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Ayesha Rascoe is a White House correspondent for NPR. She is currently covering her third presidential administration. Rascoe's White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast. | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/d-smith-on-her-new-documentary-kokomo-city | 2023-07-30T12:40:57 | 1 | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/d-smith-on-her-new-documentary-kokomo-city |
Braves vs. Brewers Predictions & Picks: Odds, Moneyline, Spread - July 30
Sunday's game between the Atlanta Braves (66-36) and Milwaukee Brewers (57-48) matching up at Truist Park has a projected final score of 6-4 (according to our computer prediction) in favor of the Braves, who is listed as a slight favorite by our model. The game will begin at 1:35 PM ET on July 30.
This contest's pitching matchup is set, as the Braves will send AJ Smith-Shawver to the mound, while Colin Rea (5-4) will answer the bell for the Brewers.
Braves vs. Brewers Game Info & Odds
- When: Sunday, July 30, 2023 at 1:35 PM ET
- Where: Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia
- How to Watch on TV: MLB Network
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
Bet on this matchup with BetMGM Sportsbook and use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Braves vs. Brewers Score Prediction
Our pick for this matchup is Braves 6, Brewers 4.
Total Prediction for Braves vs. Brewers
- Total Prediction: Under 11.5 runs
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Discover More About This Game
Braves Performance Insights
- The Braves have played as the favorite in 10 of their past 10 games and won five of those contests.
- In its last 10 games with a total, Atlanta and its opponents have failed to hit the over five times.
- Bookmakers have not set a spread for any of the Braves' last 10 games.
- The Braves have won 58, or 65.2%, of the 89 games they've played as favorites this season.
- This season Atlanta has won 20 of its 28 games, or 71.4%, when favored by at least -210 on the moneyline.
- The Braves have a 67.7% chance to win this game based on the implied probability of the moneyline.
- Atlanta has scored the third-most runs in the majors this season with 575.
- The Braves' 3.87 team ERA ranks sixth among all MLB pitching staffs.
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Braves Schedule
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/braves-brewers-mlb-picks-predictions/ | 2023-07-30T12:40:58 | 0 | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/braves-brewers-mlb-picks-predictions/ |
The Texas Rangers agreed to acquire three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer in a blockbuster trade with the New York Mets on Saturday night, an all-in move for the surprise leaders in the AL West, a person with knowledge of the deal said.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal hasn’t been announced.
The Rangers will be adding the 39-year-old Scherzer with another former Mets pitcher with Cy Young credentials, two-time winner Jacob deGrom, sidelined by Tommy John elbow surgery, possibly all the way through the end of next season.
According to multiple reports, the deal nets New York one of the top Texas prospects in infielder Luisangel Acuña, the younger brother of Atlanta star Ronald Acuña Jr.
As part of the deal, Scherzer agreed to opt in on the final year of his contract in 2024 at $43 million, according to reports that also said the Mets were paying about $35 million of the remaining $58 million on the right-hander’s contract.
The Mets, one of baseball’s biggest disappointments, unloaded Scherzer two days after sending closer David Robertson to Miami for two minor leaguers.
New York began the season with the highest payroll in baseball at $353 million but started the day 17 games behind Atlanta in the NL East and 6 1/2 games back in the wild-card race.
The next question is what the Mets will do with Justin Verlander, another three-time Cy Young winner signed through next season. There should be plenty of suitors for the 40-year-old right-hander.
Texas has emerged from six consecutive losing seasons to lead the AL West all but one day in three-time World Series champion Bruce Bochy’s first season as manager.
The Rangers made the first notable move of this trading season by getting once-dominant closer Aroldis Chapman from Kansas City in June. Chapman has stayed in a setup role with Will Smith handling most of the closing duties.
Now Texas has bolstered the rotation knowing deGrom might be out until Scherzer’s contract expires at the end of next season.
The trade for Scherzer came on the same day the Rangers said they were again bumping back the next start for All-Star right-hander Nathan Eovaldi. Bochy said Eovaldi had a sore elbow, but the club doesn’t think it’s serious.
The Rangers added deGrom in the offseason on a $185 million, five-year contract, knowing there was risk in signing the oft-injured right-hander.
He lasted just six starts — all Texas wins — before elbow issues sidelined deGrom for a month. It took multiple MRIs to determine the extent of the damage to his elbow, and the Tommy John procedure in June was the second of his career. The other was in rookie ball with the Mets in 2010.
“I think we need to improve as a starting rotation,” Bochy said before the Rangers’ game at San Diego on Saturday night, as reports of the trade were circulating. “I think that’s fair to say.”
Scherzer (9-4) was leading the Mets in victories but had his highest ERA (4.01) since 2011 with Detroit. The eight-time All-Star started Friday at home against Washington, allowing one run in seven innings in a 5-1 New York victory.
With 210 career victories, Scherzer is third among active pitchers behind Verlander and Kansas City’s Zack Greinke.
___
AP Sports Writer Bernie Wilson in San Diego contributed to this report.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wjhl.com/sports/us-world-sports/ap-rangers-get-scherzer-from-mets-in-all-in-blockbuster-from-surprise-al-west-leaders/ | 2023-07-30T12:41:01 | 0 | https://www.wjhl.com/sports/us-world-sports/ap-rangers-get-scherzer-from-mets-in-all-in-blockbuster-from-surprise-al-west-leaders/ |
Is recent news about the economy so good that the U.S. can say it is coming in for a "soft landing," where inflation gets tamed without a recession?
Copyright 2023 NPR
Is recent news about the economy so good that the U.S. can say it is coming in for a "soft landing," where inflation gets tamed without a recession?
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/do-recent-positive-developments-qualify-as-a-soft-landing-for-the-economy | 2023-07-30T12:41:03 | 0 | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/do-recent-positive-developments-qualify-as-a-soft-landing-for-the-economy |
Top Player Prop Bets for Braves vs. Brewers on July 30, 2023
Published: Jul. 30, 2023 at 5:50 AM CDT|Updated: 50 minutes ago
Bookmakers have listed player props for Ronald Acuna Jr., Christian Yelich and others when the Atlanta Braves host the Milwaukee Brewers at Truist Park on Sunday at 1:35 PM ET.
Bet on this matchup or its props with BetMGM!
Braves vs. Brewers Game Info
- When: Sunday, July 30, 2023 at 1:35 PM ET
- Where: Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia
- How to Watch on TV: MLB Network
- Live Stream: Watch the MLB on Fubo!
Explore More About This Game
MLB Props Today: Atlanta Braves
Ronald Acuña Jr. Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 1.5 (Over Odds: +120)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -222)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +370)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +130)
Acuna Stats
- Acuna has put up 136 hits with 26 doubles, a triple, 24 home runs and 54 walks. He has driven in 61 runs with 50 stolen bases.
- He's slashed .333/.416/.578 on the year.
- Acuna hopes to build on a two-game hitting streak in this matchup. In his last five games he is hitting .412 with a home run, five walks and three RBI.
Acuna Recent Games
Matt Olson Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 1.5 (Over Odds: +180)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -169)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +185)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -115)
Olson Stats
- Matt Olson has 100 hits with 19 doubles, two triples, 33 home runs and 61 walks. He has driven in 83 runs with one stolen base.
- He's slashing .256/.360/.569 so far this season.
- Olson enters this game looking to extend his four-game hit streak. During his last five outings he is hitting .263 with a home run, a walk and three RBI.
Olson Recent Games
Bet on player props for Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson or other Braves players with BetMGM.
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MLB Props Today: Milwaukee Brewers
Christian Yelich Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 1.5 (Over Odds: +150)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -196)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +370)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +140)
Yelich Stats
- Yelich has 110 hits with 24 doubles, two triples, 15 home runs and 49 walks. He has driven in 58 runs with 22 stolen bases.
- He's slashed .286/.372/.477 on the year.
Yelich Recent Games
Carlos Santana Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -233)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +100)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +370)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +125)
Santana Stats
- Carlos Santana has 81 hits with 25 doubles, 12 home runs and 46 walks. He has driven in 53 runs with six stolen bases.
- He's slashed .233/.320/.408 so far this year.
Santana Recent Games
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/braves-vs-brewers-mlb-player-prop-bets/ | 2023-07-30T12:41:04 | 1 | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/braves-vs-brewers-mlb-player-prop-bets/ |
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — 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.”
HEAT CHECK
The temperature was near 100 degrees when the cars went out for qualifying, and the heat index made it feel even hotter. It’s expected to be about 90 on Sunday.
“There’s less grip and more emphasis on tire management,” Brad Keselowski said. “It will be a different race here than it was in the spring, for sure.”
Truex and Larson are the betting favorites Sunday, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wjhl.com/sports/us-world-sports/ap-unapologetic-hamlin-says-nascars-point-system-encourages-in-race-urgency-and-aggression/ | 2023-07-30T12:41:07 | 0 | https://www.wjhl.com/sports/us-world-sports/ap-unapologetic-hamlin-says-nascars-point-system-encourages-in-race-urgency-and-aggression/ |
She's one of India's biggest Barbie fans. When Vichitra Rajasingh was growing up, family and friends helped her build her collection of Barbie dolls until she had almost 80 of them. She once owned a Barbie camper, a speedboat, supermarket and post office. The mermaid Barbie and scuba-diving Barbie were her favorites.
Since her family ran a hotel, they put the dolls on display in the lobby in the late '90s. On Rajasingh's 14th birthday, her parents painted her room bright pink and hired artists to draw her favorite Barbie dolls on the walls.
All her Barbies were blond. She says she didn't like the Indian ethnic ones that came on the local market.
Living the pink life
"My love for the color pink began with my childhood passion for Barbie," she says. "And now it's become my identity." For her, the color represents love, joy, femininity and playfulness, everything she once associated with Barbie, she says.
Today Rajasingh lives in the southern Indian city of Madurai, where she drives a pink mini-Cooper and runs a bakery and lives in an apartment that are dominated by that color.
When the Barbie movie released in India on July 21, she gathered a bunch of friends, "everyone dressed to the nines in pink," and watched it on the day of its release. "I loved the movie. It was fun to watch and brought back many joyful childhood memories," she says.
While she no longer has her huge doll collection — having long since given it away to family and friends — Rajasingh is still a Barbie lover. She bakes six or seven Barbie-themed cakes a week, with an actual doll at the center of a cake that serves as her frothy dress, constructed around her in a swirl of sugar and cream.
Rajasingh saw Barbie as an aspirational figure — and grew up admiring the doll's freedom, confidence, globe-trotting lifestyle and even her arched feet in sassy stilettos.
But for others in India, Barbie has a far more complicated legacy.
The pressures Barbie can bring
Shweta Sharan, a writer who lives in Mumbai, admits to being conflicted about whether or not to watch the movie with her 13-year-old daughter, Laasya, who until a year ago ardently loved Barbie but then outgrew playing with dolls.
"I am aware that these dolls have many complicated associations," Sharan says. "Watching my daughter love a doll that looked nothing like her — with blond hair, blue eyes, perfect breasts — I worried if she would always strive to be someone else and feel inadequate."
These worries are valid in the opinion of ElsaMarie DSilva, a social entrepreneur from India and an Aspen fellow. "While Barbie is almost universally loved among girls of all ages, many do aspire to look like her, unconsciously pressurizing young girls to conform to unrealistic body shapes and expectations," she says — a common criticism aimed at Barbie.
Indian Barbie is not a rousing success
Mattel did make an effort to adapt the doll for an Indian market. When Mattel launched Barbie in India in 1991, it was the familiar Western-looking blond-haired blue-eyed Barbie. Then in 1996, they rolled out Indian Barbie, with brown skin. She came either wearing a bright sari or a salwar kameez — a knee-length tunic over fitted trousers.
But the Indian Barbie was not popular. "Indian kids gravitated toward the white-skinned Barbie instead of the brown-skinned one because light-skinned women were considered more beautiful in India and an automatic choice," DSilva says.
She points out how even in Indian clothes, Barbie still had a body that did not represent real women in India or anywhere else — she was way too tall and way too thin.
Priti Nemani, an Indian American attorney living in Chicago, analyzed why Barbie failed so spectacularly in the Indian market in a research paper published in 2011. In addition to the unrealistic, impossibly thin appearance of the doll, she points out how other cultural factors were at play.
"We weren't seeing Indian features on Barbie," she says. "We were seeing white Barbies dipped in brown. And even those brown Barbies didn't last long on the shelves. The latest versions of the Indian Barbie have much lighter skin tone.
Meanwhile, even though blond Barbies sold well, Ken tanked in India. "Indian parents who wouldn't want their daughters in romantic relationships at such an early age weren't going to buy the boyfriend," Nemani says.
In spite of her initial misgivings, Sharan enjoyed the Barbie movie with her daughter, now 13, who especially liked the feminist overtones. Laasya loved the beginning, when they were told "Barbie has a great day everyday. Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him."
Barbie inspires a poem
There are other issues about Barbie in India. For many kids, the doll is too expensive.
Ankita Apurva, 26, a writer who grew up in a farming family in Ranchi, a city in the Eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, recalls a childhood bereft of Barbies.
Her parents, who struggled to pay for a good education that they hoped would be her armor against bullying and discrimination, could not afford to buy their daughter a Barbie.
"They weren't in a position to splurge on fancy dolls like a Barbie," she says. She recalls feeling inferior for not owning one of these expensive dolls that would help her connect with other Barbie owners in her circle. It was especially hard for her at lunch when girls would boast about how many dolls they owned.
"I believe that even if children from marginalized communities manage to enter [private] institutions [for the privileged], there are certain social, cultural and economic symbols which are consciously and subconsciously deployed to mark them out, and Barbie, as loved as it is, is definitely one of them," she says.
Over the years, Apurva's family has grown stronger financially. When she saw the global resurgence of interest in Barbie now, she didn't feel angry or alienated, but it did bring back memories of desperately wanting to fit in – and not just because she didn't have a Barbie.
"Growing up, I rarely felt represented in literature or media. If pens or cameras turned toward us, they inadvertently counted us as data: dead bodies of farmers or survivors of violence of umpteen kinds."
As a girl from a farming family in Jharkhand, Apurva felt invisible. And so, she decided to express those emotions. She wrote a poem that she posted on Instagram, not to shame anyone who is privileged enough to own a Barbie but to comfort those who, like her, may have felt left out.
Here are some excerpts:
"Here's to the girls who do not get the Barbie craze,
...
girls who had parents who could not
or did not or choose not
to get them Barbie dolls
...
it's okay,
to not relate to any of it
...
what is not okay are friends ...
who intentionally make you
feel low by asking how many Barbies
you owned as a kid even as they
know you weren't privileged enough
to have them.
...
you are also not "too much" ...
if you feel
that Barbie is a colonial icon
legitimizing racial supremacy
while being a 'white feminist' trope
...
and once again
remember,
you are everything,
they are just Ken
Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, Southern India. She reports on global health, science, and development, and her work has been published in the New York Times, The British Medical Journal, BBC, The Guardian and other outlets. You can find her on twitter @kamal_t
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/2023-07-28/barbie-in-india-a-skin-color-debate-a-poignant-poem-baked-in-a-cake | 2023-07-30T12:41:09 | 1 | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/2023-07-28/barbie-in-india-a-skin-color-debate-a-poignant-poem-baked-in-a-cake |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to a patron of the party, musician George Brown of the band Kool & The Gang, about his new book, new record, and the "Celebration" of a long and funky career.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to a patron of the party, musician George Brown of the band Kool & The Gang, about his new book, new record, and the "Celebration" of a long and funky career.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/george-brown-of-kool-the-gang-on-celebrating-the-bands-long-career | 2023-07-30T12:41:09 | 0 | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/george-brown-of-kool-the-gang-on-celebrating-the-bands-long-career |
Braves vs. Brewers Probable Starting Pitchers Today - July 30
The Atlanta Braves (66-36) have a 2-0 series lead, hoping to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers (57-48) on Sunday at Truist Park, at 1:35 PM ET.
The probable starters are AJ Smith-Shawver for the Braves and Colin Rea (5-4) for the Brewers.
Bet Now: Get the latest odds for this matchup and pitcher props on BetMGM. New depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Braves vs. Brewers Pitcher Matchup Info
- Date: Sunday, July 30, 2023
- Time: 1:35 PM ET
- TV: MLB Network
- Location: Atlanta, Georgia
- Venue: Truist Park
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
- Probable Pitchers: Smith-Shawver - ATL (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs Rea - MIL (5-4, 4.53 ERA)
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Read More About This Game
Braves Probable Starting Pitcher Tonight: AJ Smith-Shawver
- The Braves will send out Smith-Shawver for his first start of the season.
- The 20-year-old right-hander will make his MLB debut.
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Brewers Probable Starting Pitcher Tonight: Colin Rea
- Rea makes the start for the Brewers, his 18th of the season. He is 5-4 with a 4.53 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 91 1/3 innings pitched.
- In his last time out on Tuesday, the right-hander tossed six innings against the Cincinnati Reds, giving up two earned runs while surrendering five hits.
- The 33-year-old has put up an ERA of 4.53, with 7.4 strikeouts per nine innings in 18 games this season. Opposing hitters have a .237 batting average against him.
- Rea has four quality starts this year.
- Rea will aim to go five or more innings for his third straight appearance. He's averaging 5.1 innings per outing.
- In two of his 18 total appearances this season he has not allowed an earned run.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/braves-vs-brewers-mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ | 2023-07-30T12:41:11 | 0 | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/braves-vs-brewers-mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ |
People have asked me what I've learned so far through this series. Have I gotten any clarity on what makes up my own spiritual identity? And the answer is, not really. I'm still in the research phase of this project. I'm still collecting experiences and perspectives and I imagine I'll keep doing that forever, but it's too early to draw any definitive conclusions — except for one.
I believe each and every one of us is capable of making our own meaning. Some of us do that by living according to a set of religious principles. Or by feeling the beauty and sanctity of nature. Or by choosing to see spiritual connections in what others might call mere coincidence.
I don't need anyone to validate those experiences for them to be meaningful to me. But according to Lisa Miller, a professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, having a spiritual life is good for your mental health.
Miller is a psychologist and has dedicated most of her career to the study of neuroscience and spirituality. Her newest book is called The Awakened Brain, and in it she makes some really bold claims about how holding spiritual beliefs can decrease our rates of anxiety and depression and generally make us most likely to lead happier lives. I can hear your skepticism already! I get it. I'm a spiritually inclined kind of person but it's still hard for me to understand how, scientifically speaking, believing in something bigger than yourself can make you healthier and happier.
I needed to understand how Miller came to these conclusions. But before she got to the actual science, she told me a story.
It was the mid '90s. Miller was in the early stages of her career and working at a residential mental health facility in New York City. After she'd been there a few months, Yom Kippur rolled around — the day of atonement, considered the most significant of the Jewish religious holidays. One of the older male patients with severe bipolar disorder asked if there were any plans to mark the day. The doctor in charge shrugged his shoulders and said, no — there's no service planned. The patient walked out of the room with his shoulders slumped and Lisa, who is Jewish, saw an opportunity.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Lisa Miller: I approached the unit chief and said, "I'm certainly not a rabbi, but I've been to two-and-a-half decades of Yom Kippur services. I'd be happy to facilitate if that might be OK with you." So I showed up on Yom Kippur and the patients had arrived early to the kitchen, which was to be our sanctuary. The fluorescent lights were quite strong and as we crowded around the linoleum table there was an extraordinary feeling of specialness.
As we started the prayers that we all knew from our childhood, joining together saying in Hebrew the prayers of Yom Kippur, I looked over and noticed that as the gentleman with bipolar was davening, he could not have been further from explosive. He was holding our group in the cadence of the prayers and we were actually following him.
I took a pause and I said, "I feel so grateful to be here today in our Yom Kippur ceremony. Would anyone like to say anything?" We went around the table and the first person to speak was a very otherwise withdrawn woman with recurrent depression. She said, "You know, I always knew on Yom Kippur we could ask for forgiveness. But sitting here now with you all, I'm aware that we can be forgiven. God can forgive us." And she looked liberated.
As I looked around the table at the patients, whatever their symptoms had been yesterday, they were free in that moment. They were free of suffering. They were free of the characteristic patterns that had dragged them down in a way that was equal and opposite to their main symptoms. And so I thought a mental health system minus spirituality made no sense, and that became my life's work, to understand the place of spirituality in renewal, in recovery, in resilience, and to put this in the language of science.
Rachel Martin: What happened when you brought these kinds of questions to your peers, to the other people in your scientific community? Like when you said for the first time, "Hey, I think we need to look at the effect of spirituality on mental health." What did people say to you?
Miller: Well, the vast majority were very respectful, nodded, and didn't pick up the thread. Some of them would say, "That's not psychology, that's not psychiatry." And in fact, I remember early on giving a grand rounds presentation and I opened up saying, "I'm going to speak today about a body of data using nationally representative samples on spirituality and mental health with all the gold standard methods." And about 10 people got up and walked out. It was absolutely not of interest.
Martin: Using the gold standard, what did that mean in terms of the experiments you were running and the studies and the data you were collecting? How did you make sure that it would hold water in the scientific community?
Miller: If I were to characterize the first five years of my investigation, I would say I used the data sets that everyone else knew and trusted. I only asked one new question, which was: "What's the impact of spirituality on the DSM diagnosis of addiction and depression?" The findings were jaw dropping.
The protective benefit of personal spirituality, meaning someone who says their personal spirituality is very important, is 80% against addiction. They have 80% decreased relative risk for the DSM diagnosis of addiction to drugs or alcohol.
Martin: Wait, so someone who self-identifies as having a meaningful spiritual life is 80% less likely to get addicted to drugs or alcohol than someone who says they don't?
Miller: Yes.
Martin: Wow. And how can you prove that it is a spiritual life that is doing that and not some external factor? Because you heard this from other critics, too, some of your peers said you can't attribute that to spirituality, it's gotta be some other social conditioning.
Miller: Well, that's a very important point because in every study we controlled for all of the usual interpretations about this being social support or having resources. So we plugged into our equation every other possible explanation that was generally taken in mental health to explain the road to depression. And nonetheless, it actually turned out that the more high risk we are, the more that there's stress in our lives, the more that we might be genetically at risk for depression, the greater the impact of spirituality as a source of resilience as preventative against major depression.
Martin: What does that look like in the brain?
Miller: One of the most beautiful findings in my 20 years as an investigator was from an MRI study conducted together with our colleagues at Yale Medical School. We looked at people of many different faith traditions and the first finding was that there is one neuro seat of transcendent perception and we share it. Now there's human variability of course, and we can strengthen components.
Martin: How are you actually doing that with people? Are you asking your subjects to pray? What are the spiritual inputs that are going into them so that you can measure it on their brains?
Miller: The very specific prompt was, "Tell us about a time where you felt a deep connection to God, your higher power, the source of life." Everyone had a story like that and as they told their story, we recorded them and it was then played back in their ears while they were inside the scanner.
Martin: Ah, they heard themselves recounting their spiritual experience.
Miller: It was tailor made to their own moment.
Martin: And you saw their brains light up?
Miller: Oh yes. Connecting to these memories, the bonding network comes up online just as when we were held in the arms of our parents or grandparents.
Martin: Wait, when you say the bonding network you mean you can literally see that the brain will respond to spiritual stimuli in the same way that it does to a hug from a family member when you're a baby?
Miller: Precisely.
Martin: Can you tell me how this manifests in the real world? I'm thinking about this anecdote you include in the book about a client of yours. A girl you refer to as Iliana.
Miller: Iliana adored her father, I mean, he was the sun and the moon and the stars to her. They were so close. And one night two men who her father knew, came into his corner store, robbed him and murdered him. And she was devastated. This was a grief that was so deep. She simply could not free herself from the grief that was shackling her heart.
One day, Iliana skips into my office. There's a levity and joy. She plops into the seat and says, "Dr. Miller, you're never gonna believe this. My cousin and my cousin's girlfriend chaperoned me so I could go to a party and I met the most wonderful boy. We talked so long, it must have been 20 minutes. He was so polite and so kind. But here's the best part, his name." Which was the same very usual name as her father.
She said, "Don't you see? My father sent him. My father is looking out after me." And from that day on she was in the world of the living. What changed everything for Iliana was the awareness that her father walked with her. She maintained a deep transcendent relationship with her father, as most people around the world do.
Iliana trusted her deep inner knowing that this was far too probabilistic to have happened by chance. That this very rare name held both by this new boy and her father could possibly mean nothing.
Martin: Can I ask, what are you thinking as you hear this? I mean, are you thinking that is just a crazy coincidence, but if she needs to believe that this is a sign from God, who am I to tell her otherwise? Because it seems to be working.
Miller: Well, at the time, that was certainly the most common interpretive framework amongst psychologists and psychiatrists. But I could see plain as day that this was a tremendously sacred moment. This was a living miracle. This was a gift.
For me to have treated it like some kind of cultural diversity variable or that it's just the meaning she makes would've actually taken all of the energy and spirit out of that transformative awakening moment. I joined her.
Now I did that authentically because it was my view as well that this is far too nonprobabilistic to have happened by chance, that there are very few people by that very same name and that the first boy she met in a year and a half since her father's passing should have the name of the father. It was a synchronicity. There was a deeper meaning being revealed.
Martin: When you're talking to people who aren't scientists, someone who's skeptical, someone who doesn't have faith, who doesn't have what they define as a spiritual life, what do you want them to take away from your research and your message?
Miller: I've given a number of talks to audiences who, prior to seeing the science, would not necessarily consider themselves spiritual people. And, in fact, I oftentimes hear from people who consider themselves skeptics and very left-brained and when they see the peer reviewed science that says we're naturally spiritual beings, that when we cultivate our spirituality we're 80% less likely to be addicted, 82% less likely to take our lives, it speaks to the left side of their brains long enough that it quiets down the skepticism.
In other words, three cheers for the skeptic. Here is published, peer reviewed science for skeptical audiences to begin to explore, to be curious about our spiritual nature. You know, at the inner table of human knowing we all have an empiricist, a logician, an intuitive, a mystic, and a skeptic. And the skeptic is very welcome, but the skeptic is not the bouncer at the door.
It is not scientific to put a skeptic as a bouncer at the door. It is not more rigorous to toss out an idea before being examined in every way. We are wired to be able to investigate. So I simply say to the biggest skeptic of all, you are most welcome to your own inner table of inquiry, but be sure to invite everyone else.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/2023-07-30/this-ivy-league-researcher-says-spirituality-is-good-for-our-mental-health | 2023-07-30T12:41:15 | 0 | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/2023-07-30/this-ivy-league-researcher-says-spirituality-is-good-for-our-mental-health |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with University of California, Berkeley, digital forensics expert Hany Farid about a recent political ad that used an AI-cloned vocal clip.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with University of California, Berkeley, digital forensics expert Hany Farid about a recent political ad that used an AI-cloned vocal clip.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/how-real-is-the-threat-of-ai-deepfakes-in-the-2024-election | 2023-07-30T12:41:15 | 0 | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/how-real-is-the-threat-of-ai-deepfakes-in-the-2024-election |
Dream vs. Mystics: Odds, spread, over/under and other Vegas lines - July 30
Published: Jul. 30, 2023 at 6:36 AM CDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
The Washington Mystics (12-12) will visit the Atlanta Dream (13-11) after losing six consecutive road games. The matchup tips at 3:00 PM ET on Sunday, July 30, 2023.
In this article, you will check out odds and spreads for the Dream vs. Mystics matchup across multiple sportsbooks.
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Dream vs. Mystics Game Info
- Game Day: Sunday, July 30, 2023
- Game Time: 3:00 PM ET
- TV Channel: ESPN3, NBCS-DC, Monumental, and BSSO
- Location: College Park, Georgia
- Arena: Gateway Center Arena
Dream vs. Mystics Odds, Spread, Over/Under
Check out the odds, spread and over/under for this WNBA matchup on individual sportsbooks.
Dream vs. Mystics Betting Trends
- The Dream are 13-9-0 ATS this season.
- The Mystics are 11-12-0 ATS this season.
- Atlanta has been favored by 6.5 points or more four times this season, and covered the spread in three of those games.
- Washington has covered the spread twice this year (2-2 ATS) when playing as at least 6.5-point underdogs.
- So far this season, 12 out of the Dream's 23 games have hit the over.
- A total of nine Mystics games this season have hit the over.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/dream-mystics-wnba-odds-spread-over-under/ | 2023-07-30T12:41:17 | 0 | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/dream-mystics-wnba-odds-spread-over-under/ |
Members of the mid-Columbia River tribes set off on an annual intertribal canoe journey after a three-year hiatus due to COVID. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on July 28, 2023.)
Copyright 2023 NPR
Members of the mid-Columbia River tribes set off on an annual intertribal canoe journey after a three-year hiatus due to COVID. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on July 28, 2023.)
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/intertribal-canoe-trip-from-oregon-to-seattle-will-set-out-for-first-time-since-covid | 2023-07-30T12:41:21 | 1 | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/intertribal-canoe-trip-from-oregon-to-seattle-will-set-out-for-first-time-since-covid |
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.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-07-30/a-drone-attack-on-moscow-briefly-shut-one-of-its-airports-and-injured-one | 2023-07-30T12:41:21 | 1 | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-07-30/a-drone-attack-on-moscow-briefly-shut-one-of-its-airports-and-injured-one |
MLB Games Tonight: How to Watch on TV, Streaming & Odds - Sunday, July 30
Today's MLB schedule has plenty of quality competition on the docket. Among those games is the Texas Rangers squaring off against the San Diego Padres.
You will find info on how to watch today's MLB action right here.
Watch MLB games and tons of other live sports without cable! Use our link to get a free trial to Fubo..
How to Watch Today's MLB Games
The Toronto Blue Jays (59-46) take on the Los Angeles Angels (54-51)
The Angels hope to get a road victory at Rogers Centre against the Blue Jays on Sunday at 12:05 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- TOR Key Player: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (.268 AVG, 17 HR, 65 RBI)
- LAA Key Player: Shohei Ohtani (.302 AVG, 39 HR, 81 RBI)
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The Atlanta Braves (66-36) face the Milwaukee Brewers (57-48)
The Brewers will hit the field at Truist Park versus the Braves on Sunday at 1:35 PM ET.
How to Watch
- TV Channel: MLB Network
- Stream Live: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
- Game Time: 1:35 PM ET
Hitters to Watch
- ATL Key Player: Ronald Acuña Jr. (.333 AVG, 24 HR, 61 RBI)
- MIL Key Player: Christian Yelich (.286 AVG, 15 HR, 58 RBI)
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The Pittsburgh Pirates (46-58) play host to the Philadelphia Phillies (56-48)
The Phillies will look to pick up a road win at PNC Park versus the Pirates on Sunday at 1:35 PM ET.
How to Watch
- TV Channel: MLB Network
- Stream Live: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
- Game Time: 1:35 PM ET
Hitters to Watch
- PIT Key Player: Bryan Reynolds (.255 AVG, 11 HR, 47 RBI)
- PHI Key Player: Bryson Stott (.306 AVG, 9 HR, 37 RBI)
Check out the latest odds and place your bets with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
The Miami Marlins (56-49) play the Detroit Tigers (47-58)
The Tigers will take to the field at LoanDepot park against the Marlins on Sunday at 1:40 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- MIA Key Player: Luis Arraez (.381 AVG, 3 HR, 51 RBI)
- DET Key Player: Spencer Torkelson (.230 AVG, 15 HR, 58 RBI)
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The New York Mets (49-55) play the Washington Nationals (44-61)
The Nationals will hit the field at Citi Field versus the Mets on Sunday at 1:40 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- NYM Key Player: Pete Alonso (.217 AVG, 30 HR, 73 RBI)
- WSH Key Player: Lane Thomas (.286 AVG, 16 HR, 55 RBI)
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The Chicago White Sox (43-63) take on the Cleveland Guardians (52-53)
The Guardians will look to pick up a road win at Guaranteed Rate Field against the White Sox on Sunday at 2:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- CHW Key Player: Luis Robert (.270 AVG, 29 HR, 60 RBI)
- CLE Key Player: José Ramírez (.288 AVG, 16 HR, 60 RBI)
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The Kansas City Royals (31-75) face the Minnesota Twins (54-52)
The Twins will hit the field at Kauffman Stadium against the Royals on Sunday at 2:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- KC Key Player: Bobby Witt Jr. (.263 AVG, 18 HR, 60 RBI)
- MIN Key Player: Carlos Correa (.228 AVG, 12 HR, 45 RBI)
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The Houston Astros (59-46) take on the Tampa Bay Rays (63-44)
The Rays will take to the field at Minute Maid Park versus the Astros on Sunday at 2:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
- TV Channel: SportsNet SW
- Stream Live: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
- Game Time: 2:10 PM ET
Hitters to Watch
- HOU Key Player: Kyle Tucker (.299 AVG, 18 HR, 69 RBI)
- TB Key Player: Wander Franco (.267 AVG, 12 HR, 49 RBI)
Check out the latest odds and place your bets with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
The St. Louis Cardinals (46-60) face the Chicago Cubs (53-51)
The Cubs will hit the field at Busch Stadium versus the Cardinals on Sunday at 2:15 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- STL Key Player: Nolan Arenado (.282 AVG, 22 HR, 77 RBI)
- CHC Key Player: Nico Hoerner (.278 AVG, 7 HR, 57 RBI)
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The Colorado Rockies (40-64) host the Oakland Athletics (30-76)
The Athletics will take to the field at Coors Field against the Rockies on Sunday at 3:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
- TV Channel: SportsNet RM
- Stream Live: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
- Game Time: 3:10 PM ET
Hitters to Watch
- COL Key Player: Ryan McMahon (.255 AVG, 16 HR, 48 RBI)
- OAK Key Player: Brent Rooker (.248 AVG, 17 HR, 47 RBI)
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The San Francisco Giants (57-48) play the Boston Red Sox (56-48)
The Red Sox will look to pick up a road win at Oracle Park versus the Giants on Sunday at 4:05 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- SF Key Player: LaMonte Wade Jr (.269 AVG, 9 HR, 29 RBI)
- BOS Key Player: Justin Turner (.288 AVG, 16 HR, 68 RBI)
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The Los Angeles Dodgers (59-44) take on the Cincinnati Reds (57-49)
The Reds will look to pick up a road win at Dodger Stadium versus the Dodgers on Sunday at 4:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
- TV Channel: SportsNet LA
- Stream Live: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
- Game Time: 4:10 PM ET
Hitters to Watch
- LAD Key Player: Freddie Freeman (.328 AVG, 21 HR, 73 RBI)
- CIN Key Player: Spencer Steer (.276 AVG, 15 HR, 57 RBI)
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The San Diego Padres (51-54) play host to the Texas Rangers (60-45)
The Rangers will look to pick up a road win at PETCO Park versus the Padres on Sunday at 4:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- SD Key Player: Juan Soto (.265 AVG, 20 HR, 63 RBI)
- TEX Key Player: Marcus Semien (.275 AVG, 15 HR, 64 RBI)
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The Arizona Diamondbacks (56-49) host the Seattle Mariners (53-51)
The Mariners will take to the field at Chase Field against the Diamondbacks on Sunday at 4:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- ARI Key Player: Corbin Carroll (.288 AVG, 21 HR, 57 RBI)
- SEA Key Player: Julio Rodríguez (.252 AVG, 17 HR, 55 RBI)
Check out the latest odds and place your bets with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
The Baltimore Orioles (63-41) play the New York Yankees (55-49)
The Yankees will look to pick up a road win at Oriole Park at Camden Yards against the Orioles on Sunday at 7:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- BAL Key Player: Adley Rutschman (.267 AVG, 14 HR, 46 RBI)
- NYY Key Player: Gleyber Torres (.258 AVG, 16 HR, 44 RBI)
Check out the latest odds and place your bets with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Not all offers available in all states, please visit BetMGM for the latest promotions for your area. Must be 21+ to gamble, please wager responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact 1-800-GAMBLER.
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/mlb-odds-how-to-watch/ | 2023-07-30T12:41:24 | 0 | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/mlb-odds-how-to-watch/ |
The new charges against former Pres. Trump in the classified documents case are in a different legal league and there are hints he is also not politically immune from them either.
Copyright 2023 NPR
The new charges against former Pres. Trump in the classified documents case are in a different legal league and there are hints he is also not politically immune from them either.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/politics-chat-trump-could-face-political-blowback-from-new-charges-after-all | 2023-07-30T12:41:28 | 1 | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/politics-chat-trump-could-face-political-blowback-from-new-charges-after-all |
MLB Probable Starting Pitchers Tonight: Sunday, July 30
Who are the probable pitchers lined up to start on Sunday? Below, we list every starting pitching matchup for the day, which includes Luis Castillo toeing the rubber for the Mariners, and Merrill Kelly getting the call for the Diamondbacks.
Keep reading to find the probable starters for every contest on the docket for July 30.
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Today's Probable Starting Pitchers
Angels at Blue Jays Probable Pitchers
The Los Angeles Angels will send Tyler Anderson (5-2) to the hill as they play the Blue Jays, who will give the start to Jose Berrios (8-7) for the game between the clubs on Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Angels at Blue Jays
- TOR Odds to Win: -200
- LAA Odds to Win: +165
- Total: 9.5 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Angels at Blue Jays
- Game Time: 12:05 PM ET
- Streaming: Peacock (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Brewers at Braves Probable Pitchers
The Milwaukee Brewers will send Colin Rea (5-4) to the mound as they play the Braves, who will counter with AJ Smith-Shawver (0-0) for the game between the clubs on Sunday.
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Live Stream Brewers at Braves
- Game Time: 1:35 PM ET
- Streaming: MLB Network (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
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Phillies at Pirates Probable Pitchers
The Philadelphia Phillies will send Cristopher Sanchez (0-3) to the hill as they take on the Pirates, who will look to Rich Hill (7-10) when the teams face off Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Phillies at Pirates
- PHI Odds to Win: -150
- PIT Odds to Win: +125
- Total: 9 runs
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Live Stream Phillies at Pirates
- Game Time: 1:35 PM ET
- Streaming: MLB Network (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Tigers at Marlins Probable Pitchers
The Detroit Tigers will send Tarik Skubal (1-1) to the bump as they face the Marlins, who will counter with Jesus Luzardo (8-5) when the clubs face off on Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Tigers at Marlins
- MIA Odds to Win: -150
- DET Odds to Win: +125
- Total: 7 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Tigers at Marlins
- Game Time: 1:40 PM ET
- Streaming: BSFL (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
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Nationals at Mets Probable Pitchers
The Washington Nationals will send Trevor Williams (5-5) to the hill as they face the Mets, who will look to Justin Verlander (5-5) for the matchup between the clubs on Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Nationals at Mets
- NYM Odds to Win: -275
- WSH Odds to Win: +220
- Total: 8.5 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Nationals at Mets
- Game Time: 1:40 PM ET
- Streaming: WPIX (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Guardians at White Sox Probable Pitchers
The Cleveland Guardians will send Aaron Civale (4-2) to the mound as they play the White Sox, who will counter with Michael Kopech (4-9) for the game between the clubs Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Guardians at White Sox
- CLE Odds to Win: -145
- CHW Odds to Win: +120
- Total: 9 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Guardians at White Sox
- Game Time: 2:10 PM ET
- Streaming: NBCS-CHI (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Twins at Royals Probable Pitchers
The Minnesota Twins will send Kenta Maeda (2-5) to the hill as they play the Royals, who will look to Ryan Yarbrough (3-5) for the game between the clubs Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Twins at Royals
- MIN Odds to Win: -185
- KC Odds to Win: +150
- Total: 9 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Twins at Royals
- Game Time: 2:10 PM ET
- Streaming: BSKC (regional restrictions may apply)
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Rays at Astros Probable Pitchers
The Tampa Bay Rays will send Zack Littell (0-2) to the bump as they play the Astros, who will counter with Brandon Bielak (5-5) when the teams play on Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Rays at Astros
- HOU Odds to Win: -110
- TB Odds to Win: -110
- Total: 9 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Rays at Astros
- Game Time: 2:10 PM ET
- Streaming: SportsNet SW (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Cubs at Cardinals Probable Pitchers
The Chicago Cubs will send Kyle Hendricks (4-4) to the mound as they take on the Cardinals, who will counter with Steven Matz (1-7) when the teams play on Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Cubs at Cardinals
- STL Odds to Win: -145
- CHC Odds to Win: +120
- Total: 9 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Cubs at Cardinals
- Game Time: 2:15 PM ET
- Streaming: BSMW (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Athletics at Rockies Probable Pitchers
The Oakland Athletics will send Luis Medina (3-7) to the hill as they play the Rockies, who will counter with Ty Blach (0-0) when the clubs play Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Athletics at Rockies
- COL Odds to Win: -110
- OAK Odds to Win: -110
- Total: 12.5 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Athletics at Rockies
- Game Time: 3:10 PM ET
- Streaming: SportsNet RM (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Red Sox at Giants Probable Pitchers
The Boston Red Sox will send Brennan Bernardino (1-0) to the mound as they play the Giants, who will look to Scott Alexander (6-1) when the clubs meet on Sunday.
Live Stream Red Sox at Giants
- Game Time: 4:05 PM ET
- Streaming: NBCS-BA (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Reds at Dodgers Probable Pitchers
The Cincinnati Reds will send Graham Ashcraft (5-7) to the bump as they take on the Dodgers, who will give the start to Michael Grove (2-2) for the matchup between the clubs Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Reds at Dodgers
- LAD Odds to Win: -185
- CIN Odds to Win: +150
- Total: 10.5 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Reds at Dodgers
- Game Time: 4:10 PM ET
- Streaming: SportsNet LA (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Rangers at Padres Probable Pitchers
The Texas Rangers will send Cody Bradford (2-1) to the hill as they play the Padres, who will give the start to Blake Snell (7-8) for the game between the clubs Sunday.
Live Stream Rangers at Padres
- Game Time: 4:10 PM ET
- Streaming: SDPA (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Mariners at Diamondbacks Probable Pitchers
The Seattle Mariners will send Castillo (6-7) to the mound as they take on the Diamondbacks, who will counter with Kelly (9-4) when the teams play Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Mariners at Diamondbacks
- SEA Odds to Win: -120
- ARI Odds to Win: +100
- Total: 8.5 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Mariners at Diamondbacks
- Game Time: 4:10 PM ET
- Streaming: ARID (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Yankees at Orioles Probable Pitchers
The New York Yankees will send Luis Severino (2-4) to the bump as they play the Orioles, who will hand the ball to Dean Kremer (10-4) when the teams face off Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Yankees at Orioles
- BAL Odds to Win: -125
- NYY Odds to Win: +105
- Total: 9 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Yankees at Orioles
- Game Time: 7:10 PM ET
- Streaming: ESPN (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ | 2023-07-30T12:41:31 | 0 | https://www.wbrc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ |
On-air challenge: I'm going to give you some words. For each one, think of something that starts with the first letter of my word ... and that fits in the category named by the rest of my word.
Example: Factor — (Morgan) Freeman, (Henry) Fonda, (Harrison) Ford [actor starting with F]1. Scar
2. Aisle
3. Crank
4. Broom
5. Thorn
6. Bride
7. Swine
8. Cape
9. Trapper
Last week's challenge: Name a classic TV show in two words, in which the respective words rhyme with the first and last names of a famous writer - four letters in the first name, five letter in the last name. Who is it?
Challenge answer: "Get Smart" --> Bret Harte
Winner: Mary Butler from Columbus, Nebraska
This week's challenge: This challenge comes from listener Jim Vespe, of Mamaroneck, N.Y. Name a well-known U.S. city in nine letters. Change the third and fifth letters to get the name of a beverage. What is it?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, August 3rd at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/sunday-puzzle-let-the-categories-guide-you | 2023-07-30T12:41:34 | 1 | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/sunday-puzzle-let-the-categories-guide-you |
Ayesha Rascoe is a White House correspondent for NPR. She is currently covering her third presidential administration. Rascoe's White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast. | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/the-irs-will-no-longer-knock-on-doors-unannounced | 2023-07-30T12:41:40 | 1 | https://www.nepm.org/2023-07-30/the-irs-will-no-longer-knock-on-doors-unannounced |
National & World News An archeological dig in Turkey has uncovered artifacts dating back 1,000 years By Peter Kenyon Published July 30, 2023 at 8:02 AM EDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email In Turkey, what started out as an exploration of a Roman garrison has uncovered artifacts dating back to the time of the Assyrian empire. Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/an-archeological-dig-in-turkey-has-uncovered-artifacts-dating-back-1-000-years | 2023-07-30T12:41:46 | 1 | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/an-archeological-dig-in-turkey-has-uncovered-artifacts-dating-back-1-000-years |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Professor Amit Bhasin of the University of Texas at Austin about constructing roads and railways that can withstand extreme heat.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Professor Amit Bhasin of the University of Texas at Austin about constructing roads and railways that can withstand extreme heat.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/battling-extreme-heat-isnt-just-personal-we-need-better-infrastructure-too | 2023-07-30T12:41:52 | 0 | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/battling-extreme-heat-isnt-just-personal-we-need-better-infrastructure-too |
After nearly five years, the Big Peanut statue has returned to Ashburn, Ga. The original roadside attraction went down during Hurricane Michael. The new one is stronger and locally crafted.
Copyright 2023 NPR
After nearly five years, the Big Peanut statue has returned to Ashburn, Ga. The original roadside attraction went down during Hurricane Michael. The new one is stronger and locally crafted.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/georgias-famous-corn-statue-has-been-rebuilt-after-the-hurricane | 2023-07-30T12:41:58 | 0 | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/georgias-famous-corn-statue-has-been-rebuilt-after-the-hurricane |
More than 1,100 people have already been charged for their actions around Jan. 6 and many of them invoked Former President Donald Trump, who may also be indicted.
Copyright 2023 NPR
More than 1,100 people have already been charged for their actions around Jan. 6 and many of them invoked Former President Donald Trump, who may also be indicted.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/over-1-100-rioters-have-been-charged-for-jan-6-many-name-trump-in-their-statements | 2023-07-30T12:42:04 | 0 | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/over-1-100-rioters-have-been-charged-for-jan-6-many-name-trump-in-their-statements |
POMPEY, N.Y. -- At around 9 this morning, 911 received a call regarding a possible stabbing of three teenagers in Pompey.
That, according to Onondaga County Sheriff Deputies.
Deputies arrived at a neighbor's house of the teenagers.
The teenagers—two girls and a boy, siblings—went to a neighbor to ask for help.
When EMS arrived, the teens were transported to Upstate Pediatric Emergency Room.
Deputies, along with NYS Troopers, Manlius PD and Dewitt PD, worked to secure the area, and by communicating with the teens, the teenagers said that the "female who stabbed them went back into the house."
"Onondaga County Sheriff's SWAT team set up and attempted to make contact with the person in the house," a release stated.
After hours of attempting to reach the woman in the house, "SWAT member made entry to the residence and found a female dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound."
This is an open investigation and deputies are still determining the identity of the deceased woman.
The alleged incident is reported to have happened on Oran Delphi Road in the Town of Pompey. | https://www.wktv.com/news/deputies-3-teen-siblings-stabbed-in-pompey/article_a31868ee-2d7f-11ee-a326-f7ed6e3e9971.html | 2023-07-30T12:42:04 | 0 | https://www.wktv.com/news/deputies-3-teen-siblings-stabbed-in-pompey/article_a31868ee-2d7f-11ee-a326-f7ed6e3e9971.html |
ANNSVILLE, N.Y. -- A late-night fire on Thursday in Annsville destroys a home on Glenmore Road.
Fire investigators are trying to determine what caused the fire that happened just before midnight.
Five local Fire Companies arrived on scene to contain the house fire.
Members from the WKTV NewsChannel 2 crew have reached out to multiple fire departments and are waiting to hear back.
This story will be updated when more information becomes available. | https://www.wktv.com/news/fire-destroys-annsville-home/article_662eca34-2d8b-11ee-8ed2-43acc3f2c1bc.html | 2023-07-30T12:42:10 | 0 | https://www.wktv.com/news/fire-destroys-annsville-home/article_662eca34-2d8b-11ee-8ed2-43acc3f2c1bc.html |
NIAMEY, Niger — Thousands of supporters of the junta that took over Niger in a coup earlier this week marched through the streets of the capital, Niamey, on Sunday waving Russian flags, chanting the name of the Russian president and forcefully denouncing former colonial power France.
Russian mercenary group Wagner is already operating in neighboring Mali, and Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to expand his country's influence in the region, but it is unclear yet whether the new junta leaders are going to move toward Moscow or stick with Niger's Western partners.
Days after after mutinous soldiers ousted Niger's democratically elected president, uncertainty is mounting about the country's future and some are calling out the junta's reasons for seizing control.
The mutineers said they overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, who was elected two years ago in Niger's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France, because he wasn't able to secure the nation from growing jihadi violence. But some analysts and Nigeriens say that's just a pretext for a takeover that is more about internal power struggles than securing the nation.
"Everybody is wondering why this coup? That's because no one was expecting it. We couldn't expect a coup in Niger because there's no social, political or security situation that would justify that the military take the power," Prof. Amad Hassane Boubacar, who teaches at the University of Niamey, told The Associated Press.
He said Bazoum wanted to replace the head of the presidential guard, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who also goes by Omar and is now in charge of the country. Tchiani was loyal to Bazoum's predecessor and that sparked the problems, Boubacar said. The AP cannot independently verify his assessment.
While Niger's security situation is dire, it's not as bad as neighboring Burkina Faso or Mali, which have also have been battling an Islamic insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Last year Niger was the only one of the three to see a decline in violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
Niger until now has been seen as the last reliable partner for the West in efforts to battle the jihadists in Africa's Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence in the fight against extremism. France has 1,500 soldiers in the country who conduct joint operations with the Nigeriens, and the United States and other European countries have helped train the nation's troops.
Some taking part in Sunday's rally also warned regional bodies who have denounced the coup to stay away. "I would like also to say to the European Union, African Union and ECOWAS, please please stay out of our business," said Oumar Barou Moussa who was at the demonstration.
"It's time for us to take our lives, to work for ourselves. It's time for us to talk about our freedom and liberty. We need to stay together, we need to work together, we need to have our true independence," he said.
Conflict experts say out of all the countries in the region, Niger has the most at stake if it turns away from the West, given the millions of dollars of military assistance the international community has poured in. On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the continued security and economic arrangements that Niger has with the U.S. hinged on the release of Bazoum — who remains under house arrest — and "the immediate restoration of the democratic order in Niger."
France on Saturday suspended all development aid and other financial aid for Niger, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "France demands an immediate return to constitutional order under President Mohamed Bazoum, who was elected by the Nigeriens," it said.
The African Union has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the junta in Niger to reinstall the country's democratically elected government. On Sunday, the West African regional bloc, known as ECOWAS, is holding an emergency summit in Abuja, Nigeria.
However, in a televised address Saturday, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba, one of the soldiers who ousted Bazoum, accused the meeting of making a "plan of aggression" against Niger and said it would defend itself.
Niger experts say it's too soon to know how things will play out.
"Tensions with the military are still ongoing. There could be another coup after this one, or a stronger intervention from ECOWAS, potentially military force, even if it is difficult to foresee how specifically that may happen and what form that may take," said Tatiana Smirnova, a researcher at the Centre FrancoPaix in conflict resolution and peace missions.
"Many actors are also trying to negotiate, but the outcome is unclear," she said.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/supporters-of-nigers-coup-march-waving-russian-flags-and-denouncing-france | 2023-07-30T12:42:10 | 0 | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/supporters-of-nigers-coup-march-waving-russian-flags-and-denouncing-france |
BOONVILLE, N.Y. -- Food, tractor pulls, animals, games, rides and displays were just some of the highlights from Day 4 of the Boonville-Oneida County Fair.
Today, we visited the fair with a camera to take a few photos.
Did our camera catch you having fun at the fair?
The photo gallery from Day 4 of the fair is below.
The theme today at the fair was Children's Day and Pink Out Day, where guests wore pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness.
Below is a schedule of today's events.
It's the third day of the Boonville-Oneida County Fair, and there's a lot planned for the day.
It's Day 2 of the Boonville-Oneida County Fair. And just like yesterday, there's a packed schedule of activities and events.
BOONVILLE, N.Y. -- We are live at the Boonville-Oneida County Fair for Opening Day.
The multi-day Boonville-Oneida County Fair, now in its 135th year, kicked off this morning. This year's theme is Christmas in July at the Farm. | https://www.wktv.com/news/in-photos-day-4-at-the-boonville-oneida-county-fair/article_b13d2f2a-2d77-11ee-8b3a-dbaafa7f03b6.html | 2023-07-30T12:42:16 | 0 | https://www.wktv.com/news/in-photos-day-4-at-the-boonville-oneida-county-fair/article_b13d2f2a-2d77-11ee-8b3a-dbaafa7f03b6.html |
Washington became the first state to start deducting money from workers' paychecks to fund long-term care benefits. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on July 25, 2023.)
Copyright 2023 NPR
Washington became the first state to start deducting money from workers' paychecks to fund long-term care benefits. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on July 25, 2023.)
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/washingtons-new-tax-could-be-a-solution-to-fund-long-term-care | 2023-07-30T12:42:17 | 1 | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-07-30/washingtons-new-tax-could-be-a-solution-to-fund-long-term-care |
HARTWICK, N.Y. -- Just five miles west of Downtown Cooperstown is Jerry's Place Ice Cream and Grill in Hartwick.
In an article published yesterday by travel writers from CNY News, Jerry's Place took home the number one spot as a favorite among the writers.
Jerry’s Place’s is known to customers for its delicious ice cream and retro ambiance.
“We are beyond honored and humbled to be recognized as the top ice cream destination in Upstate New York,” Jeff Braswell, owner of Jerry’s Place Ice Cream and Grill, said.
“This achievement is a reflection of the passion and dedication of our team to serve excellent ice cream, while crafting delicious sundaes, shakes, banana splits and some of the best classic Americana inspired food in the area,” he continued.
Jerry's Place has been a part of the community for over 20 years.
Braswell is a Culinary Institute of America graduate.
“Our goal has always been to create a place where people can enjoy a great meal topped off with the proverbial cherry on top of the ice cream while making cherished memories,” Braswell said. “Being recognized as the top choice by travel writers is an affirmation of our commitment to delivering an unparalleled ice cream experience.” | https://www.wktv.com/news/local-ice-cream-shop-ranked-no-1-ice-cream-destination/article_eb2cd940-2d83-11ee-8fc0-4bd2f1798034.html | 2023-07-30T12:42:23 | 0 | https://www.wktv.com/news/local-ice-cream-shop-ranked-no-1-ice-cream-destination/article_eb2cd940-2d83-11ee-8fc0-4bd2f1798034.html |
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.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/national-world-news/2023-07-30/a-drone-attack-on-moscow-briefly-shut-one-of-its-airports-and-injured-one | 2023-07-30T12:42:23 | 0 | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/national-world-news/2023-07-30/a-drone-attack-on-moscow-briefly-shut-one-of-its-airports-and-injured-one |
UTICA, N.Y. -- The shooting happened at 11 p.m. on Deborah Drive at the Park Edge Townhouses.
Police say someone was throwing a large party when several unknown people walked up and opened fire into the crowd there.
They say a 17-year-old girl was shot in the stomach, and a 20-year-old-man was hit in the arm and the hand.
The girl was rushed to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery. She is in critical but stable condition.
The 20-year-old-man, meantime, was dropped off and walked into the emergency room. He is expected to be OK.
Police have no suspects in custody and are asking anyone who was in the area or may have seen anything to call the Utica Police Department at 315-223-3461. | https://www.wktv.com/news/north-utica-shooting/article_ddde7b48-2e11-11ee-95f6-9b2c8d9891b0.html | 2023-07-30T12:42:29 | 1 | https://www.wktv.com/news/north-utica-shooting/article_ddde7b48-2e11-11ee-95f6-9b2c8d9891b0.html |
ONEONTA, N.Y. -- A couple of Oneonta police officers are being credited for their quick actions.
They were on a routine patrol when they smelled wood burning and jumped into action.
A fire happened just after 4 yesterday morning at new Asbury Gardens on River Street.
The Oneonta fire chief said the fire started in the back building where there's a shop and garage and burned through the wall and upstairs into an empty apartment.
Both Oneonta fire and state fire investigators were looking into the cause, with state fire investigators being called in due to the possibility of hazardous material.
The owner of the building says he thinks the fire could've been from lithium batteries.
No one was hurt. | https://www.wktv.com/news/oneonta-police-officers-credited-for-quick-action-with-oneonta-fire/article_170b9d42-2e17-11ee-9adc-9f389a563fdc.html | 2023-07-30T12:42:35 | 1 | https://www.wktv.com/news/oneonta-police-officers-credited-for-quick-action-with-oneonta-fire/article_170b9d42-2e17-11ee-9adc-9f389a563fdc.html |
UTICA, N.Y. -- Every day in central New York, hundreds of trains pass through along the railroads. Despite how busy the railroads are, people still venture onto the tracks, sometimes with tragic consequences.
Thursday night's accident in which a man was struck and killed by a CSX train in Whitesboro while filming, serves as a reminder that being on the tracks is not only dangerous, it's also illegal.
"First and foremost, people shouldn't be on the tracks, that's specifically in the railroad law. It's also a trespass under the penal law," Oneida County Sheriff Rob Maciol said.
Despite this, people across the county still trespass on railroads.
One reason is because of a social media trend where people film trains passing them on railroads.
"If you're focusing on one track and there’s something coming on another track, by the time you realize something is wrong, it will be too late," Sheriff Maciol explained.
What makes being on the tracks so dangerous, the length needed to stop a train. Trains on the CSX line, for instance, travel anywhere from 55 to 75 mph.
"By the time the operator sees an emergency and they apply the full emergency braking system a full mile to stop. So, if it's a person or a car, they're not going to be able to avoid that collision and with a freight train that's a mile long, nothing is going to be able to survive that impact," Sheriff Maciol said.
With there being hundreds of thousands of miles of railroads in the United States, policing every single mile of rail is nearly impossible.
That's why the Sheriff says if you see something on the tracks, say something.
"If people see kids on the tracks, or adults on the tracks or any suspicious activity, please notify law enforcement so we can remove them before tragedy happens," Sheriff Maciol said. | https://www.wktv.com/news/spotlight-placed-on-railroad-safety-after-whitesboro-accident/article_2b898334-2dc1-11ee-9e22-47b07f2c4f7b.html | 2023-07-30T12:42:41 | 0 | https://www.wktv.com/news/spotlight-placed-on-railroad-safety-after-whitesboro-accident/article_2b898334-2dc1-11ee-9e22-47b07f2c4f7b.html |
UTICA, N.Y. -- Utica Police have arrested the man suspected of shooting a 32-year-old man in the foot and leg Wednesday evening in the 600 block of Kossuth Ave.
Police say evidence in the investigation led them to develop 33-year-old Mounir Howard of Utica as a suspect.
Howard was arrested during a traffic stop in Utica Friday evening.
Howard was charged with attempted assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
The victim was treated at St. Elizabeth's Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
Utica Police and Utica Fire were dispatched to the 500 block of Kossuth Avenue at 9:20 last night regarding a shooting. | https://www.wktv.com/news/utica-police-arrest-kossuth-ave-shooting-suspect/article_75d1f198-2e15-11ee-8471-631ca9594403.html | 2023-07-30T12:42:47 | 1 | https://www.wktv.com/news/utica-police-arrest-kossuth-ave-shooting-suspect/article_75d1f198-2e15-11ee-8471-631ca9594403.html |
AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL
Dept. of NYS Jr. Division Tournament (Double elimination)
- Rockland Pirates 17, Ilion Post Jr. 0**
NORTH AMERICAN BOX LACROSSE LEAGUE
Upstate Division semifinals
- Oswego River Hawks 13, Utica Yeti 12** (Utica eliminated)
TBT
Syracuse Regional Final - Sweet 16
- (2) Boeheim's Army 69, (1) Blue Collar U. 54
PGCBL
- Boonville Lumberjacks 5, Oneonta Outlaws 2
- Utica Blue Sox 12, Watertown Rapids 2
** - Game highlights included in attached video
If you would like you team's results included, call in scores and stats to: (315)768-2254 or email us at: sports@wktv.com | https://www.wktv.com/sports/scores-7-28-23-ilion-post-drops-first-loss-of-season-in-state-tournament-opener/article_dde1fc20-2dc9-11ee-b92c-f76f41a506f0.html | 2023-07-30T12:42:53 | 1 | https://www.wktv.com/sports/scores-7-28-23-ilion-post-drops-first-loss-of-season-in-state-tournament-opener/article_dde1fc20-2dc9-11ee-b92c-f76f41a506f0.html |
The heat and humidity come to an end today as the near term weather pattern favors below average temperatures for this time of year. First though, we have to get through some rain showers today. A slow moving cold front from the north can spark some showers and storms earlier north of Utica. Moving along the front from the west is an MCS that will bring numerous showers and possibly a few thunderstorms arriving roughly between 1-3 PM west and 3-5 PM east. Lingering light rain comes to an end late this evening as skies clear out. Temperatures tonight are expected to fall into the 50s and in some areas 40s!
Nice weather to wrap up the weekend Sunday. Lower humidity and highs in the mid 70s. Unsettled weather returns Monday before we dry out again Tuesday through Thursday as humidity slowly returns ahead of some storms Friday. | https://www.wktv.com/weather/showers-and-storms-this-saturday-nice-weather-sunday/article_665dea44-2e0d-11ee-a66a-53262329ff77.html | 2023-07-30T12:42:59 | 1 | https://www.wktv.com/weather/showers-and-storms-this-saturday-nice-weather-sunday/article_665dea44-2e0d-11ee-a66a-53262329ff77.html |
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, muggy, and mild. Storms late. Low 69.
Saturday: Widespread showers and thunderstorms, especially in the morning and early afternoon. High 79. Low 56.
Sunday: Partly sunny. High 75. Low 55.
The weather turns cooler and much less humid as we head into the weekend.
A very warm and humid evening in Central New York, with temperatures falling into the upper 70s to low 80s near sunset. A mild and muggy night, with mostly cloudy skies and overnight lows only in the upper 60s. Widespread showers and thunderstorms are expected Saturday late morning to early afternoon as a cold front arrives. Humid in the morning, then turning much less humid in the afternoon, with highs in the upper 70s. Beautiful on Sunday, with partly sunny skies, low humidity, and highs in the mid 70s.
The weather remains comfortable most of next week, with partly sunny skies on Monday and a brief shower late in the day. Highs in the low 70s. Mostly sunny on Tuesday, with highs in the low 70s. Mostly sunny on Wednesday and warmer, with highs in the upper 70s. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible on Thursday and Friday. Turning a little more humid, with highs in the upper 70s. | https://www.wktv.com/weather/weekend-forecast/article_77ae04c2-2d87-11ee-91b5-47dbc17d1b33.html | 2023-07-30T12:43:05 | 1 | https://www.wktv.com/weather/weekend-forecast/article_77ae04c2-2d87-11ee-91b5-47dbc17d1b33.html |
She's one of India's biggest Barbie fans. When Vichitra Rajasingh was growing up, family and friends helped her build her collection of Barbie dolls until she had almost 80 of them. She once owned a Barbie camper, a speedboat, supermarket and post office. The mermaid Barbie and scuba-diving Barbie were her favorites.
Since her family ran a hotel, they put the dolls on display in the lobby in the late '90s. On Rajasingh's 14th birthday, her parents painted her room bright pink and hired artists to draw her favorite Barbie dolls on the walls.
All her Barbies were blond. She says she didn't like the Indian ethnic ones that came on the local market.
Living the pink life
"My love for the color pink began with my childhood passion for Barbie," she says. "And now it's become my identity." For her, the color represents love, joy, femininity and playfulness, everything she once associated with Barbie, she says.
Today Rajasingh lives in the southern Indian city of Madurai, where she drives a pink mini-Cooper and runs a bakery and lives in an apartment that are dominated by that color.
When the Barbie movie released in India on July 21, she gathered a bunch of friends, "everyone dressed to the nines in pink," and watched it on the day of its release. "I loved the movie. It was fun to watch and brought back many joyful childhood memories," she says.
While she no longer has her huge doll collection — having long since given it away to family and friends — Rajasingh is still a Barbie lover. She bakes six or seven Barbie-themed cakes a week, with an actual doll at the center of a cake that serves as her frothy dress, constructed around her in a swirl of sugar and cream.
Rajasingh saw Barbie as an aspirational figure — and grew up admiring the doll's freedom, confidence, globe-trotting lifestyle and even her arched feet in sassy stilettos.
But for others in India, Barbie has a far more complicated legacy.
The pressures Barbie can bring
Shweta Sharan, a writer who lives in Mumbai, admits to being conflicted about whether or not to watch the movie with her 13-year-old daughter, Laasya, who until a year ago ardently loved Barbie but then outgrew playing with dolls.
"I am aware that these dolls have many complicated associations," Sharan says. "Watching my daughter love a doll that looked nothing like her — with blond hair, blue eyes, perfect breasts — I worried if she would always strive to be someone else and feel inadequate."
These worries are valid in the opinion of ElsaMarie DSilva, a social entrepreneur from India and an Aspen fellow. "While Barbie is almost universally loved among girls of all ages, many do aspire to look like her, unconsciously pressurizing young girls to conform to unrealistic body shapes and expectations," she says — a common criticism aimed at Barbie.
Indian Barbie is not a rousing success
Mattel did make an effort to adapt the doll for an Indian market. When Mattel launched Barbie in India in 1991, it was the familiar Western-looking blond-haired blue-eyed Barbie. Then in 1996, they rolled out Indian Barbie, with brown skin. She came either wearing a bright sari or a salwar kameez — a knee-length tunic over fitted trousers.
But the Indian Barbie was not popular. "Indian kids gravitated toward the white-skinned Barbie instead of the brown-skinned one because light-skinned women were considered more beautiful in India and an automatic choice," DSilva says.
She points out how even in Indian clothes, Barbie still had a body that did not represent real women in India or anywhere else — she was way too tall and way too thin.
Priti Nemani, an Indian American attorney living in Chicago, analyzed why Barbie failed so spectacularly in the Indian market in a research paper published in 2011. In addition to the unrealistic, impossibly thin appearance of the doll, she points out how other cultural factors were at play.
"We weren't seeing Indian features on Barbie," she says. "We were seeing white Barbies dipped in brown. And even those brown Barbies didn't last long on the shelves. The latest versions of the Indian Barbie have much lighter skin tone.
Meanwhile, even though blond Barbies sold well, Ken tanked in India. "Indian parents who wouldn't want their daughters in romantic relationships at such an early age weren't going to buy the boyfriend," Nemani says.
In spite of her initial misgivings, Sharan enjoyed the Barbie movie with her daughter, now 13, who especially liked the feminist overtones. Laasya loved the beginning, when they were told "Barbie has a great day everyday. Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him."
Barbie inspires a poem
There are other issues about Barbie in India. For many kids, the doll is too expensive.
Ankita Apurva, 26, a writer who grew up in a farming family in Ranchi, a city in the Eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, recalls a childhood bereft of Barbies.
Her parents, who struggled to pay for a good education that they hoped would be her armor against bullying and discrimination, could not afford to buy their daughter a Barbie.
"They weren't in a position to splurge on fancy dolls like a Barbie," she says. She recalls feeling inferior for not owning one of these expensive dolls that would help her connect with other Barbie owners in her circle. It was especially hard for her at lunch when girls would boast about how many dolls they owned.
"I believe that even if children from marginalized communities manage to enter [private] institutions [for the privileged], there are certain social, cultural and economic symbols which are consciously and subconsciously deployed to mark them out, and Barbie, as loved as it is, is definitely one of them," she says.
Over the years, Apurva's family has grown stronger financially. When she saw the global resurgence of interest in Barbie now, she didn't feel angry or alienated, but it did bring back memories of desperately wanting to fit in – and not just because she didn't have a Barbie.
"Growing up, I rarely felt represented in literature or media. If pens or cameras turned toward us, they inadvertently counted us as data: dead bodies of farmers or survivors of violence of umpteen kinds."
As a girl from a farming family in Jharkhand, Apurva felt invisible. And so, she decided to express those emotions. She wrote a poem that she posted on Instagram, not to shame anyone who is privileged enough to own a Barbie but to comfort those who, like her, may have felt left out.
Here are some excerpts:
"Here's to the girls who do not get the Barbie craze,
...
girls who had parents who could not
or did not or choose not
to get them Barbie dolls
...
it's okay,
to not relate to any of it
...
what is not okay are friends ...
who intentionally make you
feel low by asking how many Barbies
you owned as a kid even as they
know you weren't privileged enough
to have them.
...
you are also not "too much" ...
if you feel
that Barbie is a colonial icon
legitimizing racial supremacy
while being a 'white feminist' trope
...
and once again
remember,
you are everything,
they are just Ken
Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, Southern India. She reports on global health, science, and development, and her work has been published in the New York Times, The British Medical Journal, BBC, The Guardian and other outlets. You can find her on twitter @kamal_t
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kcbx.org/npr-top-news/2023-07-28/barbie-in-india-a-skin-color-debate-a-poignant-poem-baked-in-a-cake | 2023-07-30T12:43:34 | 0 | https://www.kcbx.org/npr-top-news/2023-07-28/barbie-in-india-a-skin-color-debate-a-poignant-poem-baked-in-a-cake |
People have asked me what I've learned so far through this series. Have I gotten any clarity on what makes up my own spiritual identity? And the answer is, not really. I'm still in the research phase of this project. I'm still collecting experiences and perspectives and I imagine I'll keep doing that forever, but it's too early to draw any definitive conclusions — except for one.
I believe each and every one of us is capable of making our own meaning. Some of us do that by living according to a set of religious principles. Or by feeling the beauty and sanctity of nature. Or by choosing to see spiritual connections in what others might call mere coincidence.
I don't need anyone to validate those experiences for them to be meaningful to me. But according to Lisa Miller, a professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, having a spiritual life is good for your mental health.
Miller is a psychologist and has dedicated most of her career to the study of neuroscience and spirituality. Her newest book is called The Awakened Brain, and in it she makes some really bold claims about how holding spiritual beliefs can decrease our rates of anxiety and depression and generally make us most likely to lead happier lives. I can hear your skepticism already! I get it. I'm a spiritually inclined kind of person but it's still hard for me to understand how, scientifically speaking, believing in something bigger than yourself can make you healthier and happier.
I needed to understand how Miller came to these conclusions. But before she got to the actual science, she told me a story.
It was the mid '90s. Miller was in the early stages of her career and working at a residential mental health facility in New York City. After she'd been there a few months, Yom Kippur rolled around — the day of atonement, considered the most significant of the Jewish religious holidays. One of the older male patients with severe bipolar disorder asked if there were any plans to mark the day. The doctor in charge shrugged his shoulders and said, no — there's no service planned. The patient walked out of the room with his shoulders slumped and Lisa, who is Jewish, saw an opportunity.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Lisa Miller: I approached the unit chief and said, "I'm certainly not a rabbi, but I've been to two-and-a-half decades of Yom Kippur services. I'd be happy to facilitate if that might be OK with you." So I showed up on Yom Kippur and the patients had arrived early to the kitchen, which was to be our sanctuary. The fluorescent lights were quite strong and as we crowded around the linoleum table there was an extraordinary feeling of specialness.
As we started the prayers that we all knew from our childhood, joining together saying in Hebrew the prayers of Yom Kippur, I looked over and noticed that as the gentleman with bipolar was davening, he could not have been further from explosive. He was holding our group in the cadence of the prayers and we were actually following him.
I took a pause and I said, "I feel so grateful to be here today in our Yom Kippur ceremony. Would anyone like to say anything?" We went around the table and the first person to speak was a very otherwise withdrawn woman with recurrent depression. She said, "You know, I always knew on Yom Kippur we could ask for forgiveness. But sitting here now with you all, I'm aware that we can be forgiven. God can forgive us." And she looked liberated.
As I looked around the table at the patients, whatever their symptoms had been yesterday, they were free in that moment. They were free of suffering. They were free of the characteristic patterns that had dragged them down in a way that was equal and opposite to their main symptoms. And so I thought a mental health system minus spirituality made no sense, and that became my life's work, to understand the place of spirituality in renewal, in recovery, in resilience, and to put this in the language of science.
Rachel Martin: What happened when you brought these kinds of questions to your peers, to the other people in your scientific community? Like when you said for the first time, "Hey, I think we need to look at the effect of spirituality on mental health." What did people say to you?
Miller: Well, the vast majority were very respectful, nodded, and didn't pick up the thread. Some of them would say, "That's not psychology, that's not psychiatry." And in fact, I remember early on giving a grand rounds presentation and I opened up saying, "I'm going to speak today about a body of data using nationally representative samples on spirituality and mental health with all the gold standard methods." And about 10 people got up and walked out. It was absolutely not of interest.
Martin: Using the gold standard, what did that mean in terms of the experiments you were running and the studies and the data you were collecting? How did you make sure that it would hold water in the scientific community?
Miller: If I were to characterize the first five years of my investigation, I would say I used the data sets that everyone else knew and trusted. I only asked one new question, which was: "What's the impact of spirituality on the DSM diagnosis of addiction and depression?" The findings were jaw dropping.
The protective benefit of personal spirituality, meaning someone who says their personal spirituality is very important, is 80% against addiction. They have 80% decreased relative risk for the DSM diagnosis of addiction to drugs or alcohol.
Martin: Wait, so someone who self-identifies as having a meaningful spiritual life is 80% less likely to get addicted to drugs or alcohol than someone who says they don't?
Miller: Yes.
Martin: Wow. And how can you prove that it is a spiritual life that is doing that and not some external factor? Because you heard this from other critics, too, some of your peers said you can't attribute that to spirituality, it's gotta be some other social conditioning.
Miller: Well, that's a very important point because in every study we controlled for all of the usual interpretations about this being social support or having resources. So we plugged into our equation every other possible explanation that was generally taken in mental health to explain the road to depression. And nonetheless, it actually turned out that the more high risk we are, the more that there's stress in our lives, the more that we might be genetically at risk for depression, the greater the impact of spirituality as a source of resilience as preventative against major depression.
Martin: What does that look like in the brain?
Miller: One of the most beautiful findings in my 20 years as an investigator was from an MRI study conducted together with our colleagues at Yale Medical School. We looked at people of many different faith traditions and the first finding was that there is one neuro seat of transcendent perception and we share it. Now there's human variability of course, and we can strengthen components.
Martin: How are you actually doing that with people? Are you asking your subjects to pray? What are the spiritual inputs that are going into them so that you can measure it on their brains?
Miller: The very specific prompt was, "Tell us about a time where you felt a deep connection to God, your higher power, the source of life." Everyone had a story like that and as they told their story, we recorded them and it was then played back in their ears while they were inside the scanner.
Martin: Ah, they heard themselves recounting their spiritual experience.
Miller: It was tailor made to their own moment.
Martin: And you saw their brains light up?
Miller: Oh yes. Connecting to these memories, the bonding network comes up online just as when we were held in the arms of our parents or grandparents.
Martin: Wait, when you say the bonding network you mean you can literally see that the brain will respond to spiritual stimuli in the same way that it does to a hug from a family member when you're a baby?
Miller: Precisely.
Martin: Can you tell me how this manifests in the real world? I'm thinking about this anecdote you include in the book about a client of yours. A girl you refer to as Iliana.
Miller: Iliana adored her father, I mean, he was the sun and the moon and the stars to her. They were so close. And one night two men who her father knew, came into his corner store, robbed him and murdered him. And she was devastated. This was a grief that was so deep. She simply could not free herself from the grief that was shackling her heart.
One day, Iliana skips into my office. There's a levity and joy. She plops into the seat and says, "Dr. Miller, you're never gonna believe this. My cousin and my cousin's girlfriend chaperoned me so I could go to a party and I met the most wonderful boy. We talked so long, it must have been 20 minutes. He was so polite and so kind. But here's the best part, his name." Which was the same very usual name as her father.
She said, "Don't you see? My father sent him. My father is looking out after me." And from that day on she was in the world of the living. What changed everything for Iliana was the awareness that her father walked with her. She maintained a deep transcendent relationship with her father, as most people around the world do.
Iliana trusted her deep inner knowing that this was far too probabilistic to have happened by chance. That this very rare name held both by this new boy and her father could possibly mean nothing.
Martin: Can I ask, what are you thinking as you hear this? I mean, are you thinking that is just a crazy coincidence, but if she needs to believe that this is a sign from God, who am I to tell her otherwise? Because it seems to be working.
Miller: Well, at the time, that was certainly the most common interpretive framework amongst psychologists and psychiatrists. But I could see plain as day that this was a tremendously sacred moment. This was a living miracle. This was a gift.
For me to have treated it like some kind of cultural diversity variable or that it's just the meaning she makes would've actually taken all of the energy and spirit out of that transformative awakening moment. I joined her.
Now I did that authentically because it was my view as well that this is far too nonprobabilistic to have happened by chance, that there are very few people by that very same name and that the first boy she met in a year and a half since her father's passing should have the name of the father. It was a synchronicity. There was a deeper meaning being revealed.
Martin: When you're talking to people who aren't scientists, someone who's skeptical, someone who doesn't have faith, who doesn't have what they define as a spiritual life, what do you want them to take away from your research and your message?
Miller: I've given a number of talks to audiences who, prior to seeing the science, would not necessarily consider themselves spiritual people. And, in fact, I oftentimes hear from people who consider themselves skeptics and very left-brained and when they see the peer reviewed science that says we're naturally spiritual beings, that when we cultivate our spirituality we're 80% less likely to be addicted, 82% less likely to take our lives, it speaks to the left side of their brains long enough that it quiets down the skepticism.
In other words, three cheers for the skeptic. Here is published, peer reviewed science for skeptical audiences to begin to explore, to be curious about our spiritual nature. You know, at the inner table of human knowing we all have an empiricist, a logician, an intuitive, a mystic, and a skeptic. And the skeptic is very welcome, but the skeptic is not the bouncer at the door.
It is not scientific to put a skeptic as a bouncer at the door. It is not more rigorous to toss out an idea before being examined in every way. We are wired to be able to investigate. So I simply say to the biggest skeptic of all, you are most welcome to your own inner table of inquiry, but be sure to invite everyone else.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kcbx.org/npr-top-news/2023-07-30/this-ivy-league-researcher-says-spirituality-is-good-for-our-mental-health | 2023-07-30T12:43:40 | 1 | https://www.kcbx.org/npr-top-news/2023-07-30/this-ivy-league-researcher-says-spirituality-is-good-for-our-mental-health |
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.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kcbx.org/npr-top-news/npr-top-news/2023-07-29/a-drone-attack-on-moscow-briefly-shut-one-of-its-airports-and-injured-one | 2023-07-30T12:43:46 | 1 | https://www.kcbx.org/npr-top-news/npr-top-news/2023-07-29/a-drone-attack-on-moscow-briefly-shut-one-of-its-airports-and-injured-one |
No injuries reported in Lake Monona boat fire
Published: Jul. 30, 2023 at 5:40 AM CDT|Updated: 2 hours ago
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) -A group of people boating on Lake Monona were rescued and brought to dry land after a massive fire broke out just off of Olbrich Park.
No injuries were reported and everyone was able to get off the boat safely.
Authorities say the first call came in at 6:20p.m. with Madison fire and Dane County Sheriff’s Department boat patrol responding shortly after.
Footage captured reveals a huge plume of black smoke. What caused the fire is unknown at this time.
This is a developing story.
Click here to download the NBC15 News app or our NBC15 First Alert weather app.
Copyright 2023 WMTV. All rights reserved. | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/30/no-injuries-reported-lake-monona-boat-fire/ | 2023-07-30T12:43:57 | 1 | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/30/no-injuries-reported-lake-monona-boat-fire/ |
Ronald Acuña homers, steals 50th base in Braves’ 11-5 win over Brewers
ATLANTA (AP) — Ronald Acuña hit his 24th home run and stole his 50th base, and the Atlanta Braves used a six-run first inning to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 11-5 on Saturday night.
Bryce Elder (8-2) shut down the Brewers after being staked to the big lead. He allowed one run and four hits while striking out three in seven innings.
Taylor Hearn allowed four runs in the eighth for the Braves before Michael Tonkin closed out the game with a scoreless ninth.
Acuña went 3 for 4 with two runs, two RBIs, a home run, a steal and a walk. He is on pace for 39 home runs and 79 steals for the season.
Marcel Ozuna was 3 for 4 with two home runs and four RBIs, Austin Riley and Orlando Arcia both had two hits and every starter in the Atlanta lineup had at least one hit for the second consecutive game. According to Elias, the Braves last accomplished that in 1996 and the only other team to do it this year is the Rockies, who have done it twice.
Julio Teheran, who pitched well against his former team a week ago, gave up nine runs and 11 hits — including three home runs — in five innings. Teheran (2-5), who spent nine seasons with the Braves, gave up just one run in six innings against them last Sunday.
William Contreras was 2 for 4 with two runs scored and hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning for the Brewers.
The Braves jumped out early, opening the game with four straight singles. After a sacrifice fly by Travis d’Arnaud, Ozuna had an RBI double and Eddie Rosario followed with a home run for a 6-0 lead. It was the sixth time this season the Braves have scored at least five runs in the first, and they have 107 first-inning runs in 102 games.
Ozuna became the fifth Braves player with at least 20 home runs when he hit a solo shot to right center field in the fifth inning, then added another solo homer in the seventh.
Trailing 11-1 in the eighth, the Brewers scored four runs on Contreras’ three-run homer and an RBI single by Joey Wiemer.
UP NEXT
Brewers RHP Colin Rea (5-4, 4.53) will pitch the final game of the regular season between the Braves and Brewers on Sunday. The Braves have yet to announce a starter.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/30/ronald-acua-homers-steals-50th-base-braves-11-5-win-over-brewers/ | 2023-07-30T12:44:03 | 0 | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/30/ronald-acua-homers-steals-50th-base-braves-11-5-win-over-brewers/ |
Wisconsin driver Sam Mayer wins on home-state track for 1st Xfinity Series victory
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (AP) — 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, 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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/30/wisconsin-driver-sam-mayer-wins-home-state-track-1st-xfinity-series-victory/ | 2023-07-30T12:44:09 | 0 | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/30/wisconsin-driver-sam-mayer-wins-home-state-track-1st-xfinity-series-victory/ |
Consumer demand for speed and convenience drives labor unrest among workers in Hollywood and at UPS
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 television 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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2023/07/30/consumer-demand-speed-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-hollywood-ups/ | 2023-07-30T12:44:24 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2023/07/30/consumer-demand-speed-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-hollywood-ups/ |
Five people shot in Michigan
LANSING, Mich. (WILX/Gray News) - Five people were shot in Lansing, Michigan, WILX reports.
Lansing Police officers responded to a shooting in the 1300 block of W. Holmes Road around 1:00 a.m. on Sunday.
When officers arrived, they found a large crowd of people and multiple shooting victims.
The Lansing Fire Department responded to treat and transport several of the victims to a local hospital. Due to the size of the crowd, the Lansing Police Department requested assistance from neighboring jurisdictions.
Five shooting victims were identified ranging in age from 16 to 26 years old. Two of the victims are listed in critical condition.
Police detained several suspects and recovered multiple firearms from the scene.
This is an active investigation and Lansing Police Detectives and Crime Scene Investigators are at the scene working to determine the events which led up to the shootings.
Copyright 2023 WILX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2023/07/30/five-people-shot-michigan/ | 2023-07-30T12:44:30 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/2023/07/30/five-people-shot-michigan/ |
How to Watch the Lynx vs. Sun Game: Streaming & TV Channel Info for July 30
Published: Jul. 30, 2023 at 6:29 AM CDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
DeWanna Bonner will lead the Connecticut Sun (18-6) against the Minnesota Lynx (12-13) one game after putting up 32 points in an 88-83 win over the Wings. The matchup is on Sunday, July 30, 2023, at 1:00 PM ET on CBS Sports Network and NBCS-BOS.
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Lynx vs. Sun Game Info
- Game Day: Sunday, July 30, 2023
- Game Time: 1:00 PM ET
- TV: CBS Sports Network
- Arena: Mohegan Sun Arena
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
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Key Stats for Lynx vs. Sun
- Minnesota's 80.2 points per game are just 1.6 more points than the 78.6 Connecticut allows.
- Minnesota has shot at a 43% rate from the field this season, 0.8 percentage points higher than the 42.2% shooting opponents of Connecticut have averaged.
- The Lynx are 11-5 when they shoot higher than 42.2% from the field.
- Minnesota shoots 31.4% from three-point distance this season. That's only 0.2 percentage points higher than Connecticut has allowed its opponents to shoot from deep (31.2%).
- The Lynx have an 8-5 record when the team makes more than 31.2% of their three-point attempts.
- Connecticut and Minnesota rebound at about the same rate, with Connecticut averaging 0.7 fewer rebounds per game.
Lynx Recent Performance
- The Lynx are tallying 81.9 points per game over their last 10 games, compared to their season average of 80.2.
- Minnesota is tallying 81.9 points per game over its previous 10 games, compared to its season average of 80.2.
- Over their past 10 games, the Lynx are sinking 6.8 three-pointers per game, 0.2 more than their season average (6.6). They also have a higher three-point percentage over their last 10 contests (33.5%) compared to their season average (31.4%).
Lynx Injuries
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/lynx-vs-sun-wnba-live-stream-tv/ | 2023-07-30T12:44:37 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/lynx-vs-sun-wnba-live-stream-tv/ |
MLB Games Tonight: How to Watch on TV, Streaming & Odds - Sunday, July 30
Today's MLB schedule has plenty of quality competition on the docket. Among those games is the Texas Rangers squaring off against the San Diego Padres.
You will find info on how to watch today's MLB action right here.
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How to Watch Today's MLB Games
The Toronto Blue Jays (59-46) take on the Los Angeles Angels (54-51)
The Angels hope to get a road victory at Rogers Centre against the Blue Jays on Sunday at 12:05 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- TOR Key Player: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (.268 AVG, 17 HR, 65 RBI)
- LAA Key Player: Shohei Ohtani (.302 AVG, 39 HR, 81 RBI)
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The Atlanta Braves (66-36) face the Milwaukee Brewers (57-48)
The Brewers will hit the field at Truist Park versus the Braves on Sunday at 1:35 PM ET.
How to Watch
- TV Channel: MLB Network
- Stream Live: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
- Game Time: 1:35 PM ET
Hitters to Watch
- ATL Key Player: Ronald Acuña Jr. (.333 AVG, 24 HR, 61 RBI)
- MIL Key Player: Christian Yelich (.286 AVG, 15 HR, 58 RBI)
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The Pittsburgh Pirates (46-58) play host to the Philadelphia Phillies (56-48)
The Phillies will look to pick up a road win at PNC Park versus the Pirates on Sunday at 1:35 PM ET.
How to Watch
- TV Channel: MLB Network
- Stream Live: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
- Game Time: 1:35 PM ET
Hitters to Watch
- PIT Key Player: Bryan Reynolds (.255 AVG, 11 HR, 47 RBI)
- PHI Key Player: Bryson Stott (.306 AVG, 9 HR, 37 RBI)
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The Miami Marlins (56-49) play the Detroit Tigers (47-58)
The Tigers will take to the field at LoanDepot park against the Marlins on Sunday at 1:40 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- MIA Key Player: Luis Arraez (.381 AVG, 3 HR, 51 RBI)
- DET Key Player: Spencer Torkelson (.230 AVG, 15 HR, 58 RBI)
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The New York Mets (49-55) play the Washington Nationals (44-61)
The Nationals will hit the field at Citi Field versus the Mets on Sunday at 1:40 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- NYM Key Player: Pete Alonso (.217 AVG, 30 HR, 73 RBI)
- WSH Key Player: Lane Thomas (.286 AVG, 16 HR, 55 RBI)
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The Chicago White Sox (43-63) take on the Cleveland Guardians (52-53)
The Guardians will look to pick up a road win at Guaranteed Rate Field against the White Sox on Sunday at 2:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- CHW Key Player: Luis Robert (.270 AVG, 29 HR, 60 RBI)
- CLE Key Player: José Ramírez (.288 AVG, 16 HR, 60 RBI)
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The Kansas City Royals (31-75) face the Minnesota Twins (54-52)
The Twins will hit the field at Kauffman Stadium against the Royals on Sunday at 2:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- KC Key Player: Bobby Witt Jr. (.263 AVG, 18 HR, 60 RBI)
- MIN Key Player: Carlos Correa (.228 AVG, 12 HR, 45 RBI)
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The Houston Astros (59-46) take on the Tampa Bay Rays (63-44)
The Rays will take to the field at Minute Maid Park versus the Astros on Sunday at 2:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
- TV Channel: SportsNet SW
- Stream Live: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
- Game Time: 2:10 PM ET
Hitters to Watch
- HOU Key Player: Kyle Tucker (.299 AVG, 18 HR, 69 RBI)
- TB Key Player: Wander Franco (.267 AVG, 12 HR, 49 RBI)
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The St. Louis Cardinals (46-60) face the Chicago Cubs (53-51)
The Cubs will hit the field at Busch Stadium versus the Cardinals on Sunday at 2:15 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- STL Key Player: Nolan Arenado (.282 AVG, 22 HR, 77 RBI)
- CHC Key Player: Nico Hoerner (.278 AVG, 7 HR, 57 RBI)
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The Colorado Rockies (40-64) host the Oakland Athletics (30-76)
The Athletics will take to the field at Coors Field against the Rockies on Sunday at 3:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
- TV Channel: SportsNet RM
- Stream Live: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
- Game Time: 3:10 PM ET
Hitters to Watch
- COL Key Player: Ryan McMahon (.255 AVG, 16 HR, 48 RBI)
- OAK Key Player: Brent Rooker (.248 AVG, 17 HR, 47 RBI)
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The San Francisco Giants (57-48) play the Boston Red Sox (56-48)
The Red Sox will look to pick up a road win at Oracle Park versus the Giants on Sunday at 4:05 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- SF Key Player: LaMonte Wade Jr (.269 AVG, 9 HR, 29 RBI)
- BOS Key Player: Justin Turner (.288 AVG, 16 HR, 68 RBI)
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The Los Angeles Dodgers (59-44) take on the Cincinnati Reds (57-49)
The Reds will look to pick up a road win at Dodger Stadium versus the Dodgers on Sunday at 4:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
- TV Channel: SportsNet LA
- Stream Live: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply)
- Game Time: 4:10 PM ET
Hitters to Watch
- LAD Key Player: Freddie Freeman (.328 AVG, 21 HR, 73 RBI)
- CIN Key Player: Spencer Steer (.276 AVG, 15 HR, 57 RBI)
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The San Diego Padres (51-54) play host to the Texas Rangers (60-45)
The Rangers will look to pick up a road win at PETCO Park versus the Padres on Sunday at 4:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- SD Key Player: Juan Soto (.265 AVG, 20 HR, 63 RBI)
- TEX Key Player: Marcus Semien (.275 AVG, 15 HR, 64 RBI)
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The Arizona Diamondbacks (56-49) host the Seattle Mariners (53-51)
The Mariners will take to the field at Chase Field against the Diamondbacks on Sunday at 4:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- ARI Key Player: Corbin Carroll (.288 AVG, 21 HR, 57 RBI)
- SEA Key Player: Julio Rodríguez (.252 AVG, 17 HR, 55 RBI)
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The Baltimore Orioles (63-41) play the New York Yankees (55-49)
The Yankees will look to pick up a road win at Oriole Park at Camden Yards against the Orioles on Sunday at 7:10 PM ET.
How to Watch
Hitters to Watch
- BAL Key Player: Adley Rutschman (.267 AVG, 14 HR, 46 RBI)
- NYY Key Player: Gleyber Torres (.258 AVG, 16 HR, 44 RBI)
Check out the latest odds and place your bets with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/mlb-odds-how-to-watch/ | 2023-07-30T12:44:43 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/mlb-odds-how-to-watch/ |
MLB Probable Starting Pitchers Tonight: Sunday, July 30
Who are the probable pitchers lined up to start on Sunday? Below, we list every starting pitching matchup for the day, which includes Luis Castillo toeing the rubber for the Mariners, and Merrill Kelly getting the call for the Diamondbacks.
Keep reading to find the probable starters for every contest on the docket for July 30.
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Today's Probable Starting Pitchers
Angels at Blue Jays Probable Pitchers
The Los Angeles Angels will send Tyler Anderson (5-2) to the hill as they play the Blue Jays, who will give the start to Jose Berrios (8-7) for the game between the clubs on Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Angels at Blue Jays
- TOR Odds to Win: -200
- LAA Odds to Win: +165
- Total: 9.5 runs
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Live Stream Angels at Blue Jays
- Game Time: 12:05 PM ET
- Streaming: Peacock (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Brewers at Braves Probable Pitchers
The Milwaukee Brewers will send Colin Rea (5-4) to the mound as they play the Braves, who will counter with AJ Smith-Shawver (0-0) for the game between the clubs on Sunday.
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Live Stream Brewers at Braves
- Game Time: 1:35 PM ET
- Streaming: MLB Network (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
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Phillies at Pirates Probable Pitchers
The Philadelphia Phillies will send Cristopher Sanchez (0-3) to the hill as they take on the Pirates, who will look to Rich Hill (7-10) when the teams face off Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Phillies at Pirates
- PHI Odds to Win: -150
- PIT Odds to Win: +125
- Total: 9 runs
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Live Stream Phillies at Pirates
- Game Time: 1:35 PM ET
- Streaming: MLB Network (regional restrictions may apply)
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Tigers at Marlins Probable Pitchers
The Detroit Tigers will send Tarik Skubal (1-1) to the bump as they face the Marlins, who will counter with Jesus Luzardo (8-5) when the clubs face off on Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Tigers at Marlins
- MIA Odds to Win: -150
- DET Odds to Win: +125
- Total: 7 runs
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Live Stream Tigers at Marlins
- Game Time: 1:40 PM ET
- Streaming: BSFL (regional restrictions may apply)
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Nationals at Mets Probable Pitchers
The Washington Nationals will send Trevor Williams (5-5) to the hill as they face the Mets, who will look to Justin Verlander (5-5) for the matchup between the clubs on Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Nationals at Mets
- NYM Odds to Win: -275
- WSH Odds to Win: +220
- Total: 8.5 runs
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Live Stream Nationals at Mets
- Game Time: 1:40 PM ET
- Streaming: WPIX (regional restrictions may apply)
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Guardians at White Sox Probable Pitchers
The Cleveland Guardians will send Aaron Civale (4-2) to the mound as they play the White Sox, who will counter with Michael Kopech (4-9) for the game between the clubs Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Guardians at White Sox
- CLE Odds to Win: -145
- CHW Odds to Win: +120
- Total: 9 runs
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Live Stream Guardians at White Sox
- Game Time: 2:10 PM ET
- Streaming: NBCS-CHI (regional restrictions may apply)
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Twins at Royals Probable Pitchers
The Minnesota Twins will send Kenta Maeda (2-5) to the hill as they play the Royals, who will look to Ryan Yarbrough (3-5) for the game between the clubs Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Twins at Royals
- MIN Odds to Win: -185
- KC Odds to Win: +150
- Total: 9 runs
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Live Stream Twins at Royals
- Game Time: 2:10 PM ET
- Streaming: BSKC (regional restrictions may apply)
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Rays at Astros Probable Pitchers
The Tampa Bay Rays will send Zack Littell (0-2) to the bump as they play the Astros, who will counter with Brandon Bielak (5-5) when the teams play on Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Rays at Astros
- HOU Odds to Win: -110
- TB Odds to Win: -110
- Total: 9 runs
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Live Stream Rays at Astros
- Game Time: 2:10 PM ET
- Streaming: SportsNet SW (regional restrictions may apply)
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Cubs at Cardinals Probable Pitchers
The Chicago Cubs will send Kyle Hendricks (4-4) to the mound as they take on the Cardinals, who will counter with Steven Matz (1-7) when the teams play on Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Cubs at Cardinals
- STL Odds to Win: -145
- CHC Odds to Win: +120
- Total: 9 runs
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Live Stream Cubs at Cardinals
- Game Time: 2:15 PM ET
- Streaming: BSMW (regional restrictions may apply)
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Athletics at Rockies Probable Pitchers
The Oakland Athletics will send Luis Medina (3-7) to the hill as they play the Rockies, who will counter with Ty Blach (0-0) when the clubs play Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Athletics at Rockies
- COL Odds to Win: -110
- OAK Odds to Win: -110
- Total: 12.5 runs
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Live Stream Athletics at Rockies
- Game Time: 3:10 PM ET
- Streaming: SportsNet RM (regional restrictions may apply)
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Red Sox at Giants Probable Pitchers
The Boston Red Sox will send Brennan Bernardino (1-0) to the mound as they play the Giants, who will look to Scott Alexander (6-1) when the clubs meet on Sunday.
Live Stream Red Sox at Giants
- Game Time: 4:05 PM ET
- Streaming: NBCS-BA (regional restrictions may apply)
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Reds at Dodgers Probable Pitchers
The Cincinnati Reds will send Graham Ashcraft (5-7) to the bump as they take on the Dodgers, who will give the start to Michael Grove (2-2) for the matchup between the clubs Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Reds at Dodgers
- LAD Odds to Win: -185
- CIN Odds to Win: +150
- Total: 10.5 runs
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Live Stream Reds at Dodgers
- Game Time: 4:10 PM ET
- Streaming: SportsNet LA (regional restrictions may apply)
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Rangers at Padres Probable Pitchers
The Texas Rangers will send Cody Bradford (2-1) to the hill as they play the Padres, who will give the start to Blake Snell (7-8) for the game between the clubs Sunday.
Live Stream Rangers at Padres
- Game Time: 4:10 PM ET
- Streaming: SDPA (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
Mariners at Diamondbacks Probable Pitchers
The Seattle Mariners will send Castillo (6-7) to the mound as they take on the Diamondbacks, who will counter with Kelly (9-4) when the teams play Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Mariners at Diamondbacks
- SEA Odds to Win: -120
- ARI Odds to Win: +100
- Total: 8.5 runs
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Live Stream Mariners at Diamondbacks
- Game Time: 4:10 PM ET
- Streaming: ARID (regional restrictions may apply)
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Yankees at Orioles Probable Pitchers
The New York Yankees will send Luis Severino (2-4) to the bump as they play the Orioles, who will hand the ball to Dean Kremer (10-4) when the teams face off Sunday.
Vegas Odds for Yankees at Orioles
- BAL Odds to Win: -125
- NYY Odds to Win: +105
- Total: 9 runs
- Sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook, and new depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Live Stream Yankees at Orioles
- Game Time: 7:10 PM ET
- Streaming: ESPN (regional restrictions may apply)
- Watch for free: Sign up today for a free trial to Fubo.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ | 2023-07-30T12:44:50 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ |
Top Player Prop Bets for Twins vs. Royals on July 30, 2023
Published: Jul. 30, 2023 at 5:50 AM CDT|Updated: 54 minutes ago
You can see player prop bet odds for Carlos Correa, Bobby Witt Jr. and others on the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals prior to their matchup at 2:10 PM ET on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium.
Bet on this matchup or its props with BetMGM!
Twins vs. Royals Game Info
- When: Sunday, July 30, 2023 at 2:10 PM ET
- Where: Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri
- How to Watch on TV: BSKC
- Live Stream: Watch the MLB on Fubo!
Explore More About This Game
MLB Props Today: Minnesota Twins
Carlos Correa Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 1.5 (Over Odds: +145)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -120)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +400)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +160)
Correa Stats
- Correa has 84 hits with 23 doubles, two triples, 12 home runs and 39 walks. He has driven in 45 runs.
- He's slashed .228/.304/.399 so far this season.
- Correa hopes to build on a two-game hitting streak in this matchup. During his last five outings he is batting .174 with two doubles, two walks and an RBI.
Correa Recent Games
Byron Buxton Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -238)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -110)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +310)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +125)
Buxton Stats
- Byron Buxton has recorded 61 hits with 15 doubles, a triple, 17 home runs and 35 walks. He has driven in 42 runs with nine stolen bases.
- He has a slash line of .206/.295/.436 so far this year.
- Buxton enters this game looking to extend his three-game hit streak. During his last five outings he is batting .438 with three doubles, two home runs, two walks and six RBI.
Buxton Recent Games
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MLB Props Today: Kansas City Royals
Bobby Witt Jr. Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 1.5 (Over Odds: +180)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -105)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +600)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +160)
Witt Jr. Stats
- Witt Jr. has 111 hits with 18 doubles, seven triples, 18 home runs and 22 walks. He has driven in 60 runs with 29 stolen bases.
- He's slashing .263/.302/.467 on the season.
Witt Jr. Recent Games
Salvador Pérez Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -256)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +130)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +400)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +120)
Pérez Stats
- Salvador Perez has 90 hits with 16 doubles, 17 home runs and 13 walks. He has driven in 44 runs.
- He's slashed .249/.289/.434 on the season.
Pérez Recent Games
Bet on player props for Bobby Witt Jr., Salvador Pérez or other Royals players with BetMGM.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/twins-vs-royals-mlb-player-prop-bets/ | 2023-07-30T12:44:56 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/twins-vs-royals-mlb-player-prop-bets/ |
Twins vs. Royals Probable Starting Pitchers Today - July 30
The Kansas City Royals (31-75) have a 2-0 series lead and hope to sweep the Minnesota Twins (54-52) on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium, at 2:10 PM ET.
The probable pitchers are Kenta Maeda (2-5) for the Twins and Ryan Yarbrough (3-5) for the Royals.
Bet Now: Get the latest odds for this matchup and pitcher props on BetMGM. New depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Twins vs. Royals Pitcher Matchup Info
- Date: Sunday, July 30, 2023
- Time: 2:10 PM ET
- TV: BSKC
- Location: Kansas City, Missouri
- Venue: Kauffman Stadium
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
- Probable Pitchers: Maeda - MIN (2-5, 4.62 ERA) vs Yarbrough - KC (3-5, 4.70 ERA)
Watch live MLB games on all your devices! Sign up now for a free trial to Fubo!
Explore More About This Game
Twins Probable Starting Pitcher Tonight: Kenta Maeda
- The Twins will hand the ball to Maeda (2-5) for his 11th start of the season.
- The right-hander gave up one earned run and allowed six hits in 6 1/3 innings pitched against the Seattle Mariners on Monday.
- The 35-year-old has pitched in 10 games this season with an ERA of 4.62, a 4.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a WHIP of 1.253.
- He's going for his third straight quality start.
- Maeda has pitched five or more innings in two straight games and will look to extend that streak.
- He has one appearance with no earned runs allowed in 10 chances this season.
Kenta Maeda vs. Royals
- The Royals have scored 401 runs this season, which ranks 29th in MLB. They are batting .236 for the campaign with 96 home runs, 27th in the league.
- The right-hander has faced the Royals one time this season, allowing them to go 3-for-23 with a home run and an RBI in seven innings.
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Royals Probable Starting Pitcher Tonight: Ryan Yarbrough
- Yarbrough makes the start for the Royals, his seventh of the season. He is 3-5 with a 4.70 ERA and 24 strikeouts through 44 2/3 innings pitched.
- In his most recent outing on Monday against the Cleveland Guardians, the left-hander tossed six innings, allowing one earned run while surrendering six hits.
- The 31-year-old has a 4.70 ERA and 4.9 strikeouts per nine innings across 13 games this season, while giving up a batting average of .266 to his opponents.
- Yarbrough has two quality starts under his belt this season.
- Yarbrough will look to go five or more innings for his fifth straight start. He's averaging 3.4 frames per outing.
- He has made three appearances this season in which he did not allow an earned run.
Ryan Yarbrough vs. Twins
- The opposing Twins offense has a collective .237 batting average, and is 21st in the league with 848 total hits and 17th in MLB play with 469 runs scored. They have the 13th-ranked slugging percentage (.413) and are eighth in all of MLB with 140 home runs.
- Yarbrough has pitched 1 2/3 innings without giving up a hit or an earned run against the Twins this season.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/twins-vs-royals-mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ | 2023-07-30T12:45:03 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/twins-vs-royals-mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ |
First, the traditional values crowd came after “The Simpsons.” I ignored it because I wasn’t a Simpson.
Then, the right came after SpongeBob SquarePants. I was quiet because I didn’t live in Bikini Bottom.
When 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he would cut funding for PBS even though he personally loved Big Bird, I stayed silent because I didn’t live on “Sesame Street.” | https://www.nj.com/opinion/2023/07/right-wing-culture-wars-reach-their-end-game-letters.html | 2023-07-30T12:45:55 | 0 | https://www.nj.com/opinion/2023/07/right-wing-culture-wars-reach-their-end-game-letters.html |
BURBANK, Calif. — With the summer heat wave in full swing in Southern California, a backyard pool is a tempting place to take a dip.
Even for a bear.
Police in the city of Burbank responded to a report of a bear sighting in a residential neighborhood and found the animal sitting in a Jacuzzi behind one of the homes.
After a short dip, the bear climbed over a wall and headed to a tree behind the home, police said in a statement Friday.
Police released a video of the animal in the neighborhood, which is about 10 miles north of Los Angeles and near the Verdugo Mountains.
The Burbank police have issued warnings for residents to avoid bears and to keep all garbage and food locked up to discourage bears from coming to their residences. | https://www.fox43.com/article/news/nation-world/bear-spotted-in-california-jacuzzi/507-5f9278de-6918-4d7a-ac90-bff00c664569 | 2023-07-30T12:47:22 | 0 | https://www.fox43.com/article/news/nation-world/bear-spotted-in-california-jacuzzi/507-5f9278de-6918-4d7a-ac90-bff00c664569 |
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The United States heads into its final group match at the Women's World Cup with questions swirling about the team's tactics.
U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski started the same lineup against Netherlands on Thursday that he rolled out for the opening match against Vietnam. While it was enough for the United States to beat the Vietnamese 3-0, it was less successful against the stronger Dutch, and the Americans settled for a 1-1 draw.
That lineup had never played together before the World Cup.
The tie meant that the United States will likely need a more decisive outcome on Tuesday against Portugal to finish atop Group E and secure a favorable path in the knockout round. Going into the game, advancing out of the group wasn't a given for the two-time defending World Cup champions.
In addition to the same starters, Andonovski made just one substitution in the game against the Dutch, bringing on midfielder Rose Lavelle to start the second half. But no fresh legs were subbed in even after players showed fatigue. Forwards Lynn Williams and Megan Rapinoe remained on the sidelines.
He was asked about the strategy afterward.
“I just didn’t want to disrupt the rhythm at that point because sometimes a substitute comes in and it might take a minute or two to get into a rhythm,” he said. “We just didn’t want to jeopardize anything because I thought all three of our forwards were very good, dangerous, created opportunities and were a handful.”
It was the first time that the United States had made just one or fewer substitutions in a World Cup game since 2007.
Known in 2019 for jumping on World Cup opponents early, the Americans did not score against the Dutch until the second half when they were already down 1-0.
Lavelle is one of the team's top midfielders and made an immediate impact in the game — boosting the energy and feeding the attack — and the United States looked like that 2019 championship team again. She served up a corner kick to Lindsey Horan, angry about getting knocked down by a Dutch player moments before, for the game-tying goal in the 62nd minute.
Lavelle had a knee injury going into the World Cup and hadn't played since April. She's been on a minutes restriction and Andonovski has been starting Savannah DeMelo, one of the teams' 14 players making their first-ever appearance in the World Cup.
DeMelo hadn't played in a match with the national team until the send-off game against Wales in San Jose, the day the team departed for the World Cup.
“I think we weren’t in sync," midfielder Andi Sullivan said. “That happens, and we were able to adjust and respond. Hopefully, we can do that earlier in the future. And I think that’s also a great strength of this team -- we have lots of different ways we can do that together.”
Andonovski said the team can build off that second half against the Dutch in Wellington.
“Even though it didn’t finish the way we wanted to finish I thought it was a very good match for our team and especially for a group of young players. They grew throughout the game, individually, but also as a team we grew throughout the game as well,” Andonovski said. “I’ve said this before, this team is not just young. This team is also a fresh team that hasn’t spent a lot of minutes together. What you saw in the second half is what you’re going to see going forward as a best baseline. I think that we’re just going to get better from game to game and we’re gonna be a lot more efficient as well.”
Portugal fell 1-0 in its opening match against the Dutch, then defeated Vietnam 2-0 on Thursday in Hamilton. The victory knocked Vietnam out of the next round.
The United States sits atop Group E, even on points — four — with the Netherlands but edging the Dutch on goal differential. Portugal, third in the group with three points, could leap in front of the U.S. with a win at Auckland's Eden Park.
The Dutch play Vietnam in an earlier game Tuesday in Dunedin.
Telma Encarnacao and Kika Nazareth each scored in the match against Vietnam, which made history as Portugal's first win in its first World Cup appearance.
“We are aware of what awaits us, but we are focused on ourselves, which is very important,” Nazareth told reporters at training on Saturday. “We will enter the field respecting the opponent, with humility, but always with character and personality. The work will be there, the talent is there. And I think you also always need a little bit of luck. It’s believing.” | https://www.fox43.com/article/sports/soccer/us-faces-portugal-with-womens-world-cup-future-still-up-in-the-air-knockout-stage/507-6403953b-33b2-4d89-b452-919cd9f37dac | 2023-07-30T12:47:28 | 0 | https://www.fox43.com/article/sports/soccer/us-faces-portugal-with-womens-world-cup-future-still-up-in-the-air-knockout-stage/507-6403953b-33b2-4d89-b452-919cd9f37dac |
Consumer demand for speed and convenience drives labor unrest among workers in Hollywood and at UPS
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 television 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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wibw.com/2023/07/30/consumer-demand-speed-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-hollywood-ups/ | 2023-07-30T12:48:18 | 0 | https://www.wibw.com/2023/07/30/consumer-demand-speed-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-hollywood-ups/ |
Five people shot in Michigan
LANSING, Mich. (WILX/Gray News) - Five people were shot in Lansing, Michigan, WILX reports.
Lansing Police officers responded to a shooting in the 1300 block of W. Holmes Road around 1:00 a.m. on Sunday.
When officers arrived, they found a large crowd of people and multiple shooting victims.
The Lansing Fire Department responded to treat and transport several of the victims to a local hospital. Due to the size of the crowd, the Lansing Police Department requested assistance from neighboring jurisdictions.
Five shooting victims were identified ranging in age from 16 to 26 years old. Two of the victims are listed in critical condition.
Police detained several suspects and recovered multiple firearms from the scene.
This is an active investigation and Lansing Police Detectives and Crime Scene Investigators are at the scene working to determine the events which led up to the shootings.
Copyright 2023 WILX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wibw.com/2023/07/30/five-people-shot-michigan/ | 2023-07-30T12:48:21 | 0 | https://www.wibw.com/2023/07/30/five-people-shot-michigan/ |
Royals vs. Twins Probable Starting Pitchers Today - July 30
The Kansas City Royals (31-75) will look to sweep the Minnesota Twins (54-52) at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday, at 2:10 PM ET.
The Twins will give the ball to Kenta Maeda (2-5, 4.62 ERA), who is eyeing win No. 3 on the season, and the Royals will counter with Ryan Yarbrough (3-5, 4.70 ERA).
Bet Now: Get the latest odds for this matchup and pitcher props on BetMGM. New depositors can use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Royals vs. Twins Pitcher Matchup Info
- Date: Sunday, July 30, 2023
- Time: 2:10 PM ET
- TV: BSKC
- Location: Kansas City, Missouri
- Venue: Kauffman Stadium
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
- Probable Pitchers: Maeda - MIN (2-5, 4.62 ERA) vs Yarbrough - KC (3-5, 4.70 ERA)
Watch live MLB games on all your devices! Sign up now for a free trial to Fubo!
Explore More About This Game
Royals Probable Starting Pitcher Tonight: Ryan Yarbrough
- The Royals will send Yarbrough (3-5) out to make his seventh start of the season. He is 3-5 with a 4.70 ERA and 24 strikeouts over 44 2/3 innings pitched.
- His most recent time out came on Monday against the Cleveland Guardians, when the left-hander threw six innings, surrendering one earned run while allowing six hits.
- In 13 games this season, the 31-year-old has an ERA of 4.70, with 4.9 strikeouts per nine innings. Opponents are hitting .266 against him.
- Yarbrough has two quality starts under his belt this season.
- Yarbrough will look to pitch five or more innings for his fifth straight appearance. He's averaging 3.4 frames per outing.
- He has had three appearances this season that he held his opponents to zero earned runs.
Ryan Yarbrough vs. Twins
- He will face a Twins offense that ranks 17th in the league with 469 total runs scored while batting .237 as a unit. His opponent has a collective .413 slugging percentage (13th in MLB play) and has hit a total of 140 home runs (eighth in the league).
- Yarbrough has a 0 ERA and a 0 WHIP against the Twins this season in 1 2/3 innings pitched, allowing a .000 batting average over one appearance.
Try FanDuel Fantasy today with our link and make your perfect team!
Twins Probable Starting Pitcher Tonight: Kenta Maeda
- Maeda (2-5) will take the mound for the Twins, his 11th start of the season.
- The right-hander gave up one earned run and allowed six hits in 6 1/3 innings pitched against the Seattle Mariners on Monday.
- The 35-year-old has an ERA of 4.62 and 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings, with a batting average against of .254 in 10 games this season.
- He's looking to extend his two-game quality start streak.
- Maeda has pitched five or more innings in two straight games and will look to extend that streak.
- He has finished one appearance without allowing an earned run in 10 chances this season.
Kenta Maeda vs. Royals
- The Royals have scored 401 runs this season, which ranks 29th in MLB. They have 835 hits, 22nd in baseball, with 96 home runs (27th in the league).
- The right-hander has allowed the Royals to go 3-for-23 with a home run and an RBI in seven innings this season.
Not all offers available in all states, please visit BetMGM for the latest promotions for your area. Must be 21+ to gamble, please wager responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact 1-800-GAMBLER.
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wibw.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/royals-vs-twins-mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ | 2023-07-30T12:48:22 | 0 | https://www.wibw.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/royals-vs-twins-mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with children's book author Matt de la Peña about summer reading recommendations for kids of all ages when they complain, "I'm bored!"
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with children's book author Matt de la Peña about summer reading recommendations for kids of all ages when they complain, "I'm bored!"
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/a-childrens-book-author-recommends-books-to-keep-your-kids-busy-this-summer | 2023-07-30T12:49:51 | 0 | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/a-childrens-book-author-recommends-books-to-keep-your-kids-busy-this-summer |
An archeological dig in Turkey has uncovered artifacts dating back 1,000 years By Peter Kenyon Published July 30, 2023 at 8:02 AM EDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email In Turkey, what started out as an exploration of a Roman garrison has uncovered artifacts dating back to the time of the Assyrian empire. Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/an-archeological-dig-in-turkey-has-uncovered-artifacts-dating-back-1-000-years | 2023-07-30T12:49:58 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/an-archeological-dig-in-turkey-has-uncovered-artifacts-dating-back-1-000-years |
Ayesha Rascoe is the host of Weekend Edition Sunday and the Saturday episodes of Up First. As host of the morning news magazine, she interviews news makers, entertainers, politicians and more about the stories that everyone is talking about or that everyone should be talking about. | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/d-smith-on-her-new-documentary-kokomo-city | 2023-07-30T12:50:09 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/d-smith-on-her-new-documentary-kokomo-city |
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.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:10 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/ap-consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ |
Consumer demand for speed and convenience drives labor unrest among workers in Hollywood and at UPS
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 television 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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.ktre.com/2023/07/30/consumer-demand-speed-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-hollywood-ups/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:10 | 1 | https://www.ktre.com/2023/07/30/consumer-demand-speed-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-hollywood-ups/ |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to a patron of the party, musician George Brown of the band Kool & The Gang, about his new book, new record, and the "Celebration" of a long and funky career.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to a patron of the party, musician George Brown of the band Kool & The Gang, about his new book, new record, and the "Celebration" of a long and funky career.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/george-brown-of-kool-the-gang-on-celebrating-the-bands-long-career | 2023-07-30T12:50:11 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/george-brown-of-kool-the-gang-on-celebrating-the-bands-long-career |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with University of California, Berkeley, digital forensics expert Hany Farid about a recent political ad that used an AI-cloned vocal clip.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with University of California, Berkeley, digital forensics expert Hany Farid about a recent political ad that used an AI-cloned vocal clip.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/how-real-is-the-threat-of-ai-deepfakes-in-the-2024-election | 2023-07-30T12:50:12 | 0 | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/how-real-is-the-threat-of-ai-deepfakes-in-the-2024-election |
On-air challenge: I'm going to give you some words. For each one, think of something that starts with the first letter of my word ... and that fits in the category named by the rest of my word.
Example: Factor — (Morgan) Freeman, (Henry) Fonda, (Harrison) Ford [actor starting with F]1. Scar
2. Aisle
3. Crank
4. Broom
5. Thorn
6. Bride
7. Swine
8. Cape
9. Trapper
Last week's challenge: Name a classic TV show in two words, in which the respective words rhyme with the first and last names of a famous writer - four letters in the first name, five letter in the last name. Who is it?
Challenge answer: "Get Smart" --> Bret Harte
Winner: Mary Butler from Columbus, Nebraska
This week's challenge: This challenge comes from listener Jim Vespe, of Mamaroneck, N.Y. Name a well-known U.S. city in nine letters. Change the third and fifth letters to get the name of a beverage. What is it?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, August 3rd at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/sunday-puzzle-let-the-categories-guide-you | 2023-07-30T12:50:13 | 0 | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/sunday-puzzle-let-the-categories-guide-you |
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.wric.com/health/ap-anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:16 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/health/ap-anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ |
Five people shot in Michigan
LANSING, Mich. (WILX/Gray News) - Five people were shot in Lansing, Michigan, WILX reports.
Lansing Police officers responded to a shooting in the 1300 block of W. Holmes Road around 1:00 a.m. on Sunday.
When officers arrived, they found a large crowd of people and multiple shooting victims.
The Lansing Fire Department responded to treat and transport several of the victims to a local hospital. Due to the size of the crowd, the Lansing Police Department requested assistance from neighboring jurisdictions.
Five shooting victims were identified ranging in age from 16 to 26 years old. Two of the victims are listed in critical condition.
Police detained several suspects and recovered multiple firearms from the scene.
This is an active investigation and Lansing Police Detectives and Crime Scene Investigators are at the scene working to determine the events which led up to the shootings.
Copyright 2023 WILX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.ktre.com/2023/07/30/five-people-shot-michigan/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:17 | 0 | https://www.ktre.com/2023/07/30/five-people-shot-michigan/ |
The House Republicans who craft the conference’s government funding bills are showing signs of frustration as hard-line conservatives pressure leadership for further cuts to spending that some worry could be too aggressive.
Some of the 12 Appropriations subcommittee chairs — the so-called cardinals — told reporters that they are struggling to see where those additional cuts could come from, as September’s shutdown deadline looms.
“I just don’t see the wisdom in trying to further cut to strengthen our hand. I don’t know how that strengthens our hand,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a House Appropriations subcommittee chairman, said of conservatives’ push to further cut the already-scaled-back spending bills.
“I do think it puts some of our members in a very difficult spot, particularly those in tough districts, because they’re going to be taking some votes that become problematic,” he added.
The House left Washington for a long summer recess Thursday after being forced to punt a bill to fund agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.
Conservatives are dug in on their demand for steeper spending cuts, to the chagrin of moderates who are wary of slashing funding even more. The chamber has passed just one appropriations bill, funding military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The internal divisions are gripping the party as time is running out: The House has just 12 days in September to move the remaining 11 appropriations measures and hash out their disagreements with the Senate, which is marking up its spending bills at higher levels, setting the scene for a hectic fall that could bring the U.S. to the brink of a shutdown.
Those dynamics are putting GOP appropriators in a bind, leaving them searching for ways to appease conservative requests without gutting their spending bills.
“We’ve done a lot of cuts, a lot of cuts,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Texas) told The Hill this week. “And so if it’s cuts just for cut’s sake, I don’t agree with it. But if it’s something that we can do without, that’s fine.”
‘Not a lot of wiggle room left’
Republican appropriators in the House announced earlier this year that they would mark up their bills for fiscal 2024 at fiscal 2022 levels, as leaders sought to placate conservatives who thought the debt ceiling deal struck by President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) earlier this year didn’t do enough to curb spending.
The Senate is crafting its bills more in line with the budget caps agreed to in the deal, but House Republicans are already fuming about a bipartisan deal in the upper chamber that would allow for more than $13 billion in additional emergency spending on top of those levels.
House GOP negotiators also said they would pursue clawing back more than $100 billion in old funding that was allocated for Democratic priorities without GOP support in the previous Congress.
While that move drew support from hard-line conservatives, the right flank was far from pleased when it heard appropriators planned to repurpose that old funding — known as rescissions — to plus-up the spending bills.
In a letter to McCarthy earlier this month, a group of hard-line conservatives called for all 12 appropriations bills to be in line with fiscal 2022 spending levels “without the use of reallocated rescissions to increase discretionary spending above that top-line.”
Otherwise, the 21 lawmakers threatened, they would vote against the measures. But that request could prove difficult for GOP appropriators to fulfill.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), chairman of the panel that proposes funding for the Department of State and foreign operations, said that appropriators are already “dramatically reducing spending,” suggesting that there are not too many remaining areas to trim from.
“My bill is below the 2016 levels,” he said, later adding, “When you’re below the 2016 level — and we’re still confronting China — I think there’s not a lot of wiggle room left.”
“It’s a challenge, but I think we’ll get through it. I really do,” he added.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who heads the subcommittee that oversees funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior, scoffed at the idea of even steeper cuts to his bill.
“Then you just drop it on the floor and stomp on it. What else do you do with it?” he told reporters. “You can’t make logical cuts in there.”
Republicans appropriators are voicing optimism that the conference will be able to sort out its differences on spending, but some also hope their levels will stick — even though they include rescissions.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) — whose panel handles funding for the Department of Energy, which is proposing offsetting billions of dollars in spending with clawbacks — said it would be “extremely difficult” to craft his bill without the rescinded funds.
“And given our priorities in my bill, national defense with the nuclear weapons portfolio, nuclear cleanup, Army Corps including, all the community-directed fundings, I feel good about my bill, and I hope my numbers hold,” he said.
“Because it’s gonna have to be in negotiations with the Senate and the White House as well,” he added.
Womack — whose subcommittee crafts funding for the IRS and the Treasury Department — said he doesn’t think “moving the goalposts on these numbers is helpful in strengthening our ability to negotiate with the Senate.”
August preparations for a busy September
Frustrations among appropriators are bubbling up as Congress inches closer to the fall, when lawmakers are facing a Sept. 30 deadline to approve funding or risk a government shutdown.
With time running out, some House lawmakers say conversations may continue over the long August recess to try to hash out remaining differences.
“We’ll have to see,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said when asked about potential plans for talks between leaders and House Freedom Caucus members over the break. “I mean, we got a lot of work to do.”
“I think a lot of work [has] got to be done behind the scenes,” he said. “If not, you know, here — You gotta beg the question about whether we should be gone for six weeks. We should be getting our job done.”
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) echoed that sentiment, saying “I would think so” when asked if lawmakers will have conversations over the break.
Adding to the August workload, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) suggested earlier this week that bicameral negotiations could take place over the weeks-long recess as lawmakers stare down the shutdown deadline.
Not all Republicans, however, are viewing a shutdown as a risk.
During a House Freedom Caucus press conference this week, Good said “we should not fear a government shutdown,” claiming that “most of what we do up here is bad anyway; most of what we do up here hurts the American people.”
But that perspective does not jive with the view of McCarthy, who declared Thursday: “I don’t want the government to shut down.”
Multiple Republicans are ultimately expecting Congress to eventually pass what’s known as a continuing resolution (CR), or a measure that temporarily allows the government to be funded at the previous fiscal year’s levels, to prevent a lapse at the end of September.
But they also understand the task could be difficult in the GOP-led chamber, where Republicans aren’t happy about the idea of continuing funding at the current levels — which were last set when Democrats held control of Congress.
“I think there’s a very good chance that we’ll see a CR, but I know there’s a lot of work to get a CR done,” Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), another appropriator, said Thursday, noting there are “a lot of members that don’t want CRs that are tired of them.”
But Aderholt suggested a CR could notch sufficient GOP backing if there’s a larger plan in sight that the party can support.
“The Speaker’s been very good about having a plan,” he said, adding, “I think that’s what he’s good at, and I’m optimistic that he can come up with something.”
Emily Brooks contributed. | https://www.wric.com/hill-politics/frustration-emerges-among-gop-spending-cardinals-as-conservatives-push-for-cuts/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:22 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/hill-politics/frustration-emerges-among-gop-spending-cardinals-as-conservatives-push-for-cuts/ |
Astros vs. Rays: Odds, spread, over/under - July 30
When the Tampa Bay Rays (63-44) take on the Houston Astros (59-46) at Minute Maid Park on Sunday, July 30 at 2:10 PM ET, Wander Franco will be seeking his 30th stolen base of the season (he currently has 29).
Bookmakers list the Astros as -110 favorites on the moneyline, while giving the underdog Rays -110 moneyline odds to win. The contest's over/under has been listed at 9 runs.
Astros vs. Rays Time and TV Channel
- Date: Sunday, July 30, 2023
- Time: 2:10 PM ET
- TV: SportsNet SW
- Location: Houston, Texas
- Venue: Minute Maid Park
- Probable Pitchers: Brandon Bielak - HOU (5-5, 3.62 ERA) vs Zack Littell - TB (0-2, 5.11 ERA)
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Astros vs. Rays Betting Odds, Run Line and Total
See the odds, run line and over/under for this matchup listed on multiple sportsbooks.
If you're looking to bet on the Astros and Rays matchup but would like some help getting started, here's a quick primer. Wagering on the moneyline, run line, and total are some of the most common ways to place bets. A moneyline bet means that you think one of the teams -- say, the Astros (-110) -- will win the game. Pretty simple, right? If you bet $10 with those odds, and they wind up winning the game, you'd get $19.09 back in your pocket.
And that's not all. There are lots of other ways to bet, as well. For example, you can wager on player props (will Alex Bregman hit a home run?), parlays (combining picks from different games to multiply your potential winnings), and more. Visit the BetMGM website and app for additional info on the many ways you can bet on games.
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Read More About This Game
Astros vs. Rays Betting Trends and Insights
- This season, the Astros have been favored 68 times and won 40, or 58.8%, of those games.
- The Astros have gone 43-33 (winning 56.6% of their games) when they have played as moneyline favorites of -110 or shorter.
- The implied probability of a win from Houston, based on the moneyline, is 52.4%.
- The Astros went 6-2 over the eight games they were favored on the moneyline in their last 10 matchups.
- Over its last 10 outings -- all had a set run total -- Houston and its opponents combined to go over the total four times.
- The Rays have come away with four wins in the 16 contests they have been listed as the underdogs in this season.
- The Rays have a win-loss record of 4-12 when favored by -110 or worse by bookmakers this year.
- The Rays have played as underdogs three times over their past 10 games and lost each of those contests.
- When it comes to hitting the over, Tampa Bay and its opponents are 3-7-0 in the last 10 games with a total.
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Astros Futures Odds
Think the Astros can win it all? Check out the latest futures odds for Houston and place your bets with BetMGM Sportsbook! Be sure to use our link and enter the bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.ktre.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/astros-vs-rays-mlb-odds-over-under/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:23 | 1 | https://www.ktre.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/astros-vs-rays-mlb-odds-over-under/ |
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Thousands of residents in the Richmond area are without power after severe thunderstorms passed through the region Saturday.
According to Dominion Energy’s outage map, 116 households in Richmond, 39 in Henrico County, 2,245 in Chesterfield County, 123 in Powhatan County, 3 in King William County, 1 in Hopewell and 1 in Charles City County are currently without power.
According to Dominion, a total of 34,853 Dominion customers are without power across Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. The majority of the outages are in the northern Virginia region, with 20,150 households without power in Arlington County alone as of 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, July 30.
Dominion Customers can report an outage, downed wires or damaged equipment by downloading the Dominion Energy App or by calling 1-866-366-4357. | https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/thousands-without-power-in-richmond-area/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:28 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/thousands-without-power-in-richmond-area/ |
Astros vs. Rays Probable Starting Pitchers Today - July 30
Isaac Paredes leads the Tampa Bay Rays (63-44) into a matchup versus the Houston Astros (59-46), after his two-homer outing in a 17-4 defeat to the Astros, beginning at 2:10 PM ET on Sunday.
The Astros will give the nod to Brandon Bielak (5-5, 3.62 ERA), who is eyeing win No. 6 on the season, and the Rays will turn to Zack Littell (0-2, 5.11 ERA).
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Astros vs. Rays Pitcher Matchup Info
- Date: Sunday, July 30, 2023
- Time: 2:10 PM ET
- TV: SportsNet SW
- Location: Houston, Texas
- Venue: Minute Maid Park
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
- Probable Pitchers: Bielak - HOU (5-5, 3.62 ERA) vs Littell - TB (0-2, 5.11 ERA)
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Explore More About This Game
Astros Probable Starting Pitcher Tonight: Brandon Bielak
- The Astros will send Bielak (5-5) to the mound for his 13th start this season.
- The right-hander's last appearance was on Tuesday, when he threw 4 2/3 innings against the Texas Rangers, giving up three earned runs while allowing six hits.
- The 27-year-old has an ERA of 3.62, a 1.83 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a WHIP of 1.435 in 13 games this season.
- He has started 12 games this season, earning a quality start (6 or more IP, 3 or fewer ER) in two of them.
- Bielak has started 12 games this season, and he's lasted five or more innings nine times. He averages 5.3 innings per appearance.
- He has two appearances this season with zero earned runs allowed out of his 13 chances this season.
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Rays Probable Starting Pitcher Tonight: Zack Littell
- The Rays are sending Littell (0-2) to the mound to make his fourth start of the season. He is 0-2 with a 5.11 ERA and 26 strikeouts over 24 2/3 innings pitched.
- The right-hander last appeared in relief on Sunday, when he threw two scoreless innings against the Baltimore Orioles while giving up one hit.
- The 27-year-old has amassed an ERA of 5.11, with 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings in 16 games this season. Opponents have a .301 batting average against him.
- In six of his appearances this season he did not surrender an earned run.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.ktre.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/astros-vs-rays-mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:29 | 0 | https://www.ktre.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/astros-vs-rays-mlb-probable-starting-pitchers/ |
Ayesha Rascoe is the host of Weekend Edition Sunday and the Saturday episodes of Up First. As host of the morning news magazine, she interviews news makers, entertainers, politicians and more about the stories that everyone is talking about or that everyone should be talking about. | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/the-irs-will-no-longer-knock-on-doors-unannounced | 2023-07-30T12:50:31 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/2023-07-30/the-irs-will-no-longer-knock-on-doors-unannounced |
At 24, Alberto Rodriguez has grandparents younger than Joe Biden. But he’s more interested in the 80-year-old president’s accomplishments than his age.
“People as young as me, we’re all focusing on our day-to-day lives and he has done things to help us through that,” Rodriguez, a cook at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, said of Biden’s support among young voters. Rodriguez pointed specifically to federal COVID-19 relief payments and government spending increases on infrastructure and other social programs.
Voters like him were a key piece of Biden’s winning 2020 coalition, which included majorities of young people as well as college graduates, women, urban and suburban voters and Black Americans. Maintaining their support will be critical in closely contested states such as Nevada, where even small declines could prove consequential to Biden’s reelection bid.
His 2024 campaign plans to emphasize messages that could especially resonate with young people in the coming weeks as the anniversary of the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act approaches in mid-August. That legislation includes provisions that the White House will embrace to argue that Biden has done more than any other president to combat climate change.
Such efforts, however, could collide with Biden’s personal reality — like when he recalled that, while attending a St. Patrick’s Day parade at age 14, he appeared in a photo with President Harry S. Truman.
“Purely by accident — I assume it was an accident — the photographer from the newspaper got a picture of me making eye contact with Harry Truman,” Biden said to chuckles last week at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium in Washington.
In 2020, 61% of voters under age 30 — and 55% of those between 30 and 44 — supported Biden, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of the electorate.
It’s an age group with which Republicans hope to make inroads. Former President Donald Trump, who is the early front-runner in the GOP presidential primary and is only 3 1/2 years younger than Biden, said Friday, “We are hitting the young person’s market like nobody’s ever seen before.”
Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign, referred to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement in arguing that “young people are acutely impacted by the issues front and center in this election, driven by the extreme MAGA agenda.” He said that included inaction on climate change, gun violence and student debt.
“We will meet younger Americans where they are and turn their energy into action,” Munoz said in a statement.
That might not defuse questions about age, though, when it comes to Biden or Trump.
“There’s a frustration and exhaustion that they feel with the rematch,” Terrance Woodbury, co-founder & CEO of the Democratic polling firm HIT Strategies, said of young voters.
“That’s more of a problem than either of those two candidates individually, is that a system can just keep reproducing,” Woodbury added. “And I think a lot of people just find that untenable.”
An April poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 25% of Democrats under 45 said they would definitely support Biden in a general election, compared with 56% of older Democrats. A majority of Democrats across age groups said they would probably support him as the party’s nominee, however.
Biden’s campaign is relying heavily on the Democratic National Committee, which during last year’s midterms, hired campus organizers in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and other battleground states and offered weekly youth coordinating meetings to encourage in-class contacts and “dormstorms.” The DNC sees young people as some of the most critical voters it will need to reach in 2024 and promises “significant investments” to mobilize them. Plans are underway to expand on its work last cycle, including trainings it held on how best to turn out voters.
The Republican National Committee is trying to use Biden’s age against him, posting online videos of Biden seeming frail or making verbal gaffes, such as when he declared in June “God save the queen,” nearly nine months after the death of England’s Queen Elizabeth II.
Rodriguez shrugged off online attacks, “People can make all the hit pieces and memes and TikToks all they want.”
A starker contrast might be between the president and rising Democrats such as 46-year-old California Rep. Ro Khanna and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, 41, one of Biden’s primary rivals in 2020. Neither seriously entertained running for the White House in 2024 and have backed Biden’s reelection.
“The only thing that really matters is your ability to do the job,” Buttigieg, who was 37 when he launched his 2020 presidential bid, said recently on CNN. Khanna told Fox News Channel that age will “obviously” be a 2024 factor, but suggested that Biden’s staff “overprotects” him and “the more he’s out there, the better.”
Other top young Democrats have lined up to back Biden. Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost, who was elected to Congress last year at 26, is on the Biden campaign’s advisory board, as is Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, 44. New York Rep. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, 33, recently endorsed Biden.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a progressive who says strong turnout among young voters helped him win a runoff election this spring, said Biden’s policies transcend his age. Johnson noted that the president’s work “around climate justice speaks not just to this generation, but generations to come.”
“The excitement that I believe that we’re going to have is going to speak to the incredible work and organizing that we are committed to doing as a party,” said Johnson, 47. “And we’re looking forward to working with the president over the course of his next four years.”
Still, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, acknowledged that even the president’s supporters understand how demanding the White House can be.
“People worry about Joe Biden. They worry like you would worry about a beloved father or grandfather,” said Weingarten, 65. “What you normally hear from Democrats is this sense of, ‘OK, I just want him to be OK.’ And you’re hearing just the consternation of, ’This is a hard job.’”
Biden said he “took a hard look” at his age while deciding to seek a second term. But he’s also tried to suggest his age and experience are assets rather than liabilities by joking repeatedly about them. That’s a departure from 2020, when Biden called himself a “transition candidate” and pledged to be a “bridge” to younger Democrats.
Santiago Mayer, the founder of Voters of Tomorrow, which has 20-plus chapters nationwide and works to increase political engagement among young voters, argues that Biden is not defying his past promise by running for reelection, but keeping it.
“He just needs more time,” said Mayer, who graduated from California State University at Long Beach in May. “I think the second term is a very important part of that pledge. He’s building a progressive future for young people and he can’t actually pass the baton until that’s done.”
One key policy piece of Biden’s efforts to appeal to young voters, providing student debt relief, was recently struck down by the Supreme Court. The White House has launched a new effort, but it will take longer.
“Of course it’s going to dampen some of that because people are disappointed,” Weingarten said of the ruling’s effect on enthusiasm for Biden. But she said the decision could also motivate young Biden supporters anxious show their support for the president’s alternative plan.
“It is also about the fight,” Weingarten said “not just about the results.”
___
AP polling director Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-joe-biden-americas-oldest-sitting-president-needs-young-voters-to-win-again-will-his-age-matter/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:34 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-joe-biden-americas-oldest-sitting-president-needs-young-voters-to-win-again-will-his-age-matter/ |
Dallas Wings vs. Las Vegas Aces: Betting Trends, Record ATS, Home/Road Splits
Sunday's WNBA slate includes Chelsea Gray's Las Vegas Aces (22-2) hosting Arike Ogunbowale and the Dallas Wings (14-10) at Michelob ULTRA Arena. The game tips off at 6:00 PM ET.
In Las Vegas' last game, it defeated Chicago 107-95. The Aces were led by Kelsey Plum, who finished with 27 points and six assists, and A'ja Wilson, with 24 points, four assists, three steals and four blocks. Led by Teaira McCowan with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists last time out, Dallas won 90-62 versus Washington.
Check out the latest odds on this matchup and place your bets with BetMGM Sportsbook. New to BetMGM? Use our link and promo code GNPLAY for a bonus offer for first-time players!
Aces vs. Wings Game Time and Info
- Who's the favorite?: Aces (-700 to win)
- Who's the underdog?: Wings (+500 to win)
- What's the spread?: Aces (-10.5)
- What's the over/under?: 173.5
- When: Sunday, July 30, 2023 at 6:00 PM ET
- Where: Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
- TV: CBS Sports Network and BSSW
Watch the WNBA live, along with tons of other live sports and TV, with a free trial to Fubo.
Wings Season Stats
- Offensively, the Wings are the third-best squad in the WNBA (86.0 points per game). Defensively, they are fourth (81.7 points conceded per game).
- On the boards, Dallas is best in the WNBA in rebounds (39.8 per game). It is best in rebounds allowed (32.0 per game).
- This season the Wings are ranked fourth in the league in assists at 19.8 per game.
- Dallas commits 12.7 turnovers per game and force 13.6 per game, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively, in the WNBA.
- Beyond the arc, the Wings are ninth in the WNBA in 3-pointers made per game (6.6). They are worst in 3-point percentage at 29.6%.
- Giving up 7.3 3-pointers per game and conceding 32.8% from downtown, Dallas is fifth and fifth in the WNBA, respectively, in those categories.
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Wings Home/Away Splits
- In 2023 the Wings are averaging more points at home (86.8 per game) than away (85.2). And they are allowing less at home (80.7) than away (82.8).
- At home Dallas averages 41.8 rebounds per game, 4.0 more than away (37.8). It allows 29.3 rebounds per game at home, 5.5 fewer than away (34.8).
- The Wings collect 0.8 more assists per game at home (20.2) than on the road (19.4).
- This year Dallas is committing more turnovers at home (14.4 per game) than on the road (11.0). And it is forcing fewer turnovers at home (12.9) than on the road (14.3).
- At home the Wings drain 6.3 treys per game, 0.5 less than away (6.8). They shoot 29.1% from beyond the arc at home, 0.9% lower than away (30.0%).
- Dallas allows more 3-pointers per game at home (7.5) than away (7.2), but it allows a lower 3-point percentage at home (32.0%) than away (33.6%).
Wings Moneyline and ATS Records
- This season, the Wings have been the underdog seven times and won two of those games.
- The Wings have played as an underdog of +500 or more once this season and lost that game.
- Dallas is 13-10-0 against the spread this year.
- Dallas is unbeaten ATS (1-0) as a 10.5-point underdog or greater this year.
- Sportsbooks have implied with the moneyline set for this matchup that the Wings have a 16.7% chance to win.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.ktre.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/dallas-wings-vs-las-vegas-aces-wnba-betting-trends-stats/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:35 | 1 | https://www.ktre.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/dallas-wings-vs-las-vegas-aces-wnba-betting-trends-stats/ |
Persian-American Chef Nasim Alikhani has published her first cookbook, based on her highly acclaimed restaurant in Brooklyn. She brought the feast to Los Angeles for a recent series of pop up dinners.
Copyright 2023 NPR
Persian-American Chef Nasim Alikhani has published her first cookbook, based on her highly acclaimed restaurant in Brooklyn. She brought the feast to Los Angeles for a recent series of pop up dinners.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvia.org/news/arts/2023-07-30/acclaimed-persian-american-chef-nasim-alikhani-has-published-her-first-cookbook | 2023-07-30T12:50:38 | 0 | https://www.wvia.org/news/arts/2023-07-30/acclaimed-persian-american-chef-nasim-alikhani-has-published-her-first-cookbook |
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — With less than a month to go until the first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 campaign, seven candidates say they have met qualifications for a spot on stage in Milwaukee.
But that also means that about half the broad GOP field is running short on time to make the cut.
To qualify for the Aug. 23 debate, candidates needed to satisfy polling and donor requirements set by the Republican National Committee: at least 1% in three high-quality national polls or a mix of national and early-state polls, between July 1 and Aug. 21, and a minimum of 40,000 donors, with 200 in 20 or more states.
A look at who’s in, who’s (maybe) out and who’s still working on making it:
DONALD TRUMP
The current front-runner long ago satisfied the polling and donor thresholds. But he is considering boycotting and holding a competing event.
Campaign advisers have said the former president has not made a final decision about the debate. One noted that “it’s pretty clear,” based on Trump’s public and private statements, that he is unlikely to appear with the other candidates.
“If you’re leading by a lot, what’s the purpose of doing it?” Trump asked on Newsmax.
In the meantime, aides have discussed potential alternative programming if Trump opts for a rival event. One option Trump has floated is an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who now has a program on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
RON DESANTIS
The Florida governor has long been seen as Trump’s top rival, finishing a distant second to him in a series of polls in early-voting states, as well as national polls, and raising an impressive amount of money.
But DeSantis’ campaign has struggled in recent weeks to live up to the sky-high expectations that awaited him when he entered the race. He let go of more than one-third of his staff as federal filings showed his campaign was burning through cash at an unsustainable rate.
If Trump is absent, DeSantis may be the top target on stage at the debate.
TIM SCOTT
The South Carolina senator has been looking for a breakout moment. The first debate could be his chance.
A prolific fundraiser, Scott enters the summer with $21 million cash on hand.
In one debate-approved poll in Iowa, Scott joined Trump and DeSantis in reaching double digits. The senator has focused much of his campaign resources on the leadoff GOP voting state, which is dominated by white evangelical voters.
NIKKI HALEY
She has blitzed early-voting states with campaign events, walking crowds through her electoral successes ousting a longtime incumbent South Carolina lawmaker, then becoming the state’s first woman and first minority governor. Also serving as Trump’s U.N. ambassador for about two years, Haley frequently cites her international experience, arguing about the threat China poses to the United States.
The only woman in the GOP race, Haley has said transgender students competing in sports is “the women’s issue of our time” and has drawn praise from a leading anti-abortion group, which called her “uniquely gifted at communicating from a pro-life woman’s perspective.”
Bringing in $15.6 million since the start of her campaign, Haley’s campaign says she has “well over 40,000 unique donors” and has satisfied the debate polling requirements.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY
The biotech entrepreneur and author of “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam” is an audience favorite at multicandidate events and has polled well despite not being nationally known when he entered the race.
Ramaswamy’s campaign says he met the donor threshold earlier this year. He recently rolled out “Vivek’s Kitchen Cabinet” to boost his donor numbers even more, by letting fundraisers keep 10% of what they bring in for his campaign.
CHRIS CHRISTIE
The former New Jersey governor opened his campaign by portraying himself as the only candidate ready to take on Trump. Christie called on the former president to “show up at the debates and defend his record.”
Christie will be on that stage, even if Trump isn’t, telling CNN this month that he surpassed “40,000 unique donors in just 35 days.” He also has met the polling requirements.
DOUG BURGUM
Burgum, a wealthy former software entrepreneur now in his second term as North Dakota’s governor, has been using his fortune to boost his campaign.
He announced a program this month to give away $20 gift cards — “Biden Relief Cards,” as a critique of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy — to as many as 50,000 people in exchange for $1 donations. Critics have questioned whether the offer violated campaign finance law.
Within about a week of launching that effort, Burgum announced he had surpassed the donor threshold. Ad blitzes in the early-voting states also helped him meet the polling requirements.
MIKE PENCE
Trump’s vice president has met the polling threshold but has yet to amass a sufficient number of donors, raising the possibility that he might not qualify for the party’s first debate.
Pence and his advisers have expressed confidence he will do so, noting that most other Republican hopefuls took a month or two of being active candidates to meet the mark. Pence entered the race on June 7, the same day as Burgum and one day after Christie.
“We’re making incredible progress toward that goal. We’re not there yet,” Pence told CNN in a recent interview. “We will make it. I will see you at that debate stage.”
ASA HUTCHINSON
According to his campaign, the former two-term Arkansas governor has met the polling requirements but is working on satisfying the donor threshold. As of Wednesday, Hutchinson marked more than 11,000 unique donors.
Hutchinson is running in the mold of an old-school Republican and has differentiated himself from many of his GOP rivals in his willingness to criticize Trump. He has posted pleas on Twitter for $1 donations to help secure his slot.
FRANCIS SUAREZ
The Miami mayor has been one of the more creative candidates in his efforts to boost his donor numbers. He offered up a chance to see Argentine soccer legend Lionel Messi’s debut as a player for Inter Miami, saying donors who gave $1 would be entered in a chance to get front-row tickets.
Still shy of the donor threshold, he took a page from Burgum’s playbook by offering a $20 “Bidenomics Relief Card” in return for $1 donations. A super political action committee supporting Suarez launched a sweepstakes for a chance at up to $15,000 in tuition, in exchange for a $1 donation to Suarez’s campaign.
Suarez’s campaign did not return a message seeking details on his number of donors or qualifying polls.
LARRY ELDER
The conservative radio host wrote in an op-ed that the RNC “has rigged the rules of the game by instituting a set of criteria that is so onerous and poorly designed that only establishment-backed and billionaire candidates are guaranteed to be on stage.”
His campaign last week declined to detail its number of donors, saying only that there had been “a strong increase the last few weeks.” He has not met the polling requirements.
PERRY JOHNSON
Johnson, a wealthy but largely unknown businessman from Michigan, said in a recent social media post that he had notched 23,000 donors and was “confident” he would make the debate stage. He added that all donors were “eligible to attend my free concert in Iowa featuring” country duo Big & Rich next month.
Johnson, who has reached 1% in one qualifying poll, has also offered to give copies of his book “Two Cents to Save America” to anyone who donated to his campaign.
WILL HURD
The former Texas congressman — the last candidate to enter the race, on June 22 — has said repeatedly that he would not pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee, a stance that would keep him off the stage even if he had the qualifying donor and polling numbers.
___
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-whos-in-whos-out-a-look-at-which-candidates-have-qualified-for-the-1st-gop-presidential-debate/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:40 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-whos-in-whos-out-a-look-at-which-candidates-have-qualified-for-the-1st-gop-presidential-debate/ |
Members of the mid-Columbia River tribes set off on an annual intertribal canoe journey after a three-year hiatus due to COVID. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on July 28, 2023.)
Copyright 2023 NPR
Members of the mid-Columbia River tribes set off on an annual intertribal canoe journey after a three-year hiatus due to COVID. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on July 28, 2023.)
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvia.org/news/arts/2023-07-30/intertribal-canoe-trip-from-oregon-to-seattle-will-set-out-for-first-time-since-covid | 2023-07-30T12:50:44 | 0 | https://www.wvia.org/news/arts/2023-07-30/intertribal-canoe-trip-from-oregon-to-seattle-will-set-out-for-first-time-since-covid |
BEIRUT (AP) — Clashes Sunday in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon left five people dead and seven others wounded, Palestinian officials said.
The officials, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the fighting broke out after an unknown gunman tried to assassinate Islamist militant Mahmoud Khalil, killing a companion of his instead.
Later, Islamist militants assassinated a Palestinian military general from the Fatah group and three escorts, another Palestinian official told the AP.
Factions used assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the overcrowded Ein el-Hilweh camp as ambulances zoomed through its narrow streets to take the wounded to the hospital. Several residents fled the crossfire.
Palestinian factions in the camp for years have cracked down on militant Islamist groups and fugitives seeking shelter in the camp’s overcrowded neighborhoods. In 2017, Palestinian factions engaged in almost a week of fierce clashes with a militant organization affiliated with the extremist Islamic State group.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two children were among those wounded.
The clashes stopped for several hours in the morning, though state media said there was still sporadic sniper fire. But they began again after the killing of the Palestinian general and his escorts.
The Lebanese Army in a statement said a mortar shell landed in a military barracks outside the camp wounding one soldier, whose condition is stable.
Ein el-Hilweh is notorious for its lawlessness and violence is not uncommon. The U.N. says it is home to some 55,000 people.
It was established in 1948 to host Palestinians displaced by Israeli forces during the establishment of Israel. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-1-killed-6-wounded-in-overnight-clashes-in-crowded-palestinian-refugee-camp-in-lebanon/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:46 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-1-killed-6-wounded-in-overnight-clashes-in-crowded-palestinian-refugee-camp-in-lebanon/ |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with children's book author Matt de la Peña about summer reading recommendations for kids of all ages when they complain, "I'm bored!"
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with children's book author Matt de la Peña about summer reading recommendations for kids of all ages when they complain, "I'm bored!"
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/a-childrens-book-author-recommends-books-to-keep-your-kids-busy-this-summer | 2023-07-30T12:50:48 | 1 | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/a-childrens-book-author-recommends-books-to-keep-your-kids-busy-this-summer |
Is recent news about the economy so good that the U.S. can say it is coming in for a "soft landing," where inflation gets tamed without a recession?
Copyright 2023 NPR
Is recent news about the economy so good that the U.S. can say it is coming in for a "soft landing," where inflation gets tamed without a recession?
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvia.org/news/business/2023-07-30/do-recent-positive-developments-qualify-as-a-soft-landing-for-the-economy | 2023-07-30T12:50:50 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/news/business/2023-07-30/do-recent-positive-developments-qualify-as-a-soft-landing-for-the-economy |
MOSCOW (AP) — At least nine people — including three children — have died after high winds tore through central Russia, emergency services and a local official reported Sunday.
Eight of the dead were part of a group of tourists camping close to Lake Yalchik in the Mari-El region when the storm hit Saturday, Russia’s emergencies ministry said.
The strong winds caused a large number of trees to fall in the area, including where the group’s tents had been pitched on a stretch of wild beach, regional leader Yuri Zaitsev wrote on social media. He said that three children were among the dead.
Across the wider Volga Federal District, 76 people were injured in the storm, with thousands of households losing power, emergency services said. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-9-die-including-3-children-as-strong-winds-hit-tourist-camp-in-central-russia-officials-say/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:52 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-9-die-including-3-children-as-strong-winds-hit-tourist-camp-in-central-russia-officials-say/ |
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.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/a-drone-attack-on-moscow-briefly-shut-one-of-its-airports-and-injured-one | 2023-07-30T12:50:54 | 1 | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/a-drone-attack-on-moscow-briefly-shut-one-of-its-airports-and-injured-one |
The first time Nicola Veitch went to a soccer game, she danced on the field in a white lab coat alongside a colleague inside a giant tsetse fly costume. Most of the fans applauded. Some were baffled.
Neither was auditioning to be the new team mascot.
Rather, Veitch, who's a lecturer in parasitology at the University of Glasgow, put on this somewhat weird performance as a pilot for sleeping sickness street theater — using a theatrical event to teach people about a disease that affects about 1,000 people each year in Africa.
In Malawi's two endemic districts where the disease is spread by local tsetse flies, the number of people falling ill from sleeping sickness has declined in recent years, but cases still persist. Last year, there were only 40 cases across the country. But Veitch points out the disease is "often unpredictable," which means that the possibility of resurgence remains a persistent threat.
More than a year after that Scottish match, the group brought the theatrical event to soccer games in Malawi where people cheered while learning about how to protect themselves from this tiny killer. Veitch calls it an innovative intervention in remote, hard-to-reach communities with few smartphones.
At the time of the performance, she says a clinical trial was underway for a new drug that "seems to be very promising in terms of treating sleeping sickness." If successful, people with the disease could take the medicine at home instead of relying on the current method of treatment for late-stage sleeping sickness — the intravenous administration of a toxic drug that often leads to complications and is occasionally fatal itself. The new drug would represent "a massive change," she says. But in the meantime, knowledge is one of the best ways to fight the disease, and the performance seemed to offer the spectators important information.
idea that
Sleeping sickness is found in communities in Malawi that border nature or game reserves. Those areas were where the performances were held. "So we are targeting the people that are really affected," says Janelisa Musaya, a parasitologist involved in the project and the associate director of the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Clinical Research Programme, instead of "just throwing the message all over the country." In other words, she says, it's a way of allocating resources wisely.
Targeting a 'hypnotic' parasite
Sleeping sickness, also called African trypanosomiasis, is caused by a parasite. "It almost looks like a worm," says Veitch. But it's not a worm. It's a single-celled protozoan of the genus Trypanosoma.
The parasite relies on the tsetse fly to shuttle it around. When an infected fly bites someone, the parasite can slip into their bloodstream. It causes a little trouble there, says Musaya, "but when it crosses the blood-brain barrier and goes to the central nervous system, it can affect your sleeping cycle. That's why it's called the sleeping sickness." (The disease is often confused with malaria since the symptoms of fever and lethargy are similar.)
When Veitch looks down the microscope at the parasite that causes sleeping sickness, she says, "it's very hypnotic the way it moves and quite beautiful. I think that only a parasitologist can say that."
That beauty was what got her thinking several years back about alternative ways to inform people about the disease — which many people in Malawi are still not aware of, Veitch says. She has a family member who works for SURGE, a Scottish art, theater and circus organization that runs an annual performance festival that brings cutting edge work to the streets and spaces of Glasgow. The sketches tend to be short, sharp, and interactive, she says.
One year, Veitch was drawn to an outside act that had repurposed an ambulance to teach people how to respond to someone having a cardiac arrest through engaging movement and comical water balloon antics. "And I thought to myself, we could be using street theater to engage people with parasitology," she says. So she approached SURGE and said, "We could maybe work together on something to do with parasites. I think we could create something really cool."
Veitch isn't alone in her thinking. A few years back, the World Health Organization published a report on the role that the arts — including theater — can play in improving our physical, social, and psychological health and well-being, a particular concern in under-resourced countries.
Arts activities facilitate social interaction, says Nisha Sajnani, the co-director of the Jameel Arts and Health Lab at New York University, who wasn't involved in the sleeping sickness project. She adds that performance is just the right platform and artform to "increase a sense of self-efficacy — a feeling of being able to do something about a problem."
Veitch's conversation with SURGE kickstarted a multiyear effort for her and her colleagues in Scotland and Malawi, including an arts and theater group called Voices Malawi that educates people about various illnesses, including COVID-19 and malaria and that uses street theater as a teaching mode.
First, the team had to dream up a way to depict sleeping sickness through street theater. Musaya was excited to get involved. After studying sleeping sickness for 15 years, there was still a missing link for her — "how do we educate the community not to get infected?" She hoped this theatrical foray might provide an answer.
Bwanalori Mwamlima, senior health promotion officer in the Rumphi district of Malawi, says that developing the performance was an act of co-creation among scientists, health workers, performing artists and individuals who'd survived the disease. He explains that the messages they wanted to communicate were, "How is it transmitted? What are the [symptoms]? How can it be prevented? And what are the current interventions?"
Tsetse fly theater has its Malawi premiere
When the show rolled out in Malawi in the fall of 2022, here's what it looked like.
Communities were told that local football and netball teams would descend upon a particular field to play. Then, the day of the event, the performers (a team of nurses, clinicians, students and researchers) drove through town in a truck with music blaring. That got people to leave their homes and follow the truck to the edge of a soccer field. "We wanted to gather a crowd," says Veitch.
Before the soccer game, they offered their theatrical vision of sleeping sickness — mainly visual with some narration. They gave red t-shirts to the audience and asked them to put them on to simulate the human bloodstream. The performers who were dressed as scientists in white lab coats waded into the crowd, each one carrying a giant net. "They were supposed to be scientists looking for infection," says Veitch.
Once the crowd was sufficiently warmed up, the person dressed as the tsetse fly emerged. (The fly costume was made in Scotland by the costume designer regularly employed by SURGE. She'd made outfits for "all sorts of weird and wonderful performances," says Veitch, but this was her first tsetse fly — which had massive wings and limited vision for the person inside the fly's head, so you "need someone to be at your side when moving around.")
The fly threw beach balls into the crowd, representing the infectious parasite, which audience members batted around.
The beach balls were different colors, a metaphor for the way in which the parasite changes its outer protein coat to evade the human immune system. "It's very difficult to create a vaccine to something that undergoes this variation," says Veitch.
The people dressed as scientists ran around to catch the balls of infection in their nets. And finally, they brought out a large net, enveloping the giant fly, escorting it offstage and bringing the performance to a close. In reality, this net is highly effective at attracting tsetse flies because of its blue color and the bottle of urine-smelling liquid placed beside it. "It's just a simple bit of material that has insecticide" in it, Veitch says.
But sometimes people in nearby villages take down the nets stationed in game reserves because they don't know what they are or why they're there. Therefore, "one of the ideas behind the performance," says Veitch, "was to get people to really consider they're very effective at catching tsetse. And if you leave them up, it's beneficial to everybody and that will prevent disease." In addition, by showing researchers helping to capture the parasites, the performers hoped to demonstrate to the public that scientists and their work can be trusted.
Afterward, spectators received additional guidance during a question and answer session. They asked what differentiates a tsetse fly from a housefly (its size, color, and resting wing position), how long it takes for symptoms to appear (typically 2 to 4 weeks) and perhaps most important, how to prevent getting bitten in the first place (avoid nature reserves; don't wear blue or black, which attracts the flies; wear long sleeves; apply insect repellent).
Musaya hopes the audiences walked away with an improved understanding of the disease and how they would contract it. "Many people who attended the performance said they didn't know about the disease," Veitch says. "They had heard of tsetse, but didn't know of the disease it carried, and didn't know of the symptoms to look out for."
"There's something about the dramatizing of the concept that increases the understanding," she explains.
Mwamlima, who dressed up as the tsetse fly for one of the performances in Malawi, was surprised by the success of the theatrical approach, "considering that this is the first time to bring theater performances to teach science," he says. "So I wasn't sure whether it would work," but he's glad that it seemed to. Evaluations showed the audiences were engaged and felt confident asking questions. But long-term, Veitch says they'll know if the performance was successful "if more tsetse nets are left in place and if more people come forward for diagnosis and treatment."
In addition, the medical professionals and researchers, many of whom had never done anything like this before, found this to be a meaningful way to connect with communities. "It really improved people's confidence in terms of thinking about public engagement," Veitch says, "and they would do it again."
"It's a great example of how participatory theater offers a compelling, energizing, pleasurable way of bringing people together to clarify community concerns, feel empowered to make a difference, problem solve," says NYU's Sajnani.
"I think it's a remarkable approach," agrees Kartik Sharma, the founder of the organization Public Arts Health & Us, which translates health and environment research into film and art, including theater pieces. He wasn't associated with the sleeping sickness project. Sharma argues that a performance "converts research into something which people can see and feel in a more personalized way." The result, he says, is that "you can actually use it the next day in your life. So I think it's a very powerful strategy."
For those who missed the show, Veitch says that video recordings will be used as part of Malawi's mobile cinema program, which ranges from big televisions on the back of land rovers to large screens set up next to marketplaces and other public gatherings. It's a common way to publicize health messages in Malawi. The goal, says Veitch, is to "extend the legacy of what we've been doing."
However, despite all the fanfare and promise of the program, Veitch, who says she wasn't into soccer when this program began, admits that she's still not a football fan.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvia.org/news/health/2023-07-30/a-man-dressed-as-a-tsetse-fly-came-to-a-soccer-game-and-he-definitely-had-a-goal | 2023-07-30T12:50:56 | 0 | https://www.wvia.org/news/health/2023-07-30/a-man-dressed-as-a-tsetse-fly-came-to-a-soccer-game-and-he-definitely-had-a-goal |
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — African leaders are leaving two days of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin with little to show for their requests to resume a deal that kept grain flowing from Ukraine and to find a path to end the war there.
Putin in a press conference late Saturday following the Russia-Africa summit said Russia’s termination of the grain deal earlier this month caused a rise in grain prices that benefits Russian companies. He added that Moscow would share some of those revenues with the “poorest nations.”
That commitment, with no details, follows Putin’s promise to start shipping 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain for free to each of six African nations in the next three to four months — an amount dwarfed by the 725,000 tons shipped by the U.N. World Food Program to several hungry countries, African and otherwise, under the grain deal. Russia plans to send the free grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and Central African Republic.
Fewer than 20 of Africa’s 54 heads of state or government attended the Russia summit, while 43 attended the previous gathering in 2019, reflecting concerns over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine even as Moscow seeks more allies on the African continent of 1.3 billion people. Putin praised Africa as a rising center of power in the world, while the Kremlin blamed “outrageous” Western pressure for discouraging some African countries from showing up.
The presidents of Egypt and South Africa were among the most outspoken on the need to resume the grain deal.
“We would like the Black Sea initiative to be implemented and that the Black Sea should be open,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said. “We are not here to plead for donations for the African continent.”
Putin also said Russia would analyze African leaders’ peace proposal for Ukraine, whose details have not been publicly shared. But the Russian leader asked: “Why do you ask us to pause fire? We can’t pause fire while we’re being attacked.”
The next significant step in peace efforts instead appears to be a Ukrainian-organized peace summit hosted by Saudi Arabia in August. Russia is not invited.
Africa’s nations make up the largest voting bloc at the United Nations and have been more divided than any other region on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Delegations at the summit in St. Petersburg roamed exhibits of weapons, a reminder of Russia’s role as the top arms supplier to the African continent.
Putin in his remarks on Saturday also downplayed his absence from the BRICS economic summit in South Africa next month amid a controversy over an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court. His presence there, Putin said, is not “more important than my presence here, in Russia.” | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-african-leaders-leave-russia-summit-without-grain-deal-or-a-path-to-end-the-war-in-ukraine/ | 2023-07-30T12:50:58 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-african-leaders-leave-russia-summit-without-grain-deal-or-a-path-to-end-the-war-in-ukraine/ |
An archeological dig in Turkey has uncovered artifacts dating back 1,000 years By Peter Kenyon Published July 30, 2023 at 7:02 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email In Turkey, what started out as an exploration of a Roman garrison has uncovered artifacts dating back to the time of the Assyrian empire. Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/an-archeological-dig-in-turkey-has-uncovered-artifacts-dating-back-1-000-years | 2023-07-30T12:51:01 | 1 | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/an-archeological-dig-in-turkey-has-uncovered-artifacts-dating-back-1-000-years |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Morristown Medical Center sports cardiologist Matthew Martinez about why some young athletes suffer from sudden cardiac-related medical emergencies.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Morristown Medical Center sports cardiologist Matthew Martinez about why some young athletes suffer from sudden cardiac-related medical emergencies.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvia.org/news/health/2023-07-30/cardiac-issues-among-young-athletes-are-rare-but-there-are-precautions-to-take | 2023-07-30T12:51:02 | 0 | https://www.wvia.org/news/health/2023-07-30/cardiac-issues-among-young-athletes-are-rare-but-there-are-precautions-to-take |
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Thousands of supporters of the junta that took over Niger in a coup earlier this week marched through the streets of the capital, Niamey, on Sunday waving Russian flags, chanting the name of the Russian president and forcefully denouncing former colonial power France.
The protesters marched through the city to the French Embassy, where a door was lit on fire, according to someone who was at the embassy when it happened and videos seen by The AP. Black smoke could be seen rising from across the city. The Nigerien army broke up the crowd of the protesters.
Russian mercenary group Wagner is already operating in neighboring Mali, and Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to expand his country’s influence in the region. However, it is unclear yet whether the new junta leaders will move toward Moscow or stick with Niger’s Western partners.
Days after the coup, uncertainty is mounting about Niger’s future, with some calling out the junta’s reasons for seizing control.
President Mohamed Bazoum was democratically elected two years ago in Niger’s first peaceful transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.
The mutineers said they overthrew him because he wasn’t able to secure the nation against growing jihadi violence.
But some analysts and Nigeriens say that’s just a pretext for a takeover that is more about internal power struggles than securing the nation.
“Everybody is wondering: why this coup? That’s because no one was expecting it. We couldn’t expect a coup in Niger because there’s no social, political or security situation that would justify that the military take the power,” Prof. Amad Hassane Boubacar, who teaches at the University of Niamey, told The Associated Press.
He said Bazoum wanted to replace the head of the presidential guard, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who is now in charge of the country. Tchiani, who also goes by Omar, was loyal to Bazoum’s predecessor and that sparked the problems, Boubacar said. The AP cannot independently verify his assessment.
While Niger’s security situation is dire, it’s not as bad as neighboring Burkina Faso or Mali, which have also been battling an Islamic insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Last year, Niger was the only one of the three to see a decline in violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
Niger had been seen as the last reliable partner for the West in efforts to battle the jihadists in Africa’s Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence. France has 1,500 soldiers in the country who conduct joint operations with the Nigeriens. The United States and other European countries have helped train the nation’s troops.
Regional bodies, including the West African economic bloc ECOWAS, have denounced the coup. Some taking part in Sunday’s rally warned them to stay away. “I would like also to say to the European Union, African Union and ECOWAS, please, please stay out of our business,” said Oumar Barou Moussa, who was at the demonstration.
“It’s time for us to take our lives, to work for ourselves. It’s time for us to talk about our freedom and liberty. We need to stay together, we need to work together, we need to have our true independence,” he said.
Conflict experts say out of all the countries in the region, Niger has the most at stake if it turns away from the West, given the millions of dollars of military assistance the international community has poured in. On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the continued security and economic arrangements that Niger has with the U.S. hinged on the release of Bazoum — who remains under house arrest — and “the immediate restoration of the democratic order in Niger.”
On Sunday France condemned all violence against diplomatic compounds, whose security is the responsibility of the host state, said a statement by the government.
“Nigerien forces are obliged to ensure the security of our diplomatic and consular premises. We urge them to fulfill this obligation under international law,” it said.
The attack follows France’s move on Saturday to suspend all development and financial aid for Niger.
The African Union has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the junta in Niger to reinstall the country’s democratically elected government. ECOWAS is holding an emergency summit Sunday in Abuja, Nigeria.
The 15-nation ECOWAS bloc has unsuccessfully tried to restore democracies in nations where the military took power in recent years. Four nations are run by military regimes in West and Central Africa, where there have been nine successful or attempted coups since 2020.
If ECOWAS imposes economic sanctions on Niger, which is what normally happens during coups, it could have a deep impact on Nigeriens, who live in the third-poorest country in the world, according to the latest U.N. data.
However, in a televised address Saturday, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba, one of the soldiers who ousted Bazoum, accused the meeting of making a “plan of aggression” against Niger and said the country would defend itself.
Niger experts say it’s too soon to know how things will play out.
“Tensions with the military are still ongoing. There could be another coup after this one, or a stronger intervention from ECOWAS, potentially military force, even if it is difficult to foresee how specifically that may happen and what form that may take,” said Tatiana Smirnova, a researcher in conflict resolution and peace missions at the Centre FrancoPaix.
“Many actors are also trying to negotiate, but the outcome is unclear,” she said.
___
Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria contributed. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-as-regional-and-global-powers-decry-nigers-coup-the-countrys-future-remains-uncertain/ | 2023-07-30T12:51:04 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-as-regional-and-global-powers-decry-nigers-coup-the-countrys-future-remains-uncertain/ |
After nearly five years, the Big Peanut statue has returned to Ashburn, Ga. The original roadside attraction went down during Hurricane Michael. The new one is stronger and locally crafted.
Copyright 2023 NPR
After nearly five years, the Big Peanut statue has returned to Ashburn, Ga. The original roadside attraction went down during Hurricane Michael. The new one is stronger and locally crafted.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/georgias-famous-corn-statue-has-been-rebuilt-after-the-hurricane | 2023-07-30T12:51:07 | 0 | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/georgias-famous-corn-statue-has-been-rebuilt-after-the-hurricane |
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.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvia.org/news/news/2023-07-30/a-drone-attack-on-moscow-briefly-shut-one-of-its-airports-and-injured-one | 2023-07-30T12:51:09 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/news/news/2023-07-30/a-drone-attack-on-moscow-briefly-shut-one-of-its-airports-and-injured-one |
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The discovery of four dead women in a drainage ditch just outside Atlantic City was shocking news in 2006.
International media flocked to the seaside gambling resort. More than 100 detectives and prosecutors were assigned to investigate. Casino guests worried about safety, and the victims’ fellow sex workers began carrying hidden knives.
But as the years passed, the public’s attention and fear faded, and the case of the “Eastbound Strangler” – so named for the direction the victims’ heads were facing – remained unsolved.
The arrest earlier this month of a man charged with killing three women whose remains were found on a Long Island beach in 2010 has breathed fresh life into another long-dormant case with obvious parallels; the Gilgo Beach serial killings involve a total of 11 victims, most of whom were young, female sex workers. Yet the recent breakthrough, and the rekindling of public interest, only highlights a painful truth: Many similar cases – like the one in Atlantic City — remain open.
The FBI would not say how many killings of sex workers in the U.S. remain unsolved. Media accounts and statements from local authorities show a long trail of open cases, from nine women whose bodies were found along highways in Massachusetts, to 11 found dead in New Mexico, and eight more found amid the crawfish farms and swamps of southern Louisiana. The killings of other sex workers in Chicago, New Haven, Connecticut and Ohio, among other places, also remain mysteries.
From the days of London’s Jack The Ripper in the 1880s, serial killers, particularly those preying on sex workers, have often gotten away with it, in part because their victims were easy targets living on the margins of society.
Gary Ridgway, the so-called Green River killer convicted of 49 killings in Washington state, said at during a 2003 court hearing in which he pleaded guilty that he chose sex workers as victims because he knew they would not be missed quickly, if at all.
“I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught,” he said.
Two women were out for an afternoon walk near Atlantic City in November 2006 when they found a body in a ditch. They called police, who quickly found three others nearby.
The $15-a-night motel in Egg Harbor Township behind which the four bodies were found is long gone. It was torn down in an attempt to clear a seedy area known for crime, drugs and disturbances – and the murders of Barbara Breidor, 42, Molly Jean Dilts, 20, Kim Raffo, 35, and Tracy Ann Roberts, 23.
Because it is near the ocean, like Gilgo Beach, the location has prompted much speculation by amateur detectives about a single killer, but some other online sleuths have pointed out that oceanside areas are often the remotest locations after hours on the densely packed East Coast. Gilgo Beach is about 3.5 hours drive from Atlantic City.
Gone in New Jersey are the four small wooden crosses someone erected on the site, along with the folded-up paper note bearing a Biblical quote promising justice that someone left there on one of the anniversaries of the discovery of the bodies.
For families left behind, each new day without word in the case of their loved one brings fresh pain.
“I kind of lost hope that anyone was even searching for the killer anymore,” said Joyce Roberts, whose daughter Tracy Ann was one of the four Atlantic City-area victims. “The first six months, the prosecutor did get on the phone with me and told me they were working on it.
“Then it just fell off the radar,” she said. “It was like nobody cared anymore.”
That is a sentiment echoed by Phoenix Calida, a former sex worker from Chicago who now advocates for them through the Sex Workers Outreach Project.
“Police departments often refer to it as an ‘NHI’ case: No humans involved,” she said. ”You feel like the only way you’ll be remembered is when they catch the serial killer who killed you, and then they’ll make five movies about him and no one will remember your name.”
Massachusetts State Police are investigating “nine unsolved homicides possibly committed by the same person,” said David Procopio, a spokesperson for the agency. He said two additional missing persons cases may be homicides related to the other nine.
Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said the New Mexico cases remain actively investigated, with “multiple detectives” working them. The 11 victims were all involved in drugs and prostitution, police said.
A reward of $100,000 has been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case, which involved two victims who were just 15 years old.
Despite the decade-long efforts of a local, state and federal task force, Louisiana has at least eight unsolved apparent homicide cases involving sex workers between the ages of 17 and 30. Their bodies were found in marshy areas in Jennings, a small town in the area known as Cajun Country, between 2005 and 2009.
Prosecutors in New York’s Suffolk County investigating the Gilgo Beach cases have been in touch with multiple law enforcement agencies, but District Attorney Ray Tierney would not say which ones.
“Everything is being examined and looked at, and this is an active investigation,” said Anthony Carter, Suffolk County’s deputy police commissioner. He would not say if his agency was investigating any connection between Heuermann and the Atlantic City murders.
Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds said the four cases from the drainage ditch outside Atlantic City remain active, with detectives assigned to them, but would not say how many. He declined comment on the Long Island case “as we are not involved.”
Joyce Roberts, the victim’s mother, said no one from law enforcement has called her since the arrest was made in the Long Island cases.
Police in Las Vegas, where Heuermann owns a time share, said they are investigating whether Heuermann may be involved in cases involving the killings of sex workers there.
In the months immediately after the bodies’ discovery near Atlantic City, the local prosecutor’s office and a dozen other law enforcement agencies had 140 people assigned to the cases, Ted Housel, who was prosecutor at the time, said in 2008. By the first anniversary, the total had fallen to 85, and those investigators were also working other cases.
Calida, the former sex worker from Chicago, said women involved the sex trade are frequently robbed by people who know they’re carrying cash, and are sometimes coerced into sexual activity by police in return for not being arrested.
She said an attacker “knows you can’t or won’t report it. You’re an easy target and they know it.”
Three of her friends who were also sex workers in Chicago also turned up dead.
“You see someone, you become friends with them and then one day they’re suddenly just not there,” she said. “We’d all go out asking around and looking for them, and then a few days later a body would be found. There’s always this specific fear that it’s a serial killer. Sometimes we never even get a body back to bury. And we wonder: Will law enforcement take it seriously because it’s ‘just another sex worker?’”
___
AP writers Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque; Steve LeBlanc in Boston; Julie Walker and Robert Bumsted in Suffolk County, New York; Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this story.
Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-breakthrough-in-long-island-serial-killings-shines-light-on-the-many-unsolved-murders-of-sex-workers/ | 2023-07-30T12:51:10 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-breakthrough-in-long-island-serial-killings-shines-light-on-the-many-unsolved-murders-of-sex-workers/ |
On-air challenge: I'm going to give you some words. For each one, think of something that starts with the first letter of my word ... and that fits in the category named by the rest of my word.
Example: Factor — (Morgan) Freeman, (Henry) Fonda, (Harrison) Ford [actor starting with F]1. Scar
2. Aisle
3. Crank
4. Broom
5. Thorn
6. Bride
7. Swine
8. Cape
9. Trapper
Last week's challenge: Name a classic TV show in two words, in which the respective words rhyme with the first and last names of a famous writer - four letters in the first name, five letter in the last name. Who is it?
Challenge answer: "Get Smart" --> Bret Harte
Winner: Mary Butler from Columbus, Nebraska
This week's challenge: This challenge comes from listener Jim Vespe, of Mamaroneck, N.Y. Name a well-known U.S. city in nine letters. Change the third and fifth letters to get the name of a beverage. What is it?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, August 3rd at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/sunday-puzzle-let-the-categories-guide-you | 2023-07-30T12:51:13 | 0 | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/sunday-puzzle-let-the-categories-guide-you |
People have asked me what I've learned so far through this series. Have I gotten any clarity on what makes up my own spiritual identity? And the answer is, not really. I'm still in the research phase of this project. I'm still collecting experiences and perspectives and I imagine I'll keep doing that forever, but it's too early to draw any definitive conclusions — except for one.
I believe each and every one of us is capable of making our own meaning. Some of us do that by living according to a set of religious principles. Or by feeling the beauty and sanctity of nature. Or by choosing to see spiritual connections in what others might call mere coincidence.
I don't need anyone to validate those experiences for them to be meaningful to me. But according to Lisa Miller, a professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, having a spiritual life is good for your mental health.
Miller is a psychologist and has dedicated most of her career to the study of neuroscience and spirituality. Her newest book is called The Awakened Brain, and in it she makes some really bold claims about how holding spiritual beliefs can decrease our rates of anxiety and depression and generally make us most likely to lead happier lives. I can hear your skepticism already! I get it. I'm a spiritually inclined kind of person but it's still hard for me to understand how, scientifically speaking, believing in something bigger than yourself can make you healthier and happier.
I needed to understand how Miller came to these conclusions. But before she got to the actual science, she told me a story.
It was the mid '90s. Miller was in the early stages of her career and working at a residential mental health facility in New York City. After she'd been there a few months, Yom Kippur rolled around — the day of atonement, considered the most significant of the Jewish religious holidays. One of the older male patients with severe bipolar disorder asked if there were any plans to mark the day. The doctor in charge shrugged his shoulders and said, no — there's no service planned. The patient walked out of the room with his shoulders slumped and Lisa, who is Jewish, saw an opportunity.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Lisa Miller: I approached the unit chief and said, "I'm certainly not a rabbi, but I've been to two-and-a-half decades of Yom Kippur services. I'd be happy to facilitate if that might be OK with you." So I showed up on Yom Kippur and the patients had arrived early to the kitchen, which was to be our sanctuary. The fluorescent lights were quite strong and as we crowded around the linoleum table there was an extraordinary feeling of specialness.
As we started the prayers that we all knew from our childhood, joining together saying in Hebrew the prayers of Yom Kippur, I looked over and noticed that as the gentleman with bipolar was davening, he could not have been further from explosive. He was holding our group in the cadence of the prayers and we were actually following him.
I took a pause and I said, "I feel so grateful to be here today in our Yom Kippur ceremony. Would anyone like to say anything?" We went around the table and the first person to speak was a very otherwise withdrawn woman with recurrent depression. She said, "You know, I always knew on Yom Kippur we could ask for forgiveness. But sitting here now with you all, I'm aware that we can be forgiven. God can forgive us." And she looked liberated.
As I looked around the table at the patients, whatever their symptoms had been yesterday, they were free in that moment. They were free of suffering. They were free of the characteristic patterns that had dragged them down in a way that was equal and opposite to their main symptoms. And so I thought a mental health system minus spirituality made no sense, and that became my life's work, to understand the place of spirituality in renewal, in recovery, in resilience, and to put this in the language of science.
Rachel Martin: What happened when you brought these kinds of questions to your peers, to the other people in your scientific community? Like when you said for the first time, "Hey, I think we need to look at the effect of spirituality on mental health." What did people say to you?
Miller: Well, the vast majority were very respectful, nodded, and didn't pick up the thread. Some of them would say, "That's not psychology, that's not psychiatry." And in fact, I remember early on giving a grand rounds presentation and I opened up saying, "I'm going to speak today about a body of data using nationally representative samples on spirituality and mental health with all the gold standard methods." And about 10 people got up and walked out. It was absolutely not of interest.
Martin: Using the gold standard, what did that mean in terms of the experiments you were running and the studies and the data you were collecting? How did you make sure that it would hold water in the scientific community?
Miller: If I were to characterize the first five years of my investigation, I would say I used the data sets that everyone else knew and trusted. I only asked one new question, which was: "What's the impact of spirituality on the DSM diagnosis of addiction and depression?" The findings were jaw dropping.
The protective benefit of personal spirituality, meaning someone who says their personal spirituality is very important, is 80% against addiction. They have 80% decreased relative risk for the DSM diagnosis of addiction to drugs or alcohol.
Martin: Wait, so someone who self-identifies as having a meaningful spiritual life is 80% less likely to get addicted to drugs or alcohol than someone who says they don't?
Miller: Yes.
Martin: Wow. And how can you prove that it is a spiritual life that is doing that and not some external factor? Because you heard this from other critics, too, some of your peers said you can't attribute that to spirituality, it's gotta be some other social conditioning.
Miller: Well, that's a very important point because in every study we controlled for all of the usual interpretations about this being social support or having resources. So we plugged into our equation every other possible explanation that was generally taken in mental health to explain the road to depression. And nonetheless, it actually turned out that the more high risk we are, the more that there's stress in our lives, the more that we might be genetically at risk for depression, the greater the impact of spirituality as a source of resilience as preventative against major depression.
Martin: What does that look like in the brain?
Miller: One of the most beautiful findings in my 20 years as an investigator was from an MRI study conducted together with our colleagues at Yale Medical School. We looked at people of many different faith traditions and the first finding was that there is one neuro seat of transcendent perception and we share it. Now there's human variability of course, and we can strengthen components.
Martin: How are you actually doing that with people? Are you asking your subjects to pray? What are the spiritual inputs that are going into them so that you can measure it on their brains?
Miller: The very specific prompt was, "Tell us about a time where you felt a deep connection to God, your higher power, the source of life." Everyone had a story like that and as they told their story, we recorded them and it was then played back in their ears while they were inside the scanner.
Martin: Ah, they heard themselves recounting their spiritual experience.
Miller: It was tailor made to their own moment.
Martin: And you saw their brains light up?
Miller: Oh yes. Connecting to these memories, the bonding network comes up online just as when we were held in the arms of our parents or grandparents.
Martin: Wait, when you say the bonding network you mean you can literally see that the brain will respond to spiritual stimuli in the same way that it does to a hug from a family member when you're a baby?
Miller: Precisely.
Martin: Can you tell me how this manifests in the real world? I'm thinking about this anecdote you include in the book about a client of yours. A girl you refer to as Iliana.
Miller: Iliana adored her father, I mean, he was the sun and the moon and the stars to her. They were so close. And one night two men who her father knew, came into his corner store, robbed him and murdered him. And she was devastated. This was a grief that was so deep. She simply could not free herself from the grief that was shackling her heart.
One day, Iliana skips into my office. There's a levity and joy. She plops into the seat and says, "Dr. Miller, you're never gonna believe this. My cousin and my cousin's girlfriend chaperoned me so I could go to a party and I met the most wonderful boy. We talked so long, it must have been 20 minutes. He was so polite and so kind. But here's the best part, his name." Which was the same very usual name as her father.
She said, "Don't you see? My father sent him. My father is looking out after me." And from that day on she was in the world of the living. What changed everything for Iliana was the awareness that her father walked with her. She maintained a deep transcendent relationship with her father, as most people around the world do.
Iliana trusted her deep inner knowing that this was far too probabilistic to have happened by chance. That this very rare name held both by this new boy and her father could possibly mean nothing.
Martin: Can I ask, what are you thinking as you hear this? I mean, are you thinking that is just a crazy coincidence, but if she needs to believe that this is a sign from God, who am I to tell her otherwise? Because it seems to be working.
Miller: Well, at the time, that was certainly the most common interpretive framework amongst psychologists and psychiatrists. But I could see plain as day that this was a tremendously sacred moment. This was a living miracle. This was a gift.
For me to have treated it like some kind of cultural diversity variable or that it's just the meaning she makes would've actually taken all of the energy and spirit out of that transformative awakening moment. I joined her.
Now I did that authentically because it was my view as well that this is far too nonprobabilistic to have happened by chance, that there are very few people by that very same name and that the first boy she met in a year and a half since her father's passing should have the name of the father. It was a synchronicity. There was a deeper meaning being revealed.
Martin: When you're talking to people who aren't scientists, someone who's skeptical, someone who doesn't have faith, who doesn't have what they define as a spiritual life, what do you want them to take away from your research and your message?
Miller: I've given a number of talks to audiences who, prior to seeing the science, would not necessarily consider themselves spiritual people. And, in fact, I oftentimes hear from people who consider themselves skeptics and very left-brained and when they see the peer reviewed science that says we're naturally spiritual beings, that when we cultivate our spirituality we're 80% less likely to be addicted, 82% less likely to take our lives, it speaks to the left side of their brains long enough that it quiets down the skepticism.
In other words, three cheers for the skeptic. Here is published, peer reviewed science for skeptical audiences to begin to explore, to be curious about our spiritual nature. You know, at the inner table of human knowing we all have an empiricist, a logician, an intuitive, a mystic, and a skeptic. And the skeptic is very welcome, but the skeptic is not the bouncer at the door.
It is not scientific to put a skeptic as a bouncer at the door. It is not more rigorous to toss out an idea before being examined in every way. We are wired to be able to investigate. So I simply say to the biggest skeptic of all, you are most welcome to your own inner table of inquiry, but be sure to invite everyone else.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvia.org/news/news/2023-07-30/this-ivy-league-researcher-says-spirituality-is-good-for-our-mental-health | 2023-07-30T12:51:15 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/news/news/2023-07-30/this-ivy-league-researcher-says-spirituality-is-good-for-our-mental-health |
BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — The Central African Republic went to the polls Sunday in a highly anticipated vote on a new constitution, which would remove presidential term limits.
President Faustin Archange Touadera wants to extend presidential terms from five to seven years and remove the previous two-term limit, enabling him to run again in 2025.
The new constitution would replace the one adopted at Touadera’s inauguration in 2016, when the country was in a civil war and 80% of it was not under state control. If the new constitution is passed, it could entrench the ruling party’s power indefinitely, analysts say.
“This referendum basically confirms the fears of authoritarian drift (in CAR),” said Enrica Picco, Central Africa project director with the International Crisis Group. The new constitution would weaken checks on the executive by opposition parties, closing the space for Central Africans to participate in democratic decision-making, she said.
The proposed changes also would lift requirements that executive decisions be debated by the legislative and permit Central Africans with dual nationalities to vote.
The mineral-rich but impoverished nation has faced intercommunal fighting since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and forced then-President Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian militias later fought back, also targeting civilians in the streets. The United Nations, which has a peacekeeping mission in the country, estimates the fighting had killed thousands and displaced over a million people, one fifth of the country’s population.
When Touadera won re-election in 2020, barely a third of Central Africans made it to the polls, largely due to threats of violence by rebel groups. Touadera’s government has relied on support from UN peacekeepers, soldiers from neighboring Rwanda and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to keep rebels out of the capital Bangui.
“Now that there is peace … the time has come for us to take action,” said Fidel Gouandjika, a presidential advisor.
Opposition groups accuse the ruling party of making a draft of the new constitution publicly available too late for people to make informed decisions, less than three weeks before the referendum, said Picco.
Together with opposition parties they are calling on Central Africans to vote against the proposed constitution, or abstain from the referendum.
“Touadera wants to see himself as an emperor, and he wants to make our country what he wants, not what Central Africans want,” said former Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-constitutional-referendum-to-remove-presidential-term-limits-divides-central-african-republic/ | 2023-07-30T12:51:16 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-constitutional-referendum-to-remove-presidential-term-limits-divides-central-african-republic/ |
Washington became the first state to start deducting money from workers' paychecks to fund long-term care benefits. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on July 25, 2023.)
Copyright 2023 NPR
Washington became the first state to start deducting money from workers' paychecks to fund long-term care benefits. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on July 25, 2023.)
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/washingtons-new-tax-could-be-a-solution-to-fund-long-term-care | 2023-07-30T12:51:19 | 0 | https://www.kasu.org/2023-07-30/washingtons-new-tax-could-be-a-solution-to-fund-long-term-care |
She's one of India's biggest Barbie fans. When Vichitra Rajasingh was growing up, family and friends helped her build her collection of Barbie dolls until she had almost 80 of them. She once owned a Barbie camper, a speedboat, supermarket and post office. The mermaid Barbie and scuba-diving Barbie were her favorites.
Since her family ran a hotel, they put the dolls on display in the lobby in the late '90s. On Rajasingh's 14th birthday, her parents painted her room bright pink and hired artists to draw her favorite Barbie dolls on the walls.
All her Barbies were blond. She says she didn't like the Indian ethnic ones that came on the local market.
Living the pink life
"My love for the color pink began with my childhood passion for Barbie," she says. "And now it's become my identity." For her, the color represents love, joy, femininity and playfulness, everything she once associated with Barbie, she says.
Today Rajasingh lives in the southern Indian city of Madurai, where she drives a pink mini-Cooper and runs a bakery and lives in an apartment that are dominated by that color.
When the Barbie movie released in India on July 21, she gathered a bunch of friends, "everyone dressed to the nines in pink," and watched it on the day of its release. "I loved the movie. It was fun to watch and brought back many joyful childhood memories," she says.
While she no longer has her huge doll collection — having long since given it away to family and friends — Rajasingh is still a Barbie lover. She bakes six or seven Barbie-themed cakes a week, with an actual doll at the center of a cake that serves as her frothy dress, constructed around her in a swirl of sugar and cream.
Rajasingh saw Barbie as an aspirational figure — and grew up admiring the doll's freedom, confidence, globe-trotting lifestyle and even her arched feet in sassy stilettos.
But for others in India, Barbie has a far more complicated legacy.
The pressures Barbie can bring
Shweta Sharan, a writer who lives in Mumbai, admits to being conflicted about whether or not to watch the movie with her 13-year-old daughter, Laasya, who until a year ago ardently loved Barbie but then outgrew playing with dolls.
"I am aware that these dolls have many complicated associations," Sharan says. "Watching my daughter love a doll that looked nothing like her — with blond hair, blue eyes, perfect breasts — I worried if she would always strive to be someone else and feel inadequate."
These worries are valid in the opinion of ElsaMarie DSilva, a social entrepreneur from India and an Aspen fellow. "While Barbie is almost universally loved among girls of all ages, many do aspire to look like her, unconsciously pressurizing young girls to conform to unrealistic body shapes and expectations," she says — a common criticism aimed at Barbie.
Indian Barbie is not a rousing success
Mattel did make an effort to adapt the doll for an Indian market. When Mattel launched Barbie in India in 1991, it was the familiar Western-looking blond-haired blue-eyed Barbie. Then in 1996, they rolled out Indian Barbie, with brown skin. She came either wearing a bright sari or a salwar kameez — a knee-length tunic over fitted trousers.
But the Indian Barbie was not popular. "Indian kids gravitated toward the white-skinned Barbie instead of the brown-skinned one because light-skinned women were considered more beautiful in India and an automatic choice," DSilva says.
She points out how even in Indian clothes, Barbie still had a body that did not represent real women in India or anywhere else — she was way too tall and way too thin.
Priti Nemani, an Indian American attorney living in Chicago, analyzed why Barbie failed so spectacularly in the Indian market in a research paper published in 2011. In addition to the unrealistic, impossibly thin appearance of the doll, she points out how other cultural factors were at play.
"We weren't seeing Indian features on Barbie," she says. "We were seeing white Barbies dipped in brown. And even those brown Barbies didn't last long on the shelves. The latest versions of the Indian Barbie have much lighter skin tone.
Meanwhile, even though blond Barbies sold well, Ken tanked in India. "Indian parents who wouldn't want their daughters in romantic relationships at such an early age weren't going to buy the boyfriend," Nemani says.
In spite of her initial misgivings, Sharan enjoyed the Barbie movie with her daughter, now 13, who especially liked the feminist overtones. Laasya loved the beginning, when they were told "Barbie has a great day everyday. Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him."
Barbie inspires a poem
There are other issues about Barbie in India. For many kids, the doll is too expensive.
Ankita Apurva, 26, a writer who grew up in a farming family in Ranchi, a city in the Eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, recalls a childhood bereft of Barbies.
Her parents, who struggled to pay for a good education that they hoped would be her armor against bullying and discrimination, could not afford to buy their daughter a Barbie.
"They weren't in a position to splurge on fancy dolls like a Barbie," she says. She recalls feeling inferior for not owning one of these expensive dolls that would help her connect with other Barbie owners in her circle. It was especially hard for her at lunch when girls would boast about how many dolls they owned.
"I believe that even if children from marginalized communities manage to enter [private] institutions [for the privileged], there are certain social, cultural and economic symbols which are consciously and subconsciously deployed to mark them out, and Barbie, as loved as it is, is definitely one of them," she says.
Over the years, Apurva's family has grown stronger financially. When she saw the global resurgence of interest in Barbie now, she didn't feel angry or alienated, but it did bring back memories of desperately wanting to fit in – and not just because she didn't have a Barbie.
"Growing up, I rarely felt represented in literature or media. If pens or cameras turned toward us, they inadvertently counted us as data: dead bodies of farmers or survivors of violence of umpteen kinds."
As a girl from a farming family in Jharkhand, Apurva felt invisible. And so, she decided to express those emotions. She wrote a poem that she posted on Instagram, not to shame anyone who is privileged enough to own a Barbie but to comfort those who, like her, may have felt left out.
Here are some excerpts:
"Here's to the girls who do not get the Barbie craze,
...
girls who had parents who could not
or did not or choose not
to get them Barbie dolls
...
it's okay,
to not relate to any of it
...
what is not okay are friends ...
who intentionally make you
feel low by asking how many Barbies
you owned as a kid even as they
know you weren't privileged enough
to have them.
...
you are also not "too much" ...
if you feel
that Barbie is a colonial icon
legitimizing racial supremacy
while being a 'white feminist' trope
...
and once again
remember,
you are everything,
they are just Ken
Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, Southern India. She reports on global health, science, and development, and her work has been published in the New York Times, The British Medical Journal, BBC, The Guardian and other outlets. You can find her on twitter @kamal_t
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvia.org/news/news/arts/2023-07-28/barbie-in-india-a-skin-color-debate-a-poignant-poem-baked-in-a-cake | 2023-07-30T12:51:21 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/news/news/arts/2023-07-28/barbie-in-india-a-skin-color-debate-a-poignant-poem-baked-in-a-cake |
BEIJING (AP) — The French finance minister said Sunday he pressed Chinese leaders to open their markets wider to foreign companies and lobbied for investment in France’s electric car industry, as the European Union’s second-largest economy followed Washington in reviving post-COVID economic talks amid tension over Beijing’s surging trade surpluses.
Bruno Le Maire also defended Paris’s controls on foreign access to technology after authorities said two Chinese citizens are under investigation for what news reports say is possible smuggling of French-made processor chips with military uses to China and Russia.
Le Maire met Saturday with Vice Premier He Lifeng, Beijing’s top envoy on economic issues. He followed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who visited Beijing on July 9-10 as part of U.S. efforts to revive frosty relations with China.
Chinese officials gave Le Maire and Yellen a warm welcome as part of efforts to reverse an economic slump by reviving foreign investor interest. But Beijing has given no indication of possible changes in technology and other policies that its trading partners say violate Chinese market-opening commitments.
Officials of the 27-nation European Union are trying to narrow a trade deficit with China that swelled to 396 billion euros ($432 billion) last year. Le Maire cited cosmetics, aerospace and agriculture as possible areas for more French exports.
“There is a need to improve access to the Chinese market. I think that it was at the core of our discussions,” Le Maire said in an interview at the French Embassy. “We want to have a stronger economic relationship between Europe and China, between France and China, which means to get access for all European goods.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government has looked to Europe as an alternative market and source of technology since Washington tightened controls on access to U.S. processor chips and other high-tech goods and hiked tariffs on imports from China in a feud over its industry development ambitions.
Le Maire and Chinese officials pledged to cooperate on climate change, financing for developing countries and nuclear power. They announced plans to set up a group to settle a dispute over access to China’s market for cosmetics, a major French export.
Le Maire also lobbied for investment from China’s fast-growing electric car industry. He was due to fly to the southern city of Shenzhen to meet Wang Chuanfu, founder of BYD Auto, one of the world’s biggest electric vehicle producers. BYD Auto and other Chinese brands are starting to sell in developed markets including Europe and Japan. Chinese battery supplier CATL has set up a factory in Germany to supply automaker BMW.
“We want China to make investments in France in electric vehicles,” Le Maire said. “In the climate transition, there is a place for Chinese investment in France, which allows us to reinforce our economic relations and also speed up action against global warming.”
The talks were overshadowed by Russia’s war against Ukraine and complaints China might be helping Moscow evade Western sanctions, but Le Maire said he didn’t discuss the war with Chinese officials. However, he said it was in Beijing’s interest to end the 17-month-old war. President Emmanuel Macron’s security adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, said this month China was delivering “military equipment” to Russia but gave no details.
“I want to make very clear that we want this war to go to an end as soon as possible,” Le Maire said. “Indeed, (it is) in the interest of China, it is in the interests of the global growth to have peace as soon as possible.”
Le Maire also defended French controls on technology exports and foreign investment in high-tech industry. French authorities are investigating two Chinese citizens associated with chip producer Ommic who the newspaper Le Parisien said face possible charges of exporting chips to a Chinese armaments maker using forged documents.
French counter-espionage officials believe a Chinese investor who bought control of Ommic in 2018 was trying to transfer chip manufacturing technology to China, according to the newspaper. The ruling Communist Party is trying to develop its own chip industry, but Washington has blocked access to advanced manufacturing tools and persuaded allies Japan and the Netherlands to impose their own restrictions.
Chinese authorities complain their companies are unfairly targeted by restrictions on access to foreign technology. They have warned curbs on access to semiconductors will disrupt smartphone and other industries.
“Everybody can understand that France wants to protect its key technologies,” Le Maire said. “We don’t want any foreign country to get access to those French sovereign technologies.” | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-frances-le-maire-presses-china-on-market-access-and-lobbies-for-electric-car-investment/ | 2023-07-30T12:51:22 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-frances-le-maire-presses-china-on-market-access-and-lobbies-for-electric-car-investment/ |
Ayesha Rascoe is a White House correspondent for NPR. She is currently covering her third presidential administration. Rascoe's White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast. | https://www.kasu.org/arts-culture/2023-07-30/d-smith-on-her-new-documentary-kokomo-city | 2023-07-30T12:51:25 | 0 | https://www.kasu.org/arts-culture/2023-07-30/d-smith-on-her-new-documentary-kokomo-city |
The U.S. auto industry is experiencing unanticipated stumbles and challenges as it pivots to producing more electric vehicles, even as it makes large profits.
Copyright 2023 NPR
The U.S. auto industry is experiencing unanticipated stumbles and challenges as it pivots to producing more electric vehicles, even as it makes large profits.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvia.org/news/news/business/2023-07-30/auto-companies-are-making-big-profits-but-still-stumbling-when-it-comes-to-evs | 2023-07-30T12:51:27 | 1 | https://www.wvia.org/news/news/business/2023-07-30/auto-companies-are-making-big-profits-but-still-stumbling-when-it-comes-to-evs |
SANTA MARIA DE JESUS, Guatemala (AP) — 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.
The metaphor fits neatly with his political party, the Seed Movement, and allows the 64-year-old academic and former diplomat to riff on themes of renewal and growth.
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.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-guatemala-presidential-candidate-rushes-to-expand-base-beyond-urban-youth/ | 2023-07-30T12:51:28 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-guatemala-presidential-candidate-rushes-to-expand-base-beyond-urban-youth/ |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to a patron of the party, musician George Brown of the band Kool & The Gang, about his new book, new record, and the "Celebration" of a long and funky career.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to a patron of the party, musician George Brown of the band Kool & The Gang, about his new book, new record, and the "Celebration" of a long and funky career.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.kasu.org/arts-culture/2023-07-30/george-brown-of-kool-the-gang-on-celebrating-the-bands-long-career | 2023-07-30T12:51:31 | 0 | https://www.kasu.org/arts-culture/2023-07-30/george-brown-of-kool-the-gang-on-celebrating-the-bands-long-career |
The new charges against former Pres. Trump in the classified documents case are in a different legal league and there are hints he is also not politically immune from them either.
Copyright 2023 NPR
The new charges against former Pres. Trump in the classified documents case are in a different legal league and there are hints he is also not politically immune from them either.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvia.org/news/news/politics/2023-07-30/politics-chat-trump-could-face-political-blowback-from-new-charges-after-all | 2023-07-30T12:51:33 | 0 | https://www.wvia.org/news/news/politics/2023-07-30/politics-chat-trump-could-face-political-blowback-from-new-charges-after-all |