards of 78 days and over 80% of trade not coming in.
- Chemicals for drinking water, product manufacturing, holiday items and footwear and apparel are amongst the containers delayed
Overseas trade entering North America through key ports on Canada's West Coast faces more uncertainty after dock workers rejected a tentative labor deal late Friday.
The flow of trade destined for U.S. chemical companies, retailers, and manufacturers is delayed at least two months as a result of 14 days of strikes.
Rob Ashton, president of the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union of Canada, has called on the dock workers' employers to come back to negotiating table and reach a deal that works for both the union and industry.
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The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association did not respond to the union's request to go back to the negotiating table. BCMEA said they are disappointed that ILWU Canada rejected the four-year tentative agreement. The employers association said it is waiting for the Canadian government to provide direction on next steps.
Canada's Labor Minister Seamus O'Regan said he has directed the country's industrial relations board to determine whether the union's rejection of the tentative agreement eliminated the possibility of a negotiated resolution.
If the board does determine this to be the case, O'Regan has directed the board to either impose a new collective agreement or impose binding arbitration.
Money Report
"Our economy cannot face further disruption from this dispute," O'Regan said.
In response to CNBC's questions on the length of time it would take for the industrial relations board to announce their decision, O'Regan's office said the minister asked "for expediency."
If the board does decide binding arbitration, this would be a rare event. CNBC has learned that Canada's labor code contains no language against striking when binding arbitration is imposed by the industrial relations board.
While striking is prohibited in binding arbitration imposed by parliament or the parties themselves, the union could strike while at the bargaining table in this instance.
The proposed deal which was voted down by the union was presented to both sides by the senior federal mediator. The BCMEA released the terms of the deal in its announcement. This is not the first time the BCMEA has released the deal.
The four-year package increased the compounded wage over four years by 19.2%. A signing bonus of $1.48 an hour per employee which tallied to approximately $3,000 per full-time worker was included. Also in the deal was an 18.5% increase in retirement payout.
In a pushback against the union's argument of having a salary sustainable against rising inflation, the BCMEA said, "Over the course of the past 13 years, longshore wages have risen by 40%, ahead of inflation at 30%."
U.S. trade impact
The timing of this strike adds unnecessary hurdles to peak season when holiday items are arriving for retailers. At the height of the strike, $12 billion in freight was stranded on the water. Some of that trade was diverted on vessels that called on ports on the U.S. West Coast.
"Our clients are facing about a two-month delay in the delivery of their product," said Paul Brashier, vice president of drayage at ITS Logistics. "The vessel was delayed by several weeks and now the rail-bound containers sit at the Ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert."
Steve Lamar, CEO of the American Apparel and Footwear Association, said his group estimated that the first strike would cause an average of 6 to 8 weeks of supply chain disruption before conditions return to normal. AAFA had called on the Canadian government to step in during the first strike.
For the third week in a row, rail traffic from Canada into the U.S. is down following the on-again, off-again western Canadian ports strike. The first two weeks of the labor strike prevented over 80% of rail trade from entering the United States. The U.S. saw another 12% decrease in trade this week.
Immediate impact on railroad earnings
The strike is also hitting the bottom lines of railroad companies. The labor unrest will negatively impact Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroad's revenue by $80 million, Chief Marketing Officer John Brooks told analysts on a conference call Thursday. Brooks said the company is working to claw back those losses over the remainder of the third and fourth quarter.
Canadian National Railway railroad announced they were running additional trains to help expedite the clearing out of the container congestion.
The Railway Association of Canada originally estimated that it would take three to five days for every day the strike lasted for networks and supply chains to recover. When the first strike ended on its thirteenth day, delays for rail containers were estimated at 39 to 66 days. Adding another day with the on-again, off-again strike last week brings the congestion removal tally up to 42 to 70 days.
"Delays appear to be bearing out toward the mid-to-upper end of that range," a Railway Association of Canada spokesperson wrote in an email to CNBC.
Eric Byer, CEO of the National Association of Chemical Distributors, said that hundreds of chemicals that arrive through West Coast Canadian ports are needed to complete U.S. manufacturing of products.
"There are millions of dollars of chemicals stranded on the water. We have members waiting for chemicals to be unloaded in Vancouver and then railed down to Chicago," Byer said.
That includes chemicals like sulfuric acid, which is used in drain cleaning products like Drano; phosphates used in laundry detergent; and acetone, which is used in the nail industry as well as a solvent that breaks down grease and wax.
Sodium fluoride, found in toothpaste, and sodium bicarbonate, also known as baking soda, also come through the West Coast ports of Canada. Additional chemicals transported through the Canadian ports go into food, power drinks, cleaning, water purification, and personal care products.
The on-again, off-again strike has left logistics managers and the world of trade in turmoil as they attempt to assess the situation and make decisions on ocean and rail transport during peak shipping season.
Alan Baer, CEO of trucking company OL USA, said global supply chains are complex and cannot be simply turned on and off like a light switch.
Historical cargo volumes show how trade moving via the the U.S. West Coast eroded due to fears about cargo being stuck and or diverted due to labor tensions over the past year, Baer said. Many shippers diverted business to East Coast ports, he said.
"Once changed, not everyone will simply return," Baer added. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/dock-workers-at-key-canadian-ports-reject-labor-deal-creating-further-trade-uncertainty/4547271/ | 2023-07-30T06:02:13 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/dock-workers-at-key-canadian-ports-reject-labor-deal-creating-further-trade-uncertainty/4547271/ |
The New York Mets' disappointing 2023 season continues.
The Mets on Saturday reportedly traded Max Scherzer to the Texas Rangers, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan. Scherzer needed to waive his no-waive clause for a deal to materialize, and he approved the switch to Texas.
In return, the Mets will receive 21-year-old shortstop/center fielder Luisangel Acuna. If that last name sounds familiar, it's because he's the younger brother of Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr.
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The 39-year-old Scherzer had arrived in New York in 2022 on a three-year, $130 million deal. After posting an 11-5 record to go with a 2.29 ERA last year, his performances in 2023 are on par with the downward spiral the Mets are on.
Scherzer currently has a 4.01 ERA, his highest since 2011. He has also allowed a NL-high 23 home runs.
But the Rangers are hoping he can turn it around for a team leading the American League West with a 60-44 record, just above the 58-46 Houston Astros.
Texas lost star free agent addition Jacob DeGrom for the season due to him undergoing Tommy John surgery in June. Other options in the pitching department for the Rangers include Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning, Martin Perez and Andrew Heaney.
Reliever Aroldis Chapman also came to Texas via trade from the Kansas City Royals in June.
Scherzer can opt out of the final year of his contract next season, though he's set to make $43.3 million if he stays. He's tied with the highest salary in MLB alongside Astros star Justin Verlander.
The 2023 trade deadline is slated for Tuesday, Aug. 1 at 6 p.m. ET. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/mlb/mets-deal-max-scherzer-to-rangers-after-stars-approval-per-report/4547977/ | 2023-07-30T06:02:19 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/mlb/mets-deal-max-scherzer-to-rangers-after-stars-approval-per-report/4547977/ |
CURRY COUNTY, Ore. – Two weeks after the start of the Flat Fire, firefighters are still hard at work trying to contain it.
The Flat Fire has now grown to about 24,329 acres and is 14% contained as of Saturday evening.
Crews say fire suppression work is now happening on all sides of the fire. Weather conditions over the fire are expected to stay dry and warm over the next few days, with winds up to 20 miles per hour. They also say the north side of the fire near Agness is looking secure.
“The priority has been to secure that northern edge of the fire to get containment in that area to reduce impacts to Agness and other surrounding communities. They will continue to patrol that northern side but overall, it’s looking pretty secure,” said Lauren DuRocher, Flat Fire Information Officer.
DuRocher believes that there haven’t been any structures lost to the fire at this time. A community meeting will take place Monday at Brookings High School at 6 pm.
© 2023 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated. | https://kobi5.com/news/local-news/two-weeks-after-the-start-of-the-flat-fire-its-14-contained-212514/ | 2023-07-30T06:02:46 | 0 | https://kobi5.com/news/local-news/two-weeks-after-the-start-of-the-flat-fire-its-14-contained-212514/ |
For the Record
Hotel strike: In the July 28 Section A, a story about striking hotel workers urging Taylor Swift to delay her Los Angeles concerts misspelled the first name of Waldorf Astoria concierge Alaink Kemple as Alain.
If you believe that we have made an error, or you have questions about The Times’ journalistic standards and practices, you may contact the readers’ representative by email at readers.representative@latimes.com, by phone at (877) 554-4000 or by mail at 2300 E. Imperial Highway, El Segundo, CA 90245. The readers’ representative office is online at latimes.com/readersrep. | https://www.latimes.com/about/for-the-record/story/2023-07-29/la-a4-correx-20230730 | 2023-07-30T06:06:14 | 0 | https://www.latimes.com/about/for-the-record/story/2023-07-29/la-a4-correx-20230730 |
Orangefield Sophisticats clean up at Crowd Pleasers Line Camp
Published 12:10 am Sunday, July 30, 2023
ORANGEFIELD — The Orangefield Sophisticats recently attended Crowd Pleasers Line Camp.
“The girls did an amazing job and came home with the following awards and are ready for Friday night lights,” a release from the high school said.
The team swards – field pom include the Precision Award and High Platinum.
The individual awards include Captain Georgia Jones for Kick Master, Lieutenant Madison Moore for Kick Master, Captain Georgia Jones for All Star Dancer and Brenda Torres for Intensify Scholarship. | https://www.orangeleader.com/2023/07/30/orangefield-sophisticats-clean-up-at-crowd-pleasers-line-camp/ | 2023-07-30T06:06:55 | 1 | https://www.orangeleader.com/2023/07/30/orangefield-sophisticats-clean-up-at-crowd-pleasers-line-camp/ |
VEGAS BOUND! Storm stun top seed Frisco to reach IFL Championship Game
Sioux Falls wins Eastern Conference Championship 45-44 with touchdown and two point conversion in final seconds
FRISCO, TX (Dakota News Now) - Outgoing head coach Kurtiss Riggs and quarterback Lorenzo Brown’s final game with the Sioux Falls Storm will, fittingly, be for the IFL Championship.
Should they help Sioux Falls win their 12th championship it may go down as the best and most unlikely title in the history of the franchise and their tenures.
The Storm’s wild run through the IFL Playoffs continued with yet another 20 point comeback, this time on the road in the Eastern Conference Championship at top seed Frisco, taking a one point lead with 12 seconds left on a Brown touchdown run and two point conversion pass to Donnie Corley Jr, and then sealing a 45-44 win with a Eugene Ford interception as time expired on Saturday night in the Lone Star State.
Sioux Falls will play in their 15th league championship game next Saturday at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada, against the Bay Area Panthers who are led by last year’s Storm quarterback Dalton Sneed. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:05 PM with live television coverage on CBS Sports Network.
That the Storm will be playing for an IFL championship seemed like a pipe dream coming into the game and for much of the first half. The Fighters’ had a league-best 14-2 record and, just 28 days earlier, had ripped Sioux Falls 56-15. History appeared to be repeating itself as the Storm fell behind 27-7 late in the first half.
Starting with a field goal at the end of the half, Sioux Falls rattled off the game’s next 23 points unanswered, going back ahead early in the fourth quarter on a 28-yard Brown touchdown to Draysean Hudson.
The lead changed hands several more times during a tense fourth quarter with Frisco going ahead 44-37 following a Brown interception with 46 seconds left.
Starting at their own 12, Sioux Falls methodically marched down field, trying to burn off clock as they neared the goal line and force Frisco to burn up their final two timeouts, and capped the drive with a three yard touchdown run by Brown with 12 seconds left.
Riggs and the Storm elected to go for the two-point conversion and the lead rather than a tie. Brown rolled to his right in what seemed like a broken play, only to throw back across his body on a well designed play to Donnie Corley Jr for the conversion.
A good kickoff pinned the Fighters back to their own 14. Undreaz Lilly then sacked Frisco quarterback TJ Edwards for a four yard loss. Following a false start penalty and being forced to use their final timeout, Edwards heaved a hail mary to the endzone that was picked off by Eugene Ford as time expired.
Brown went 13-30 passing for 178 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 37 yards and three scores. Xavier Jackson and Draysean Hudson each had four receptions and a touchdown. The Storm defense sacked IFL MVP candidate TJ Edwards twice and picked him off three times.
Copyright 2023 KSFY. All rights reserved. | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2023/07/30/vegas-bound-storm-stun-top-seed-frisco-reach-ifl-championship-game/ | 2023-07-30T06:06:59 | 1 | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2023/07/30/vegas-bound-storm-stun-top-seed-frisco-reach-ifl-championship-game/ |
China says US military aid to Taiwan will not deter its will to unify the island
Jul 29, 2023, 8:54 PM
(AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China accused the United States of turning Taiwan into an “ammunition depot” after the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taipei, and the self-ruled island said Sunday it tracked six Chinese navy ships in waters off its shores.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement late Saturday opposing the military aid to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.
“No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office.
“Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” the statement said.
China’s People’s Liberation Army has increased its military maneuvers in recent years aimed at Taiwan, sending fighter jets and warships to circle the island.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked six Chinese navy ships near the island.
Taiwan’s ruling administration, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, has stepped up its weapons purchases from the U.S. as part of a deterrence strategy against a Chinese invasion.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Taiwan has never been governed by China’s ruling Communist Party.
Unlike previous military purchases, the latest batch of aid is part of a presidential authority approved by the U.S. Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales.
While Taiwan has purchased $19 billion worth of weaponry, much of it has yet to be delivered to Taiwan. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles to Taiwan. | https://mynorthwest.com/3914858/china-says-us-military-aid-to-taiwan-will-not-deter-its-will-to-unify-the-island/ | 2023-07-30T06:07:29 | 1 | https://mynorthwest.com/3914858/china-says-us-military-aid-to-taiwan-will-not-deter-its-will-to-unify-the-island/ |
Official tells AP that Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organized peace summit in August
Jul 29, 2023, 8:41 PM
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organized peace summit in early August seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country, an official said Saturday night. The kingdom and Kyiv did not immediately acknowledge the planned talks.
The summit will be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as no authorization had been given to publicly discuss the summit.
Those taking part in the summit will include Ukraine, as well as Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries, the official said. A high-level official from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration also is expected to attend, the official said. Planning for the event is being overseen by Kyiv and Russia is expected not to attend, the official said.
Details regarding the summit, however, remain in flux and the official did not offer dates for the talks. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the summit, said the talks would take place Aug. 5 and 6 with some 30 countries attending, citing “diplomats involved in the discussion.”
Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, nor did Ukraine’s Embassy in Riyadh. News of the summit comes after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan visited the kingdom on Thursday.
The official who spoke to the AP said the summit would be the next step after talks that took place in Copenhagen in June.
Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the talks come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in May attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah to press those nations to back Kyiv. Arab nations largely have remained neutral since Russia launched the war on Ukraine in February 2022, in part over their military and economic ties to Moscow.
Saudi Arabia also has maintained a close relationship with Russia as part of the OPEC+ group. The organization’s oil production cuts, even as Moscow’s war on Ukraine boosted energy prices, have angered Biden and American lawmakers.
But hosting such talks also help raise the profile of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to reach a détente with Iran and push for a peace in the kingdom’s yearslong war in Yemen. However, ties also remain strained between Riyadh and the West over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, which U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Prince Mohammed ordered.
___
Madhani reported from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. | https://mynorthwest.com/3914860/official-tells-ap-that-saudi-arabia-will-host-a-ukrainian-organized-peace-summit-in-august/ | 2023-07-30T06:07:45 | 0 | https://mynorthwest.com/3914860/official-tells-ap-that-saudi-arabia-will-host-a-ukrainian-organized-peace-summit-in-august/ |
Consumer demand for speed and convenience drives labor unrest among workers in Hollywood and at UPS
Jul 29, 2023, 9:02 PM
(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Six straight days of 12-hour driving. Single digit paychecks. The complaints come from workers in vastly different industries: UPS delivery drivers and Hollywood actors and writers.
But they point to an underlying factor driving a surge of labor unrest: The cost to workers whose jobs have changed drastically as companies scramble to meet customer expectations for speed and convenience in industries transformed by technology.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated those changes, pushing retailers to shift online and intensifying the streaming competition among entertainment companies. Now, from the picket lines, workers are trying to give consumers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce a show that can be binged any time or get dog food delivered to their doorstep with a phone swipe.
Overworked and underpaid employees is an enduring complaint across industries — from delivery drivers to Starbucks baristas and airline pilots — where surges in consumer demand have collided with persistent labor shortages. Workers are pushing back against forced overtime, punishing schedules or company reliance on lower-paid, part-time or contract forces.
At issue for Hollywood screenwriters and actors staging their first simultaneous strikes in 40 years is the way streaming has upended entertainment economics, slashing pay and forcing showrunners to produce content faster with smaller teams.
“This seems to happen to many places when the tech companies come in. Who are we crushing? It doesn’t matter,” said Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, a screenwriter and showrunner on the negotiating team for the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike since May. Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the writers’ union on the picket line.
Actors and writers have long relied on residuals, or long-term payments, for reruns and other airings of films and televisions shows. But reruns aren’t a thing on streaming services, where series and films simply land and stay with no easy way, such as box office returns or ratings, to determine their popularity.
Consequently, whatever residuals streaming companies do pay often amount to a pittance, and screenwriters have been sharing tales of receiving single digit checks.
Adam Shapiro, an actor known for the Netflix hit “Never Have I Ever,” said many actors were initially content to accept lower pay for the plethora of roles that streaming suddenly offered. But the need for a more sustainable compensation model gained urgency when it became clear streaming is not a sideshow, but rather the future of the business, he said.
“Over the past 10 years, we realized: ‘Oh, that’s now how Hollywood works. Everything is streaming,’” Shapiro said during a recent union event.
Shapiro, who has been acting for 25 years, said he agreed to a contract offering 20% of his normal rate for “Never Have I Ever” because it seemed like “a great opportunity, and it’s going to be all over the world. And it was. It really was. Unfortunately, we’re all starting to realize that if we keep doing this we’re not going to be able to pay our bills.”
Then there’s the rising use of “mini rooms,” in which a handful of writers are hired to work only during pre-production, sometimes for a series that may take a year to be greenlit, or never get picked up at all.
Sanchez-Witzel, co-creator of the recently released Netflix series “Survival of the Thickest,” said television shows traditionally hire robust writing teams for the duration of production. But Netflix refused to allow her to keep her team of five writers past pre-production, forcing round-the-clock work on rewrites with just one other writer.
“It’s not sustainable and I’ll never do that again,” she said.
Sanchez-Witzel said she was struck by the similarities between her experience and those of UPS drivers, some of whom joined the WGA for protests as they threatened their own potentially crippling strike. UPS and the Teamsters last week reached a tentative contract staving off the strike.
Jeffrey Palmerino, a full-time UPS driver near Albany, New York, said forced overtime emerged as a top issue during the pandemic as drivers coped with a crush of orders on par with the holiday season. Drivers never knew what time they would get home or if they could count on two days off each week, while 14-hour days in trucks without air conditioning became the norm.
“It was basically like Christmas on steroids for two straight years. A lot of us were forced to work six days a week, and that is not any way to live your life,” said Palmerino, a Teamsters shop steward.
Along with pay raises and air conditioning, the Teamsters won concessions that Palmerino hopes will ease overwork. UPS agreed to end forced overtime on days off and eliminate a lower-paid category of drivers who work shifts that include weekends, converting them to full-time drivers. Union members have yet to ratify the deal.
The Teamsters and labor activists hailed the tentative deal as a game-changer that would pressure other companies facing labor unrest to raise their standards. But similar outcomes are far from certain in industries lacking the sheer economic indispensability of UPS or the clout of its 340,000-member union.
Efforts to organize at Starbucks and Amazon stalled as both companies aggressively fought against unionization.
Still, labor protests will likely gain momentum following the UPS contract, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which released a report this year that found the number of labor strikes rose 52% in 2022.
“The whole idea that consumer convenience is above everything broke down during the pandemic. We started to think, ‘I’m at home ordering, but there is actually a worker who has to go the grocery store, who has to cook this for me so that I can be comfortable,’” Campos-Medina said.
___
Associated Press video journalist Leslie Ambriz contributed from Los Angeles. | https://mynorthwest.com/3914864/consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ | 2023-07-30T06:08:00 | 1 | https://mynorthwest.com/3914864/consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ |
Anchorage homeless face cold and bears. A plan to offer one-way airfare out reveals a bigger crisis
Jul 29, 2023, 9:22 PM
(AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Shawn Steik and his wife were forced from a long-term motel room onto the streets of Anchorage after their rent shot up to $800 a month. Now they live in a tent encampment by a train depot, and as an Alaska winter looms they are growing desperate and fearful of what lies ahead.
A proposal last week by Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson to buy one-way plane tickets out of Alaska’s biggest city for its homeless residents gave Steik a much-needed glimmer of hope. He would move to the relative warmth of Seattle.
“I heard it’s probably warmer than this place,” said Steik, who is Aleut.
But the mayor’s unfunded idea also came under immediate attack as a Band-Aid solution glossing over the tremendous, and still unaddressed, crisis facing Anchorage as a swelling homeless population struggles to survive in a unique and extreme environment. Frigid temperatures stalk the homeless in the winter and bears infiltrate homeless encampments in the summer.
A record eight people died of exposure while living outside last winter and this year promises to be worse after the city closed an arena that housed 500 people during the winter months. Bickering between the city’s liberal assembly and its conservative mayor about how to address the crisis, and a lack of state funding, have further stymied efforts to find a solution.
With winter fast approaching in Alaska, it’s “past time for state and local leaders to address the underlying causes of homelessness — airplane tickets are a distraction, not a solution,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said in a statement to The Associated Press.
About 43% of Anchorage’s more than 3,000 unsheltered residents are Alaska Natives, and Bronson’s proposal also drew harsh criticism from those who called it culturally insensitive.
“The reality is there is no place to send these people because this is their land. Any policy that we make has to pay credence to that simple fact. This is Dena’ina land, this is Native land,” said Christopher Constant, chair of the Anchorage Assembly. “And so we cannot be supporting policies that would take people and displace them from their home, even if their home is not what you or I would call home.”
Bronson’s airfare proposal caps a turbulent few years as Anchorage, like many cities in the U.S. West, struggles to deal with a burgeoning homeless population.
In May, the city shut down the 500-bed homeless shelter in the city’s arena so it could once more be used for concerts and hockey games after neighbors complained about open drug use, trespassing, violence and litter. A plan to build a large shelter and navigation center fell through when Bronson approved a contract without approval from the Anchorage Assembly.
That leaves a gaping hole in the city’s ability to house the thousands of homeless people who have to contend with temperatures well below zero for days at a time and unrelenting winds blasting off Cook Inlet. At the end of June, Anchorage was estimated to have a little more than 3,150 homeless people, according to the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Last week, there were only 614 beds at shelters citywide, with no vacancies.
New tent cities have sprung up across Anchorage this summer: on a slope facing the city’s historic railroad depot, on a busy road near the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson and near soup kitchens and shelters downtown.
Assembly members are slated to consider a winter stop-gap option in August falling far short of the need: a large, warmed, tent-like structure for 150 people.
Summer brings its own challenges: hungry bears last year roamed a city-owned campground where homeless people were resettled after the arena closed. Wildlife officials killed four bears after they broke into tents.
Bronson said he prefers to spend a few hundred dollars per person for a plane ticket rather than spending about $100 daily to shelter and feed them. He said he doesn’t care where they want to go; his job is to “make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.”
It’s not clear if his proposal will move forward. There is not yet a plan or a funding source.
Dr. Ted Mala, an Inupiaq who in 1990 became the first Alaska Native to serve as the state’s health commissioner, said Anchorage should be working with social workers and law enforcement to discover people’s individual reasons for homelessness and connect them with resources.
Buying the unsheltered a ticket to another city is a political game that’s been around for years. A number of U.S. cities struggling with homelessness, including San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have also offered bus or plane tickets to homeless residents.
“People are not pawns, they’re human beings,” Mala said.
The mayor’s proposal, while focused on warmer cities, also would fund tickets to other Alaska locations for those who want them.
Clarita Clark became homeless after her medical team wanted her to move from Point Hope to Anchorage for cancer treatment because Anchorage is warmer. The medical facility wouldn’t allow her husband to stay with her, so they pitched a tent in a sprawling camp to stay together.
Having recently found the body of a dead teenager who overdosed in a portable toilet, Clark yearns to return to the Chukchi Sea coastal village of Point Hope, where her three grandchildren live.
“I got a family that loves me,” she said, adding she would use the ticket and seek treatment closer to home.
Danny Parish also is leaving Alaska, but for another reason: He’s fed up.
Parish is selling his home of 29 years because it sits directly across the street from Sullivan Arena. Bad acts by some homeless people — including harassment, throwing vodka bottles in his yard, poisoning his dog and using his driveway as a toilet — made his life “a holy hell,” he said.
Parish is convinced the arena will be used again this winter since there isn’t another plan.
He, too, hopes to move to the contiguous U.S. — Oregon, for starters — but not before asking Anchorage leaders for his own plane ticket out.
“If they’re going to give them to everybody else,” Parish said, “then they need to give me one.” | https://mynorthwest.com/3914868/anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ | 2023-07-30T06:08:15 | 1 | https://mynorthwest.com/3914868/anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ |
Germany vs. Colombia: How to Watch FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 Game Live From Anywhere
The two-time world champions take on the South Americans in Sydney.
The two strongest sides in Group H go head to head in this intriguing Women's World Cup fixture on Sunday in Sydney.
Germany looked extremely impressive in their 6-0 thrashing of Morocco in their opening match of the tournament, in a match that saw their skipper Alexandra Popp score twice.
Colombia have also started the tournament in positive style, claiming a 2-0 win over South Korea, but will now be aiming to beat a side that has never lost to South American opposition at the Women's World Cup.
Below, we'll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch Germany vs. Colombia no matter where you are in the world.
Germany vs. Colombia: When and where?
This Group H clash takes place at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney on Sunday, July 30.
Kick-off is set for 7:30 p.m. AEST local time in Australia, which makes it a 5:30 a.m. ET or 2:30 a.m. PT start in the US and Canada, and a 10:30 a.m. BST kick-off in the UK.
How to watch the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 online from anywhere using a VPN
If you find yourself unable to view the tournament locally, you may need a different way to watch this match -- that's where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day by encrypting your traffic, and it's also a great idea if you're traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.
With a VPN, you're able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game. Most VPNs, like our Editors' Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.
Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Australia, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you're streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions.
Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.
ExpressVPN is our current best VPN pick for people who want a reliable and safe VPN, and it works on a variety of devices. It's normally $13 per month, and you can sign up for ExpressVPN and save 49% plus get three months of access for free -- the equivalent of $6.67 per month -- if you get an annual subscription.
Note that ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Livestream Germany vs. Colombia in the US
This women's World Cup match is being broadcast on Fox Sports 1 in the US. If you're already a subscriber, you can livestream games via the Fox website. if you're not, you'll need a live TV streaming service that carries Fox Sports 1, the least expensive being Sling TV Blue.
Among the live TV streaming services that carry Fox Sports 1, the cheapest is Sling TV Blue at $40 per month.
One important caveat: Fox local affiliates will only be available if your billing address is in one of the 18 metropolitan areas covered in Sling's agreement. If you're outside of one of these areas, you're probably better off going with one of the alternate services listed below.
Numerous other live TV streaming services carry Fox Sports 1 as well, namely YouTube TV, Hulu Plus Live TV, DirecTV Stream and Fubo. They all cost more than Sling TV, but they also carry more channels. Check out our live TV streaming channel guide for details.
NBC-owned Telemundo, meanwhile, offers all the games in Spanish, and can also be viewed via NBC's streaming platform Peacock Premium.
NBC's streaming service Peacock offers live Spanish-language coverage of matches of the 2023 Women's World Cup. You'll need to be signed up with a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus account to stream games live.
One further option in the US for watching matches comes with Tubi TV, which is offering full-length replays of the games in English minutes after they end on the free ad-supported streaming service. You'll have to sign up for a Tubi account in order to get the games, but you won't need a credit card or subscription.
Watch Germany vs. Colombia for free in the UK
Football fans in the UK are among the luckiest in the world, as all matches of the FIFA Women's World Cup being shown live on free-to-air channels, with the BBC and ITV sharing broadcast duties. This game will be shown live on ITV1, which means viewers in the UK will be able to stream the game for free on ITVX. Coverage begins at 10 a.m. BST.
Like BBC iPlayer, ITV's online streaming service is free to viewers in the UK, with dedicated apps available for Apple and Android devices, as well as most smart TVs.
Stream Germany vs. Colombia in Canada
Comprehensive live coverage of the 2023 Women's World Cup is available in Canada via TSN. Cord cutters can watch via the network's streaming service TSN Plus.
TSN Plus is a new direct streaming service, boasting exclusive coverage of PGA Tour Live golf, NFL games, F1, Nascar and the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. Ideal for cord-cutters, the service is priced at CA$20 a month or CA$200 per year.
Stream Germany vs. Colombia for free in New Zealand
Live coverage of 2023 Women's World Cup for the co-host nation is with free-to-air channel Prime. Kick-off for this match is at 9:30 p.m. NZST.
You can watch every game of the tournament for free in New Zealand on terrestrial channel Prime.
That also means you'll be able to livestream games via the channel's website -- you just need to provide your name, ZIP code and email address.
Quick tips for streaming the 2023 Women's World Cup using a VPN
- With four variables at play -- your ISP, browser, video streaming provider and VPN -- your experience and success when streaming the Women's World Cup action live may vary.
- If you don't see your desired location as a default option for ExpressVPN, try using the "search for city or country" option.
- If you're having trouble getting the game after you've turned on your VPN and set it to the correct viewing area, there are two things you can try for a quick fix. First, log into your streaming service subscription account and make sure the address registered for the account is an address in the correct viewing area. If not, you may need to change the physical address on file with your account. Second, some smart TVs -- like Roku -- don't have VPN apps you can install directly on the device itself. Instead, you'll have to install the VPN on your router or the mobile hotspot you're using (like your phone) so that any device on its Wi-Fi network now appears in the correct viewing location.
- All of the VPN providers we recommend have helpful instructions on their main site for quickly installing the VPN on your router. In some cases with smart TV services, after you install a cable network's sports app, you'll be asked to verify a numeric code or click a link sent to your email address on file for your smart TV. This is where having a VPN on your router will also help, since both devices will appear to be in the correct location.
- And remember, browsers can often give away a location despite using a VPN, so be sure you're using a privacy-first browser to log into your services. We normally recommend Brave. | https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/germany-vs-colombia-how-to-watch-fifa-womens-world-cup-2023-game-live-from-anywhere/ | 2023-07-30T06:11:20 | 1 | https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/germany-vs-colombia-how-to-watch-fifa-womens-world-cup-2023-game-live-from-anywhere/ |
The one certainty about the Ukrainian-Russian war is that there is little certainty.
Even with Russia’s recent history of aggression, few predicted outright war. Then, when it came, no one predicted Russia would so badly misplay its opening gambit. And who could have foreseen a former television comedian rallying his out-manned, out-gunned citizenry to meet every bloody challenge and, incredibly, reverse the field on the invaders?
Past events suggested that the next big event would also be a surprise but — surprise! — it was just Vladimir Putin being Vladimir Putin: he pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal to keep an estimated 40 million metric tons of 2023 Ukrainian grain from the world’s 600 million hungry.
He then sent missiles to destroy much of Odesa’s export infrastructure to ensure the world received his mad message.
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By itself, however, the closing down of “Odesa shipments,” tweeted Andre Sizov, a 27-year veteran of the Black Sea grain trade, “(is) not a game changer. Ukraine can ship 40+ mmt of grain via other routes.” One of the “other” routes Sizov pointed to July 21 was a Ukrainian “Danube port” on the Black Sea’s northwestern shore.
Then, surprise, Russian drones bombed that port, Reni, too. The action on Monday took guts because the bombed side of the river is Ukraine; the other side Romania, a NATO ally that, had it been hit, would have likely required a military response by the U.S.-led, 31-nation security group.
News of the drones, destruction and export delays lit global grain markets on fire. Corn, the soy complex and wheat went up and down and then back up. Some of the move’s energy came from continued dryness throughout much of the grain-producing Midwest. Most, however, arrived courtesy of Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian ports.
But Russia, noted Sizov, “has much to lose, too” if Ukraine rises to the challenge — as it has for 17 months now — and retaliates by attacking Russian shipping. Right now, “Russia has almost 50 mmt of wheat to ship” to finance its war. Like the Ukrainian grain, it, too, is waiting for a ride.
Also, any increase in attacks on Russian shipping imperils its economic lifeblood, oil exports. Experts estimate that 43% of all exported Russian oil is shipped through the Black Sea, mostly on Greek-flagged tankers. Any move by anyone in that arena carries repercussions — market-wise, political and military — that few want to consider.
Five days after the first Putin action, European Union ag ministers met to develop a plan to move the mountain of now-stuck Ukrainian grain through its border-sharing member nations — Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia — and into key markets in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
It’s not a new idea — it was used to move some of the 2022 Ukrainian crop into the world market — but it’s not very popular, either.
In fact, two months ago, on June 5, the European Commission, the body that oversees EU trade policy, said it would extend its current rule that allowed the five border nations to “restrict Ukrainian grain” flowing through their nations. What’s more, the Commission allowed the same five to outright ban sales of Ukrainian wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds in their countries.
Any new deal now will be met with quiet derision, not boisterous unity. “The road and rail routes through neighboring countries have stirred anger from local farmers faced with a glut of Ukrainian grain that has driven down prices and hurt their livelihoods,” ABC News reported Tuesday.
It’s not great for Ukrainian farmers, either. Shipping delays and higher transportation costs mean lower farm prices and smaller profits for the already war-weary group.
In the meantime, unsurprisingly, Russia keeps raising the stakes. When EU ag ministers suggested Ukrainian grain exports might be diverted through Baltic ports in Lithuania, a Russian spokesman said, sure, go ahead and try it.
Be forewarned, he added, “We will continue to counter that.”
What does that mean? The chances are good that not even Vlad the Invader knows, but it’s certain that the threat to global commodity markets is far from over.
The Farm and Food File is published weekly throughout the U.S. and Canada. Past columns, supporting documents, and contact information are posted at farmandfoodfile.com. | https://journalstar.com/farm-and-food-russian-roulette-with-missiles-drones-and-food/article_ff37bd36-2be6-11ee-9108-b732f8ae9a6e.html | 2023-07-30T06:11:50 | 1 | https://journalstar.com/farm-and-food-russian-roulette-with-missiles-drones-and-food/article_ff37bd36-2be6-11ee-9108-b732f8ae9a6e.html |
Anna Nadine (Harteg) Hubbard
March 19, 1927 - July 25, 2023
Anna Nadine (Harteg) Hubbard 96, was born March 19, 1927, she passed away on July 25th 2023. She is preceded in death by her husband Thomas D. Hubbard and her parents Charles and Eva Harteg. She is survived by her brothers Charles and Blaine Harteg both of Florida, her daughter Debora (Hubbard) Closner and her husband Michael Closner and daughter Donna (Hubbard) Jensen and husband Scott Jensen both Lincoln, Nebraska.
After graduating high school, she worked as a Court reporter school. She worked for the Armed Service in Europe in the early 50's. She returned to the states where she lived in Denver Co, where she met Thomas on a blind date and were married 3 months later.
Later she assisted her husband in typing the many accounting books he had written in his career. She played the piano and was in an accordion band in her younger years. Where she played at Carnagie Hall. She always had a smile on her face.
Visitation will be held on Monday, July 31, from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at Lincoln Memorial Funeral Home, 6800 South 14th Street, Lincoln, NE. Family graveside service with a reception to follow with everyone invited. Memorial can be made to Bethany Christian Church. lincolnfh.com | https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/anna-nadine-harteg-hubbard/article_3f128c4c-8beb-52cf-96ae-37941a1162bd.html | 2023-07-30T06:11:56 | 1 | https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/anna-nadine-harteg-hubbard/article_3f128c4c-8beb-52cf-96ae-37941a1162bd.html |
Bradley J. Oswald
December 15, 1967 - June 29, 2023
Bradley J. Oswald, 55, of Lincoln, formerly of Beatrice passed away on June 29, 2023 in Lincoln. He was born on December 15, 1967 in Omaha to Darrell and Janis (Brake) Oswald. He grew up in Beatrice and graduated from Beatrice High School in 1986. He served his country in the United States Marine Corps for five years and then went on to attend the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He lived in California for 20 plus years working in the mortgage industry. He married Manami Ideno and together they were blessed with two sons, Connor and Dalton. Brad later moved back to Lincoln where he was working in the insurance industry. He enjoyed cooking, playing cards and poker, telling stories, spending time with his friends and family, and was a sports enthusiast.
Survivors include his father, Darrell Oswald of Beatrice; two sons, Connor and Dalton of Japan; two brothers, Daryl (Kimberly) Oswald of Laguna Beach, CA, and Bryan (Ronda) Oswald of Lincoln; one sister, Angela Oswald of Lincoln; nieces and nephews, Mariah, Deidrik, Mason, Gabriella, Shaqkobi and Regan; best friend, Bob White of Beatrice; aunts, uncles and numerous other relatives. He was preceded in death by his mother, Janis Oswald (2018); grandparents, Kendrick and Esther Brake, Raymond Oswald, and Lorraine Croucher.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, August 12, 2023 from noon until 3:00 P.M. at the Veterans Club (701 Dorsey Street) in Beatrice. Cremation has taken place and there will be no viewing. Memorials in lieu of flowers are suggested to the family for future designation. www.foxfuneralhome.net Arrangements entrusted to Fox Funeral Home & Cremation Services of Beatrice. | https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/bradley-j-oswald/article_552bd806-2abf-5d03-97e0-b00f45a3d3e7.html | 2023-07-30T06:12:03 | 1 | https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/bradley-j-oswald/article_552bd806-2abf-5d03-97e0-b00f45a3d3e7.html |
Deloris Ann (Tiff) Huffman
May 9, 1951 - July 22, 2023
Deloris Ann (Tiff) Huffman, age 72, passed from this life on July 22, 2023. She was born on May 9, 1951, in Louisville, Kentucky, to Charles and Mary Juanita (Martin) Tiff. Deloris entered foster care with Lonnie and Jeri Akard when she was nine years old and remained with them until she married.
Deloris graduated from Milford High School in 1969. She married Joseph Garland Huffman, Sr., on June 2, 1969, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and became another mom to his daughter, Annette Renee. She and Joe went on to have two sons: Joseph Garland, Jr., and Matthew James.
Deloris babysat many children while her own were growing up. It seemed the house was always full of kids. And the car too. The little Toyota that missed the turn and flew into the field on the way to Pawnee Lake had about twelve packed in, plus two adults. Yes, we were all fine. If we tried to comment on her driving, she would shut us down with, “I've been driving for a long time…” She sure did like to drive.
Deloris met Joe in Lincoln at the church his father planted, First United Pentecostal Church. In 1979, the church started a school, and Deloris ran the kindergarten for several years, teaching many ABCer's, as they were called, to read. She was a wonderful cook who enjoyed feeding people in her home, at church, anywhere. For a while she worked as a cook at the University of Nebraska East Union. Every summer for many years she ran the concession stand and then the kitchen for camps for the Nebraska District United Pentecostal Church. She also cooked and baked for weekly dinners raising funds to build the Life Tabernacle Church building in Lincoln.
Deloris enjoyed shopping (garage sales and thrift stores were favorites), collecting porcelain dolls and rabbits, reading (including the obituaries), getting Blizzards at Dairy Queen, and spoiling her grandkids. She was a social person who liked spending time with others, taking trips to visit people, and keeping up with their lives on Facebook. Before his death in 2021, she and Joe ate out nearly every night. They had their restaurant rotation and were known for their friendliness and generous tips. Deloris loved being able to give generously.
Deloris is survived by her sons Joseph (Karyn) Huffman, Jr., of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Matthew (Stephanie) Huffman of Magnolia Texas; stepdaughter Annette Evans of Lincoln, Nebraska; grandchildren Kaitlyn (Andrew) Smith, Kassidy Huffman, Jacob Huffman, Jared Huffman, Chancellor (Brynn) Huffman, Preston Huffman, Mikayla (Ben) Rodriguez, Landon Evans, Emily Evans, Logan Evans; great-grandchildren Isabella Rodriguez, Anastasia Rodriguez, and Aaron Smith; brothers Dale Rice and Bill Rice; and sister Michelle Tiff. She was preceded in death by her husband of 51 years; parents; sister Linda Aldridge; brother John Cressy; and son-in-law Stuart Evans.
Visitation will be Friday, August 4, 2023, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m., at Life Tabernacle Church, 3230 North 1st Street, Lincoln, Nebraska. Funeral Service will follow immediately at noon. Burial will be at Wyuka Cemetery, Lincoln, Nebraska. Condolences to www.lincolnccfh.com. | https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/deloris-ann-tiff-huffman/article_5e09ba1c-e691-5c4e-866e-fe0856b44ecc.html | 2023-07-30T06:12:09 | 1 | https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/deloris-ann-tiff-huffman/article_5e09ba1c-e691-5c4e-866e-fe0856b44ecc.html |
Dick Miers
Oct. 17, 1937 – July 27, 2023
Visitation will be held on Tuesday, August 1, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m. with the family receiving friends from 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at Zabka-Perdue Funeral Home, Seward. Funeral Service will be held on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. at St. John Lutheran Church in Seward with Pastor David Rempfer officiating the service. Graveside and interment will follow at Seward Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Seward County or Milford Area Historical Society, Seward Troop #256, American Red Cross or to the Seward Crossmakers.
Funeral Arrangements entrusted to Zabka-Perdue Funeral Home, Seward. Condolences at www.zabkaperduefuneralhome.com. | https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/dick-miers/article_85de4eae-dc82-5387-9a15-dd638f291867.html | 2023-07-30T06:12:15 | 1 | https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/dick-miers/article_85de4eae-dc82-5387-9a15-dd638f291867.html |
Don Loren Bandemer
June 13, 1955 - July 25, 2023
Don Loren Bandemer, 68, of Lincoln passed away Tuesday, July 25, 2023. He was born on June 13, 1955, in York, NE to Loren and Blanche (Bulin) Bandemer.
Don is survived by his wife, Belinda; 2 daughters; 6 grandchildren; 6 great-grandchildren. Siblings, Douglas (Coleen) Bandemer of Lee's Summit, MO, Cynthia (Michael) Ring of Marysville, KS, nieces and nephews.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Loren and Blanche Bandemer, sister, Peggy Ann Bandemer.
Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 pm, Wednesday August 2, 2023, at Colonial Chapel Funeral Home, 5200 R St.
Condolences may be left online at www.lincolnccfh.com | https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/don-loren-bandemer/article_3aa0bf65-e551-59d6-b5bf-ae0fe6862c04.html | 2023-07-30T06:12:21 | 1 | https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/don-loren-bandemer/article_3aa0bf65-e551-59d6-b5bf-ae0fe6862c04.html |