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Reds vs. Dodgers Predictions & Picks: Odds, Moneyline, Spread - July 30
Sunday's game that pits the Los Angeles Dodgers (59-44) against the Cincinnati Reds (57-49) at Dodger Stadium has a good chance to be a tight matchup based on our computer prediction, which projects a final score of 5-4 in favor of the Dodgers. Game time is at 4:10 PM ET on July 30.
The probable pitchers are Michael Grove (2-2) for the Dodgers and Graham Ashcraft (5-7) for the Reds.
Reds vs. Dodgers Game Info & Odds
- When: Sunday, July 30, 2023 at 4:10 PM ET
- Where: Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California
- How to Watch on TV: SportsNet LA
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
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Reds vs. Dodgers Score Prediction
Our pick for this matchup is Dodgers 5, Reds 4.
Total Prediction for Reds vs. Dodgers
- Total Prediction: Under 10 runs
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Read More About This Game
Reds Performance Insights
- The Reds have played as the underdog in seven of their past 10 games and have gone 4-3 in those contests.
- In its previous 10 matchups with a total posted by sportsbooks, Cincinnati and its opponents are 2-8-0 when it comes to hitting the over.
- Oddsmakers have yet to post a spread in any of the Reds' past 10 games.
- The Reds have won in 36, or 48%, of the 75 contests they have been named as odds-on underdogs this year.
- Cincinnati has a win-loss record of 6-11 when favored by +150 or worse by oddsmakers this year.
- The moneyline set for this matchup implies the Reds have a 40% chance of coming away with a victory in the contest.
- Cincinnati scores the ninth-most runs in baseball (511 total, 4.8 per game).
- The Reds have pitched to a 4.66 ERA this season, which ranks 25th in baseball.
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Reds Schedule
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wsaz.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/reds-dodgers-mlb-picks-predictions/ | 2023-07-30T15:57:21 | 0 | https://www.wsaz.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/reds-dodgers-mlb-picks-predictions/ |
Canada vs. Australia: Women’s World Cup Group B Odds, Stats and Live Stream - July 31
In each team's third matchup in Group B action at the 2023 Women's World Cup, Australia (3 points) and Canada (4 points) square off on Monday, July 31 at 6:00 AM ET.
Sportsbooks have given Australia odds of +117 to win this match, and Canada is at +235 (with the draw at +228). An over/under of 2.5 goals (with the over at +107 and the under at -141) has been set for this game.
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Australia vs. Canada Game Info
- Date: Monday, July 31, 2023
- Time: 6:00 AM ET
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Venue: Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
- TV Channel: FOX US
- Total: 2.5
- Australia Moneyline: +117
- Canada Moneyline: +235
Australia vs. Canada World Cup Betting Insights
- These teams rack up a combined 2.5 goals per match, which equals this game's over/under.
- Combined, these teams surrender two goals per game, 0.5 fewer than this match's total.
- Australia has been listed as a moneyline favorite just two other times so far this tournament, and went 1-0-1 in those games.
- Australia has played as a moneyline favorite of +117 or shorter in just one game this tournament, which they won.
- Canada has not played a game this tournament as an underdog.
- Canada has not been a bigger underdog this tournament than the +235 moneyline set for this game.
Australia World Cup Stats
Canada World Cup Stats
- In two Women's World Cup matches for Canada, Adriana Leon has tallied one goal (12th in Women's World Cup play).
- Sophie Schmidt has not scored a goal but has recorded one assist for Canada in Women's World Cup.
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Australia vs. Canada Recent Performance
- Australia went 6-1-4 in 2022 versus teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +6. This year, its record is 5-0-1 against fellow World Cup squads (+7 goal differential).
- Australia faced Nigeria in its last game and lost by a final score of 3-2. The defeated Australia side took 27 shots, outshooting by 17.
- van Egmond and Alanna Kennedy scored the two goals for their club in the match against .
- In 2022, Canada was 10-3-3 versus teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +15. This year its record versus fellow World Cup squads is 2-1-3 (-3 goal differential).
- On July 26 in its last game, Canada beat Ireland 2-1. Canada outshot Ireland 16 to 13.
- Leon recorded one goal to lead Canada on three shots.
Australia Roster
Get your Women's World Cup gear at Fanatics!
Canada Roster
Not all offers available in all states, please visit DraftKings 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.kmvt.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-canada-australia-betting-preview-odds/ | 2023-07-30T15:57:27 | 0 | https://www.kmvt.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-canada-australia-betting-preview-odds/ |
TORONTO (AP) — Los Angeles Angels outfielder Taylor Ward was placed on the 10-day injured list with facial fractures on Sunday, a day after he was hit by a 91 mph pitch from Blue Jays right-hander Alek Manoah.
Ward was taken to a Toronto hospital after being struck in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 6-1 loss. He was released from hospital Saturday evening.
To replace Ward, the Angels selected the contract of infielder Kevin Padlo from Triple-A Salt Lake.
Batting with the bases loaded, Ward was hit by a 2-0 pitch from Manoah. The ball appeared to strike Ward next to his next left eye, knocking off his batting helmet.
Plate umpire Andy Fletcher motioned to the Angels’ dugout for the trainer as Ward went down, blood running down his face. Angels staff rushed to the plate and held a towel to Ward’s face. After a couple of minutes, Ward got to his feet and left the field on a cart. His left eye appeared to be swollen shut.
A six-year veteran who has spent his entire career with the Angels, Ward is batting .253 with 14 home runs and 47 RBI in 97 games.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/angels-outfielder-taylor-ward-placed-on-il-with-facial-fractures-after-being-hit-in-head/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2023-07-30T15:57:28 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/angels-outfielder-taylor-ward-placed-on-il-with-facial-fractures-after-being-hit-in-head/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Canada vs. Australia: Women’s World Cup Group B Odds, Stats and Live Stream - July 31
In each team's third matchup in Group B action at the 2023 Women's World Cup, Australia (3 points) and Canada (4 points) square off on Monday, July 31 at 6:00 AM ET.
Sportsbooks have given Australia odds of +117 to win this match, and Canada is at +235 (with the draw at +228). An over/under of 2.5 goals (with the over at +107 and the under at -141) has been set for this game.
Bet on the result of Australia vs. Canada at DraftKings! Bet now to get a first deposit bonus of up to $1,000!
Australia vs. Canada Game Info
- Date: Monday, July 31, 2023
- Time: 6:00 AM ET
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Venue: Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
- TV Channel: FOX US
- Total: 2.5
- Australia Moneyline: +117
- Canada Moneyline: +235
Australia vs. Canada World Cup Betting Insights
- These teams rack up a combined 2.5 goals per match, which equals this game's over/under.
- Combined, these teams surrender two goals per game, 0.5 fewer than this match's total.
- Australia has been listed as a moneyline favorite just two other times so far this tournament, and went 1-0-1 in those games.
- Australia has played as a moneyline favorite of +117 or shorter in just one game this tournament, which they won.
- Canada has not played a game this tournament as an underdog.
- Canada has not been a bigger underdog this tournament than the +235 moneyline set for this game.
Australia World Cup Stats
Canada World Cup Stats
- In two Women's World Cup matches for Canada, Adriana Leon has tallied one goal (12th in Women's World Cup play).
- Sophie Schmidt has not scored a goal but has recorded one assist for Canada in Women's World Cup.
Take your pick for Australia vs. Canada on DraftKings! Use our link to get a first deposit bonus of up to $1,000!
Australia vs. Canada Recent Performance
- Australia went 6-1-4 in 2022 versus teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +6. This year, its record is 5-0-1 against fellow World Cup squads (+7 goal differential).
- Australia faced Nigeria in its last game and lost by a final score of 3-2. The defeated Australia side took 27 shots, outshooting by 17.
- van Egmond and Alanna Kennedy scored the two goals for their club in the match against .
- In 2022, Canada was 10-3-3 versus teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +15. This year its record versus fellow World Cup squads is 2-1-3 (-3 goal differential).
- On July 26 in its last game, Canada beat Ireland 2-1. Canada outshot Ireland 16 to 13.
- Leon recorded one goal to lead Canada on three shots.
Australia Roster
Get your Women's World Cup gear at Fanatics!
Canada Roster
Not all offers available in all states, please visit DraftKings 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.wsaz.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-canada-australia-betting-preview-odds/ | 2023-07-30T15:57:28 | 0 | https://www.wsaz.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-canada-australia-betting-preview-odds/ |
Ireland vs. Nigeria: Women’s World Cup Group B Odds, Stats and Live Stream - July 31
On Monday, July 31 at 6:00 AM ET, Nigeria (4 points) and Ireland (0 points) match up for each side's final match in Group B at the 2023 Women's World Cup.
The moneyline odds for Nigeria to win this game are +120, with the draw at +234 and Ireland at +218. An over/under of 2.5 goals has been set for this match.
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Nigeria vs. Ireland Game Info
- Date: Monday, July 31, 2023
- Time: 6:00 AM ET
- Location: Brisbane, Australia
- Venue: Suncorp Stadium
- TV Channel: Fox Sports 1
- Total: 2.5
- Nigeria Moneyline: +120
- Ireland Moneyline: +218
Nigeria vs. Ireland World Cup Betting Insights
- These teams average two goals per match combined, 0.5 less than this game's total.
- Opponents of these teams score a combined 2.5 goals per game, equal to this game's total.
- Nigeria has not been a moneyline favorite yet this tournament.
- Nigeria has not played a game this tournament with moneyline odds of +120 or shorter.
- Ireland has been an underdog twice so far this tournament, and went 0-0-2 in those games.
- Ireland has played as an underdog of +218 or more once this tournament and lost that game.
Nigeria World Cup Stats
Ireland World Cup Stats
- Katie McCabe has scored one goal for Ireland in Women's World Cup (two games).
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Nigeria vs. Ireland Recent Performance
- Nigeria went 0-1-7 in 2022 versus teams playing in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of -11. This year, its record is 4-1-1 versus fellow World Cup squads (+5 goal differential).
- Nigeria picked up a win on July 27 against Australia by a final score of 3-2. The victorious Nigeria took 17 fewer shots in the game, 10 compared to Australia's 27.
- Ohale, Oshoala and Kanu combined to score the three goals for their club in the match against .
- In 2022, Ireland was 1-0-0 against teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +4. This year its record versus fellow World Cup squads is 1-1-5 (-7 goal differential).
- In its most recent game, Ireland was taken down by Canada 2-1 on July 26. Canada outshot Ireland 16 to 13.
- McCabe had the only goal for Ireland on three shots.
Nigeria Roster
Get your Women's World Cup gear at Fanatics!
Ireland Roster
Not all offers available in all states, please visit DraftKings 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.kmvt.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-ireland-nigeria-betting-preview-odds/ | 2023-07-30T15:57:34 | 1 | https://www.kmvt.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-ireland-nigeria-betting-preview-odds/ |
FUKUOKA, Japan (AP) — Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh should be a star at next year’s Paris Olympics, and she showed why Sunday on the closing day of the swimming world championships in Japan.
The 16-year-old McIntosh won her second gold of the event, taking the 400-meter individual medley after winning the 200 butterfly gold on Friday.
That made up for a slow start for the young Canadian, who finished fourth in the 400 free, where she held the world record until Australia’s Ariarne Titmus took it back. She also took bronze in the 200 free, at least getting a medal.
“Going into tonight I just wanted to see how hard I could push myself,” McIntosh said.
She did just that. Her time of 4 minutes, 27.11 seconds was the third fastest ever, not far off her world record of 4:25.87. She was also the defending world champion. American Katie Grimes took the silver in 4:31.41, with Jenna Forrester of Australia picking up the bronze in 4:32.30.
“It was definitely motivating,” McIntosh said of her first few days. “I try to turn everything that goes wrong into motivation somehow.”
Asked about Paris, she replied: “Right now I’m just thinking about a little break.”
McIntosh should be joined by other young stars in Paris like 21-year-old Frenchman Leon Marchand and Australia’s 22-year-old Kaylee McKeown. Marchand and McKeown each won three individual golds.
The Americans also closed fast.
After winning only four gold medals during the first seven days, they picked up three on the eighth and final day for a total of seven golds and 38 overall. The gold total is still their lowest in a worlds going back for around 20 years. They won only eight in the 2015 worlds.
Australia finished with 13 gold and 20 overall, and China had five gold and 16 overall.
“This is the cherry on top,” said American Regan Smith, part of the winning 4×100 women’s medley relay. “I love racing with these girls and I love relays so much and brining home a gold in the last event for Team USA means so much to me and all of us.”
The Americans finished in 3:52.08, followed by Australia (3:53.37) and Canada (3:54.12).
The United States also won the men’s 4×100 medley in 3:27.20, ahead of China (3:29.00) and Australia (3:29.62), and added another gold with Hunter Armstrong in the 50-meter backstroke (24.05).
Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden made history with her victory in the women’s 50-meter freestyle. The gold gave Sjostrom 21 medals in individual races in the world championships, surpassing Michael Phelps who had 20.
Sjostrom, who set the world record in the semifinals on Saturday, powered home in the final 25 meters for the win, clocking 23.62. Shayna Jack of Australia picked up the silver in 24.10, while Zhang Yufei of China earned the bronze in 24.15.
Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania set a world record on the way to winning gold in the women’s 50-meter breaststroke in 29.16. She equaled the old world mark of 29.30 the night before in the semifinals.
Meilutyte grabbed the early lead and was never challenged. American Lilly King claimed the silver in 29.94, while Benedetta Pilato of Italy picked up the bronze in 30.04. She shared the old record of 29.30 with Meilutyte.
Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia added the men’s 1,500-meter free gold to the 800 free he won earlier in the worlds, prevailing in an epic battle with American Bobby Finke that went down to the wire.
The 20-year-old Hafnaoui, the defending 400 free Olympic champion, captured the gold in 14:31.54, with Finke clocking 14:31.59 for silver. Sam Short of Australia rounded out the podium with the bronze in 14:37.28.
The mark was just off the world record by Sun Yang of China, 14:31.02, set in 2012. Sun has been suspended for a doping violation.
“Bobby (Finke) is so fast at the end of the race. he pushed us to do the 14.31,” Hafnaoui said. “It was so close to the world record. I mean I enjoyed the race and thanks Bobby for pushing me.”
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/canadian-summer-mcintosh-16-gets-second-gold-medal-at-swimming-worlds-in-japan/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2023-07-30T15:57:35 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/canadian-summer-mcintosh-16-gets-second-gold-medal-at-swimming-worlds-in-japan/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Ireland vs. Nigeria: Women’s World Cup Group B Odds, Stats and Live Stream - July 31
On Monday, July 31 at 6:00 AM ET, Nigeria (4 points) and Ireland (0 points) match up for each side's final match in Group B at the 2023 Women's World Cup.
The moneyline odds for Nigeria to win this game are +120, with the draw at +234 and Ireland at +218. An over/under of 2.5 goals has been set for this match.
Bet on the result of Nigeria vs. Ireland at DraftKings! Bet now to get a first deposit bonus of up to $1,000!
Nigeria vs. Ireland Game Info
- Date: Monday, July 31, 2023
- Time: 6:00 AM ET
- Location: Brisbane, Australia
- Venue: Suncorp Stadium
- TV Channel: Fox Sports 1
- Total: 2.5
- Nigeria Moneyline: +120
- Ireland Moneyline: +218
Nigeria vs. Ireland World Cup Betting Insights
- These teams average two goals per match combined, 0.5 less than this game's total.
- Opponents of these teams score a combined 2.5 goals per game, equal to this game's total.
- Nigeria has not been a moneyline favorite yet this tournament.
- Nigeria has not played a game this tournament with moneyline odds of +120 or shorter.
- Ireland has been an underdog twice so far this tournament, and went 0-0-2 in those games.
- Ireland has played as an underdog of +218 or more once this tournament and lost that game.
Nigeria World Cup Stats
Ireland World Cup Stats
- Katie McCabe has scored one goal for Ireland in Women's World Cup (two games).
Take your pick for Nigeria vs. Ireland on DraftKings! Use our link to get a first deposit bonus of up to $1,000!
Nigeria vs. Ireland Recent Performance
- Nigeria went 0-1-7 in 2022 versus teams playing in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of -11. This year, its record is 4-1-1 versus fellow World Cup squads (+5 goal differential).
- Nigeria picked up a win on July 27 against Australia by a final score of 3-2. The victorious Nigeria took 17 fewer shots in the game, 10 compared to Australia's 27.
- Ohale, Oshoala and Kanu combined to score the three goals for their club in the match against .
- In 2022, Ireland was 1-0-0 against teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +4. This year its record versus fellow World Cup squads is 1-1-5 (-7 goal differential).
- In its most recent game, Ireland was taken down by Canada 2-1 on July 26. Canada outshot Ireland 16 to 13.
- McCabe had the only goal for Ireland on three shots.
Nigeria Roster
Get your Women's World Cup gear at Fanatics!
Ireland Roster
Not all offers available in all states, please visit DraftKings 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.wsaz.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-ireland-nigeria-betting-preview-odds/ | 2023-07-30T15:57:35 | 1 | https://www.wsaz.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-ireland-nigeria-betting-preview-odds/ |
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (AP) — Defending Formula One champion Max Verstappen emphatically won the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday for an eighth straight win and 10th overall of a crushingly dominant season.
Despite starting from sixth place he finished 22.3 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez to give Red Bull an easy 1-2. It moved Verstappen ominously closer to a third straight world title and his own F1 record of 15 wins from last year.
Verstappen is 125 points ahead of Perez after just 12 races, and his next target is matching Sebastian Vettel’s F1 record of nine straight wins with a victory at the Dutch GP when the lopsided season resumes on Aug. 27.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished in third spot for a third podium of the season, with Lewis Hamilton in fourth for Mercedes ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
George Russell was sixth for Mercedes, with Lando Norris (McLaren), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) completing the top 10.
Leclerc started on pole ahead of Perez, with Hamilton and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. behind them. McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri was on the next row alongside Verstappen — who was fastest in Friday’s qualifying but took a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change and had to avoid early traffic.
“It was just about surviving turn one. I could see it was all getting really tight,” Verstappen said. “I’ve been in that position before myself so I am just going to stay out of that and it worked out. From there onwards I made the right overtakes.”
Last year Verstappen won from 14th, and once he overtook Perez on Lap 17 of 44 his 45th career win was seemingly inevitable.
Red Bull extended its record to 13 straight wins, including the final race of last season.
Hamilton came in on the penultimate lap for a tire change and the move paid off as he took the bonus point for fastest lap from Verstappen — a very minor blip for the dominant Dutchman.
It was yet another stellar weekend for Verstappen, who also won Saturday’s sprint race. The only issue was some more bickering with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over radio, as they continued their spat from Friday’s qualifying.
“Don’t forget Max, use your head, please,” Lambiase told Verstappen when he questioned why Perez was making his first tire change on Lap 14.
With some rain forecast, Verstappen boxed on the next lap and came out about 2 seconds behind Perez. Just minutes later he cruised past Perez and, as so often this season, the rest was just about control.
Perez, meanwhile, pledged to stay on the podium for the rest of the season.
“It’s been a bit of a rough patch,” the 33-year-old Mexican said. “I really need this summer break, it’s been really intense. I’ll come back really strong for Zandvoort.”
Conditions were dry for the race start, in stark contrast to the two previous days, which were impacted by heavy rain at the 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Leclerc, who won his first F1 race here in 2019, made a solid start but Perez’s extra pace soon put him in front. Verstappen rose two places to fourth after Sainz bumped into Piastri on the first corner.
Piastri had to retire, while Verstappen overtook Hamilton on Lap 6, Leclerc three laps later and made short work of Perez just before some rain fell briefly.
Some good overtaking from Ocon moved the Frenchman up from 10th to eighth in the closing stages.
It was an early end for Piastri, who had impressed with a second place in Saturday’s sprint race.
A bad day for Sainz saw him retiring on Lap 25 and Leclerc moving above him in the standings.
“Of course the race was good on my side, a shame for Carlos as we had good pace,” Leclerc said. “When you look at the Red Bulls we still have a lot of work to do.”
After the F1 break there will be 10 races left, but most of the competition for places will be behind Verstappen.
Alonso is one point ahead of Hamilton in third overall, with Leclerc and Russell level and Sainz seven points behind them.
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/verstappen-wins-belgian-gp-to-extend-huge-f1-lead-red-bull-teammate-perez-2nd/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2023-07-30T15:57:41 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/verstappen-wins-belgian-gp-to-extend-huge-f1-lead-red-bull-teammate-perez-2nd/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) — In the sweltering summer heat, nobody tries to cool off by jumping into a hot tub. In parts of Florida, however, that’s what the ocean has felt like.
Earlier this week, sea surface temperatures reached as high as 101.2 degrees Fahrenheit (38.4 degrees Celsius) around the state’s southern tip in Manatee Bay, according to the National Weather Service — although scientists said the context for Monday’s reading is complicated.
“It was like there was no difference between humidity of the air and going into the water,” said Chelsea Ward of Fort Myers, Florida.
Triple-digit ocean temperatures are stunning even in Florida, where residents are used to the heat and where many retirees find refuge from cold, northern winters. Several other nearby spots reached the mid-90s (about 35 Celsius). A storm finally came through on Wednesday, helping water temperatures drop back down in to the more temperate 80s.
Humans naturally look to water for a chance to refresh. Every summer, millions grab their swimsuits for a day on the beach and a chance to cool off in the water — a break from everyday work and worry. Pools offer the same relief and a place for friends to gather. But when water temperatures get too high, some of the appeal is lost.
Ward, 47, doesn’t keep her beach bag in her car anymore even though she lives minutes away from the beach in Fort Myers. Lately, the water is just too hot. On Sunday, when her friend asked if she wanted to go to the beach, the two decided against it after discovering the water temperature was around 90 degrees.
When it’s hot, the body cools down by sweating, which evaporates and releases heat. Dipping into the ocean is typically so refreshing because heat efficiently transfers from your body into the water. But as water temperatures climb, that effect diminishes and you lose less heat less quickly, according to Michael Mullins, a Washington University toxicologist and emergency medicine physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.
A hot tub — or a stretch of ocean water hotter than body temperature — reverses the transfer of heat into your body. That’s not a pleasant experience on a sizzling, humid, Florida day.
“It would feel,” Mullins said, “like you are swimming in soup.”
Ice blocks for your pool? Why not
People already tend not to swim that much in the Florida waters that were so extremely hot earlier this week. The water can get muddy and there are alligators and crocodiles in the area, too.
But high temperatures anywhere can make swimming less pleasant. Through Friday, Phoenix endured highs above 110 degrees Fahrenheit every day this month. Pools are warm. About 150 miles to the northwest in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, Stefanee Lynn Thompson, 50, wanted to keep guests cool for a pool party she hosted Sunday. The heat had raised the pool’s temperature to 96 degrees.
Her friend recommended she go buy ice blocks. She ran to the grocery store, picked up 40 of them and dumped them in the pool. She set up fans, too. All that hard work dropped the pool’s temperature a grand total of 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
“When it’s 120 out, anything helps,” Thompson said.
Recently, ocean temperatures off the western coast of Florida have been a few degrees above normal, sitting around 88 to 90 degrees. It’s not just humans that suffer when the oceans warm. Sea corals are bleaching. They can be hurt when water temperatures rise above the upper 80s.
July has been so hot that scientists announced a global heat record even before the month ended. Climate change is creating a hotter world, warming oceans and making some storms more destructive. Sea surface temperatures are somewhat above average around Florida, but they are far higher in parts of the North Atlantic near Newfoundland where they are as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than usual.
The extremely high sea surface temperatures recorded earlier this week off Florida’s southern tip were caused by lots of sun, little wind and no storms.
“I’ve never seen temperatures 100 degrees in Florida Bay in the 21 years I’ve been in the Keys,” said Andy Devanas, science officer at the National Weather Service in Key West, Florida.
Is the water that warm everywhere?
And there are some questions about how representative Monday’s 101.2-degree reading in Manatee Bay were. Water there is shallow and thus heats up quickly. If there’s lots of sediment, that can raise temperatures, too, according to David Roth, a forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center.
By contrast, stop by the YMCA pools on the North Shore of Massachusetts near Boston and you’ll descend into water that’s around 78 to 80 degrees (26 to 27 degrees Celsius). The ocean nearby is cooler, too. Sea surface temperatures off Cape Cod, for example, barely touched the mid-70s (about 24 degrees Celsius) this week.
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When Maria Argueta, 38, has time off from her job at an open-air decorative plant nursery in Homestead, Florida, she’ll go with her family to swim.
“This year, the heat is stronger,” she said.
The hot ocean water doesn’t bother her, but sometimes she takes her 2-year-old son and other members of the family to the Venetian Pool, a public facility in Coral Gables fed by water from an aquifer that’s always in the 70s. The very cool water, she said, is refreshing.
Florida’s humid weather makes it harder for sweat to evaporate and cool the body down. People in south Florida know the ocean doesn’t tend to offer real relief from that suffocating heat.
“You aren’t getting much cooling at all,” Roth said. “Nobody goes into the water in South Florida in the summer really except to swim, because it is comfortable to swim, but it is not refreshing.”
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AP journalist Seth Borenstein contributed reporting from Washington, Dupuy reported from New York and Phillis reported from St. Louis. | https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-heat-wave-ocean-temperatures-20230730-7oy4b2v75vemhlp6qxehv3r7ha-story.html | 2023-07-30T15:58:29 | 0 | https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-heat-wave-ocean-temperatures-20230730-7oy4b2v75vemhlp6qxehv3r7ha-story.html |
Three Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow in the early hours on Sunday, Russian authorities said, injuring one person and prompting a temporary closure of traffic in and out 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.
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 Vnukovo airport on the southern outskirts of the city for about an hour, according to Tass, and the airspace over Moscow and the outlying regions was temporarily closed to all aircraft. Those restrictions have since been lifted.
Moscow authorities have also closed a street to traffic near the site of the crash in the Moscow City area.
Without directly acknowledging that Ukraine was behind the attack on Moscow, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian airforce said that the Russian people were seeing the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“All of the people who think the war ‘doesn’t concern them,’ it’s already touching them,” spokesperson Yurii Ihnat told journalists Sunday.
“There’s already a certain mood in Russia: that something is flying in, and loudly,” he said. “There’s no discussion of peace or calm in the Russian interior any more. They got what they wanted.”
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Ihnat also referenced a drone attack on Russian-occupied Crimea overnight. Moscow announced Sunday that it had shot down 16 Ukrainian drones and neutralized eight more with an electronic jamming system. There were no casualties, officials said.
In Ukraine, the air force reported that it had destroyed four Russian drones above the country’s Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Information on the attacks could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, two people were killed and 20 wounded by a Russian missile strike late Saturday evening on the city of Sumy in northeast Ukraine. A four-story building belonging to a vocational college was hit, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said. Local authorities said that dormitories and teaching buildings were damaged in the blast and the fire that followed.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported shooting down a Ukrainian drone outside Moscow on Friday. Four days earlier, two drones struck the Russian capital, 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.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-moscow-drone-attack-20230730-tncowusm7fhglhwmel7sboyesq-story.html | 2023-07-30T15:58:36 | 1 | https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-moscow-drone-attack-20230730-tncowusm7fhglhwmel7sboyesq-story.html |
Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN over ‘the Big Lie’ dismissed in Florida
(AP) - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against CNN in which the former U.S. president claimed that references in news articles or by the network’s hosts to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” was tantamount to comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
Trump had been seeking punitive damages of $475 million in the federal lawsuit filed last October in South Florida, claiming the references hurt his reputation and political career. Trump is a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in what is his third run for the presidency.
U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal, who was appointed by Trump, said Friday in his ruling that the former president’s defamation claims failed because the references were opinions and not factual statements. Moreover, it was a stretch to believe that, in viewers’ minds, that phrase would connect Trump’s efforts challenging the 2020 election results to Nazi propaganda or Hitler’s genocidal and authoritarian regime, the judge said.
“CNN’s use of the phrase ‘the Big Lie’ in connection with Trump’s election challenges does not give rise to a plausible inference that Trump advocates the persecution and genocide of Jews or any other group of people,” the judge wrote in his decision.
Email messages seeking comment were sent to Trump’s attorneys in South Florida and Washington. Email messages seeking comment also were sent to CNN attorneys in Atlanta and South Florida.
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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-big-lie-dismissed-florida/ | 2023-07-30T15:58:40 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-big-lie-dismissed-florida/ |
PAVLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars.
The agricultural company Ivushka applied for accreditation to export grain this year, but the strike in mid-July destroyed a large portion of the stock, days after Russia abandoned the grain deal that would have allowed the shipments across the Black Sea without fear of attack.
Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield.
They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles.
“We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses.
She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region.
“They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed.
But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill.
The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe.
Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable.
That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say.
From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime.
He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said.
“We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.”
Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor.
“The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania.
“If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said.
The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers.
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Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
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Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed. | https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-russian-missle-ukrainian-grain-farmers-20230730-crgeliqdindkrpz47bymd5hdxm-story.html | 2023-07-30T15:58:42 | 1 | https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-russian-missle-ukrainian-grain-farmers-20230730-crgeliqdindkrpz47bymd5hdxm-story.html |
FIRST ALERT FORECAST: Thunderstorms and heat continue Sunday
Published: Jul. 30, 2023 at 7:51 AM MST|Updated: 1 hour ago
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - A high of about 106 degrees is expected in Tucson, with a 50% chance of rain, mainly between 11am and 2pm. We could see a slight cool down Monday and Tuesday, which could break our 45 day streak of triple digit temperatures.
Copyright 2023 13 News. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/30/first-alert-forecast-thunderstorms-heat-continue-sunday/ | 2023-07-30T15:58:46 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/30/first-alert-forecast-thunderstorms-heat-continue-sunday/ |
(iSeeCars) — The average new car costs $43,528, while the average one-to-five-year-old used car costs $34,291 according to the latest iSeeCars data.
While used cars are significantly cheaper than new cars, both are still a major expense. That’s why it’s important to set a realistic budget and determine how much money you can afford to pay for your new — or new to you — car. We have the answers to help you determine that age-old question: how much car can I afford?
- Determine Your Credit Score
Unless you’re paying for your car in full, you’ll need to secure a car loan. The first step toward getting a car loan and figuring out how much you can afford to pay is determining your credit score. This can also be referred to as your “FICO score” and is a numerical representation of your credit history. The three major credit reporting agencies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – can each provide you with your FICO credit score. Another option is to check with your bank or credit card companies. Many of these institutions also provide a free credit monitoring service that will tell you your credit score.
A credit report, as well as monitoring services, also include a record of your credit history, including any items that are lowering your credit score. The higher your credit score, the better loan term you will be able to secure. Car manufacturers and dealerships will advertise special payment terms like zero-percent financing, but it’s important to remember those terms typically only apply to buyers with favorable, if not top-tier, credit scores.
If your credit score is low, you should try to boost your number before you purchase a car. You should aim for a credit score of 680 or above, but higher is always better. You can start by making sure you make your credit card and loan payments — especially any auto loan payments — on time. Resolve any past-due accounts, and pay down as much of the balance on your loans as you can, especially revolving credit accounts. You should also avoid opening new accounts, as frequent inquiries to the credit bureaus seeking new credit can lower your credit score.
While a good credit score isn’t required to secure a car loan, it will afford you a better annual percentage rate (APR) on the interest you’ll have to pay. The higher interest rate you have, the more you will end up paying in the long run. If you are unable to achieve a favorable credit score, another option is to get a co-signer on your loan. Your co-signer will agree to make loan payments if you default on your loan, which can lower an otherwise high interest rate.
- Determine Your Down Payment
Making a down payment will lower the amount of the loan, or principle, you will need to take out, which will reduce your monthly payment. This also reduces the overall interest you’ll pay on the loan over time. While this can help make a car easier to afford, don’t deplete your savings account. Be sure to keep enough money on hand for whatever surprises might come your way. Dealers and lenders may offer deals for zero down payment financing, but you can still put money down to shorten the length of your loan and reduce your monthly payment.
- Estimate the Value of Your Trade-In
The process of trading in your car begins with determining how much your car is worth. Major factors that impact your car’s value include how many miles it has on the odometer and its overall condition. Having your vehicle professionally detailed can also boost the trade-in value for your current vehicle.
Several websites, including Edmunds (Edmunds.com) and Kelley Blue Book (kbb.com) have valuation tools that will give you a ballpark estimate on the value of your car. Make sure you are as honest as possible in answering any questions about your car’s condition. Some valuation tools offer an estimate specifically for trade-in value, but that’s just what it is – an estimate.
You can also sell your car to a private buyer, which will be more profitable than trading your car into a dealership. In this instance, you can price your car in accordance with its market value, which is higher than your car’s trade-in value. A car’s trade-in value is the amount of money a car dealer will offer you for your vehicle, whereas market value, also referred to as private party value, is the amount of money you would get selling your car directly to a buyer. Because dealerships handle the complex process of selling the vehicle, they offer a lower trade-in value to ensure they make a profit when they sell the car.
There are helpful online tools like the iSeeCars Price My Car Tool, which provide a detailed pricing report to help calculate your used car’s value. Simply enter your vehicle’s VIN or provide its make, model, year, trim, style, and mileage.
Whether you decide to sell your car privately or trade-in at the dealership, you can apply your car’s value toward the purchase price of your next vehicle, along with your down payment if you’re making one.
- Calculate Your Car Budget
Setting a monthly budget will guide your new or used car search. As a general rule of thumb, your car payment should not exceed 10 percent of your monthly income, and your total car expenses (fuel, maintenance, car insurance, registration) should not exceed 15 percent of your monthly take-home pay, which is the amount of money you make each month after taxes. Or, if you’re paying in cash, determine the amount you’re willing to pay for your vehicle. You can use the 15 percent rule as a guide, but if you have other major monthly expenses like student loans, you should determine a monthly payment you can comfortably afford.
- Determine Your Car Loan Amount
After you determine your monthly payment amount, you can determine how much you can borrow from a lender for your car purchase. One way to do this is by obtaining a pre-approval letter from a financial institution, which will review your credit history to determine how much money they will loan you. Keep in mind that you might be pre-approved for more than you can afford, so make sure you stick to your budget. You can also use a car affordability calculator, which is available on many personal finance websites, by entering your credit score, estimated monthly payment, and desired loan term. Remember — the shorter your loan term, the less you will pay in interest over time. Don’t be tempted to stretch out your loan term in order to have a lower monthly payment, because you’ll end up paying more in the long term. For example, if you purchase a $25,000 used car and put $4,000 down with an interest rate of 4.5 percent, your monthly payment on a four-year loan will be roughly $625 and you will pay $1,488 in interest over the duration of the loan. If you spread the loan out over five years with a higher interest rate of 5 percent, you will pay roughly $396 per month and nearly double, $2,778, in total interest. While a smaller monthly payment might seem appealing, it will cost you a lot more in the long run.
It’s important to note that most lenders will not provide a loan on a vehicle that’s more than five years old, so if you are relying on the financing you should consider a later model used vehicle.
- Shop Around for the Best Loan Rates
You should always visit a bank or credit union to get pre-approved for a loan before you go to the dealership. Even if you plan on securing an auto loan through the dealership, having a pre-approval option from a financial institution can help you negotiate against the dealer’s rate. It will also show them that you are a serious buyer, which will give you more bargaining power. Because dealers make more money on vehicles they finance, they will likely try to beat the rates you’ve already secured.
- New Car or Used Car?
When purchasing a vehicle, you have the choice of buying a new or used car. Although they are more expensive, there are perks to buying a new vehicle, including peace of mind, the reduced likelihood of unexpected repair bills, and warranty coverage. New cars also typically come with lower interest rates and financial incentives.
According to an iSeeCars study on off-lease car deals, the average used car loses 39 percent of its value after three years. When you buy a used car, the largest percentage of depreciation has already been absorbed by the original owner, and you get the car at a much lower price. You can even buy a car that is just one year old, which will typically cost 17 percent less than its new version. However, in today’s market, some lightly used cars cost more than their new versions, so be sure to compare the cost of new and lightly used vehicles. You may find that buying a new car is a better financial decision than purchasing a lightly-used one.
If you’re purchasing your used car through a franchise dealer, you will have the option to purchase a certified pre-owned (CPO) car. (Check out our handy guide to learn what does certified pre-owned mean? to better understand the CPO car buying process.) CPO cars are typically used cars that are less than five-years-old and have fewer than 75,000 miles on the odometer. CPO cars typically cost slightly more than non-certified used cars, but they are backed by manufacturer warranties and may also carry special financing. CPO cars combine the best of both the new and used car worlds, by offering added warranty protection on a late-model used car.
- Buying or Leasing?
Another factor to consider is whether you want to buy or lease your vehicle. If you choose to lease, you don’t need to finance because you’re not buying the car. You just need to be able to afford the down payment and the monthly payments. If you don’t want to borrow from a bank and take out a loan, leasing could be your best option. Your lease payments typically cost less money than what you would pay for a monthly car payment if you were buying the vehicle. You can also get a much nicer car for your money and get to drive a new car every few years. Another benefit of leasing is that you don’t have to pay for repairs, as issues with your car that occur during your lease term are usually covered by the car’s factory warranty.
The downside to leasing is that you never own the vehicle. As soon as your leasing term ends, you will begin the cycle again. If you purchase a vehicle, you will likely be able to enjoy several years without a car payment, provided that you don’t take out too long of a loan term. Another drawback is that car leases come with mileage limits, which commonly range from 12,000 to 15,000 miles per year. If you exceed those mileage limits, you will have to pay excessive mileage fees, which can get expensive. Lastly, the upfront cost to lease is usually more than if you were purchasing. You might need to put down a larger down payment due to your credit score, and it’s likely that the dealership will often want the first month’s payment as well.
For more information on leasing vs. buying a car, refer to our guide.
- Be Sure to Factor In Extra Costs
It’s important to make sure you budget for more than the advertised price of the car. While each state has different taxes and associated fees, you can expect to pay an extra 10% on top of the purchase price to cover the total cost of the vehicle. This includes sales tax, which is typically 5 percent to 10 percent depending on your state. There’s also documentation and registration fees, which also vary by state and the amount can be found on your state’s department of motor vehicles website. If you’re financing the vehicle, it’s important to understand you’ll also be paying interest on the financed portion of the vehicle. You should also research the car’s ownership costs to get a better understanding of what you’ll be paying per month. Car insurance is a major added expense, and it will cost more on later-model used vehicles. Be sure to check with your insurance agent before you purchase the vehicle to get an idea of what your new monthly rate will be. Be aware that used car insurance rates are also higher on sports cars and performance vehicles. You can also take the opportunity to shop around with other auto insurance companies to compare insurance quotes to ensure you’re getting the best rate. If you’re purchasing an SUV or a less fuel-efficient vehicle, you should also factor in additional fuel costs to make sure there is room in your budget. (You can refer to our list of Best Gas Mileage Cars to help reduce your fuel costs.)
- Find the Right Car
Once you’ve determined your budget, you can now search for cars within your budget. Helpful car websites and search engines have made it easier and more convenient than ever to find the right car to meet your needs. Car search engines like iSeeCars.com equip buyers with all the information they need to find the right vehicle.
- Beware of Depreciation
The depreciation on a new car means there’s a much greater loss in its value in the first few years after purchase compared to a used car. After all, The average new car loses nearly half its value after five years. If you’re going to keep your new car for the life of your loan, which will likely be between 5 and 7 years, that’s not a concern. But if you decide to switch cars earlier, the vehicle’s depreciation represents a significant ownership cost. If you plan to switch cars every few years you’ll save a lot of money buying cars that are at least 3 years old. Keep in mind that cars depreciate at different rates, so buying a car that best holds its value is a smart purchase decision.
12. Find the Best Price
Now that you’ve selected which models you’re interested in, you can do your research to find the best deal. While this mainly applies to used cars, which vary greatly in pricing, you can also do research to see which dealerships and manufacturers are offering the best new car incentives and finance rates. You may find that you can afford a more expensive vehicle than you anticipated if you spot a good deal.
Used car search engine iSeeCars.com uses data to objectively rank millions of cars and thousands of dealers, providing helpful insights and guidance to car buyers to find a good car at a good price from a trustworthy seller. Used car search engines and research sites allow you to easily compare prices and features like warranties, vehicle histories, and condition. Tools like the iSeeCars free VIN check will provide you with a pre-purchase analysis to ensure you are making the smartest purchase decision possible. It will also alert you to any red flags that could end up costing you money down the road. This includes:
- Pricing Analysis – Calculates the car’s fair value based on the local market and maps similar cars for sale locally.
- Condition – Analysis of mileage on the odometer, positives and negatives about the vehicle’s features and condition, and other resources like theft record, recalls.
- Depreciation – Estimates how much the car will depreciate over 1, 3, and 5 years
- Supply Analysis –Identifies similar vehicles for sale within the local area.
- Best Time to Buy – Analyzes when or what months may get you a better price.
- Vehicle History – Free CARFAX or Autocheck reports when provided by the seller.
Bottom Line
Whether you’re buying or leasing a car, it’s important to understand that you’ll likely keep your vehicle for several years. When taking out an auto loan or signing a lease contract, do your best to anticipate your future financial situation and make sure you’ll be able to make payments for the duration of the payment term. Also, when you determine how much you can afford to pay for a vehicle, you can still shop for cars that cost less than that amount. Just like it’s important to do your research and shop around for a vehicle, the same rule extends to auto loans. Follow our steps and you will find the best car at the best price within your budget.
More from iSeeCars:
Ready to begin your used car search? The iSeeCars.com used car search engine is the perfect place to start. With millions of listings that rank the best deals first and 59 user-friendly search filters, it can help you find the best car at the best price. And be sure to check out the comprehensive iSeeCars VIN check report to further help guide you through the car buying process and securethe best deal possible.
This article, How Much Car Can I Afford?, originally appeared on iSeeCars.com. | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/automotive/how-much-car-can-i-afford-3/ | 2023-07-30T15:58:50 | 1 | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/automotive/how-much-car-can-i-afford-3/ |
Racist, vulgar messages spray painted on cars
ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA) - Texas authorities are looking for the people who spray-painted racist words and vulgar images on cars parked across Arlington.
It took elbow grease and a little oven cleaner, but Dexter Smith and his brother finally got the spray paint off of the Corvette and the F-150 they park outside of their home.
Someone tagged each vehicle with racist slurs and vulgar drawings Saturday morning. They also dumped Smith’s trash on his porch.
“The first thing was disbelief, shock, then after the shock, it was like I got angry,” Smith said.
About 15 minutes north, two security cameras caught nearly identical acts of vandalism.
In both cases, people appear to get out of the same minivan and both vehicles they approached were marked with the same racist word.
Smith says it is hard to ignore the vandal’s vocabulary.
“They’ve got stuff called a hate crime, now,” he said.
Police are not yet certain the same group is responsible for each incident, but WFAA confirmed at least six vehicles were tagged with similarly racist language and police say they are still getting new reports.
Smith says he has now seen the worst side of his community and yet he found hope on the same day.
“A lady drove by, passed, stopped and backed up. She rolled the window down and she just said, ‘I’m so sorry,’” he said.
Smith says that moment helped him “a lot.”
Each of the five homes police responded to are within four miles of each other.
There is no word of any suspects or arrests, but investigators are asking locals to check their surveillance video for any information about the perpetrators.
Copyright 2023 WFAA via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/30/racist-vulgar-messages-spray-painted-cars/ | 2023-07-30T15:58:53 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/30/racist-vulgar-messages-spray-painted-cars/ |
Former President Trump’s legal crises are growing more serious this week and show no signs of fading, even as his 2024 bid for the White House barrels forward.
Federal prosecutors filed additional serious charges against Trump on Thursday over his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House, and anticipation has reached a fever pitch over whether Trump will be charged in Washington, D.C., for his conduct after the 2020 election.
Here are five takeaways from the latest legal developments around Trump.
The new documents case charges are serious
The additional charges filed in Thursday’s superseding indictment point to more serious allegations against Trump that could make his grip on the GOP more tenuous in the months to come.
Prosecutors laid out a new set of allegations that Trump acted with two aides in attempts to delete surveillance footage at Mar-a-Lago after prosecutors subpoenaed it in connection with their investigation in June 2022. Trump now faces two new obstruction charges in connection with the allegations.
The indictment also included a new charge over Trump’s retention of a classified document containing secret Pentagon plans to attack Iran. The document is at the center of a recorded conversation mentioned in the original indictment in which Trump is discussing the materials with individuals who did not have security clearances.
The former president has tried to claim that he may not have had the physical document at the time, but the fresh allegations suggest prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to bring charges over the incident.
The nature of the allegations are sure to fuel further charges from Trump’s critics that he is unfit for office.
“I’ve never been indicted and I am not a lawyer, but if you are deleting evidence, it is because you know you are committing a crime,” former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), a 2024 presidential candidate, said Thursday night. “And anybody who supports this, anybody who defends this, is complicit in endangering America.”
Trump’s circle is increasingly implicated
The superseding indictment added a third defendant to the case: Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
De Oliveira joins longtime Trump aide Walt Nauta in being charged in connection with the former president’s retention of classified documents and possible obstruction of efforts to get them back.
The indictment alleges De Oliveira, 56, extensively pushed Mar-a-Lago’s director of information technology (IT) — who was not charged or named in the indictment — to delete surveillance footage after prosecutors subpoenaed it in June 2022 in connection with their investigation.
Other Trump associates could still be implicated in the ongoing investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, particularly over a scheme to appoint alternative electors that would flip the Electoral College in Trump’s favor.
“Sadly, I’ve made this statement to many different people … Walt Nauta, run. Carlos [De Oliveira], run,” said Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney who reached a deal with prosecutors in Manhattan and has since turned against the former president.
Volume of legal risks is on the rise
One concern for Trump is that the sheer volume of charges against him is mounting, increasing his legal exposure.
The superseding indictment in the documents case means Trump now faces a total of 40 criminal counts in that case alone, three more than he did previously.
Trump is separately facing 34 felony counts in Manhattan over allegations of a hush money scheme to keep quiet allegations of an affair.
And Trump may face charges elsewhere; he is still under federal investigation in Washington, D.C., and in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Legal experts have noted that the more charges Trump faces, the greater his risk of being convicted on even a single count. “If you had a choice, you wouldn’t want to be indicted in three different jurisdictions,” said one Republican strategist.
Jan. 6 charges loom
Trump attorneys met with special counsel Jack Smith’s office Thursday over the investigation into the former president’s efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election.
With an indictment seeming imminent, Trump’s lawyers sought to make the case for why their client should not be charged.
A grand jury has typically been meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though no indictment was announced this week.
Still, Trump has received a target letter in the case, typically a sign that prosecutors have enough evidence to charge an individual in an investigation.
On top of the anticipation that is building over charges in D.C., the former president is under investigation in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the state’s election results in 2020. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has indicated charges could be announced in August, setting up for yet another cycle of bad legal developments for the former president.
Trump ups pressure on GOP allies
As the legal pressure on Trump mounts, he has turned to some of his Republican allies to ratchet up their defenses.
Trump, in comments to Fox News Digital after the superseding indictment was filed, complained that the charges against him were “ridiculous” and that the Justice Department was abusing its power.
“Hopefully the Republican Party will do something about it,” Trump said.
The former president’s comments may turn up the heat on some of his supporters in the House, and even Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), to back funding cuts to the special counsel’s office. Such measures have been floated by staunch Trump allies such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
The reality for Republicans is they will have to continue to answer questions about Trump’s conduct as the cases against him develop and the charges potentially mount.
Trump, asked if he would end his 2024 campaign even if convicted, told conservative radio host John Fredericks, “not at all.”
“There’s nothing in the Constitution to say that it could. And not at all,” Trump said. “Even the radical left crazies are saying no, that wouldn’t stop. And it wouldn’t stop me either.” | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/hill-politics/5-takeaways-as-trumps-legal-troubles-mount/ | 2023-07-30T15:58:56 | 1 | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/hill-politics/5-takeaways-as-trumps-legal-troubles-mount/ |
Diamondbacks vs. Mariners Predictions & Picks: Odds, Moneyline, Spread - July 30
Sunday's contest between the Arizona Diamondbacks (56-49) and Seattle Mariners (53-51) going head to head at Chase Field has a projected final score of 5-3 (based on our computer prediction) in favor of the Diamondbacks, so it should be a competitive matchup. The game will start at 4:10 PM ET on July 30.
The probable starters are Merrill Kelly (9-4) for the Diamondbacks and Luis Castillo (6-7) for the Mariners.
Diamondbacks vs. Mariners Game Info & Odds
- When: Sunday, July 30, 2023 at 4:10 PM ET
- Where: Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona
- How to Watch on TV: ARID
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
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Diamondbacks vs. Mariners Score Prediction
Our pick for this contest is Diamondbacks 5, Mariners 4.
Total Prediction for Diamondbacks vs. Mariners
- Total Prediction: Under 8 runs
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Diamondbacks Performance Insights
- The Diamondbacks have played as the favorite four times over their past 10 games and lost each of those contests.
- In its last 10 games with a total, Arizona and its opponents are 4-6-0 when it comes to hitting the over.
- Bookmakers have not set a spread for any of the Diamondbacks' last 10 games.
- The Diamondbacks have been favorites in 46 games this season and won 28 (60.9%) of those contests.
- Arizona has entered 51 games this season favored by -110 or more and is 30-21 in those contests.
- The sportsbooks' moneyline implies a 52.4% chance of a victory for the Diamondbacks.
- Arizona has scored the seventh-most runs in the majors this season with 517.
- The Diamondbacks have the 26th-ranked team ERA across all league pitching staffs (4.68).
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Diamondbacks Schedule
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/diamondbacks-mariners-mlb-picks-predictions/ | 2023-07-30T15:58:59 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/diamondbacks-mariners-mlb-picks-predictions/ |
OSHKOSH, Wis. (WFRV) – Four people are dead and two are hospitalized after two separate crashes on Saturday. Both incidents are connected to an annual air show in Wisconsin, according to officials.
The first crash happened shortly after 9 a.m. A T-6 Texan aircraft crashed into Lake Winnebago near Oshkosh, where the Experimental Aircraft Association is holding its annual fly-in convention, EAA AirVenture.
Both people aboard the aircraft died, according to EAA officials.
A few hours later, a Rotorway 162F helicopter and ELA 10 Eclipse gyrocopter collided in mid-air at the south end of the EAA AirVenture flight line at Wittman Regional Airport, killing two and injuring two others. Both of the injured are in stable condition, according to EAA.
The Oshkosh Fire Department said one of the aircraft landed on top of a parked plane, but did not clarify which.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating both accidents and has not provided a cause for either.
“Naturally, with the mid-air collision, somebody was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” EAA director of communications Dick Knapinski said. “How that occurred and why that occurred is what the NTSB will investigate and, from then, lessons will be learned as to what aviators can do to keep themselves safer.”
The investigation will likely take months to reach its conclusion.
“NTSB investigations typically take between a full year to 18 months to complete,” Knapinski explained. “They will have a preliminary investigation within the next week or so and then put out those findings. But the probable cause will probably take a year or more to determine by the board.”
The factors the NTSB will examine in its investigations include weather conditions, pilot experience, aircraft condition, flight pattern, and communication between ground and flight operations to determine the cause, which could be pilot error, a mechanical issue, or another reason, according to Knapinski. He described the weather as “mild” and likely not a contributing factor.
“Having accidents like this in the singular is very rare,” he said. “Having two fatal accidents take place on the same day is exceedingly rare.”
These are not the first incidents regarding aircraft at or en route to EAA this week. On Thursday, a single-engine plane bound for EAA AirVenture crash-landed in a cornfield in Green Lake County, hospitalizing two people.
On Tuesday, Knapinski said there was a “forced landing” east of the north/south runway at EAA AirVenture. The pilot was the only person onboard and was not injured.
Last Saturday, a single-engine ERCO Ercoupe headed to EAA AirVenture crashed in Fond du Lac County, injuring the pilot.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/national/4-killed-in-2-separate-aircraft-crashes-near-wisconsin-air-show/ | 2023-07-30T15:59:02 | 1 | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/national/4-killed-in-2-separate-aircraft-crashes-near-wisconsin-air-show/ |
Canada vs. Australia: Women’s World Cup Group B Odds, Stats and Live Stream - July 31
In each team's third matchup in Group B action at the 2023 Women's World Cup, Australia (3 points) and Canada (4 points) square off on Monday, July 31 at 6:00 AM ET.
Sportsbooks have given Australia odds of +117 to win this match, and Canada is at +235 (with the draw at +228). An over/under of 2.5 goals (with the over at +107 and the under at -141) has been set for this game.
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Australia vs. Canada Game Info
- Date: Monday, July 31, 2023
- Time: 6:00 AM ET
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Venue: Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
- TV Channel: FOX US
- Total: 2.5
- Australia Moneyline: +117
- Canada Moneyline: +235
Australia vs. Canada World Cup Betting Insights
- These teams rack up a combined 2.5 goals per match, which equals this game's over/under.
- Combined, these teams surrender two goals per game, 0.5 fewer than this match's total.
- Australia has been listed as a moneyline favorite just two other times so far this tournament, and went 1-0-1 in those games.
- Australia has played as a moneyline favorite of +117 or shorter in just one game this tournament, which they won.
- Canada has not played a game this tournament as an underdog.
- Canada has not been a bigger underdog this tournament than the +235 moneyline set for this game.
Australia World Cup Stats
Canada World Cup Stats
- In two Women's World Cup matches for Canada, Adriana Leon has tallied one goal (12th in Women's World Cup play).
- Sophie Schmidt has not scored a goal but has recorded one assist for Canada in Women's World Cup.
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Australia vs. Canada Recent Performance
- Australia went 6-1-4 in 2022 versus teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +6. This year, its record is 5-0-1 against fellow World Cup squads (+7 goal differential).
- Australia faced Nigeria in its last game and lost by a final score of 3-2. The defeated Australia side took 27 shots, outshooting by 17.
- van Egmond and Alanna Kennedy scored the two goals for their club in the match against .
- In 2022, Canada was 10-3-3 versus teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +15. This year its record versus fellow World Cup squads is 2-1-3 (-3 goal differential).
- On July 26 in its last game, Canada beat Ireland 2-1. Canada outshot Ireland 16 to 13.
- Leon recorded one goal to lead Canada on three shots.
Australia Roster
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Canada Roster
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-canada-australia-betting-preview-odds/ | 2023-07-30T15:59:05 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-canada-australia-betting-preview-odds/ |
(The Conversation) – Rivers have been the lifeblood of human civilization throughout history, and yet we know surprisingly little about what lives in many of them – including the giant creatures that prowl their depths.
While we know the biggest animal in the ocean is the blue whale and the largest marine fish is the whale shark, the identity of the world’s largest freshwater fish species long remained a mystery.
Until 2022, that is, when fishers in Cambodia caught a giant freshwater stingray in the remote reaches of the Mekong River.
Weighing an astounding 661 pounds, the stingray surpassed by 15 pounds a giant catfish caught in Thailand in 2005 that had previously been considered the unofficial record holder.
The discovery marked a milestone in fish biologist Zeb Hogan’s more than two-decade quest to study and protect giant freshwater fish. As a group, these megafish are among the most endangered animals on the planet.The world’s largest freshwater fish confirmed so far is a stingray caught in the Mekong River.
Before releasing the female ray back into the river, Hogan’s research team put an acoustic tracker on her. She has been sending back clues about stingrays’ elusive behavior ever since.
Colossal catfish and gargantuan gars
In a new book, “Chasing Giants: In Search of the World’s Largest Freshwater Fish,” Hogan and I tell the troubling story of the 30 or so fish species that live exclusively in rivers and lakes and can grow to more than 200 pounds or at least 6 feet (1.8 meters) long.
Found on all continents except Antarctica, they are a wonderfully weird bunch of creatures, from colossal catfish and carp to gargantuan gars.
But freshwater vertebrate populations have declined over the past five decades at twice the rate experienced by species within terrestrial or marine ecosystems. Megafish numbers in particular fell by a shocking 94%, according to one study of more than 200 large freshwater species.
One of the largest species, the Chinese paddlefish, is believed to have gone extinct sometime in the 2000s. “This is a fish that had been on Earth for more than 100 million years before disappearing in a flash,” says Hogan, who used to host National Geographic’s “Monster Fish” television show and now leads a University of Nevada, Reno, research project I am involved with called Wonders of the Mekong, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The importance of very large fish to freshwater ecosystems has been woefully understudied. Many giant freshwater fish are apex predators that can have profound effects on the ecosystems in which they live by keeping their prey populations in check and maintaining biodiversity.
What’s killing off the megafish
The decline of giant freshwater fish is due to human impacts, such as overfishing, dam building and climate change.
Large fish are disproportionately targeted by fishing. Since many of these species are slow to mature, they may never reach the age to reproduce. Dam building is another major threat, because large fish often need to make long migrations to complete their life cycles, and a new dam can block their migration paths.
In the Mekong, where more giant fish species are found than in any other river, climate change is causing more severe droughts and disrupting the monsoon seasons that govern the river’s essential flood regime.
There are signs that interest in freshwater species is gaining momentum, including increasing calls to explicitly include freshwater ecosystems in the 30×30 initiative, a global effort to set aside 30% of land and sea area for conservation by 2030. So far, however, conservation efforts to protect endangered giant freshwater fish species are mostly regional.
Alligator gars and sturgeon make a comeback
Although the outlook for most giant fish remains grim, some species, like the air-breathing arapaima in South America, may be bucking the trend.
The arapaima, a torpedo-shaped giant that can grow to lengths of more than 12 feet, has long been overharvested by fishers in the Amazon, where it’s known as the Amazonian cod. But stricter fishing regulations introduced by Indigenous communities appear to have led to populations’ rebounding in many places.
In the United States, the alligator gar, another air-breathing megafish, was once largely considered a “trash fish” thought to devour game fish, so it was systematically exterminated from much of its southern range. But then scientists began to study the species and found it was an important contributor to ecosystem functions. Today, alligator gar populations have bounced back in rivers like the Trinity in Texas.
A similar case involves the lake sturgeon, one of the few true freshwater sturgeons, whose populations in Wisconsin have benefited from long-term conservation efforts and science-driven management that includes strictly regulated seasonal recreational fishing.
Protecting the giants of the Mekong
Back in Cambodia, our Wonders of the Mekong project is raising public awareness about the plight of the megafish, and we are working closely with local fishers to encourage them to protect threatened species.
In an example of those efforts’ paying off, fishers in early 2023 caught a Mekong giant catfish weighing more than 200 pounds. Instead of killing it and selling the meat for a sizable profit, the fishers decided to release the fish in an elaborate ceremony in which it was sprinkled with flowers before it was let go.
In recent months, our project has also reintroduced into the Mekong rare giant catfish that were captured as young fish and raised in Cambodia, and giant barb, another critically endangered megafish species that historically has grown to 600 pounds.
While giant freshwater stingray numbers have plummeted in other parts of its native Southeast Asian range, the population appears to be relatively robust in the upper stretches of the Mekong River in Cambodia where the record ray was discovered. Data collected from that female, and reported in a study I co-authored, shows it is staying in much the same location, leading researchers to believe the area could be an important refuge for the stingrays and possibly other megafish.
Long-standing plans by the Cambodian government to build two large dams on this section of the river appear to have been scrapped, at least for now. At the end of 2022, the government instead put forth a proposal to turn the biodiverse stretch of the river, which is also home to a critically endangered population of Irrawaddy river dolphins, into a UNESCO World Heritage site.
While the record stingray is big, it might not be the largest of this species of ray in the Mekong. Local fishers speak of rays growing up to 200 pounds heavier.
It’s also possible the giant stingray is not the largest freshwater fish species. Research on the arapaima, for example, suggests it could grow as big, or even bigger, in places like Guyana. But, as Hogan says, “It’s not about finding the biggest fish. It’s about learning more about these amazing creatures to figure out how to better protect them.” | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/national/in-search-of-the-wonderfully-weird-giants-lurking-in-earths-rivers/ | 2023-07-30T15:59:08 | 1 | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/national/in-search-of-the-wonderfully-weird-giants-lurking-in-earths-rivers/ |
Ireland vs. Nigeria: Women’s World Cup Group B Odds, Stats and Live Stream - July 31
On Monday, July 31 at 6:00 AM ET, Nigeria (4 points) and Ireland (0 points) match up for each side's final match in Group B at the 2023 Women's World Cup.
The moneyline odds for Nigeria to win this game are +120, with the draw at +234 and Ireland at +218. An over/under of 2.5 goals has been set for this match.
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Nigeria vs. Ireland Game Info
- Date: Monday, July 31, 2023
- Time: 6:00 AM ET
- Location: Brisbane, Australia
- Venue: Suncorp Stadium
- TV Channel: Fox Sports 1
- Total: 2.5
- Nigeria Moneyline: +120
- Ireland Moneyline: +218
Nigeria vs. Ireland World Cup Betting Insights
- These teams average two goals per match combined, 0.5 less than this game's total.
- Opponents of these teams score a combined 2.5 goals per game, equal to this game's total.
- Nigeria has not been a moneyline favorite yet this tournament.
- Nigeria has not played a game this tournament with moneyline odds of +120 or shorter.
- Ireland has been an underdog twice so far this tournament, and went 0-0-2 in those games.
- Ireland has played as an underdog of +218 or more once this tournament and lost that game.
Nigeria World Cup Stats
Ireland World Cup Stats
- Katie McCabe has scored one goal for Ireland in Women's World Cup (two games).
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Nigeria vs. Ireland Recent Performance
- Nigeria went 0-1-7 in 2022 versus teams playing in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of -11. This year, its record is 4-1-1 versus fellow World Cup squads (+5 goal differential).
- Nigeria picked up a win on July 27 against Australia by a final score of 3-2. The victorious Nigeria took 17 fewer shots in the game, 10 compared to Australia's 27.
- Ohale, Oshoala and Kanu combined to score the three goals for their club in the match against .
- In 2022, Ireland was 1-0-0 against teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +4. This year its record versus fellow World Cup squads is 1-1-5 (-7 goal differential).
- In its most recent game, Ireland was taken down by Canada 2-1 on July 26. Canada outshot Ireland 16 to 13.
- McCabe had the only goal for Ireland on three shots.
Nigeria Roster
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Ireland Roster
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-ireland-nigeria-betting-preview-odds/ | 2023-07-30T15:59:12 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-ireland-nigeria-betting-preview-odds/ |
(AP) – A woman from New Hampshire who works for a nonprofit organization in Haiti and her young daughter have been reported as kidnapped as the U.S. State Department issued a “do not travel advisory” in the country and ordered nonemergency personnel to leave there amid growing security concerns.
Alix Dorsainvil, a nurse for El Roi Haiti, and her daughter were kidnapped on Thursday, the organization said in a statement Saturday. El Roi, which runs a school and ministry in Port au Prince, said the two were taken from campus. Dorsainvil is the wife of the program’s director, Sandro Dorsainvil.
“Alix is a deeply compassionate and loving person who considers Haiti her home and the Haitian people her friends and family,” El Roi president and co-founder Jason Brown said in the statement. “Alix has worked tirelessly as our school and community nurse to bring relief to those who are suffering as she loves and serves the people of Haiti in the name of Jesus.”
A State Department spokesperson said in a statement Saturday it is “aware of reports of the kidnapping of two U.S. citizens in Haiti,” adding, “We are in regular contact with Haitian authorities and will continue to work with them and our U.S. government interagency partners.”
In its advisory Thursday, the department said that “kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens.”
It said kidnappings often involve ransom negotiations and U.S. citizen victims have been physically harmed.
Earlier this month, the National Human Rights Defense Network issued a report warning about an upsurge in killings and kidnappings and the U.N. Security Council met to discuss Haiti’s worsening situation.
WMUR-TV reported that Dorsainvil is from Middleton, New Hampshire, and went to Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, which has a program to support nursing education in Haiti.
“It doesn’t surprise me that Alix chose to get involved in this type of service work,” Regis College president Toni Hays told the station. “She was amazing. She was passionate, she was compassionate.” | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/national/us-mother-daughter-reportedly-kidnapped-in-haiti-do-not-travel-advisory-issued/ | 2023-07-30T15:59:14 | 1 | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/national/us-mother-daughter-reportedly-kidnapped-in-haiti-do-not-travel-advisory-issued/ |
A Patriots Super Bowl champion is hanging up the cleats.
Sony Michel has decided to retire from playing football. The running back opened up training camp with the Los Angeles Rams, but informed the team of his decision to step away from the game on Saturday. Rams coach Sean McVay relayed Michel’s message to the media later that day.
Michel spent most of his five-year NFL career in New England. The Patriots selected him in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, selecting 31st overall, just eight picks after they picked his Georgia teammate Isaiah Wynn.
The 2018 season ended up being Michel’s best campaign of his NFL career. As a rookie, Michel rushed for 931 yards on 4.5 yards per carry during the regular season. He established himself as the Patriots’ lead back when healthy, rushing for 100-plus yards in four games and added six touchdowns during the year.
Michel stepped up his play in the postseason. He opened up the Patriots’ 2018 playoff run with a 129-yard, three-touchdown performance against the Chargers in the Divisional Round. A week later, the Patriots used Michel early and often as he had 29 total carries for 113 yards and two touchdowns in the dramatic overtime win over the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game.
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Two weeks later, Michel capped off a memorable postseason run by scoring the lone touchdown in Super Bowl LIII, helping the Patriots defeat the Rams, 13-3. He rushed for 94 yards in that game as well, giving him 336 on 4.7 yards per carry for the postseason.
Michel wasn’t able to reach the same peak performance for the rest of his career. While he rushed for 912 yards and seven touchdowns in 2019, he only ran for 3.7 yards per carry. He was efficient in 2019, rushing for 5.7 yards per carry. But he was injured for much of the year and finished with 449 rushing yards plus a touchdown over nine games.
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The Patriots traded him to the Rams ahead of the 2021 season as they had a logjam in their backfield. Michel ended up playing a key role there, rushing for 845 yards and four touchdowns during the regular season before helping the Rams win the Super Bowl in the playoffs.
Michel went to Miami after that, but the Dolphins cut him ahead of the 2022 season. He latched on with the Chargers, but had a very limited role.
As he re-signed with the Rams this offseason, it appeared Michel could have been the team’s top backup running back for the 2023 season. The 28-year-old opted not to pursue that though, and McVay has all the respect for him.
“It’s a bummer, but his body is feeling like it’s talking to him, and I have nothing but respect and appreciation for the competitor that he is,” McVay said. “I love Sony and we’ll continue to stay in touch, but we’ll look to add somebody in that running back room.”
McVay also had a tremendous amount of respect for Michel’s career.
“What a great career this guy has had,” McVay said. “The epitome of a pro, a great competitor, and his next chapter is going to be exciting. He’s got so many gifts that he can offer to people, and so we’ll wish him the best.”
Advertisement | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/former-patriots-rb-two-time-super-bowl-champion-sony-michel-retires-football/ | 2023-07-30T16:00:51 | 0 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/former-patriots-rb-two-time-super-bowl-champion-sony-michel-retires-football/ |
If you have a child in high school, you may be wondering when or how to start the process of looking for a college or what schools will be the best fit or even how to pay for it. These are among hundreds of questions you’re sure to have before your child sets off on his or postsecondary education journey.
It can be quite overwhelming for students and parents. We curated a little advice from those who have been there to help you navigate this confusing, nerve-racking and intimidating process.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you leap into college-bound territory:
Start early
Sophomore year is a good time to start a search online to compile a list of schools that are of interest. “Typically, students and parents will begin looking at colleges their junior year,” said Brent Martinson, principal of Chesterton High School. “Things pick up during the summer before their senior year and in the fall.”
People are also reading…
Leave yourself a good window of time to explore online, talk to people you might know who go to schools of interest or seek out friends of friends who can offer some insight of their experience and make in-person visits.
Mind deadlines
“What I think parents should know is that there is a deadline for everything ... scholarships, FAFSA, roommate selection, etc.,” said Michelle Blazer of Valparaiso. "I attended his school college night at his high school, so I knew the timeline for everything and I helped Liam through some of the steps last year.”
Her son just completed his first year at Ball State University in Muncie.
To keep on top of deadlines at schools of interest, get on email lists, check the website often, keep a calendar for each college. Ask your high school counselor or adviser for assistance in navigating when specific things need to be completed.
Find a comfortable place
Look for things in a school that will make your child feel comfortable with their surroundings. Take a look at the location and the size and don’t try to push for a school with an environment that is out of their comfort zone.
“I believe that students should pick a college where they feel comfortable and the college has a strong department in the field they are studying,” said Martinson.
Find your field
Once your child has an idea of a profession to pursue, it will narrow down the pool of potential schools. For Blazer, the first school they visited was just right. Her son wanted to study film production and creative writing.
“That narrowed down his options,” said Blazer. They had considered a school in Florida, but made their first college visit to Ball State, and her son knew it was the one. “I could tell while we were on campus that it just felt right,” she said. “He has been thriving there and I’m glad he stayed closer to home.”
Visit in-person
“I think it’s important for students to have a short list of colleges they want to attend and visit them in-person,” said Martinson. “This helps them ‘see’ themselves in the setting.”
Touring campus, meeting students and seeing living arrangements can help students determine whether it's a place they can call home for the next four years.
Going far or staying close
The decision on how far to go from home can depend a lot on the personality of child and their goals. Some kids will thrive away from home; others may do better with the security of family close by.
“Personally, I think going away is really important,” said Jenny Anderson, a Cedar Lake mom of four. “I think it was the best thing for our oldest. She loved living on campus and being able to walk everywhere. She never brought a car down there. She made many friends and had such a great experience.”
One of her daughters, Katie, is a graduate of Purdue University in West Lafayette and another daughter, Kasey, is headed there this fall.
“I think people would also be surprised to see the cost comparison between Purdue Northwest and Purdue in West Lafayette,” said Anderson. “The education portion is about the same. The difference is room and board, and you can somewhat tailor that to your budget."
Consider cost
Anderson said that their family selected Purdue University because of the location (far enough away, but close enough to come home easily) and its reasonable cost. “There has been a tuition freeze for quite a while,” said Anderson. “My older daughter loved Butler and received a great academic scholarship, but even with that, Purdue was still $15,000 less per year.”
She also noted that taking out student loans can be scary, but it can help to have a good plan and be diligent about paying off loans as quickly as possible. “Our daughter did graduate with a decent amount, however, she also landed a great job right out of school and has already paid off over half of them in just one year,” she said.
Tap school personnel
Find out who at your child’s high school specializes in college and careers. Most schools will have a dedicated counselor or adviser who can help guide families through the process.
At Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond, a college prep high school that sends 95-99% of students on to colleges or universities, an academic adviser helps answer questions and prepare students for life beyond graduation. The adviser also has played a role in this year's 104 graduates receiving a total of $23.2 million in college scholarship offers, an average of just less than $223,000 per graduate.
A school adviser can be a huge help in finding funding opportunities.
Community college option
Attending community college is an alternative to a four-year university that can allow for a lot of flexibility. Students may be able to work locally in conjunction with classes to earn money, commute to school to save on room and board, pay less in tuition than a four-year college, get into the workforce more quickly through certificate programs, take advantage of smaller class sizes and have the option of transferring credits to a four-year university.
Ask questions
Martinson suggests that you keep a running list of questions to ask at any college visit. “Everything from class sizes, academic courses, sports, food, dorm living, all of it,” he said.
Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions — whether of a tour guide, an administrator, a school counselor, admissions staff, alumni or others. And if you don’t find out the answer from the first source, ask them to help direct you to where you can find the answers. | https://www.nwitimes.com/life-entertainment/advisers-parents-share-advice-on-selecting-a-college/article_54e7c002-20e6-11ee-abe6-0beff4e45c99.html | 2023-07-30T16:00:52 | 0 | https://www.nwitimes.com/life-entertainment/advisers-parents-share-advice-on-selecting-a-college/article_54e7c002-20e6-11ee-abe6-0beff4e45c99.html |
Trent Frederic is poised for a bump in pay, and the Bruins winger will soon find out just how much larger his checks will be.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Frederic and the Bruins have exchanged arbitration numbers, with the player asking for a one-year deal at $2.9 million and the club countering with a two-year offer at $1.4 million per season.
The 25-year-old Frederic played the last two seasons for a $1.05 million salary.
Unless the sides can meet somewhere in the middle, they’ll plead their cases to an independent arbitrator Tuesday. The sides can haggle all the way up until the hearing begins. Once it commences, they must abide by the arbitrator’s figure.
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In the past, teams were allowed to walk away from arbitrator’s awards, but are now bound to accept the figure as long as the amount does not exceed $4.539 million, according to CBA guidelines published by capfriendly.com.
Frederic is coming off a solid regular season, setting career highs in games (79), goals (17), and points (31). He was held off the scoresheet in all five games he played in Boston’s first-round loss to the Panthers.
Though center is Frederic’s natural position, the 6-foot-2-inch, 205-pounder has played mostly right wing during his three-plus professional seasons.
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/trent-frederic-bruins-exchange-arbitration-numbers-reportedly-15-million-apart-talks/ | 2023-07-30T16:00:58 | 0 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/trent-frederic-bruins-exchange-arbitration-numbers-reportedly-15-million-apart-talks/ |
Home prices continue to increase in Northwest Indiana despite declines in sales amid tight inventory.
In the first half of 2023, home sales in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Jasper, Newton, Pulaski and Starke counties totaled 4,399, down from 5,280 during the first six months of 2022, according to the Northwest Indiana Realtors Association. After years of booming sales, the market has reached a new normal at the half-year mark.
"It's not surprising. This year looks like what we thought it would," NIRA CEO Pete Novak said. "Home prices remain steady. Sales are down on the year, which is not surprising considering how little inventory is on the market compared to historical levels of inventory. New homes are not coming on the market at an increased place."
New listings in Northwest Indiana totaled 5,929, a 16.7% decline as compared to the 6,905 homes sold in the first half of 2022.
"Interest rates remain high and are rising, which adds substantial cost to home buying," Novak said. "People who are locked into a low-interest rate are staying put. The market hasn't been great because of the inventory issues. The inventory has been declining steadily. The bright side is that any homes that are on sale are selling quickly. The demand isn't as strong as it was but there's enough demand to satisfy the home sellers on the market."
The median sales price rose 3.4% to $239,900 through the first six months of 2023, up from $232,000 during the same time period in 2022.
"The data is clear at this point," he said. "Home salves remain competitive. Home sellers are in the catbird's seat. There's not a lot to choose from for buyers. It's still a seller's market. That's why home prices are rising even though we did see some dips in home prices nationally. Home prices are back up and I don't think that's going to stop anytime soon."
Home builders have not been adding enough new inventory at affordable price points in the last few years as a result of building material supply shortages during the pandemic and lingering labor shortages.
"The builders I've talked to said they would build more homes if they could," he said. "But they've all talked about constraints with labor. There's demand for new construction. There's not enough housing period, whether that's existing homes or new construction."
Sellers got 95.8% of their asking prices in the first six months of the year, down 2.4% as compared to 98.2% during the first half of 2022.
The average home price is now $256,000 in Lake County, $320,000 in Porter County and $205,000 in LaPorte County. That's up from $248,000 in Lake County, $295,000 in Porter County and $200,500 in LaPorte County at the same time last year.
In June, new listings fell 23.3% to 1,161, down from 1,513, according to NIRA. Closed sales 8.3% to 958, down from 1,045 during June of 2022. The median sales price in June rose 5.3% to $260,000, up from $247,000.
"There's been a decrease in home sales, so it will be interesting to see if prices keep climbing or if they flatten out," he said. "Overall, they're still increasing."
Inventory rose 15.4% to 1.5 months in June, up from 1.3 months but still well below historical averages. The inventory of homes for sales fell 7.2% to 1,254 in June, up from 1,351 in June of 2022.
"Longterm we need more development and more home construction," he said. "We have a short-term inventory issue but also what looks like long-term inventory issues for housing."
The market will likely continue down the path it's going for the rest of the year.
"It's not the same market from last year and the year before but there are a lot of similarities," he said. "Sellers are in a pretty good position. They're in the catbird's seat. They have the advantage in the transaction. I would not be surprised if the next six months look a lot like the last six months."
NWI Business Ins and Outs: Jet's Pizza and vegan restaurant open; Chase Bank closes; Crown Point Toys and Collectibles moves | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/nwi-home-prices-still-rising-despite-falling-sales-and-limited-inventory/article_d80494b0-2d84-11ee-8c7a-23ee419348f4.html | 2023-07-30T16:00:58 | 0 | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/nwi-home-prices-still-rising-despite-falling-sales-and-limited-inventory/article_d80494b0-2d84-11ee-8c7a-23ee419348f4.html |
KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful bomb ripped through a rally by supporters of a hard-line cleric and political leader in the country’s northwestern Bajur district that borders Afghanistan on Sunday, police and health officials said. At least 40 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
Senior police officer Nazir Khan said the workers convention of Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema Islam party was taking place on the outskirts of Khar, the capital of Bajur district, when the explosion took place.
AP video showed wounded people being carried from the scene in the chaotic aftermath of the explosion.
Adam Khan, 45, was hit by splinters in his leg and both hands. He said it was around 4 p.m. when the the explosion knocked him to the ground.
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“There was all dust and smoke around and I was under the some injured people from where I hardly (could stand) up but only to see chaos and some scattered limbs,” he said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group operates across the border in Afghanistan.
Initially, police said 10 people were killed but later more bodies arrived at a local hospital bringing the death toll to 40. Khan said some of the wounded were in critical condition and the death toll could rise.
The JUI workers convention was arranged in a hall close to a market but later tents were added because of the large number of supporters who turned out. The venue was being guarded by party volunteers dressed in camel-colored traditional garb called Shalwar Qameez and holding batons.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Akhtar Hayat Gandapur said an initial investigation suggested a suicide bomber sneaked into the venue despite the security provided by party volunteers. He said explosives experts were combing the scene to preserve evidence.
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District health officer Dr. Faisal Khan said 40 bodies and 150 wounded from the blast were at Khar's main hospital. Some of the wounded were in critical condition and were being transferred to a facility in Peshawar and the adjoining district of Dir.
Prime Minister Shabaz Sharif, President Arif Alvi and other leaders condemned the attack and asked officials to provide all possible assistance to the wounded and the bereaved families.
Maulana Ziaullah, the local chief of Rehman's party, was among the dead. Senator Abdur Rasheed and former lawmaker Maulana Jamaluddin were also on the stage but escaped unhurt. Party officials said Rehman was not at the rally.
Rasheed, the regional chief of the party, said the attack was an attempt to remove JUI from the field before parliament elections in November but he said such tactics will not work.
Rehman is considered to be a pro-Taliban cleric and his political party is part of the coalition government in Islamabad. Meetings are being organized across the country to mobilize supporters for the coming elections.
“Many of our fellows lost lives and many more wounded in this incident. I will ask the federal and provincial administrations to fully investigate this incident and provide due compensation and medical facilities to the affected ones,” he said.
Mohammad Wali said he was listening to a speaker address the crowd when the huge explosion temporarily deafened him.
“I was near the water dispenser to fetch a glass of water when the bomb exploded throwing me away to the ground," he said. "We came to the meeting with enthusiasm but ended up at the hospital seeing crying wounded people and sobbing relatives taking bodies of their loved ones.”
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Bajur, once used to be a tribal region but now a district, has been a safe haven for Islamic militants until recent years when Pakistani military carried out massive operations to eliminate militancy from the tribal region. Militants still strike attacking security forces and civilians often.
___
Riaz Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/world/bomb-political-rally-northwest-pakistan-kills-least-40-people-wounds-more-than-150/ | 2023-07-30T16:01:04 | 0 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/world/bomb-political-rally-northwest-pakistan-kills-least-40-people-wounds-more-than-150/ |
Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN over ‘the Big Lie’ dismissed in Florida
(AP) - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against CNN in which the former U.S. president claimed that references in news articles or by the network’s hosts to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” was tantamount to comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
Trump had been seeking punitive damages of $475 million in the federal lawsuit filed last October in South Florida, claiming the references hurt his reputation and political career. Trump is a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in what is his third run for the presidency.
U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal, who was appointed by Trump, said Friday in his ruling that the former president’s defamation claims failed because the references were opinions and not factual statements. Moreover, it was a stretch to believe that, in viewers’ minds, that phrase would connect Trump’s efforts challenging the 2020 election results to Nazi propaganda or Hitler’s genocidal and authoritarian regime, the judge said.
“CNN’s use of the phrase ‘the Big Lie’ in connection with Trump’s election challenges does not give rise to a plausible inference that Trump advocates the persecution and genocide of Jews or any other group of people,” the judge wrote in his decision.
Email messages seeking comment were sent to Trump’s attorneys in South Florida and Washington. Email messages seeking comment also were sent to CNN attorneys in Atlanta and South Florida.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-big-lie-dismissed-florida/ | 2023-07-30T16:01:04 | 0 | https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-big-lie-dismissed-florida/ |
2 New Jersey Towns Named As Best Towns In America With Fewer Than 10,000 Residents
Far and Wide did an article that focused on the best 100 small towns in America with under 10,000 residents. These are the lovely small towns that are the backbone of this nation. The place where families can live and enjoy a peaceful town. These are the towns you see in Hallmark movies, so yes they do actually exist.
Of the 100 best in America, two are from right here in the Garden State.
The first town in New Jersey came in at #50. Clinton in Hunterdon County made the Top 50 in America.
According to Far and Wide, "Merely an hour away from New York, Clinton has nothing of the city’s traffic or noise. Instead, it offers the tranquility of the Raritan River, a Main Street full of boutiques and the striking Red Mill Museum Village."
The 2nd town to make the Top 100 best small towns with under 10,000 residents is Cape May. In fact, just like Clinton, Cape May made the Top 50 coming in at #49.
According to Far and Wide, "Cape May isn’t shy about boasting its status as “America’s oldest seaside resort.” But this age doesn’t mean it’s rickety or stodgy."
I have visited both Clinton and Cape May and both towns are awesome. Great day trip to either location so if you get a chance hit them up. Cape May in the summer and do fall in Clinton :) Check out the Top 100 in the Far and Wide article.
The Definitive List of The Oddest, Strangest and Downright Filthy Town Names In Every State | https://nj1015.com/2new-jersey-towns-named-as-best-towns-in-america-with-fewer-than-10000-residents/ | 2023-07-30T16:01:29 | 1 | https://nj1015.com/2new-jersey-towns-named-as-best-towns-in-america-with-fewer-than-10000-residents/ |
How Unique is Your Last Name? Here are the 25 Most Common in New Jersey
Have you ever done research on the history of your surname or last name?
A little digging will uncover some pretty interesting facts.
According to American Surnames, Ryan, my last name, is pretty common in New Jersey.
It's the 41st most popular surname in New Jersey.
Plus, there are 516 Ryans for every one million people in the United States.
The history of my last name is too surprising.
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: Ireland
Language of origin: Gaelic
Ethnic origin: Celtic
So many times I've heard people tell stories about what their last names 'should have' been or 'could have been.'
It all goes back to when our relatives were arriving in America.
Back then there weren't computers and electronic ways to scan for errors.
Therefore, typos and misspellings were not uncommon.
For example, I took a look at names related to my last name, Ryan.
I simple instance of being misheard could have resulted in the surname Ryan being:
- RYNN
- RONAN
- CRYAN
- ROHAN
- RUANE
- RINEY
- ROONEY
- RAINEY
- RYNNE
- RONAYNE
- RONNIE
- ROME
- RENNIE
- RYUN
New Jersey is so diverse that I wanted to see which last names are most common here in The Garden State.
Jersey has a high Italian and Irish population, so I thought some of the popular last names from those ethnicities would rank high.
I was wrong.
Check out New Jersey's top 25. After you see the last name, look for how popular the surname is in the United States.
Think you know number one? Here we go. | https://nj1015.com/how-unique-is-your-last-name-here-are-the-25-most-common-in-new-jersey/ | 2023-07-30T16:01:30 | 0 | https://nj1015.com/how-unique-is-your-last-name-here-are-the-25-most-common-in-new-jersey/ |
This New Jersey Town Is Among The Top 10 Richest In America
You may ask yourself where all the money is in New Jersey. Well, one town in particular in the Garden State is among the top 10 richest in the entire nation. Yes, the entire nation.
We all know there are some pockets of the Garden State where the money is flowing a little more steadily than in other places, but there is one town that is nearly the richest town in the whole nation.
So, just how rich is this town? Let's see if you can wrap your head around this. The median home price in this town is $1.75 million, according to Veranda. And that's the average price.
If you're trying to guess which town this is, here are some clues. It's in Essex County, and Anne Hathaway has called it home.
And here's the absolute giveaway. It's home to a very exclusive, very famous mall. If you don't know it by now, you might never know it. So, let's just end the anticipation and give you the answer.
Short Hills, the home of The Mall at Short Hills, is the 6th richest town in the entire nation, and that is definitely where a lot of New Jersey money is hiding.
This amazing town is truly out of a storybook. But not just anyone can afford to live there. In addition to the whopping median home prices, the average household income is nearly $400,000.
By the way, Short Hills isn't the only rich town in the Garden State. Rumson just missed making the top 10. They came in at #12 with a median household income of almost $340,000. | https://nj1015.com/ixp/393/p/this-new-jersey-town-is-among-the-top-10-richest-in-america/ | 2023-07-30T16:01:32 | 0 | https://nj1015.com/ixp/393/p/this-new-jersey-town-is-among-the-top-10-richest-in-america/ |
Man kills woman and dog in murder-suicide, cops say
🔴 A woman called 911 to report a man breaking into her apartment
🔴 Police found her and a dog dead from gunshot wounds
🔴 Investigators are treating the shooting as a murder-suicide
LITTLE EGG HARBOR — A man who broke into a woman's apartment shot her and a dog before turning the gun on himself this weekend, authorities said.
A woman called 911 on Saturday morning around 5:10 a.m. to report that someone was breaking into her apartment on Whitemarsh Court in Little Egg Harbor, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer.
Police officers got the to residence soon after and forced their way inside.
They found the body of a 49-year-old woman who had been shot in her face along with the body of a dog that had also been shot.
The cops also found a 52-year-old man who had shot himself in the head but was still conscious, Billhimer said. He was taken to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City where he later died.
Authorities have not released the identities of the man or woman. The investigation is ongoing.
It's the second murder-suicide in New Jersey this month.
A 75-year-old Wood-Ridge man and his wife were found shot to death at a Hackensack nursing facility on July 15. An investigation found that the man had shot his wife before he shot himself, according to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.
MORE: Deadly NJ nursing home shooting kills married couple, cops say
Report a correction 👈 | 👉 Contact our newsroom | https://nj1015.com/man-kills-woman-and-dog-murder-suicide-little-egg-harbor/ | 2023-07-30T16:01:34 | 0 | https://nj1015.com/man-kills-woman-and-dog-murder-suicide-little-egg-harbor/ |
NJ home to 3 of the top-10 longest routes in the US
There's nothing that screams adventure than a cross-country road trip. To get in the car and just drive away without a care in the world.
In the United States, we're very fortunate to have a road system that makes such travel possible. And whether you want to make it a quick trip or take your sweet time, the vast majority of routes you can travel make it all possible.
Most people might think that our interstates are the only way to go. But prior to that, we more or less had to rely on New Jersey's federal route system.
What's more, many of our federal routes are just as long, if not longer, than their interstate counterparts. In fact, the longest highway in America isn't an interstate at all.
And as far as New Jersey is unconcerned, we're actually home to some of the longest routes in America. That's right, some of the longest highways in the country pass right through the great Garden State.
What's more, two of these highways actually begin in New Jersey (or end, depending on how you look at it). How awesome is that?
Check out the list below of the top 10 longest routes in America, which include both interstates and US federal routes. Out of all the routes below, three of them are right here in New Jersey.
These are the top 10 longest federal & interstate routes in the US
Three major highways make the list for New Jersey
Interstate 80 and US Route 1 are more obvious, but US Route 30? Yup, the White Horse Pike is also one of the nation's longest routes which ends (or begins, depending on how you look at it) in Atlantic City.
But it's not just the longest routes that have a Jersey tie. One of the most scenic roads in America is also here.
Check out that list below and see if you can guess which highway it is.
See the Must-Drive Roads in Every State
The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 Sunday morning host Mike Brant. Any opinions expressed are his own. | https://nj1015.com/nj-home-to-3-of-the-top-10-longest-routes-in-the-us/ | 2023-07-30T16:01:35 | 1 | https://nj1015.com/nj-home-to-3-of-the-top-10-longest-routes-in-the-us/ |
Philadelphia Eagles celebrate return to training camp in adorable photos
Our Philadelphia Eagles are back on the practice field preparing for the 2023-2024 NFL season, and some of the players took the most adorable photos to celebrate.
Coach Nick Sirianni and The Birds are at the NovaCare Complex in South Philly working on improving their skill set to take on their opponents on the way to what will hopefully be another Super Bowl. Meanwhile, fans are over here like...
Players like Reed Blankenship, Brandon Graham, Nakobe Dean, Jake Elliot, and Lane Johnson recently took photos to mark the start of training camp as if they were kids heading back to elementary school.
Each was photographed holding a blackboard with their names, ages, and answers to what they love and what they want to be when they grow up.
When the Eagles are in practice mode, they're ALL business, so it's nice to see them indulging a cheeky moment where they're not taking themselves so seriously.
Check out more of the 'Back to Training Camp' photos below! | https://nj1015.com/philadelphia-eagles-celebrate-return-to-training-camp-in-adorable-photos/ | 2023-07-30T16:01:49 | 0 | https://nj1015.com/philadelphia-eagles-celebrate-return-to-training-camp-in-adorable-photos/ |
Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN over ‘the Big Lie’ dismissed in Florida
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against CNN. Trump claimed in the suit that references in news articles or by the network’s hosts to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” was tantamount to comparing him to Adolf Hitler. The former U.S. president had been seeking punitive damages of $475 million. U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal said Friday in his ruling that Trump’s defamation claims failed because the references were opinions and not factual statements. The judge says it’s a stretch to believe that, in viewers’ minds, that phrase would connect Trump’s efforts challenging the 2020 election results with Nazi propaganda. | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-the-big-lie-dismissed-in-florida/ | 2023-07-30T16:02:08 | 0 | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-the-big-lie-dismissed-in-florida/ |
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RGV FC has two players sent off in 2-1 loss to FC Tulsa
TULSA, Oklahoma (Friday, July 21, 2023) – Rio Grande Valley FC (5-6-9) snapped their unbeaten streak as they dropped the match at FC Tulsa (7-7-7) 2-1...
Weslaco Intermediate All-Star Headed to Little League Regional Tournament
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Sheriff's office: Suspect in Laguna Heights murder investigation flees to Mexico
UTRGV awarded $1.2 million grant from NASA for their STEM program
UTRGV holds white coat ceremony for students entering the medical field
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Weslaco Intermediate All-Star Headed to Little League Regional Tournament
Weslaco All-Stars competing at Southwest Regional Tournament in Sugarland | https://www.krgv.com/videos/thursday-s-weather-5-p-m--61810 | 2023-07-30T16:02:07 | 0 | https://www.krgv.com/videos/thursday-s-weather-5-p-m--61810 |
Helicopter crashes near I-70 in Ohio, killing pilot and causing minor accidents, police say
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say a helicopter hit power lines and crashed near an interstate in Ohio over the weekend, killing the pilot and causing a series of crashes. The Ohio state highway patrol said the Bell 206L-4 aircraft was flying near I-70 in Springfield Township in Clark County when it hit the lines and crashed into a cornfield shortly after noon Saturday. The pilot, 36-year-old Isaac Lee Santos of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was killed. The Springfield News-Sun says the aircraft was owned by a firm doing aerial applications such as herbicide and insecticide. Power lines fell onto the westbound and eastbound lanes of I-70, resulting in minor crashes of seven vehicles. | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/helicopter-crashes-near-i-70-in-ohio-killing-pilot-and-causing-minor-accidents-police-say/ | 2023-07-30T16:02:14 | 1 | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/helicopter-crashes-near-i-70-in-ohio-killing-pilot-and-causing-minor-accidents-police-say/ |
One person is dead and multiple were wounded in Indiana shooting, police say
MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — Police say one person was killed and multiple people were injured after a shooting early Sunday morning in Muncie, Indiana. The Star Press reports that police responded to calls of gunfire on the city’s east side, where a large party was taking place. Police say there is no active threat to the community and that some victims were being treated at local hospitals, while victims in critical condition were flown to other facilities. The Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie says 19 victims were treated in their emergency department for injuries related to the shooting. | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/one-person-is-dead-and-multiple-were-wounded-in-indiana-shooting-police-say/ | 2023-07-30T16:02:20 | 1 | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/one-person-is-dead-and-multiple-were-wounded-in-indiana-shooting-police-say/ |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
By JESSE BEDAYN
Associated Press/Report for America
DENVER (AP) — As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breath, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered it’s 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees (43 Celsius) Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn’t have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.”
It’s the poorest and people of color, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York City and beyond, who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metros.
“The temperature differences … between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. “There are these really big consequences like death. … But there’s also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing,” said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a Kansas City, Kansas, nonprofit as temperatures soared to 101. When the central air conditioning at her rental house broke, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat. … They don’t complain.”
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursda y to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16% of the nation’s eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don’t offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America’s low-income neighborhoods. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70%, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter. That’s in part because those neighborhoods lack tree coverage.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit’s westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker sometimes sits in her car with the air conditioner running. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. Rebates are the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver’s Globeville suburb cool. She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can’t afford it.
Instead, she bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, its not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
____
Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
——
Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-of-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning-2/ | 2023-07-30T16:02:26 | 1 | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-of-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning-2/ |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
By JESSE BEDAYN
Associated Press/Report for America
DENVER (AP) — As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breath, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered it’s 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees (43 Celsius) Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn’t have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.”
It’s the poorest and people of color, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York City and beyond, who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metros.
“The temperature differences … between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. “There are these really big consequences like death. … But there’s also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing,” said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a nonprofit in Kansas City, Kansas, as temperatures soared to 101, and high humidity made it feel like 109. When the central air conditioning at her rental house went on the fritz, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. She’s taken the bus to the library to cool off. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat. … They don’t complain.”
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursday to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16% of the nation’s eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don’t offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
While frigid temperatures and high heating bills birthed the term “heat or eat,” she said, “we can now transition to AC or eat, where people are going to have to make difficult decisions.”
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America’s low-income neighborhoods like Gallegos’ Denver suburb of Globeville, where people live along stretches of asphalt and concrete that hold heat like a cast-iron skillet. Surface temperatures there can be roughly 8 degrees hotter than in Denver’s wealthier neighborhoods, where a sea of vegetation cools the area, according to the environmental advocacy group American Forests.
This disparity plays out nationwide. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70%, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter.
About one in 10 U.S. households have no air conditioning, a disparity compounded for marginalized groups, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Less than 4% of Detroit’s white households don’t have air conditioning; it’s 15% for Black households.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit’s westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker pours water on her head, freezes towels to put around her neck, and sits in her car with the air conditioner on. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
Shannon Lewis, 38, lived in her Detroit home for nearly 20 years without air conditioning. Lewis’s bedroom was the only place with a window unit, so she’d squeeze her teenager, 8-year-old and 3-year-old-twins into her queen-size bed to sleep, eat meals and watch television.
“So it was like cool in one room and a heat stroke in another,” Lewis said. For the first time, Lewis now has air conditioning through a local non-profit, she said. “We don’t have to sleep or eat in the same room, we are able to come out, sit at the dining room table, eat like a family.”
After at least 54 died during a 2021 heat wave, mostly elderly people without air conditioning, in the Portland area, Oregon passed a law prohibiting landlords from placing blanket bans on air conditioning units. By and large, however, states don’t have laws requiring landlords to provide cooling.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. For people like Gallegos, who doesn’t pay taxes, the available credits are worthless.
The law also offers rebates, the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver’s Globeville suburb cool. She bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature. When the back door opens in the afternoon, she said, the indoor temperature jumps a degree.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, it’s not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can’t afford it.
“I’m finding that you have to afford the project in the first place and then it’s like having a bonus coupon to take $5,000 off of the sticker price,” she said.
Lucy Molina, a single mom in Commerce City, one of Denver’s poorest areas, said her home has reached 107 degrees without air conditioning. Nearby, Molina’s two teenage children slurped popsicles to cool off, lingering in front of the open freezer.
For Molina, who bustled around her kitchen on a recent day when temperatures reached 99 degrees outdoors, it’s hard to see any path to a cooling respite.
“We’re just too poor,” she said.
____
Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
——
Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-of-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-30T16:02:32 | 0 | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-of-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
Air passenger traffic at Canada’s airports more than doubled in 2022: StatCan
By Michael Lee
Click here for updates on this story
Toronto (CTV Network) — The number of passengers who travelled through Canada’s airports more than doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year.
But air travel is still lower than pre-pandemic levels, the recent data from Statistics Canada shows.
A report Friday from StatCan found that in 2022, nearly 117.3 million passengers boarded and disembarked planes at Canadian airports.
This is compared to the almost 46.3 million passengers recorded in 2021, back when many COVID-19 travel restrictions were still in place, for a year-over-year increase of more than 153 per cent.
“Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic brought worldwide air travel to its knees, the Canadian aviation industry continued to recover in 2022,” the report says.
But while last year did see continued growth for air travel in Canada, passenger numbers were still only 72 per cent of the 162.9 million recorded in 2019.
Canada eased its COVID-19 travel requirements in March of last year and later ended the country’s travel restrictions in October. Significant disruptions, however, would end up defining both the summer and winter travel seasons.
“The unexpected sharp increase in passenger volume during the busy summer travel season left some major airports grappling with challenges largely stemming from staffing-related problems,” the StatCan report says.
A recent analysis also found that Canada’s two biggest airlines — Air Canada and WestJet — have seen a greater proportion of their flights delayed this summer compared to U.S. airlines.
COMPARING THE FOUR LARGEST AIRPORTS The country’s four largest airports — Toronto Pearson International, Vancouver International, Calgary International and Montreal Trudeau International — made up more than 70 per cent of all air passenger traffic in Canada last year, StatCan says.
The number of passengers at Toronto Pearson rose almost 181 per cent to 34.7 million, Vancouver International Airport saw an increase of 165 per cent to 18.5 million passengers and Calgary International Airport saw nearly 13.9 million passengers for an increase of about 136 per cent.
Montreal Trudeau had the largest increase of the four at 206 per cent, with more than 15.3 million passengers recorded in 2022.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
CTVNews.caProducers@bellmedia.ca | https://kion546.com/cnn-regional/2023/07/30/air-passenger-traffic-at-canadas-airports-more-than-doubled-in-2022-statcan/ | 2023-07-30T16:02:38 | 0 | https://kion546.com/cnn-regional/2023/07/30/air-passenger-traffic-at-canadas-airports-more-than-doubled-in-2022-statcan/ |
Scientists discover a way to induce virgin births in female fruit flies
By Dorcas Marfo
Click here for updates on this story
Toronto (CTV Network) — Scientists have discovered a way to induce virgin births in female fruit flies that usually reproduces sexually — and the ability can be passed down generations, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge shared the findings in a study published in the peer-reviewed Current Biology journal on Friday.
The scientists say they were able to genetically manipulate females of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster species to produce offspring without sexual reproduction with their male counterparts.
The study reveals that virgin births can be passed through generations of female fruit flies — a mechanism to help this species survive from a one-off generation of virgin births.
“We’re the first to show that you can engineer virgin births to happen in an animal – it was very exciting to see a virgin fly produce an embryo able to develop to adulthood, and then repeat the process,” Alexis Sperling, first author and researcher at the University of Cambridge, said in a news release Friday.
The researchers say they sequenced the genomes of two strains of another species of fruit fly called Drosophila mercatorum. One strain needed males to sexually reproduce, while the other reproduced by virgin birth.
Researchers identified the genes that were switched on and off during the reproduction process. When identifying the virgin birth strain in the fruit fly’s genes, scientists altered what they thought were the corresponding genes in the model fruit fly — scientifically known as drosophila melanogaster — that lead to virgin birth.
“In our genetically manipulated flies, the females waited to find a male for half their lives — about 40 days — but then gave up and proceeded to have a virgin birth,” said Sperling.
According to the study, only one to two per cent of the second generation of female flies with the ability to virgin birth produced offspring when no male flies were around. When male flies were available, females mated and reproduced sexually.
The offspring of a virgin birth are not exact clones of their mother, but are genetically very similar and are always female, the study notes.
The research involved more than 220,000 virgin fruit flies and took six years to complete.
Researchers note that flies’ genes have been well researched for more than 100 years, making this discovery a success.
Often only overserved in zoo animals, virgin births in animals that normally sexually reproduce are rare and occur when the female has been isolated for a long period of time with no hope of finding a mate.
“If there’s continued selection pressure for virgin births in insect pests, which there seems to be, it will eventually lead to them reproducing only in this way,” said Sterling.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform. | https://kion546.com/cnn-regional/2023/07/30/scientists-discover-a-way-to-induce-virgin-births-in-female-fruit-flies-2/ | 2023-07-30T16:02:44 | 0 | https://kion546.com/cnn-regional/2023/07/30/scientists-discover-a-way-to-induce-virgin-births-in-female-fruit-flies-2/ |
9 Black TV hosts who helped shape television
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — Talk shows have been around for as long as television, but only a few TV talk-show hosts become singular names.
Oprah and Arsenio, Whoopi and Wendy stand out among the talented talk-show hosts who have changed television and shaped our culture over the years.
Here are some other notable examples:
Della Reese
While many people remember Reese for her acting in movies and TV series, including the hit series “Touched By and Angel,” she also has the distinction of being the first Black woman to host a syndicated talk/variety show.
“The Della Reese Show” aired from 1969 to 1970. Reese would also later go on to become a popular guest host for Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.”
Oprah Winfrey
No one can ever doubt the power of Oprah.
From the time “The Oprah Winfrey Show” debuted in Chicago in 1986 until it ended in 2011, Winfrey reigned over daytime television. She took on provocative subjects with sensitivity and authenticity, moving cultural conversations forward.
Her influence, appeal and talent for connecting audiences was so successful that Winfrey became the first Black woman to helm her own television network, OWN.
Arsenio Hall
Arsenio Hall brought the fun – and funk – to late night.
The comedic actor managed to snag a diverse array of guests on “The Arsenio Hall Show,” which ran from 1989 to 1994. Hall was especially notable for giving both Black musical artists and comedians a shot in the spotlight.
His show was considered so hip that he was credited with helping to cement former President Bill Clinton’s support among youth in 1992, when the then-candidate played saxophone on the show.
Whoopi Goldberg
Before she was moderating hot topics on “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg had a late-night syndicated talk show for a season in 1992, the self-titled “The Whoopi Goldberg Show.”
A member of the prestigious EGOT club – people who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards, the actor, comedian and talk-show host has led a remarkable career.
Wayne Brady
Wayne Brady got two bites of the apple at hosting his own show.
The original version of “The Wayne Brady Show” ran as an evening variety show from 2001 to 2002, but failed to find an audience. The show was later brought back as a daytime talk show, which the enormously talented Brady helmed from 2002 to 2004.
Steve Harvey
Steve Harvey has earned his reputation as one of the hardest working men in the industry.
He started out as a standup comedian who went on to star in his own sitcom. Next Harvey took his place behind the daytime talk-show desk with his “Steve Harvey Show” in 2012 until 2017. The show then relocated from Chicago to Los Angeles and became “Steve,” before it was canceled in 2019.
These days he’s still busy with other projects, including hosting “Family Feud” as well as a court show.
Wendy Williams
No one, but no one spilled tea like Wendy Williams.
After transitioning from her popular radio program, “The Wendy Williams Show” premiered on daytime in 2008. Her quick wit and candor earned Williams a strong following, especially within the African American community.
Williams leaned into Black culture and developed a devoted fan base with her “Got Topics” and willingness to say what others were thinking during her interviews.
After a series of health struggles for Williams necessitated a revolving cast of guest hosts, the show was pulled from syndication in 2022 and Sherri Shepherd’s new talk show took over her time slot.
Chris Rock
While he may be better known for his stand up and acting, Chris Rock once hosted his own weekly, late-night show on HBO (which is owned by CNN’s parent company).
“The Chris Rock Show” aired for five seasons from 1997 to 2000 and included guests along with Rock’s signature brand of sometimes controversial humor.
Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah is considered one of South Africa’s greatest gifts to entertainment.
The comedian was named host of “The Daily Show” in 2015, replacing Jon Stewart.
Though not as well known as Stewart at the time, Noah made the chair his own with his sharp grasp of culture and global politics mixed with his distinct humor.
Noah’s broad audience was saddened when he announced last September that he would be leaving the show.
His final episode aired in December.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://kion546.com/entertainment/cnn-entertainment/2023/07/30/9-black-tv-hosts-who-helped-shape-television/ | 2023-07-30T16:02:50 | 0 | https://kion546.com/entertainment/cnn-entertainment/2023/07/30/9-black-tv-hosts-who-helped-shape-television/ |
Caviar, Champagne…cardamom? While it may not be the first thing that comes to mind when we think about culinary delicacies, the latter certainly carries its weight in the luxury category. Prices for green cardamom are known to rise up to $90 per kilo, ranking it No. 3 on the list of the most expensive spices in the world, following saffron and vanilla.
For those who are new to the spice, you can find its sweet, citrus-like flavor peeking through many Indian and Middle Eastern dishes both sweet and savory. It’s grown in tropical regions which include India and Costa Rica, and is a member of the ginger family. It’s available in both black and green varieties and can either be used in its pod form or as a ground powder derived from the seeds of the pod. Green cardamom — the focus of this article — is significantly more expensive than black cardamom and is also more difficult to find.
So why is green cardamom so expensive, exactly?
How Green Cardamom is Harvested and Grown
To understand why it can fetch such high prices in the market, we have to dig deeper into its inception from start to finish. As with many expensive ingredients, a lengthy and involved production process is behind green cardamom’s high price tag.
After farmers plant the cardamom seeds, they need to wait a grand total of three years before the crop is mature. After plants mature, the harvesting window lasts from July to February, which is relatively long. Despite the advantage of a long harvesting cycle, not all cardamon pods mature at exactly the same time, and only highly-skilled harvesters can determine which pods are ready to be picked at peak ripeness.
MORE: What’s the difference between white pepper and black pepper?
To reach this level of skill, harvesters must train for six months with farmers so they can discern which pods are ripe or raw. And even after all that work, only a total of approximately 10 pods can be harvested from each plant. To make matters more stressful, the stakes are quite high if mistakes are made. If the pods are collected too early, they won’t be aromatic and fetch a fair price in the market. If they are collected too late, they simply go to waste.
Weather conditions may also affect how much cardamom costs. If production is impacted negatively by rain or inclement weather, crops may be destroyed, which limits availability and drives up prices overall.
The Post-Harvest Process
Within 24 hours of harvesting, the perfectly ripe cardamom pods are ushered into a space where they must sit to dry for 18 hours. (And if they sit any longer than a day after being harvested, they risk decay.)
The drying process also impacts the green color of the pods, which is an important factor in determining their price in the marketplace. The machines that dry the pods use heat, and if the heat isn’t released perfectly it can negatively affect their color.
MORE: Suodiu, a viral Chinese trend, is a stir-fry dish featuring rocks
After drying comes sorting. A team of workers is tasked with the arduous job of sorting the smaller pods from the larger pods (which are more valuable) by hand. Ultimately, after it’s all said and done, only one-sixth of the pods harvested can be marketed as good-quality cardamom.
It’s because of all this extensive labor and attention to detail that some companies can charge a premium of $90 per kilogram of green cardamom.
The Economic Sustainability of Cardamom Production
While cardamom can sell for a lot in the marketplace, not all of that money is going directly into the pockets of its producers. Farming cardamom can be a costly endeavor, and up to 10% to 15% of the profits end up being re-invested in each acre on fertilizer alone. Add to that the losses due to weather, and producers may sometimes end up investing their own money out of pocket to keep production up.
Luckily, things are looking up for the industry, as it is projected to increase by $1,690,000 by 2025. The hope here is that farmers can keep up with demand and continue to supply the world with the spice.
MORE: Flavorful purple tomatoes are coming to grocery stores soon
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Check out Simplemost for additional stories. | https://www.kxlf.com/this-is-why-green-cardamon-is-so-expensive | 2023-07-30T16:02:51 | 0 | https://www.kxlf.com/this-is-why-green-cardamon-is-so-expensive |
San Francisco was too expensive so they moved to Spain and bought a beautiful house for $50,000. Here’s how they did it
By Inka Piegsa-Quischotte, CNN
(CNN) — When John Flores and Michael Leitz were looking for a home in which to spend the next stage of their lives, they realized that where they lived in San Francisco was too expensive.
Instead, they began looking further afield – eventually buying a beautiful 120-year-old, three-story home in rural Spain for less than $50,000.
Both Flores and Leitz worked in education in the US before retiring – Leitz was a high school history teacher while Flores was an administrator at UCLA.
While they said they both enjoyed their San Francisco lifestyle, they realized that it would be unaffordable to live in rented property on pensions much lower than their salaries.
“Europe was an obvious choice for us,” said Leitz. “I am part German and part Irish, so there were European roots from the family. John is part Mexican, which makes for the Spanish connection, and he is fluent in Spanish too.
“The closest you can come to the Californian way of life in Europe is in Spain, so the choice was an easy one for us.”
Finding the right place
Leitz and Flores aren’t alone. In recent years an increasing number of Americans have moved to Europe for business and retirement – with Spain emerging as a top destination according to a report by migration consultancy Global Citizen Solutions.
Part of the appeal is likely down to Spain’s year-round mild climate and a laid-back lifestyle paired with relatively cheap essentials, including high-quality food and wine.
Visa and residency requirements have also been made much easier in recent years. Spain wants to attract foreign nationals to live and work to help counter a huge depopulation problem, especially in rural areas, and welcomes digital nomads as well as wealthy individuals, retirees and vacation homeowners.
Finding the right place and relocating to another country was by no means easy for Flores and Leitz.
“We were well aware that the move was not without obstacles,” says Leitz. “I had never undertaken an enterprise like this but, many years before I met him, John had done something similar in Phoenix, therefore he had more ideas than I had.”
Inevitably, the couple needed to navigate numerous challenges in making the move. Buying and selling property in Europe is very different to in the US. The entire process is much more formal, involving notaries, land registries and officials like sworn-in translators.
And then there are the language barriers and culture shocks. As retirees, Flores and Leitz didn’t have to worry about schools and education – a major consideration for would-be expats moving to Europe with kids.
Siestas and sleepy Sundays
Since they both worked in the teaching profession, they had plenty of vacations and used them to go exploring Spain and Europe in anticipation of their move.
Spain is a huge country with many different regions, from snow-covered mountains in the north, to the beaches and islands of the Mediterranean. There are rural valleys, tiny, romantic villages and big cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Malaga.
Flores and Leitz took their time and traveled everywhere over several years, sizing up cultural changes like Spain’s long siestas, numerous public holidays and the fact that shops don’t open on Sundays.
Having decided on Spain and with retirement still some time away, they started preparations by brushing up on the local language – something they were already familiar with from living in California.
“Perfecting my Spanish is actually my priority now, that everything else has been resolved, “says Leitz. “It is just so important for everyday life to be able to communicate with workers and the locals.”
When it came to house hunting, their first stop was Valencia, a beautiful city and port on the Mediterranean in southeast Spain.
Valencia – famous for oranges, the national dish paella, architecture, ceramics and culture – became their home for three years as they lived in rented accommodation.
Fixer-upper
The city was, however, out of their price range when it came to buying a place on their pensions. They were also looking for somewhere more rural – preferably a fixer-upper that they could restore to their liking.
“Our hobbies are history and art and we wanted a place where both were present, as well as nature and woods,” says Flores. “Another consideration was public transport and good train or bus connections to other parts of Spain.”
Exploring the rural villages around Valencia, they finally decided on an historic small town called Xativa, which has an impressive castle and watchtower as well as museums, art galleries, bars and restaurants.
Crucially, it also has a fast train connection to Valencia and beyond.
The couple says what really appealed was the narrow streets filled with plenty of older properties crying out for restoration – some quite rundown, others in reasonable shape.
They were also won over by friendly residents – locals as well as other expats who had already happily settled there. They said they sensed a feeling of community that was very appealing.
Having decided on a place to live, they now had to find a suitable – and affordable – property.
Instead of going to a realtor, they turned to Idealista, one of the most popular property vending websites in Spain, finding somewhere that appealed to them almost immediately.
Handshakes and hurdles
It was a three-story stone building, big enough for their needs and offered at a reasonable price. They said they were surprised how low prices were compared to Valencia and other places in Spain they’d looked at – and of course as compared to the US.
It consisted of several small rooms on the ground floor, just one bathroom and two bedrooms. They could see the potential.
The next step was inspections to confirm the house was structurally sound and weatherproof.
Then there was the legal side of the purchase – complicated slightly by the building’s age – approximately 120 years old. As is often the case in rural Spain, many records had been lost over the years. In times gone by, property frequently changed hands with a handshake.
Eventually, they negotiated with the vendor a price of 45,000 euros (about $48,000) including taxes. They managed to secure a mortgage, which meant that the bank took care of some of the paperwork.
After finalizing the purchase, they began to make plans. They decided to rip out internal walls on the ground floor to create one large, light space. Upstairs would also be reconfigured to produce another bedroom and bathroom. They also wanted to install AC, a necessity given southern Spain’s high summer heat.
After finding a local architect and builder willing to take on the work for 40,000 euros (about $44,000), work began on the ground floor.
“This is where we found the most problems,” Flores says.
“There were four small rooms and the space felt rather cramped. Also the ceiling was quite low, so we had the architect look and see if there were any solid beams above. There were, and none of them turned out to be rotten. Nevertheless, the workers sprayed everything with a special solution to prevent woodworm getting into the beams.
“After the dividing walls were removed, we got one big, airy and sunny room and the ceiling was lifted by 3-4 feet. This made all the difference.”
In addition, the couple removed the one bedroom on the ground floor and extended the master bedroom on the second floor, adding a walk-in wardrobe, a guest bedroom and another bathroom with tub and shower.
Then came the final touches. There was no garden, but a covered tiled patio.
“We considered opening the patio up to the sky,” Leitz said. “But you have to listen to the locals in the know. They strongly advised us to keep the patio closed because there are sometimes strong rainfalls and the house could be flooded. So, it is now covered with a transparent roof which allows lots of sunshine.”
The quiet life
Not only do they have a patio but also a terrace with plenty of potted plants. To indulge their artistic interests, they installed a studio in the attic. Leitz says he loves to paint while Flores makes some colorful ceramics. Their works are displayed throughout the property.
Furnishings are a mix of items shipped from the US and local acquisitions.
“Some things we brought back from California, among them a Persian rug that had been in the family for a long time, some we bought in Ikea, but our best find was a furniture shop that specializes in estate sales,” Leitz says enthusiastically. “We bought the most beautiful antique rural Spanish furniture there.”
Work to renovate the house took about six months, but that followed the considerable time taken to get building permission from local authorities.
After the architect submitted plans, applications and other paperwork, the couple soon became familiar with the concept of “mañana” – a word that literally means “tomorrow,” but in Spain can actually mean any length of time.
“The most difficult part was the long wait for the permit and the red tape,” says Flores “ But the building work as such took only about six months and went without major problems except to find the best place for the AC units.”
With work completed in summer 2022, they’ve been able to move in and say they are now fully integrated in the community.
They have made many friends, including locals and other foreigners, and say they love how everyone greets each other in the street.
“Even our cat that came from California with us is happy,” says Flores.
They’ve also gotten used to life in a small, sleepy town where everything shuts between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
“As we get older, “ Leitz says, “the quieter life suits us. We don’t need nightclubs and bars although we sometimes miss concerts and theaters. But then, Valencia is not far away.”
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Mysterious meat allergy passed by ticks may affect hundreds of thousands in US, CDC estimates
CNN, WKRN, KULR
By Brenda Goodman, CNN
(CNN) — Ken McCullick died in an emergency room on August 12, 2021.
“I got lucky and there was this young nurse … I was one of her first CPR patients, and she would not give would not give up and saved my life.
“I’m grateful for that,” McCullick said, his voice choked with emotion at the memory.
The 66-year-old musician from Brooksville, Florida, said his heart stopped after he got the blood thinner heparin in the hospital.
Heparin is made from pig intestines and contains a sugar called alpha-gal that McCullick is deathly allergic to, although neither he nor his doctors knew it at the time.
“I flatlined and died on the table,” McCullick said, adding that it took seven minutes to get his heart started again.
Alpha-gal syndrome is a reaction to a sugar found in red meat and dairy products, and it’s caused by the bite of a lone star tick. It may now be the 10th most common food allergy in the United States, affecting up to 450,000 people, according to estimates published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is also one of the least recognized.
Lack of awareness, lack of diagnosis
Scientists have only recently begun to understand alpha-gal syndrome.
Lone star ticks, and perhaps other kinds of parasites, transmit a sugar known to scientists by its unwieldy formal name: galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, or alpha-gal.
“We think that they have an enzyme in their saliva that can produce alpha-gal,” said Dr. Scott Commins, associate chief for allergy and immunology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, who has spent his career researching alpha-gal and is a co-author on the new studies published today by the CDC.
When these ticks bite someone, the alpha-gal passes through the skin, which has its own immune sentries waiting to pounce on foreign invaders. Being exposed this way appears to put the body on high alert for this sugar, which is found in non-primate mammals and in products made from them. People with alpha-gal syndrome must often avoid red meat like beef, pork and lamb, dairy products and a slew of less-obvious products like gel capsules and sometimes makeup.
People can live with alpha-gal by adjusting their lifestyle — but that’s only if they know they have it. Getting a diagnosis can be difficult because many doctors aren’t aware of the syndrome.
A study published Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report surveyed 1,500 doctors and nurse practitioners in the US and found that 42% said they’d never heard of the allergy. Another third of respondents said they were not confident about their ability to diagnose or manage a patient with alpha-gal allergy.
Surveys of alpha-gal patients have found that most have a significant delay between their first symptoms and their diagnosis.
McCullick, who thinks he got alpha-gal syndrome from a tick he pulled off his forehead in 2018, wasn’t diagnosed until 2022.
Alpha-gal isn’t like a typical food allergy, in which the physical reaction to an offending food starts seconds to minutes after eating it.
Instead, people with alpha-gal allergy tend to become ill four to six hours after having red meat or dairy, so they don’t always connect their symptoms to what they’re eating. Reactions can include hives, shortness of breath or even life-threatening anaphylaxis.
“I went to bed every night not knowing if I was going to wake up in the morning. And every time I couldn’t catch my breath and every time my heart skipped a beat, I didn’t know what was going to happen,” McCullick said.
“The future didn’t seem very bright, and I can relate it to maybe being a soldier in a foxhole with shells coming down all around. You just don’t know when your last breath is going to be, and it was psychologically devastating, actually. And that’s not just me; there’s thousands and thousands of cases just like mine,” he said.
Diagnoses on the rise
Researchers haven’t had a good idea how many Americans might have alpha-gal syndrome.
Until 2022, one commercial lab ran most alpha-gal testing in the US: Viracor in Lenexa, Kansas. For the new study, epidemiologists at the CDC analyzed anonymous testing data from this lab for blood tests run from 2017 through 2022. Providers ordered nearly 300,000 tests for alpha-gal during this period, and 30% of them — roughly 90,000 — were positive.
Adding those test results to the results of earlier studies, the study authors deduced that there were 110,000 suspected cases of alpha-gal syndrome diagnosed in the US from 2010 to 2022.
With the lack of awareness among health care providers, the researchers adjusted their data under the assumption that between 20% and 78% of cases probably go undiagnosed. This led to them to estimate that between 96,000 and 450,000 Americans may have been affected by alpha-gal syndrome since 2010.
The numbers stunned Commins. “The number of potential cases is far beyond what we thought,” he said.
“If the projection and estimate of nearly 450,000 cases is even approximately correct, this is the number 10 allergy in the country behind sesame, which is number nine and affects roughly half a million people,” Commins said.
And the numbers weren’t steady over time. “Every year, we see an increased number of suspected cases that are captured in this lab-based surveillance,” said study author Dr. Johanna Salzer, the epidemiology team lead for rickettsial diseases at the CDC.
Salzer said it’s unclear whether cases are going up because of increased awareness and testing for the syndrome or for another reason, such as tick populations flourishing in the higher temperatures caused by climate change.
“I think it could certainly be both,” Salzer said.
Salzer and her team also mapped the locations of the positive tests and found that they were concentrated in a belt of states in the middle of the US that spans the South, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. This is much the same region where lone star ticks are known to cause other diseases such as the bacterial illness ehrlichiosis.
‘This disease doesn’t have to be deadly’
Before McCullick knew to avoid certain animal products, he was rushed to the emergency room repeatedly with life-threatening allergic reactions that caused heart palpitations, shortness of breath and dangerously low blood pressure. Often, he was treated for heart attacks.
Alpha-gal also affects the way his body processed cholesterol, clogging the arteries around his heart.
Sometimes, just breathing in a place where someone is cooking meat, like a steakhouse, can cause a reaction, he said.
“I would eat some ice cream, and it would hurt my throat and my esophagus down my chest so bad. They felt like a charley horse that would not go away,” McCullick said.
“And then it gives you severe heartburn, feels like a hiatal hernia,” he said. “Then it gets down in your stomach, and it feels like a roll of barbed wire the rolling around in your intestines.”
This cycle of eating and anaphylaxis continued until McCullick spoke to an agent from his health insurance company. After reviewing his records, the agent told him that the pattern of hospitalizations looked familiar.
“He said, ‘you know, you sound like what happened to me.’ He said, ‘I’m allergic to beef and pork. And you should get checked out to see if you’re allergic to beef or pork,’ ” McCullick said.
A lightbulb went off. He realized he was getting sick every time he ate red meat. After researching online, he was convinced, and he saw an allergist who made the diagnosis.
“So my diagnosis was by chance, basically, and with a lot of research on my own and a lot of help from friends,” McCullick said.
“This disease doesn’t have to be deadly if we just know about it,” McCullick said. “A lot of people could be saved just from the knowledge that needs to get out there.”
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Let go of past pain: A mind-body approach to healing ancestral trauma
By Jessica DuLong, CNN
(CNN) — Sign up for CNN’s Stress, But Less newsletter. Our six-part mindfulness guide will inform and inspire you to reduce stress while learning how to harness it.
In an age when technology allows for easy communication between people far and wide, why do so many of us feel so disconnected?
Teacher, author and international facilitator Thomas Hübl sees this growing pattern of personal isolation, alienation and division on a global scale as the “manifestation of collective trauma.”
So ubiquitous and insidious are the effects of this trauma, he writes in his forthcoming book, “Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma — and Our World,” that “we have come to consider it ‘normal.’ This is just how things are. Just how families are. Just how people are. Just how the world is.”
To face our world’s complex challenges, we need to address that trauma and heal, Hübl argues. Those challenges, including mounting political authoritarianism and political, racial, ethnic, religious and sectarian conflict, demand a new level of human collaboration.
Recognizing that “nearly everything in the human story depends on the quality of our connections to one another,” he invites each of us to process our trauma to restore balance and foster healing. That’s how we will “bring our share of light to a struggling world.”
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. A meditation is below.
CNN: How could the trauma of our ancestors exist within us today?
Thomas Hübl: So often in the West we see our existence as hyper-individualized and separate, but we are part of the many generations that precede us. Despite the age that’s written on our passports, our bodies are built of hundreds of thousands of years of living, with all our ancestors adding something to our being now. All their achievements sit within us: rational thinking, emotional complexity, physical function, self-healing and more. Some of this is simply intergenerational learning that helps us recognize dangers in the world. But trauma that hasn’t been integrated can get passed down as hypervigilance, stress and maladaptive fear.
CNN: Where does trauma get stored in our bodies?
Hübl: First off, trauma often gets conflated with adversity itself, but it’s actually how our nervous system responds to a distressing experience. This response has an intelligent, protective function. Our nervous system is trying to keep us safe. But if we don’t learn to integrate trauma, the symptoms can sometimes lead to severe side effects.
We’ve long recognized that going through war or difficult circumstances affects later generations. Now we can see this scientifically through epigenetics, which shows how DNA can get activated differently based on lived experiences. Research on mice, for example, has shown that mice who’ve been traumatized pass on symptoms to their offspring for five or six generations.
We are finding out more about how epigenetic transmission increases fear and stress receptors, which literally live in our bodies.
CNN: What signs suggest that ancestral trauma could be affecting you?
Hübl: Trauma often gets expressed as exaggerated reactivity. This can include aggression and lashing out at those we blame as the source for our discomfort. Another symptom can be numbness, which leads to withdrawal and detachment from others. We become indifferent and disconnected.
When we go through an overwhelming experience that the nervous system cannot process, we lose our relationship to life in that moment. Our stress level shoots up, leading to strong fight or flight reactions. Further stress can lead our nervous system to shut down and seal off parts of awareness, like sealing off the damaged part of a ship where the water’s coming in.
The nervous system shutdown acts like anesthesia. We feel our body less. If we don’t learn how to turn off that anesthesia, we walk around for the rest of our lives less aware of our bodies and what is or isn’t healthy for us. These reactions can get frozen into our nervous system so that triggering circumstances stir up trauma responses.
If we notice these symptoms in ourselves, then most likely we carry trauma from events in our own lives, or we have the aftereffects of our ancestors’ trauma.
CNN: How can we tell if the symptoms we’re experiencing come from our own lives or that of our ancestors?
Hübl: More important than trying to figure out whose trauma we’re experiencing is to develop curiosity about our triggers. Instead of creating stories, attributing our experiences to this or that situation, it’s best if we connect to our bodies. Start by noticing: OK, I feel a heightened level of stress. Then try to connect with the stress you feel, identifying where it resides in your body.
Developing better body awareness in non-stress moments first can help. For many of us, our body is like an amazing car, but we never read the manual. In good moments, ask yourself, where does my body feel pleasant? Spending two to five minutes doing this regularly can help us get to know the body better.
This practice can show us where our body is most resourced, grounded and open. Identifying these areas can help when I have a trigger moment because connecting first to those areas of my body that usually feel pleasant can help me get grounded. Then, by slowing my breathing, I can decrease the stress. It’s not always comfortable, but I learn how to be consciously present with my stress. This process helps me to down-regulate my nervous system to relax further.
After a few months of practice, the relaxation process that might have taken five minutes before can now take maybe 15 seconds because I developed a muscle I can use consciously. This practice helps me regulate functions of my nervous system that I might not have used before because I wasn’t even aware of it.
CNN: When many people think of trauma, they usually think of emotional symptoms. How do those tie into your healing approach?
Hübl: I believe all mental health issues are ingrained in the body. Many people get frustrated when trying to treat trauma through mental reflection in talk therapy. That’s because trauma exists beyond the narrative. In the best case, the narrative is just the entry gate into the emotional, physical and sometimes ancestral experience. We need to solve these things through our bodies.
CNN: What does trauma healing entail?
Hübl: A lot of trauma healing happens best in connection with others — especially those trained in staying attuned to the physical, emotional, mental and relational experiences of themselves and others through practicing whole-body listening. This is because the hurt often stems from inappropriate relations, such as violence, abuse or neglect.
Those of us who do trauma integration work have learned to train our nervous systems to attune to the hurt part of another person. A facilitator therapist can create for the traumatized individual the connection that was missing when the trauma occurred, meeting clients with exactly what they needed back then. Providing the supportive relational environment that was missing at the time can help free up the hurt parts of them that have, through trauma, become frozen in time.
CNN: What impact does trauma have on society at large?
Hübl: Look at how politicians yell at each other. That’s not normal. That’s hurt. Polarization, racism, inequality — these are not normal. This is a hurt world.
When we are in a healthy relational flow, I can feel you, and I can feel how you feel me. But when I’m hurt, I can’t feel you, and I also don’t feel if you feel me. That disconnect touches the trauma that can lead us to overreact. This sense of separation can escalate to exclusion — the notion that there are whole groups of people who are just completely wrong who I don’t want to engage with.
“Othering” people creates serious social issues. We cannot solve anything if we’re so strongly polarized. This tendency in society is itself a strong collective trauma symptom. When we look a little deeper at how exactly we’re experiencing the person we see as other, we often find that we’re actually scared.
CNN: How can we better connect with those around us?
Hübl: Too often we try to avoid difficult interactions or situations. But, in the long run, difficult moments are our teachers. There’s always something to learn. One helpful practice is to become curious about difficult situations.
Rather than projecting blame onto others, explore the experience we’re having with them. That’s where real potential for change lies. I may not be able to change another person, but I can change my relationship to them. With practice, by doing my own inner work, I can become freer and more fluid, with more options for how I might respond.
CNN: What practices can help us heal?
Hübl: Throughout the day, whenever I have a moment between meetings and other commitments, I take a breath and grant myself a quick check-in with my body to gauge my current state of stress. This helps me train my nervous system to strengthen pathways for self-awareness, creating an inner mindfulness.
I practice this same curious investigation when I engage with others, exploring the sense of “I feel you and I feel how you feel me.” Sometimes it’s easier for me to feel the other person. When it’s harder, I don’t judge myself that I’m a failure. I just make it a practice to strengthen the muscle of awareness that creates relational safety, trust and a mutual space of understanding.
The other thing I recommend is to take notes every time you encounter a difficult situation, say, if you had a difficult conversation with your boss or something happened with a client. In the evening, take five minutes to reflect on the question: What were my difficulties today? Replay them a little bit, not just by thinking but by listening to how you felt in your body when that happened.
Allowing your nervous system to digest that trigger moment, bringing more awareness to it, can lead to insights that help us use our triggers as teachers rather than simply trying to avoid them and recreating the same difficulties day after day.
We are living in a time of astonishing upheaval and unimaginable promise. Engagement of even a small number of us in collective healing can create the critical mass needed to enact real change.
Jessica DuLong is a Brooklyn, New York-based journalist, book collaborator, writing coach and the author of “Saved at the Seawall: Stories From the September 11 Boat Lift” and “My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work That Built America.”
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Angels outfielder Taylor Ward placed on IL with facial fractures after being hit in head
TORONTO (AP) — Los Angeles Angels outfielder Taylor Ward was placed on the 10-day injured list with facial fractures on Sunday, a day after he was hit by a 91 mph pitch from Blue Jays right-hander Alek Manoah.
Ward was taken to a Toronto hospital after being struck in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 6-1 loss. He was released from hospital Saturday evening.
To replace Ward, the Angels selected the contract of infielder Kevin Padlo from Triple-A Salt Lake.
Batting with the bases loaded, Ward was hit by a 2-0 pitch from Manoah. The ball appeared to strike Ward next to his next left eye, knocking off his batting helmet.
Plate umpire Andy Fletcher motioned to the Angels’ dugout for the trainer as Ward went down, blood running down his face. Angels staff rushed to the plate and held a towel to Ward’s face. After a couple of minutes, Ward got to his feet and left the field on a cart. His left eye appeared to be swollen shut.
A six-year veteran who has spent his entire career with the Angels, Ward is batting .253 with 14 home runs and 47 RBI in 97 games.
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Blast rips through political gathering in Pakistan, killing at least 39
By Sophia Saifi and Allegra Goodwin, CNN
(CNN) — At least 39 people died and over 120 were injured after a blast tore through a political convention organized by an Islamist party in northwestern Pakistan, police said.
The Inspector General of Police for the region of Bajaur, Akhter Hayat Gandapur, said the injured in Sunday’s suspected suicide blast had been rushed to hospital.
The explosion targeted members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party who had gathered in the town of Khar, close to the border with Afghanistan.
There has been no initial claim of responsibility for the attack. But the local branch of ISIS has previously targeted JUI-F party leaders as they consider them apostates.
The leader of the JUI-F party, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, expressed “deep sorrow and regret” following the blast, in a statement released by his press office.
“Peace be upon JUI workers,” the statement added. “The federal and provincial government should provide the best treatment to the injured.”
One witness said more than 500 people were attending the convention when the blast occurred.
“A powerful explosion knocked me unconscious,” Rahim Shah told Dawn.com.
When he came around there were “people screaming and even shots were fired,” he said, adding that there was blood everywhere.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://kion546.com/news/national-world/cnn-world/2023/07/30/at-least-39-dead-after-blast-rips-through-political-gathering-in-pakistan/ | 2023-07-30T16:03:20 | 1 | https://kion546.com/news/national-world/cnn-world/2023/07/30/at-least-39-dead-after-blast-rips-through-political-gathering-in-pakistan/ |
Pro-coup protesters in Niger shout ‘long live Putin’ as new leaders face calls to cede power
Omar Hama Saley, CNN
Niamey, Niger (CNN) — Tense and sometimes violent scenes played out in front of the French Embassy in Niger Sunday as thousands of people who support a military coup voiced anger over France’s influence in its former colony.
Demonstrators shouted shouted support for Russian leader Vladimir Putin despite calls from the Kremlin to release the country’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum.
Some protesters tore down a plaque identifying the Embassy, stomped on it and then replaced it with Russian and Nigerien flags. Shouts of “long live Putin,” “long live Russia” and “down with France” could be heard among the crowds.
Nigerien security forces were seen deploying tear gas in an attempt to disperse the protesters. One photograph from the scene showed people trying to start a fire outside the compound.
President Emmanuel Macron’s office said France would immediately retaliate against anyone who attacks French nationals or facilities in Niger.
Much of the international community has condemned the coup, which saw members of the Niger presidential guard overthrow Bazoum and install a military junta called the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.
Niger has a long history of military coups since its independence from France in 1960, though in recent years it had been less politically unstable. When Bazoum came to office in 2021, it was the country’s first democratic transfer of power.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Sunday demanded that Bazoum be released and reinstated within a week. Should the junta remain in charge, the group said it would “take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger,” including the use of force.
ECOWAS also announced a bevy of punitive measures, including closing land and air borders with Niger.
The group said it would reject any form of resignation that may purportedly come Bazoum, who they consider a hostage.
France and the European Union said earlier that they would support ECOWAS organizations if they decide to sanction the junta. The two had already cut off financial support for Niger.
Niger’s military leaders may have found one potential ally: the country’s eastern neighbor, Chad. Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno was in Niamey, Niger’s capital, on Sunday, according to a source close to the Nigerien military, and photographed alongside a key figure in the putsch. Chad is not a member of the ECOWAS.
‘We’re going to get France out of Africa’
Niger was a French colony for more than 50 years before its independence in 1860. Diplomatic ties between the two countries were strong before Thursday’s putsch, but many Nigeriens believe France has continued to act as imperial power when dealing with Niger, robbing it of natural resources and dictating how its leaders steer the economy. Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries and receives hundreds of millions of dollars each year in assistance.
“Niger has suffered too much under French orders. I’ve been unemployed for 10 years because of their system,” said Karimou Sidi, one of the demonstrators. “We want freedom.”
Hadiza Kanto, a university student who had come to protest, said he supported the leaders of the coup because “they are against France who robbed us all.”
“We’re going to get France out of Africa,” Kanto said.
Russia has, in recent years, attempted to capitalize on that anti-colonial sentiment to bolster its influence across the continent.
Seventeen African heads of state traveled to St. Petersburg on Thursday for an Africa-Russia summit, though turnout was far lower this year than in previous years, likely due to the war in Ukraine.
The anti-France and pro-Russia movement isn’t new in the region. It has been observed in various countries in the Sahel in the past years, most recently in Burkina Faso where the military government demanded the departure of French troops from the country earlier this year.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Martin Goillandeau and Joshua Berlinger contributed to this report | https://kion546.com/news/national-world/cnn-world/2023/07/30/pro-coup-protesters-in-niger-shout-long-live-putin-as-new-leaders-face-calls-to-cede-power/ | 2023-07-30T16:03:26 | 1 | https://kion546.com/news/national-world/cnn-world/2023/07/30/pro-coup-protesters-in-niger-shout-long-live-putin-as-new-leaders-face-calls-to-cede-power/ |
Céline Boutier dominates Evian Championship to become first Frenchwoman to win a major on home soil
By Jack Bantock, CNN
Evian-les-Bains (CNN) — Céline Boutier realized a long-held dream for herself and her country on Sunday, cruising to her first major title at the Evian Championship to become the first Frenchwoman to win the tournament.
The 29-year-old was impeccable from start to finish at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evian-les-Bains, carding 14-under par overall to finish six shots clear of last year’s champion Brooke Henderson.
It sees the Montrouge-native become just the third Frenchwoman to win a major championship, following Catherine Lacoste – who won the US Women’s Open as an amateur in 1967 – and 2003 Chevron Championship winner Patricia Meunier-Lebouc.
Tied-29th represented the best Boutier had ever previously performed in six appearances at the tournament and she missed the cut at last year’s event, but she was the only player to shoot four rounds in the 60’s in a stunning showing.
France had waited almost two decades to see a home winner at the tournament, which debuted in 1994 before becoming a major in 2013, and swathes of fans roared Boutier to a fairytale victory that secured her a $1 million cut of a $6.5 million prize purse.
“It honestly has been my biggest dream ever since I started watching golf,” Boutier said during her winner’s interview.
“This tournament has always been very special to me, just even watching as a teenager. To be able to hold this trophy is pretty unbelievable.”
Canada’s Henderson made a valiant effort to become the first to ever successfully defend the trophy, but could not build the final day momentum she needed to reel in Boutier and win a third major title, closing with a 70.
Mexico’s Gaby Lopez and Norway’s Celine Borge carded final round 68’s to register their best major finishes in tied-third. The duo were joined at seven-under overall by South Korea’s A-Lim Kim, as well as Japanese duo Yuka Saso and Nasa Hataoka.
Similarly chasing a first major, 24-year-old Hataoka had been three shots behind Boutier heading into the final round, but shot one-over 72 to fall further behind.
American golf prodigy Rose Zhang delivered yet another hugely impressive major performance, closing with two birdies to finish tied-ninth at five-under overall and complete an opening hat-trick of top-10 major finishes since turning pro in May.
The final women’s major of the year, the Women’s Open, tees off at Walton Heath in Surrey, England on August 9. Attention then turns to the Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain on September 22, where Team Europe will hold home advantage in their chase for a three-peat.
Fanfare
Fans had followed Boutier in their droves from the opening round, their numbers rising higher and higher as her score fell lower and lower.
Under glorious sunshine on Sunday, it felt as though the entire spa town – and much of France – had trekked up the hill to push their compatriot towards history.
Applause and shouts of encouragement soundtracked her short walk from the practice putting green to the first tee, with fans crammed four or five deep behind the ropes for most of the 399 yards to the hole, angling to get a view of her opening shots.
Ahead of the tournament, Boutier told CNN that her home major brought a level of attention that exerted unwanted pressure, and Sunday surely represented the most pressure she has faced in her career to date.
Adding to the weight of history and expectation, Boutier had only ever held the 54-hole lead at a major once before, having co-led the 2019 US Women’s Open before finishing tied-fifth.
Yet if any nervous energy was felt, a steely-eyed Boutier harnessed it and channeled it into her swing to make a start she could only have dreamed of Saturday night. Three birdies across the first five holes – each one met with a roar of increasing volume – saw the leader pull further away from the chasing pack.
When playing partner Hataoka bogeyed the sixth, Boutier’s advantage grew to six. After parring the next four straight, she made the turn bogey-free.
Homecoming
Even as her driver kept landing her in trouble, Boutier continuously rebounded to keep the door firmly closed.
The 29-year-old was driving long only to hit less than 43% of fairways as she arrived at the 11th tee – the fourth worst in the field – yet was unmatched in the short game, averaging just 1.4 putts per hole.
That trend finally stung Boutier at the par-four 13th when – having sent her tee shot into a fairway bunker – she shot her first bogey of the day to cut the gap from Hataoka to four.
But just as quickly as that glimmer of hope looked to be flickering for the chasers, the leader snuffed it out. A fourth birdie of the day at the 15th restored the five-shot cushion, with Hataoka carding back-to-back bogeys to tumble out of contention.
Boutier’s stern expression never wavered, but a crowd dialing into party-mode were already treating it like a procession. A small smile finally appeared as she laid up onto the final green, before rolling in for a final par.
As the crowds packed around the green erupted, Boutier had a brief moment to soak in the occassion before she was soaked in champagne by a group of her fellow LPGA Tour players.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://kion546.com/sports/cnn-sports/2023/07/30/celine-boutier-dominates-evian-championship-to-become-first-frenchwoman-to-win-a-major-on-home-soil/ | 2023-07-30T16:03:32 | 0 | https://kion546.com/sports/cnn-sports/2023/07/30/celine-boutier-dominates-evian-championship-to-become-first-frenchwoman-to-win-a-major-on-home-soil/ |
Caviar, Champagne…cardamom? While it may not be the first thing that comes to mind when we think about culinary delicacies, the latter certainly carries its weight in the luxury category. Prices for green cardamom are known to rise up to $90 per kilo, ranking it No. 3 on the list of the most expensive spices in the world, following saffron and vanilla.
For those who are new to the spice, you can find its sweet, citrus-like flavor peeking through many Indian and Middle Eastern dishes both sweet and savory. It’s grown in tropical regions which include India and Costa Rica, and is a member of the ginger family. It’s available in both black and green varieties and can either be used in its pod form or as a ground powder derived from the seeds of the pod. Green cardamom — the focus of this article — is significantly more expensive than black cardamom and is also more difficult to find.
So why is green cardamom so expensive, exactly?
How Green Cardamom is Harvested and Grown
To understand why it can fetch such high prices in the market, we have to dig deeper into its inception from start to finish. As with many expensive ingredients, a lengthy and involved production process is behind green cardamom’s high price tag.
After farmers plant the cardamom seeds, they need to wait a grand total of three years before the crop is mature. After plants mature, the harvesting window lasts from July to February, which is relatively long. Despite the advantage of a long harvesting cycle, not all cardamon pods mature at exactly the same time, and only highly-skilled harvesters can determine which pods are ready to be picked at peak ripeness.
MORE: What’s the difference between white pepper and black pepper?
To reach this level of skill, harvesters must train for six months with farmers so they can discern which pods are ripe or raw. And even after all that work, only a total of approximately 10 pods can be harvested from each plant. To make matters more stressful, the stakes are quite high if mistakes are made. If the pods are collected too early, they won’t be aromatic and fetch a fair price in the market. If they are collected too late, they simply go to waste.
Weather conditions may also affect how much cardamom costs. If production is impacted negatively by rain or inclement weather, crops may be destroyed, which limits availability and drives up prices overall.
The Post-Harvest Process
Within 24 hours of harvesting, the perfectly ripe cardamom pods are ushered into a space where they must sit to dry for 18 hours. (And if they sit any longer than a day after being harvested, they risk decay.)
The drying process also impacts the green color of the pods, which is an important factor in determining their price in the marketplace. The machines that dry the pods use heat, and if the heat isn’t released perfectly it can negatively affect their color.
MORE: Suodiu, a viral Chinese trend, is a stir-fry dish featuring rocks
After drying comes sorting. A team of workers is tasked with the arduous job of sorting the smaller pods from the larger pods (which are more valuable) by hand. Ultimately, after it’s all said and done, only one-sixth of the pods harvested can be marketed as good-quality cardamom.
It’s because of all this extensive labor and attention to detail that some companies can charge a premium of $90 per kilogram of green cardamom.
The Economic Sustainability of Cardamom Production
While cardamom can sell for a lot in the marketplace, not all of that money is going directly into the pockets of its producers. Farming cardamom can be a costly endeavor, and up to 10% to 15% of the profits end up being re-invested in each acre on fertilizer alone. Add to that the losses due to weather, and producers may sometimes end up investing their own money out of pocket to keep production up.
Luckily, things are looking up for the industry, as it is projected to increase by $1,690,000 by 2025. The hope here is that farmers can keep up with demand and continue to supply the world with the spice.
MORE: Flavorful purple tomatoes are coming to grocery stores soon
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Check out Simplemost for additional stories. | https://www.kbzk.com/this-is-why-green-cardamon-is-so-expensive | 2023-07-30T16:04:10 | 1 | https://www.kbzk.com/this-is-why-green-cardamon-is-so-expensive |
Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN over ‘the Big Lie’ dismissed in Florida
(AP) - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against CNN in which the former U.S. president claimed that references in news articles or by the network’s hosts to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” was tantamount to comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
Trump had been seeking punitive damages of $475 million in the federal lawsuit filed last October in South Florida, claiming the references hurt his reputation and political career. Trump is a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in what is his third run for the presidency.
U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal, who was appointed by Trump, said Friday in his ruling that the former president’s defamation claims failed because the references were opinions and not factual statements. Moreover, it was a stretch to believe that, in viewers’ minds, that phrase would connect Trump’s efforts challenging the 2020 election results to Nazi propaganda or Hitler’s genocidal and authoritarian regime, the judge said.
“CNN’s use of the phrase ‘the Big Lie’ in connection with Trump’s election challenges does not give rise to a plausible inference that Trump advocates the persecution and genocide of Jews or any other group of people,” the judge wrote in his decision.
Email messages seeking comment were sent to Trump’s attorneys in South Florida and Washington. Email messages seeking comment also were sent to CNN attorneys in Atlanta and South Florida.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-big-lie-dismissed-florida/ | 2023-07-30T16:04:10 | 0 | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-big-lie-dismissed-florida/ |
Racist, vulgar messages spray painted on cars
ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA) - Texas authorities are looking for the people who spray-painted racist words and vulgar images on cars parked across Arlington.
It took elbow grease and a little oven cleaner, but Dexter Smith and his brother finally got the spray paint off of the Corvette and the F-150 they park outside of their home.
Someone tagged each vehicle with racist slurs and vulgar drawings Saturday morning. They also dumped Smith’s trash on his porch.
“The first thing was disbelief, shock, then after the shock, it was like I got angry,” Smith said.
About 15 minutes north, two security cameras caught nearly identical acts of vandalism.
In both cases, people appear to get out of the same minivan and both vehicles they approached were marked with the same racist word.
Smith says it is hard to ignore the vandal’s vocabulary.
“They’ve got stuff called a hate crime, now,” he said.
Police are not yet certain the same group is responsible for each incident, but WFAA confirmed at least six vehicles were tagged with similarly racist language and police say they are still getting new reports.
Smith says he has now seen the worst side of his community and yet he found hope on the same day.
“A lady drove by, passed, stopped and backed up. She rolled the window down and she just said, ‘I’m so sorry,’” he said.
Smith says that moment helped him “a lot.”
Each of the five homes police responded to are within four miles of each other.
There is no word of any suspects or arrests, but investigators are asking locals to check their surveillance video for any information about the perpetrators.
Copyright 2023 WFAA via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/30/racist-vulgar-messages-spray-painted-cars/ | 2023-07-30T16:04:16 | 0 | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/30/racist-vulgar-messages-spray-painted-cars/ |
Canada vs. Australia: Women’s World Cup Group B Odds, Stats and Live Stream - July 31
In each team's third matchup in Group B action at the 2023 Women's World Cup, Australia (3 points) and Canada (4 points) square off on Monday, July 31 at 6:00 AM ET.
Sportsbooks have given Australia odds of +117 to win this match, and Canada is at +235 (with the draw at +228). An over/under of 2.5 goals (with the over at +107 and the under at -141) has been set for this game.
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Australia vs. Canada Game Info
- Date: Monday, July 31, 2023
- Time: 6:00 AM ET
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Venue: Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
- TV Channel: FOX US
- Total: 2.5
- Australia Moneyline: +117
- Canada Moneyline: +235
Australia vs. Canada World Cup Betting Insights
- These teams rack up a combined 2.5 goals per match, which equals this game's over/under.
- Combined, these teams surrender two goals per game, 0.5 fewer than this match's total.
- Australia has been listed as a moneyline favorite just two other times so far this tournament, and went 1-0-1 in those games.
- Australia has played as a moneyline favorite of +117 or shorter in just one game this tournament, which they won.
- Canada has not played a game this tournament as an underdog.
- Canada has not been a bigger underdog this tournament than the +235 moneyline set for this game.
Australia World Cup Stats
Canada World Cup Stats
- In two Women's World Cup matches for Canada, Adriana Leon has tallied one goal (12th in Women's World Cup play).
- Sophie Schmidt has not scored a goal but has recorded one assist for Canada in Women's World Cup.
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Australia vs. Canada Recent Performance
- Australia went 6-1-4 in 2022 versus teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +6. This year, its record is 5-0-1 against fellow World Cup squads (+7 goal differential).
- Australia faced Nigeria in its last game and lost by a final score of 3-2. The defeated Australia side took 27 shots, outshooting by 17.
- van Egmond and Alanna Kennedy scored the two goals for their club in the match against .
- In 2022, Canada was 10-3-3 versus teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +15. This year its record versus fellow World Cup squads is 2-1-3 (-3 goal differential).
- On July 26 in its last game, Canada beat Ireland 2-1. Canada outshot Ireland 16 to 13.
- Leon recorded one goal to lead Canada on three shots.
Australia Roster
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Canada Roster
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Ireland vs. Nigeria: Women’s World Cup Group B Odds, Stats and Live Stream - July 31
On Monday, July 31 at 6:00 AM ET, Nigeria (4 points) and Ireland (0 points) match up for each side's final match in Group B at the 2023 Women's World Cup.
The moneyline odds for Nigeria to win this game are +120, with the draw at +234 and Ireland at +218. An over/under of 2.5 goals has been set for this match.
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Nigeria vs. Ireland Game Info
- Date: Monday, July 31, 2023
- Time: 6:00 AM ET
- Location: Brisbane, Australia
- Venue: Suncorp Stadium
- TV Channel: Fox Sports 1
- Total: 2.5
- Nigeria Moneyline: +120
- Ireland Moneyline: +218
Nigeria vs. Ireland World Cup Betting Insights
- These teams average two goals per match combined, 0.5 less than this game's total.
- Opponents of these teams score a combined 2.5 goals per game, equal to this game's total.
- Nigeria has not been a moneyline favorite yet this tournament.
- Nigeria has not played a game this tournament with moneyline odds of +120 or shorter.
- Ireland has been an underdog twice so far this tournament, and went 0-0-2 in those games.
- Ireland has played as an underdog of +218 or more once this tournament and lost that game.
Nigeria World Cup Stats
Ireland World Cup Stats
- Katie McCabe has scored one goal for Ireland in Women's World Cup (two games).
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Nigeria vs. Ireland Recent Performance
- Nigeria went 0-1-7 in 2022 versus teams playing in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of -11. This year, its record is 4-1-1 versus fellow World Cup squads (+5 goal differential).
- Nigeria picked up a win on July 27 against Australia by a final score of 3-2. The victorious Nigeria took 17 fewer shots in the game, 10 compared to Australia's 27.
- Ohale, Oshoala and Kanu combined to score the three goals for their club in the match against .
- In 2022, Ireland was 1-0-0 against teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +4. This year its record versus fellow World Cup squads is 1-1-5 (-7 goal differential).
- In its most recent game, Ireland was taken down by Canada 2-1 on July 26. Canada outshot Ireland 16 to 13.
- McCabe had the only goal for Ireland on three shots.
Nigeria Roster
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Ireland Roster
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.weau.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-ireland-nigeria-betting-preview-odds/ | 2023-07-30T16:04:29 | 0 | https://www.weau.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-ireland-nigeria-betting-preview-odds/ |
Nearly two years after 10 people were crushed to death during the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival, no charges have been filed — even though some people, including event workers, expressed safety concerns.
Pinpointing “who exactly caused those deaths is not an easy question to answer,” said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a criminal law professor at the University of Houston Law Center.
“It’s a very difficult thing to say, unless you have some kind of clear evidence that somebody in charge, whose job it was to ensure safety and who should have known better, failed to take action,” she said.
A nearly 1,300-page report on the investigation into the tragedy released by Houston police Friday said contract worker Reece Wheeler told authorities that he saw a crush of people and warned an event organizer that people could die, shortly before rapper Travis Scott went onstage.
In the report, investigators wrote that Scott said he did see one person near the stage getting medical attention, but said that overall, the crowd seemed to enjoy the show. He said he did not see any signs of serious problems, nor did he hear anyone tell him to stop the show.
Hip-hop artist Drake, who also performed, told police it was difficult to see from the stage what was going on in the crowd and that he didn’t hear anyone call for the show to stop.
Despite no charges being filed, more than 500 lawsuits have been filed over the deaths and injuries at the concert, including many against concert promoter Live Nation and Scott. Some of those suits have since been settled.
Those who were killed ranged in age from 9 to 27, and all 10 people died due to compression asphyxia, according to medical examiners.
In June, a Texas grand jury declined to indict six people in the case, including Scott. Prosecutors said, then, that the circumstances of the deaths limited what charges they were able to present, eliminating potential counts such as murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Thompson said the sheer number of people involved in putting on the event, the large scale of it, and the high bar for proving criminal negligence or recklessness are challenges for prosecutors in cases like this.
“It goes back to, who knows what’s going on, is that being communicated?” she said. “Were they being told that people have died, and they still wanted the concert to go on? Or, were they being told that ‘Hey, some people are getting hurt, which might not be that unusual at an event like that?”
Assistant Harris County District Attorney Alycia Harvey said after the grand jury declined to issue indictments that prosecutors were left with only possible counts of endangering a child in connection with the deaths of the two youngest concertgoers, ages 9 and 14.
Scott’s lawyer, Kent Schaffer, has said that the performer was not responsible for the tragedy.
“He never encouraged people to do anything that resulted in other people being hurt,” Schaffer said.
Scott has previously said he was unaware of the deaths until after the show. He has since created what he called Project HEAL, a $5 million initiative that includes funding for an effort to address safety challenges for festivals and large-scale events.
The police report said Scott told investigators that around the time Drake came onstage he was told to end the show after the performance, but that no one told him of an emergency.
Following the tragedy, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott formed a task force to study concert safety, and to recommend crowd control and security measures during mass gathering.
The task force in April 2022 reported that people without tickets entered the outdoor festival area hours before the performances began, overwhelming staff and leading to a variety of injuries. It also concluded that the process for issuing permits for mass gatherings is inconsistent statewide.
The task force recommended creating a command center that is authorized to pause or cancel a show in response to safety concerns.
“Sometimes, sadly, industries learn safety practices following disasters,” said Thompson, the law professor. “The standards for live concerts like this, I would imagine, are going to change.”
_____
Miller reported from Oklahoma City, Willingham reported from Charleston, West Virginia. | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/entertainment-news/ap-10-people-died-at-the-astroworld-music-festival-two-years-ago-what-happens-now/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:12 | 0 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/entertainment-news/ap-10-people-died-at-the-astroworld-music-festival-two-years-ago-what-happens-now/ |
Fat Boys Creamery is now serving up sweets at Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets in Michigan City.
The ice cream shop is located at 121 Lighthouse Place in the outlet mall on the site of the former Pullman factory in downtown Michigan City. It’s an Indiana-based ice cream parlor that first opened in South Bend last year.
Fat Boys Creamery serves 90 flavors of ice cream as well as waffles, crepes and other sweet treats. The ice cream can be garnished with sprinkles, chocolate syrup, breakfast cereal and other toppings.
The menu includes banana splits, sundaes and shakes with flavors like banana pudding, strawberry cheesecake, blue moon, fruit cereal, apple crisp, s’mores, sugar cookie, Orea, midnight carmel river, raspberry chip cheesecake, moose tracks, cotton candy, Reese’s, Nutella, superman, M&M, Snickers, salty caramel truffle and Carolina Peach.
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Ice cream comes in five-ounce, 10-ounce, 24-ounce and 32-ounce pints. Anyone looking to indulge can tuck into the Fantasy Ice Cream, which tops six large scoops of hand-dipped premium ice cream with a candy bar topping, fruits and two syrup drizzles.
Fat Boys Creamery took over the former Lindt Chocolate space in the mall, where it has indoor seating. It’s tucked between Lena Al Fuego and Sleeping Tiger Imports, across from Zumiez.
Fat Boys Creamery is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, call 574-413-4593 or find Fat Boys Creamery on Facebook.
Coming soon
It’s All Leggings is coming to the Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets in Michigan City, Marketing and Business Development Director Christian Carlson said.
The retailer, which has locations up and down the Eastern Seaboard, bills itself as the “largest retail chain for leggings in the USA.”
It stocks a wide selection of leggings in different styles and colors, including solid color, prints and butt lifting. It also stocks jeggings, jogging pants, yoga pants, palazzos, treggings, jumpsuits, capris, shorts and workout sets. It also carries plus-sized clothing.
Top sellers include Blue Acid Washed Look Denim Leggings, Denim Leggings with Colorful Floral Rosy Pattern and XOXO LOVE Print Brushed Capri Leggings.
Heavily concentrated around the Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. corridor, It’s All Leggings’ only other Midwestern locations are in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills where the Pistons used to play and at 288 Orland Square Drive at the Orland Square Mall in Orland Park.
Open
Life’s Cafe is serving fresh and healthy food in Hammond.
The restaurant at 6255 Hohman Ave., just north of Oak Hill Cemetery near downtown Hammond, specializes in clean eating, fresh to order. The menu includes paninis, smoothies, salads, soups, desserts and juices.
Owner Latrice Riggens is a certified health coach who wanted to offer the community a clean eating option.
“I want to inspire people to eat healthy,” she said. “Sometimes they find it too expensive. Sometimes the smallest changes can have an effect.”
The menu includes a grilled chicken panini, a barbecue panini, a honey turkey breast BLT, a chicken cobb salad, a chicken Ceasar salad, a garden salad, an acai bowl, fresh fruit cups, smoothies, lemon bars and mixed berry parfait. Soup options include kale and black eye pea, chicken tortilla, tomato and roasted red pepper and a multi-bean turkey chili. It has grass-fed beef burgers on Fridays.
It also has “body shots” like a Break-Fast Chlorofyll Cleaning Bomb, Uno Immuno Elderberry Shot, Waste from the Waist Apple Ginger Shot and Cold Tottle for a Hottie Vita C Shot.
A ribbon-cutting is planned with the city at 11:30 a.m. on August 31.
Life’s Cafe is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.
For more information, call 219-315-6291 or find the business on Facebook and Instagram.
Relocated
Vito’s Italian Ice in Cedar Lake moved to a new home on the other side of the lake. The longstanding Italian Ice spot reopened a few weeks ago in an expanded space next to Dollar General.
The dessert shop serves Italian ice made with only fresh fruit, which could result in chunks and seeds. Flavors include pineapple, blueberry, cherry, strawberry, watermelon, peach, lemon, lime, mango, banana, raspberry, grape, cantaloupe, cucumber lime, chocolate, horchata, root beer, sweet tea, pina colada and parrot ice. One can order two flavors side-by-side. There are no samples since “they’re all good.”
Other sweets at Vito’s Italian Ice include cannolis, pizzelles, pistachio and chocolate cake.
One can pick up their order to-go. Some outdoor seating is available.
It’s currently open for its summer hours, 12-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12-7 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, call 219-401-8901 or email vitositalianice@gmail.com.
Reopen
Exceptional Equestrian Unlimited reopened in Hobart after losing its barn.
The equine therapy charity at 5699 E. 73rd Ave. replaced the barn and celebrated its grand re-opening with the Hobart Chamber of Commerce. Exceptional Equestrian Unlimited teaches educational and therapeutic riding to people with special needs, such as with autism, ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, limb loss, head trauma, hearing impairment, spinal cord injuries, neuromuscular disorders, learning disabilities or lung loss.
It aims to “improve bodies, minds and spirits one ride at a time.”
It offers horseback riding to teach kids with disabilities gross motor skills, improved muscle control, better posture and increased balance. It helps with cardio-respiratory function, concentration, memory, communication skills, self-esteem, self-confidence and social interactions.
For more information, call 219-945-0726, visit eeunwi.org or find it on Facebook.
Open
Cut Up & Dye Hair Studio is now cutting hair in Hobart.
The salon at 7876 E. Ridge Road in Hobart celebrated a grand opening Saturday with the Hobart Chamber of Commerce. It offers hair care, make-up services and a brow bar.
“It is our vision to be a salon where everyone feels comfortable and welcome,” the hair studio said on its website. “Our goal is that every guest receives an outstanding service from the time they walk in, to the time they walk out. We want you to feel like part of the family while providing a great service with a friendly and fun atmosphere.”
Cut Up & Dye Hair Studio accepts walk-ins.
It’s open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
For more information, call 219-962-2867
Open
Venue 717 is now hosting galas in Hobart.
The new luxury venue at 701 W. Old Ridge Road in Hobart specializes in themed events, weddings, receptions, baby showers, birthday parties, baby showers, funeral luncheons, lunch and learning training events and networking events. It partners with the event planner Dream Vision Events on planning events like Rugrats-themed kids’ parties or casino nights.
Rooms can be decked with chiavari chairs, sashes, balloon garlands, drapes and centerpieces.
For more information, call 219-200-8534 or email errica@venue717.com.
Open
Conceal Carry Institute in south suburban Matteson signed up to be a U-Haul neighborhood dealer.
The firearms academy at 154 Town Center Road is now renting out U-Haul trucks, trailers and moving equipment.
Founded in 1945, U-Haul has a network of 21,000 dealers across the country who rent out its moving trucks. | https://www.nwitimes.com/business/state-and-regional/nwi-business-ins-and-outs-lighthouse-place-premium-outlet-shop-fat-boys-creamery-lifes-cafe/article_bee972a0-2cff-11ee-b799-4b5a5a489c76.html | 2023-07-30T16:05:13 | 0 | https://www.nwitimes.com/business/state-and-regional/nwi-business-ins-and-outs-lighthouse-place-premium-outlet-shop-fat-boys-creamery-lifes-cafe/article_bee972a0-2cff-11ee-b799-4b5a5a489c76.html |
As summer break fades, a new wave of back-to-school clothing and accessory trends are emerging at Northwest Indiana retailers.
Some may look a little familiar, especially to parents making the purchases.
“Right now Crocs are a huge trend going on,” said Becca Todd, store manager at Plato’s Closet in Merrillville. “We have Jibbitz, which are like Crocs charms, which sell really well for us.”
As more parents and their children come into the store to pick up a few staples for the upcoming school year, Todd notes other trends.
“Mainly people are looking for jeans with no holes and long-sleeve shirts for the winter,” she said. “When it comes to jeans, it’s going to be styles like the mom jeans, the baggy jeans, the cargo pants as well as athletic clothes. Lululemon is a huge trend.”
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Graphic tees, T-shirts featuring nostalgic bands and athletic shoes such as Jordans are also in demand, she said.
The retro revival is in full swing at many retailers across the Region, with national stores including Kohl’s featuring utility cargo bottoms, denim outfits and platform shoes.
At Last Chance Overstock in Highland, assistant store manager LA McGill says khaki pants, Polo shirts and hoodies are popular heading into the new school year.
“We sell a lot of Levi’s jeans also, as well as backpacks,” she said. “We carry Nike and Adidas backpacks. It seems like the bigger ones trend more because they can hold more school supplies and books, especially with the higher grades.”
Many parents look to get a jump start on buying fall clothing, even as temperatures remain warm.
“We have lightweight jackets that sell a lot, too, at this time,” McGill said.
There are trends at even stores that sell school uniforms, said Dave Cohen, co-owner of Brady’s This Is It in Gary.
Popular items include pants, Polo shirts and sweaters, he said. Particularly this year, the biggest trend involves value.
“With inflation, I think people are looking for value, and I think that’s why we’re doing well,” Cohen said. “Some schools don’t require uniforms, but we’ve always had the basics, and for some parents, it’s easier to just get a quality pants and shirt.” | https://www.nwitimes.com/life-entertainment/polos-tees-jeans-top-back-to-school-clothing-trends-in-northwest-indiana/article_b799727c-224e-11ee-83d4-4313261a647d.html | 2023-07-30T16:05:19 | 0 | https://www.nwitimes.com/life-entertainment/polos-tees-jeans-top-back-to-school-clothing-trends-in-northwest-indiana/article_b799727c-224e-11ee-83d4-4313261a647d.html |
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.yourcentralvalley.com/entertainment-news/ap-consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:19 | 0 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/entertainment-news/ap-consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ |
MOROCCO — The bison's tails swished back and fourth as they grazed through the tallgrasses and yellow cone flowers.
"That means they're calm," Trevor Edmonson explained. "They're tails stiffen when they feel like they're in danger."
The 110 bison that roam the Kankakee Sands Preserve have no reason to be afraid, they've never been hunted and they aren't being raised as livestock. However, these mighty creatures still have an important job — they're helping restore Northwest Indiana's prairie.
Restoring what was lost
The fleeing bison that appears on Indiana's state seal does not resemble the mild herd at Kankakee Sands. The animal's tail stands straight in the air as it leaps over a log, seemingly running away from a man chopping down a tree.
According to Indiana historian Jacob Piatt Dunn, "the woodman represented civilization subduing the wilderness; and the buffalo, . . . going west, . . . represented the primitive life retiring in that direction before the advance of civilization."
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The first recorded use of the Indiana state seal was 1801. Less than thirty years later, bison had been completely eradicated from the state.
Edmonson, project director at Kankakee Sands, said hunting records show Newton County's last bison was killed in 1824.
In the mid-19th century, it was estimated that 30 million to 60 million buffalo roamed North America. Many Native tribes relied on bison for food and other resources, however as the railroad began to expand white settlers began to travel throughout the country, eradicating bison. The federal government recognized how important bison were to Native American survival and in an effort to weaken the tribes, the U.S. Army provided free ammunition to bison hunters.
By the end of the 1800s less than 1,000 bison remained in North America.
As bison were being brought to the brink of extinction, Native tribes were forced onto reservations and in states like Indiana, tribes lost all of their land. Early Hoosiers worked to convert the state's natural areas into farmland, draining wetlands and plowing prairies.
According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources 85% of Indiana's wetlands have been lost since the 1780s. The DNR also estimates that prairies likely made up about 15% of the state before European settlers arrived. Much of this prairie land would have been in Northwest Indiana; almost all of the state's original prairie has been lost.
“Back then people didn’t view wetlands as important infrastructure, they kind of viewed it as wasted land or marginal land," Edmonson explained.
Before the Nature Conservancy, or TNC, created the Kankakee Sands preserve in 1996, the land had been used for grazing and row crops. Pulling out an original map of Newton County from 1876, Edmonson pointed to the careful black hatch marks that fill the area where the preserve is today.
"That was all marshland," Edmonson said, adding that the southern half of the county contained tallgrass prairie.
The 8,4000-acre preserve sits in the footprint of Beaver Lake, which was Indiana's biggest freshwater lake before it was drained. The lake was part of the Grand Kankakee Marsh system, which once stretched all the way from South Bend to Momence, IL, making it the largest inland wetland in North America.
Over the past century Newton County's landscape has changed a lot: homes and farm fields now fill the former marsh, sand dunes were mined to help build U.S. 41 and the much of the black oak savanna where bison once roamed has become overgrown.
Edmonson said restoring this land will be a "multigeneration journey," one that will require native plants, prescribed burns, cattle, and, of course, plenty of bison.
The benefits of bison
The Kankakee Sands property is a patchwork of wetlands, black oak savanna, sedge meadows and prairie. Edmonson said
“The goal of our site is not to create one uniform prairie, everywhere you go here there's going to be a mix of soil types, a mix of plant communities that intertwined in that mosaic," Edmonson said. "That’s really what nature is."
This "mosaic" of different plant types helps promote biodiversity as different kinds of wildlife need different kinds of habitat to survive. Edmonson said the property is home to over 700 plant species, 250 bird species, 70 butterfly species and 1,000 moth species.
Many of these species thrive in habitats that have "structure," Edmonson explained grasslands that have plants with varying heights are good for a wide-range of wildlife. Promoting health, structured grassland requires natural disturbances like prescribed burns and grazing.
“If I were to plant a prairie full of Big Bluestem without bison, it’s going to be all eight-foot tall and look pretty uniform” Edmonson explained that grazing "Allows for other things to take up that real-estate and thrive."
In an effort to recreate the natural disturbances that would have occurred historically, TNC introduced 23 bison to Kankakee Sands in 2016. The herd has more than quadrupled; Edmonson said there were about 20 new calves this year alone. With 12 herds and about 6,000 animals, TNC is the second-largest bison producer in North America, behind media mogul Ted Turner. FIX
Edmonson said the benefits of bison go beyond grazing; when the giant animals take "dust baths" they create large divots in the earth, which fill with water and are used as breeding grounds for frogs and turtles, they distribute seeds and spores by carrying them in their thick coats, and birds and small mammals use bison hair to insulate nests and burrows.
“They are truly a keystone species," Edmonson said bison likely impact their environment in unknown ways as well. "That's part of the fun. You put them out there and then monitor birds and butterflies and dung beetles and things like that."
The herd has also changed how the human species interacts with Kankakee Sands.
Before the bison arrived, the preserve received few visitors. Now school groups, tourists and drivers who spot the herd from the highway stop-in and want to learn more. The preserve has a bison viewing area, but Edmonson said it's essentially a gravel lot. The Nature Conservancy is working to develop "flagship" preserves where people can visit and learn more about the groups conservation efforts.
As part of this initiative, Kankakee Sands is looking to create an outdoor pavilion with seating and informational signage and two bison viewing platforms. Earlier this month the preserve received a $25,000 donation from the NiSource Charitable Foundation for the project. Edmonson said they hope to start work on the project next summer, those interested in donating to the project or volunteering at Kankakee Sands can visit nature.org/Indiana.
The goal of the interpretive signage is to help visitors conduct self-guided tours of the properties' many trails. Traditional Western conservation practices kept people away from protected land, but Edmonson said this mindset is changing.
“People have always been involved and intertwined with nature," Edmonson said. "We’re not really separate from it so we want to get as many people out here as we can to see that nature is critical infrastructure for society and is also therapeutic and inspirational."
After walking through the sedges, admiring the deep purple ironweed flowers, taking in the the bison herd and listing to the meadowlarks, Edmonson hopes visitors will be inspired to protect nature in their own communities. | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/bison-kankakee-preservation-conservation-thenatureconservancy-morocco/article_5d434fa4-2d44-11ee-a69a-a76aa5f87ee2.html | 2023-07-30T16:05:22 | 1 | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/bison-kankakee-preservation-conservation-thenatureconservancy-morocco/article_5d434fa4-2d44-11ee-a69a-a76aa5f87ee2.html |
LYNCHBURG, Va. – Even on a hot day, people showed out to support the Peacemakers for their End of Summer Expo and fundraiser.
“We need to bring the neighborhood back to our city. The neighborhood, not the hood,” Peacemakers Founder Shawn Hunter said.
Hunter is standing by a boots on the ground approach to ending gun violence in Lynchburg.
“The community is responding because they’re seeing action,” Hunter said. “And that’s what they want to see, action. Not just talk and a lot of meetings.”
Saturday, the Peacemakers hosted the End of Summer Expo and fundraiser — with the goal of bringing the community together.
“I want us to meet each other right here,” Hunter said.
The money raised at the event goes towards buying a van that will be used for outreach.
“It allows us to move around at night time more safely,” he said.
Several community leaders and lawmakers joined the charge, speaking to people about the importance of peace.
Republican Delegate Wendall Walker says he’s had enough when it comes to violence in the Hill City.
“Send a message to the criminals in Lynchburg: ‘Not here,’” Walker said.
Democratic candidate for delegate Jennifer Woofter says supporting the Peacemakers allows for their work to continue making a change.
“Their voice is incredibly impactful,” Woofter said. “Gun violence is an issue that impacts families, neighborhoods, communities, states and the nation. And we need people at every level of organization to be thinking about it and finding solutions.”
If you did not get to attend the fundraiser, you can still donate by mailing your donation to P.O. Box 1161 Lynchburg, Virginia. More ways to donate will later be added on their Facebook page. | https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2023/07/30/lynchburg-peacemakers-host-end-of-summer-expo-and-fundraiser/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:26 | 0 | https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2023/07/30/lynchburg-peacemakers-host-end-of-summer-expo-and-fundraiser/ |
INDIANAPOLIS — A massive deli chain in the U.S. is giving someone the chance to earn free sandwiches for life, at the cost of their name.
Subway announced its nationwide search for the biggest fan, "with the ultimate prize, eating (and being) Subway for life."
Those who want a chance at a lifetime of free food can visit SubwayNameChange.com from Aug. 1-4, to commit to legally change their name.
The lucky winner will be reimbursed for legal and processing costs for the name change.
The contest is Subway's latest efforts to promote its new Subway Deli Heroes menu items and cold cuts.
This isn't the chain's only outlandish contest though. In 2022, one fan camped out for two days to get a footlong tattoo of the Subway Series logo in exchange for free subs for life. | https://www.12news.com/article/news/entertainment-news/subway-offers-free-sandwiches-for-life-with-name-change-subs-food/531-a042e778-5c76-4513-b71e-232a55da5e97 | 2023-07-30T16:05:26 | 0 | https://www.12news.com/article/news/entertainment-news/subway-offers-free-sandwiches-for-life-with-name-change-subs-food/531-a042e778-5c76-4513-b71e-232a55da5e97 |
Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN over ‘the Big Lie’ dismissed in Florida
(AP) - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against CNN in which the former U.S. president claimed that references in news articles or by the network’s hosts to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” was tantamount to comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
Trump had been seeking punitive damages of $475 million in the federal lawsuit filed last October in South Florida, claiming the references hurt his reputation and political career. Trump is a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in what is his third run for the presidency.
U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal, who was appointed by Trump, said Friday in his ruling that the former president’s defamation claims failed because the references were opinions and not factual statements. Moreover, it was a stretch to believe that, in viewers’ minds, that phrase would connect Trump’s efforts challenging the 2020 election results to Nazi propaganda or Hitler’s genocidal and authoritarian regime, the judge said.
“CNN’s use of the phrase ‘the Big Lie’ in connection with Trump’s election challenges does not give rise to a plausible inference that Trump advocates the persecution and genocide of Jews or any other group of people,” the judge wrote in his decision.
Email messages seeking comment were sent to Trump’s attorneys in South Florida and Washington. Email messages seeking comment also were sent to CNN attorneys in Atlanta and South Florida.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-big-lie-dismissed-florida/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:26 | 0 | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-big-lie-dismissed-florida/ |
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.yourcentralvalley.com/life-health/health/ap-anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:27 | 1 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/life-health/health/ap-anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers broke for their August recess this week with work on funding the government largely incomplete, fueling worries about whether Congress will be able to avoid a partial government shutdown this fall.
Congress has until Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, to act on government funding. They could pass spending bills to fund government agencies into next year, or simply pass a stopgap measure that keeps agencies running until they strike a longer-term agreement. No matter which route they take, it won’t be easy.
“We’re going to scare the hell out of the American people before we get this done,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.
Coons’ assessment is widely shared in Congress, reflecting the gulf between the Republican-led House and the Democratic-led Senate, which are charting vastly different — and mostly incompatible — paths on spending.
The Senate is adhering mostly to the top-line spending levels that President Joe Biden negotiated with House Republicans in late May as part of the debt-ceiling deal that extended the government’s borrowing authority and avoided an economically devastating default.
That agreement holds discretionary spending generally flat for the coming year while allowing increases for military and veterans accounts. On top of that, the Senate is looking to add $13.7 billion in additional emergency appropriations, including $8 billion for defense and $5.7 billion for nondefense.
House Republicans, many of whom opposed the debt-ceiling deal and refused to vote for it, are going a different way.
GOP leaders have teed up bills with far less spending than the agreement allows in an effort to win over members who insist on rolling back spending to fiscal year 2022 levels. They are also adding scores of policy add-ons broadly opposed by Democrats. There are proposals to reduce access to abortion pills, bans on the funding of hormone therapy and certain surgeries for transgender veterans, and a prohibition on training programs promoting diversity in the federal workplace, among many others.
At a press conference at the Capitol this past week, some members of the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative faction within the House GOP, said that voters elected a Republican majority in that chamber to rein in government spending and it was time for House Republicans to use every tool available to get the spending cuts they want.
“We should not fear a government shutdown,” said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. “Most of the American people won’t even miss if the government is shut down temporarily.”
Many House Republicans disagree with that assessment. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, called it an oversimplification to say most Americans wouldn’t feel an impact. And he warned Republicans would take the blame for a shutdown.
“We always get blamed for it, no matter what,” Simpson said. ”So it’s bad policy, it’s bad politics.”
But the slim five-seat majority Republicans hold amplifies the power that a small group can wield. Even though the debt ceiling agreement passed with a significant majority of both Republicans and Democrats, conservatives opponents were so unhappy in the aftermath that they shut down House votes for a few days, stalling the entire GOP agenda.
Shortly thereafter, McCarthy argued the numbers he negotiated with the White House amounted to a cap and “you can always do less.” GOP Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, followed that she would seek to limit nondefense spending at 2022 budget levels, saying the debt agreement “set a top-line spending cap — a ceiling, not a floor.”
The decision to cut spending below levels in the the debt ceiling deal helped get the House moving again, but put them on a collision course with the Senate, where the spending bills hew much closer to the agreement.
“What the House has done is they essentially tore up that agreement as soon as it was signed,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “And so we are in for a bumpy ride.”
Even as House Republicans have been moving their spending bills out of committee on party-line votes, the key committee in the Senate has been operating in a bipartisan fashion, drafting spending bills with sometimes unanimous support.
“The way to make this work is do it in a bipartisan way like we are doing in the Senate. If you do it in a partisan way, you’re heading to a shutdown. And I am really worried that that’s where the House Republicans are headed,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters this week.
McCarthy countered that people had the same doubts about whether House Republicans and the White House could reach an agreement to pass a debt ceiling extension and avoid a default.
“We’ve got ’til Sept. 30. I think we can get this all done,” McCarthy said.
In a subsequent press conference, McCarthy said he had just met with Schumer to talk about the road ahead on an array of bills, including the spending bills.
“I don’t want the government to shut down,” McCarthy said. “I want to find that we can find common ground.”
In all, there are 12 spending bills. The House has passed one so far, and moved others out of committee. The Senate has passed none, though it has advanced all 12 out of committee, something that hasn’t happened since 2018.
Still, the difficulty ahead was evident on the House side, where Republicans gave up until after the recess on trying to pass a spending measure to fund federal agriculture and rural programs and the Food and Drug Administration, amid disagreements over its contents. They began their August recess a day early instead of holding votes Friday.
Simpson said some of his Republican colleagues don’t want to take money approved already outside the appropriations process to cover some of this year’s spending and avoid deeper cuts. For example, the House bills would take almost all of the money approved last year for the Internal Revenue Service in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and use the savings to avoid deeper spending cuts elsewhere.
Simpson said that without such rescissions, as they are called in Washington, he couldn’t vote for the agriculture spending bill because the cuts “would have just been devastating.”
“That’s the challenge we’re going to have when we get back in September,” he said.
Further complicating things in the House, a few Republicans are opposed to some of the policy riders being included in the spending bills. For example, the agriculture spending bill would reverse the FDA’s decision to allow abortion pills to be dispensed in certified pharmacies, instead of only by prescribers in hospitals, clinics, and medical offices.
“I had a problem with abortion being put inside an ag bill,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. “I think that’s ridiculous.”
It’s a strong possibility that Congress will have to pass a stopgap spending bill before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. The Senate can vote first on the measure, which would put the onus on House Republicans to bring it up for a vote or allow for a shutdown. | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/ap-members-of-congress-break-for-august-with-no-clear-path-to-avoiding-a-shutdown-this-fall/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:33 | 0 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/ap-members-of-congress-break-for-august-with-no-clear-path-to-avoiding-a-shutdown-this-fall/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Chatter on one of Prabha Rao’s WhatsApp groups exploded last week when India announced that it was severely curtailing some rice exports to the rest of the world, triggering worry among the Indian diaspora in the United States that access to a food staple from home might soon be cut off.
As in any crisis situation — think bottled water and toilet paper— some rushed to supermarkets to stock up, stacking carts with bags and bags of rice. In some places, lines formed outside some stores as panic buying ensued.
But Rao, who lives near Syracuse, New York, was reassured when the proprietor of her Indian market sent out an email to customers to let them know there was no need to worry: There was an ample supply of rice.
At least for now.
An earlier than expected El Niño brought drier, warmer weather in some parts of Asia and is expected to harm rice production. But in some parts of India, where the monsoon season was especially brutal, flooding destroyed some crops, adding to production woes and rising prices.
Hoping to stave off inflationary pressures on a diet staple, the Indian government earlier this month imposed export bans on non-Basmati white rice varieties, prompting hoarding in some parts of the world.
The move was taken “to ensure adequate availability” and “to allay the rise in prices in the domestic market,” India’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution announced July 20. Over the past year, prices have increased by more than 11%, and by 3% over the past month, the government said.
Non-Basmati white rice constitutes about a fourth of the rice exported by India.
“On WhatsApp, I got a lot of messages saying that rice was not going to be available. I think there was a lot of confusion in the beginning because, as you know, rice is very important for us,” Rao said.
“When we first heard the news, there was just mild confusion and people started panic buying because they thought that it may not be available,” she said.
There are scores of different varieties of rice, with people having their preference depending on taste and texture. India’s export ban does not apply to Basmati rice, a long-grain variety that is more aromatic.
The ban applies to short-grain rice that is starchier and has a relatively neutral flavor — which Rao says is preferable in some dishes or favored in specific regions of India, especially in southern areas of the country.
At Little India, a grocery store in New York City’s Curry Hill neighborhood in Manhattan, there was no shortage of Basmati rice and other varieties.
That wasn’t the case at other Indian groceries.
On its Facebook page, India Bazaar, an Indian grocery chain in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, told customers not to panic. “We are working hard to meet all our shoppers’ demands,” the post said.
Customers cleared shelves and waited in long lines to stockpile bags of rice, reported NBC Dallas affiliate KXAS.
“They really wanted to purchase ten, 12, 15 bags,” India Bazaar’s president, Anand Pabari, told the station. “It was a really crazy situation.”
India’s move came days after Russia backed out of a deal to allow Ukrainian wheat safe passage through the Black Sea, prompting warnings that the action could lead to surging prices.
Some economists say the ban might further hurt food supplies around the world, and some governments have urged the Indian government to reconsider the export ban.
At least in the United States, the supply of imported rice from India may not yet be a problem — despite the panic buying — but a long-term ban would certainly deplete that stock.
Roa says she and others will just have to adapt by purchasing rice grown in the United States or imported from other countries.
“I might have to substitute Basmati rice,” she said, “but it doesn’t taste that good, especially with South Indian dishes.”
A U.S. resident for three decades, Rao said she is accustomed to improvising.
“When we first came here, there was not even that much rice from India,” she said. “So I’ve learned to substitute, and I’m fine with the other brands that we get.” | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/business/ap-india-cuts-rice-exports-triggering-panic-buying-of-food-staple-by-some-indian-expats-in-the-us/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:40 | 1 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/business/ap-india-cuts-rice-exports-triggering-panic-buying-of-food-staple-by-some-indian-expats-in-the-us/ |
Racist, vulgar messages spray painted on cars
ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA) - Texas authorities are looking for the people who spray-painted racist words and vulgar images on cars parked across Arlington.
It took elbow grease and a little oven cleaner, but Dexter Smith and his brother finally got the spray paint off of the Corvette and the F-150 they park outside of their home.
Someone tagged each vehicle with racist slurs and vulgar drawings Saturday morning. They also dumped Smith’s trash on his porch.
“The first thing was disbelief, shock, then after the shock, it was like I got angry,” Smith said.
About 15 minutes north, two security cameras caught nearly identical acts of vandalism.
In both cases, people appear to get out of the same minivan and both vehicles they approached were marked with the same racist word.
Smith says it is hard to ignore the vandal’s vocabulary.
“They’ve got stuff called a hate crime, now,” he said.
Police are not yet certain the same group is responsible for each incident, but WFAA confirmed at least six vehicles were tagged with similarly racist language and police say they are still getting new reports.
Smith says he has now seen the worst side of his community and yet he found hope on the same day.
“A lady drove by, passed, stopped and backed up. She rolled the window down and she just said, ‘I’m so sorry,’” he said.
Smith says that moment helped him “a lot.”
Each of the five homes police responded to are within four miles of each other.
There is no word of any suspects or arrests, but investigators are asking locals to check their surveillance video for any information about the perpetrators.
Copyright 2023 WFAA via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/07/30/racist-vulgar-messages-spray-painted-cars/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:43 | 0 | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/07/30/racist-vulgar-messages-spray-painted-cars/ |
MUNCIE, Ind. – A shooting at a large party in Indiana early Sunday morning left one person dead, police said. A hospital said 19 people were being treated for injuries at its facility.
Muncie police responded to multiple reports of gunfire on the city's east side just after 1 a.m., The Star Press reported. Police said in a news release that there was no active threat to the community and that “multiple” victims were injured, including some critically.
“Due to the number of victims and nature of the incident, multiple agencies were contacted to assist,” Muncie Deputy Police Chief Melissa Criswell said in a statement sent to The Star Press.
Police did not say how many people were injured, but officials at Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie told The Associated Press that 19 victims were treated in their emergency department for injuries related to the shooting, and 13 remained at the hospital in stabilized condition Sunday morning. Criswell said some victims sustained critical injuries and were transferred by medical helicopter to other facilities. | https://www.wsls.com/news/national/2023/07/30/one-person-is-dead-and-multiple-were-wounded-in-indiana-shooting-police-say/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:43 | 0 | https://www.wsls.com/news/national/2023/07/30/one-person-is-dead-and-multiple-were-wounded-in-indiana-shooting-police-say/ |
ST ANTHONY, Idaho — Lori Vallow Daybell, or Lori Vallow -- the eastern Idaho woman found guilty of murdering her two children and conspiring to murder her husband’s former wife -- is scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. on July 31 at the Fremont County Courthouse.
What can be expected?
Vallow will not face the death penalty, but she could face up to life in prison for murdering her two children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, and taking their security benefits. The two were found buried in shallow graves on Vallow’s husband’s property in Salem in June of 2020. 16-year-old Tylee Ryan's remains were found in charred, burnt pieces. 7-year-old JJ Vallow was found suffocated and bound in duct tape.
During Vallow’s sentencing, four people are expected to give victim impact statements, or statements about how the crimes affected their family and their lives. Those who wanted to give impact statements at the sentencing had to submit a request – under Idaho law, the only people allowed to give victim impact statements during a sentencing have to be immediate family members of the murder victim(s).
Vallow’s only surviving child, 27-year-old Colby Ryan, is expected to speak along with Summer Shiflet, who is Vallow’s sister.
Kay Woodcock, the grandmother of JJ Vallow, is also expected to give a statement in court.
Vallow was also convicted of conspiring to murder her husband Chad Daybell’s wife at the time, Tammy Daybell. Her aunt, Vicki Hoban, will likely give a victim impact statement at the time of sentencing.
The defense – Jim Archibald and John Thomas – will have an opportunity to speak on behalf of Vallow. It is likely that the prosecutors or defense will bring up contents from the presentence investigation (PSI) report, which is put together in order to recommend incarceration, type of treatment or programs she should complete while in prison. These are conducted by the Idaho Department of Correction’s Probation and Parole.
A presentence investigation must be ordered by the judge. Fremont County District Judge Steven Boyce signed off ordering a full report on May 24, 12 days after Vallow was convicted.
Former Ada County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jean Fisher told KTVB the presentence investigation is a very important part of this case considering how heinous the crimes were.
"Just the psychological evaluation itself takes a period of time. The presentence investigator is going to look into her entire background, her history, they will have contacted prior family members, other family members, prior employers, and they are trying to get as big of a picture as they can about who Lori Vallow is in order to try and determine what the sentencing should be in this case. It's a very, very lengthy extensive report," Fisher said.
Under Idaho Criminal Rules, a full PSI must include:
- Prior criminal record
- Social history, family relationships, marital status, age, interests, activities
- Educational background
- Employment background, present employment
- Residence history
- Financial status
- Health status
- Sense of values and “outlook on life”
- Results of any substance abuse evaluation, mental health evaluation, domestic assault evaluation and or psychosexual evaluation
- The presentence investigator’s analysis of the defendant’s condition, which would be a complete summary of the psychological factors surrounding the commission of the crime. The analysis would also include a recommendation about any type of rehabilitation
The defense is able to use information from the presentence analysis to show a judge that Vallow deserves a lesser sentence. Because she was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in May of 2021, it's possible the defense could bring up Vallow's mental health as a reason she should not receive maximum prison time.
Fisher said that she believes a judge will absolutely take Vallow's mental health into consideration when sentenced.
"They're always looking for sentencing guidelines and criteria that include some punishments and retribution, and mental health is a very important part of that. We know that Lori Vallow had been declared incompetent for a period of time during the pretrial in this case, but then she was able to withstand and make it through the trial. That is important to the court," Fisher said. "At this point, her competency has been determined and she will go forward in this."
Vallow also can't be sentenced to a state hospital, even if the judge decides she could have mental health issues.
According to an Idaho Department of Correction spokesperson, that has never happened, and the agency typically does not transfer prison residents to state hospitals because IDOC has in-house treatment plans.
But, according to Idaho Code 66-335, it is possible that mentally ill prison residents can be admitted into state institutions if they meet the regulations provided by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
When the victim impact statements and arguments have concluded, Judge Boyce will ask Vallow if she would like to make a statement. Once she finishes her statement or declines to speak, the judge can then issue his own statement and sentence Vallow to her term in prison.
Ultimately, the decision on the punishment is up to Judge Boyce, but Fisher says it's unlikely Vallow will get anything less than a fixed life sentence.
"People who who have a mental illness, if that's indeed what she has... It continues to make her a greater threat if she were to be out in the in the community because she can't control her behavior, or is so fixated on what it is that she believes religiously, that she cannot be trusted... And I think that the judge is going to think about that very seriously," Fisher said.
She also stated that the judge can take into consideration what the family members want, the impact of the murders on those family members and the nature of the case itself.
"Because of the ages of the children, but then the nature in which they were murdered in particularly heinous ways and the way that they were buried..." Fisher said. "It will be a big part of what he considers."
Reporter and anchor Shirah Matsuzawa and crime and investigative reporter Alexandra Duggan will be reporting from the courtroom on the day of the sentencing. Follow Shirah on Twitter at @ShirahKTVB, Alex on Twitter @dugganreports, and stay tuned on KTVB for updates.
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Stream Live for FREE on FIRE TV: Search ‘KTVB’ and click ‘Get’ to download. | https://www.12news.com/article/news/special-reports/heres-what-to-expect-during-lori-vallows-sentencing-what-will-happen-at-sentencing/277-4eb1d0fc-0fd3-4382-b73e-a8a5e63edddc | 2023-07-30T16:05:43 | 1 | https://www.12news.com/article/news/special-reports/heres-what-to-expect-during-lori-vallows-sentencing-what-will-happen-at-sentencing/277-4eb1d0fc-0fd3-4382-b73e-a8a5e63edddc |
DENVER – As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation's poorest neighborhoods, doesn't have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that," he said. “If it’s hard to breath, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered it's 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees (43 Celsius) Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn't have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours."
It's the poorest and people of color, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York City and beyond, who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metros.
“The temperature differences ... between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. “There are these really big consequences like death. ... But there's also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing,” said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a nonprofit in Kansas City, Kansas, as temperatures soared to 101, and high humidity made it feel like 109. When the central air conditioning at her rental house went on the fritz, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. She's taken the bus to the library to cool off. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat. ... They don’t complain.”
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursday to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16% of the nation's eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don't offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
While frigid temperatures and high heating bills birthed the term “heat or eat,” she said, “we can now transition to AC or eat, where people are going to have to make difficult decisions.”
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America's low-income neighborhoods like Gallegos' Denver suburb of Globeville, where people live along stretches of asphalt and concrete that hold heat like a cast-iron skillet. Surface temperatures there can be roughly 8 degrees hotter than in Denver’s wealthier neighborhoods, where a sea of vegetation cools the area, according to the environmental advocacy group American Forests.
This disparity plays out nationwide. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70%, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter.
About one in 10 U.S. households have no air conditioning, a disparity compounded for marginalized groups, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Less than 4% of Detroit's white households don't have air conditioning; it's 15% for Black households.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit’s westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker pours water on her head, freezes towels to put around her neck, and sits in her car with the air conditioner on. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
Shannon Lewis, 38, lived in her Detroit home for nearly 20 years without air conditioning. Lewis’s bedroom was the only place with a window unit, so she’d squeeze her teenager, 8-year-old and 3-year-old-twins into her queen-size bed to sleep, eat meals and watch television.
“So it was like cool in one room and a heat stroke in another,” Lewis said. For the first time, Lewis now has air conditioning through a local non-profit, she said. “We don’t have to sleep or eat in the same room, we are able to come out, sit at the dining room table, eat like a family."
After at least 54 died during a 2021 heat wave, mostly elderly people without air conditioning, in the Portland area, Oregon passed a law prohibiting landlords from placing blanket bans on air conditioning units. By and large, however, states don't have laws requiring landlords to provide cooling.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. For people like Gallegos, who doesn't pay taxes, the available credits are worthless.
The law also offers rebates, the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver's Globeville suburb cool. She bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature. When the back door opens in the afternoon, she said, the indoor temperature jumps a degree.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, it's not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can't afford it.
“I’m finding that you have to afford the project in the first place and then it’s like having a bonus coupon to take $5,000 off of the sticker price," she said.
Lucy Molina, a single mom in Commerce City, one of Denver’s poorest areas, said her home has reached 107 degrees without air conditioning. Nearby, Molina’s two teenage children slurped popsicles to cool off, lingering in front of the open freezer.
For Molina, who bustled around her kitchen on a recent day when temperatures reached 99 degrees outdoors, it's hard to see any path to a cooling respite.
“We’re just too poor,” she said.
____
Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
——
Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. | https://www.wsls.com/news/politics/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-of-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:46 | 1 | https://www.wsls.com/news/politics/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-of-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
Canada vs. Australia: Women’s World Cup Group B Odds, Stats and Live Stream - July 31
In each team's third matchup in Group B action at the 2023 Women's World Cup, Australia (3 points) and Canada (4 points) square off on Monday, July 31 at 6:00 AM ET.
Sportsbooks have given Australia odds of +117 to win this match, and Canada is at +235 (with the draw at +228). An over/under of 2.5 goals (with the over at +107 and the under at -141) has been set for this game.
Bet on the result of Australia vs. Canada at DraftKings! Bet now to get a first deposit bonus of up to $1,000!
Australia vs. Canada Game Info
- Date: Monday, July 31, 2023
- Time: 6:00 AM ET
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Venue: Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
- TV Channel: FOX US
- Total: 2.5
- Australia Moneyline: +117
- Canada Moneyline: +235
Australia vs. Canada World Cup Betting Insights
- These teams rack up a combined 2.5 goals per match, which equals this game's over/under.
- Combined, these teams surrender two goals per game, 0.5 fewer than this match's total.
- Australia has been listed as a moneyline favorite just two other times so far this tournament, and went 1-0-1 in those games.
- Australia has played as a moneyline favorite of +117 or shorter in just one game this tournament, which they won.
- Canada has not played a game this tournament as an underdog.
- Canada has not been a bigger underdog this tournament than the +235 moneyline set for this game.
Australia World Cup Stats
Canada World Cup Stats
- In two Women's World Cup matches for Canada, Adriana Leon has tallied one goal (12th in Women's World Cup play).
- Sophie Schmidt has not scored a goal but has recorded one assist for Canada in Women's World Cup.
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Australia vs. Canada Recent Performance
- Australia went 6-1-4 in 2022 versus teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +6. This year, its record is 5-0-1 against fellow World Cup squads (+7 goal differential).
- Australia faced Nigeria in its last game and lost by a final score of 3-2. The defeated Australia side took 27 shots, outshooting by 17.
- van Egmond and Alanna Kennedy scored the two goals for their club in the match against .
- In 2022, Canada was 10-3-3 versus teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +15. This year its record versus fellow World Cup squads is 2-1-3 (-3 goal differential).
- On July 26 in its last game, Canada beat Ireland 2-1. Canada outshot Ireland 16 to 13.
- Leon recorded one goal to lead Canada on three shots.
Australia Roster
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Canada Roster
Not all offers available in all states, please visit DraftKings 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.mysuncoast.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-canada-australia-betting-preview-odds/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:46 | 1 | https://www.mysuncoast.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-canada-australia-betting-preview-odds/ |
BEIRUT – Clashes erupted Sunday in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon, killing at least five people and wounding seven, Palestinian officials said.
UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, put the death toll at six, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two children were among those wounded.
The Palestinian 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 AP.
Ein el-Hilweh is notorious for its lawlessness and violence is not uncommon. The U.N. says about 55,000 people live in the camp, which was established in 1948 to house Palestinians displaced by Israeli forces during the establishment of Israel.
On Sunday, factions blazed away with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers and lobbed hand grenades in the camp as ambulances zoomed through its narrow streets to take the wounded to the hospital.
The fighting stopped for several hours in the morning, though state media said there was still sporadic sniper fire, but fighting erupted again after the killing of the Palestinian general and his escorts.
Some residents in Sidon neighborhoods near the camp fled their homes as stray bullets hit buildings and shattered windows and storefronts. The public Sidon General Hospital evacuated its staff and patients.
The Lebanese army said in a statement that a mortar shell hit a military barracks outside the camp and wounded one soldier, whose condition is stable.
UNRWA said two of its schools that serve some 2,000 students were damaged in the fighting. It said it suspended all its operations in Ein el-Hilweh.
Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the clashes. “We call on the Palestinian leadership to cooperate with the army to control the security situation and hand over those meddling with security to the Lebanese authorities," Mikati said in his statement.
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. | https://www.wsls.com/news/world/2023/07/30/at-least-5-dead-and-7-wounded-in-clashes-inside-crowded-palestinian-refugee-camp-in-lebanon/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:46 | 0 | https://www.wsls.com/news/world/2023/07/30/at-least-5-dead-and-7-wounded-in-clashes-inside-crowded-palestinian-refugee-camp-in-lebanon/ |
FUKUOKA – Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh should be a star at next year’s Paris Olympics, and she showed why Sunday on the closing day of the swimming world championships in Japan.
The 16-year-old McIntosh won her second gold of the event, taking the 400-meter individual medley after winning the 200 butterfly gold on Friday.
That made up for a slow start for the young Canadian, who finished fourth in the 400 free, where she held the world record until Australia's Ariarne Titmus took it back. She also took bronze in the 200 free, at least getting a medal.
“Going into tonight I just wanted to see how hard I could push myself,” McIntosh said.
She did just that. Her time of 4 minutes, 27.11 seconds was the third fastest ever, not far off her world record of 4:25.87. She was also the defending world champion. American Katie Grimes took the silver in 4:31.41, with Jenna Forrester of Australia picking up the bronze in 4:32.30.
“It was definitely motivating,” McIntosh said of her first few days. “I try to turn everything that goes wrong into motivation somehow.”
Asked about Paris, she replied: “Right now I'm just thinking about a little break.”
McIntosh should be joined by other young stars in Paris like 21-year-old Frenchman Leon Marchand and Australia's 22-year-old Kaylee McKeown. Marchand and McKeown each won three individual golds.
The Americans also closed fast.
After winning only four gold medals during the first seven days, they picked up three on the eighth and final day for a total of seven golds and 38 overall. The gold total is still their lowest in a worlds going back for around 20 years. They won only eight in the 2015 worlds.
Australia finished with 13 gold and 20 overall, and China had five gold and 16 overall.
“This is the cherry on top,” said American Regan Smith, part of the winning 4x100 women’s medley relay. “I love racing with these girls and I love relays so much and brining home a gold in the last event for Team USA means so much to me and all of us.”
The Americans finished in 3:52.08, followed by Australia (3:53.37) and Canada (3:54.12).
The United States also won the men’s 4x100 medley in 3:27.20, ahead of China (3:29.00) and Australia (3:29.62), and added another gold with Hunter Armstrong in the 50-meter backstroke (24.05).
Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden made history with her victory in the women’s 50-meter freestyle. The gold gave Sjostrom 21 medals in individual races in the world championships, surpassing Michael Phelps who had 20.
Sjostrom, who set the world record in the semifinals on Saturday, powered home in the final 25 meters for the win, clocking 23.62. Shayna Jack of Australia picked up the silver in 24.10, while Zhang Yufei of China earned the bronze in 24.15.
Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania set a world record on the way to winning gold in the women’s 50-meter breaststroke in 29.16. She equaled the old world mark of 29.30 the night before in the semifinals.
Meilutyte grabbed the early lead and was never challenged. American Lilly King claimed the silver in 29.94, while Benedetta Pilato of Italy picked up the bronze in 30.04. She shared the old record of 29.30 with Meilutyte.
Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia added the men’s 1,500-meter free gold to the 800 free he won earlier in the worlds, prevailing in an epic battle with American Bobby Finke that went down to the wire.
The 20-year-old Hafnaoui, the defending 400 free Olympic champion, captured the gold in 14:31.54, with Finke clocking 14:31.59 for silver. Sam Short of Australia rounded out the podium with the bronze in 14:37.28.
The mark was just off the world record by Sun Yang of China, 14:31.02, set in 2012. Sun has been suspended for a doping violation.
“Bobby (Finke) is so fast at the end of the race. he pushed us to do the 14.31," Hafnaoui said. "It was so close to the world record. I mean I enjoyed the race and thanks Bobby for pushing me.”
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wsls.com/sports/2023/07/30/canadian-summer-mcintosh-16-gets-second-gold-medal-at-swimming-worlds-in-japan/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:47 | 1 | https://www.wsls.com/sports/2023/07/30/canadian-summer-mcintosh-16-gets-second-gold-medal-at-swimming-worlds-in-japan/ |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The cosmos is offering up a double feature in August: a pair of supermoons culminating in a rare blue moon.
Catch the first show Tuesday evening as the full moon rises in the southeast, appearing slightly brighter and bigger than normal. That’s because it will be closer than usual, just 222,159 miles (357,530 kilometers) away, thus the supermoon label.
The moon will be even closer the night of Aug. 30 — a scant 222,043 miles (357,344 kilometers) distant. Because it’s the second full moon in the same month, it will be what’s called a blue moon.
“Warm summer nights are the ideal time to watch the full moon rise in the eastern sky within minutes of sunset. And it happens twice in August,” said retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak, dubbed Mr. Eclipse for his eclipse-chasing expertise.
The last time two full supermoons graced the sky in the same month was in 2018. It won’t happen again until 2037, according to Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project.
Masi will provide a live webcast of Tuesday evening’s supermoon, as it rises over the Coliseum in Rome.
“My plans are to capture the beauty of this … hopefully bringing the emotion of the show to our viewers,” Masi said in an email.
“The supermoon offers us a great opportunity to look up and discover the sky,” he added.
This year’s first supermoon was in July. The fourth and last will be in September. The two in August will be closer than either of those.
Provided clear skies, binoculars or backyard telescopes can enhance the experience, Espenak said, revealing such features as lunar maria — the dark plains formed by ancient volcanic lava flows — and rays emanating from lunar craters.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the August full moon is traditionally known as the sturgeon moon. That’s because of the abundance of that fish in the Great Lakes in August, hundreds of years ago.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/nasa-space-and-science/ap-two-supermoons-in-august-mean-double-the-stargazing-fun/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:48 | 1 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/nasa-space-and-science/ap-two-supermoons-in-august-mean-double-the-stargazing-fun/ |
MUSKEGON, MI – Now that it has the funding in hand, the city of Muskegon is seeking artists to paint street murals in its Lakeside Business District.
The city recently was the recipient of a $5,000 Bridge Builders “micro grant” from the Michigan Municipal League.
The Lakeside Cross Walk Art Project involves four murals painted on Lakeshore Drive pavement. Murals will be painted on crosswalks at Mann, Moon, Torrent and Blodgett streets.
The city is accepting applications from artists interested in painting the murals. Each selected artist will receive a $1,000 stipend plus $250 for materials.
Applications are available by clicking here.
Designs should “celebrate” Lakeside, Muskegon Lake and the City of Muskegon. Artists are asked to provide information about their background and public art experience along with a mockup of the proposed concept and photos of previous artwork.
The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. Aug. 7, with awardees being announced by Aug. 18.
Murals are to be completed in one day during the second half of September.
Want more Muskegon area news? Bookmark the local Muskegon news page or sign up for the free “3@3 Muskegon” daily newsletter.
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2023 Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival ultimate guide: Live music, ship tours on deck | https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/2023/07/artists-sought-for-street-murals-in-muskegons-lakeside-business-district.html | 2023-07-30T16:05:48 | 1 | https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/2023/07/artists-sought-for-street-murals-in-muskegons-lakeside-business-district.html |
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against CNN in which the former U.S. president claimed that references in news articles or by the network’s hosts to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” was tantamount to comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
Trump had been seeking punitive damages of $475 million in the federal lawsuit filed last October in South Florida, claiming the references hurt his reputation and political career. Trump is a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in what is his third run for the presidency.
U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal, who was appointed by Trump, said Friday in his ruling that the former president’s defamation claims failed because the references were opinions and not factual statements. Moreover, it was a stretch to believe that, in viewers’ minds, that phrase would connect Trump’s efforts challenging the 2020 election results to Nazi propaganda or Hitler’s genocidal and authoritarian regime, the judge said.
“CNN’s use of the phrase ‘the Big Lie’ in connection with Trump’s election challenges does not give rise to a plausible inference that Trump advocates the persecution and genocide of Jews or any other group of people,” the judge wrote in his decision.
Email messages seeking comment were sent to Trump’s attorneys in South Florida and Washington. Email messages seeking comment also were sent to CNN attorneys in Atlanta and South Florida.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-the-big-lie-dismissed-in-florida/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_business | 2023-07-30T16:05:50 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-the-big-lie-dismissed-in-florida/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_business |
Ireland vs. Nigeria: Women’s World Cup Group B Odds, Stats and Live Stream - July 31
On Monday, July 31 at 6:00 AM ET, Nigeria (4 points) and Ireland (0 points) match up for each side's final match in Group B at the 2023 Women's World Cup.
The moneyline odds for Nigeria to win this game are +120, with the draw at +234 and Ireland at +218. An over/under of 2.5 goals has been set for this match.
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Nigeria vs. Ireland Game Info
- Date: Monday, July 31, 2023
- Time: 6:00 AM ET
- Location: Brisbane, Australia
- Venue: Suncorp Stadium
- TV Channel: Fox Sports 1
- Total: 2.5
- Nigeria Moneyline: +120
- Ireland Moneyline: +218
Nigeria vs. Ireland World Cup Betting Insights
- These teams average two goals per match combined, 0.5 less than this game's total.
- Opponents of these teams score a combined 2.5 goals per game, equal to this game's total.
- Nigeria has not been a moneyline favorite yet this tournament.
- Nigeria has not played a game this tournament with moneyline odds of +120 or shorter.
- Ireland has been an underdog twice so far this tournament, and went 0-0-2 in those games.
- Ireland has played as an underdog of +218 or more once this tournament and lost that game.
Nigeria World Cup Stats
Ireland World Cup Stats
- Katie McCabe has scored one goal for Ireland in Women's World Cup (two games).
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Nigeria vs. Ireland Recent Performance
- Nigeria went 0-1-7 in 2022 versus teams playing in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of -11. This year, its record is 4-1-1 versus fellow World Cup squads (+5 goal differential).
- Nigeria picked up a win on July 27 against Australia by a final score of 3-2. The victorious Nigeria took 17 fewer shots in the game, 10 compared to Australia's 27.
- Ohale, Oshoala and Kanu combined to score the three goals for their club in the match against .
- In 2022, Ireland was 1-0-0 against teams participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup, with a goal differential of +4. This year its record versus fellow World Cup squads is 1-1-5 (-7 goal differential).
- In its most recent game, Ireland was taken down by Canada 2-1 on July 26. Canada outshot Ireland 16 to 13.
- McCabe had the only goal for Ireland on three shots.
Nigeria Roster
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Ireland Roster
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.mysuncoast.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-ireland-nigeria-betting-preview-odds/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:52 | 0 | https://www.mysuncoast.com/sports/betting/2023/07/31/2023-womens-world-cup-ireland-nigeria-betting-preview-odds/ |
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS – Defending Formula One champion Max Verstappen emphatically won the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday for an eighth straight win and 10th overall of a crushingly dominant season.
Despite starting from sixth place he finished 22.3 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez to give Red Bull an easy 1-2. It moved Verstappen ominously closer to a third straight world title and his own F1 record of 15 wins from last year.
Verstappen is 125 points ahead of Perez after just 12 races, and his next target is matching Sebastian Vettel’s F1 record of nine straight wins with a victory at the Dutch GP when the lopsided season resumes on Aug. 27.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished in third spot for a third podium of the season, with Lewis Hamilton in fourth for Mercedes ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.
George Russell was sixth for Mercedes, with Lando Norris (McLaren), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) completing the top 10.
Leclerc started on pole ahead of Perez, with Hamilton and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. behind them. McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri was on the next row alongside Verstappen — who was fastest in Friday's qualifying but took a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change and had to avoid early traffic.
“It was just about surviving turn one. I could see it was all getting really tight,” Verstappen said. “I’ve been in that position before myself so I am just going to stay out of that and it worked out. From there onwards I made the right overtakes.”
Last year Verstappen won from 14th, and once he overtook Perez on Lap 17 of 44 his 45th career win was seemingly inevitable.
Red Bull extended its record to 13 straight wins, including the final race of last season.
Hamilton came in on the penultimate lap for a tire change and the move paid off as he took the bonus point for fastest lap from Verstappen — a very minor blip for the dominant Dutchman.
It was yet another stellar weekend for Verstappen, who also won Saturday’s sprint race. The only issue was some more bickering with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over radio, as they continued their spat from Friday’s qualifying.
“Don’t forget Max, use your head, please,” Lambiase told Verstappen when he questioned why Perez was making his first tire change on Lap 14.
With some rain forecast, Verstappen boxed on the next lap and came out about 2 seconds behind Perez. Just minutes later he cruised past Perez and, as so often this season, the rest was just about control.
Perez, meanwhile, pledged to stay on the podium for the rest of the season.
“It’s been a bit of a rough patch," the 33-year-old Mexican said. "I really need this summer break, it’s been really intense. I’ll come back really strong for Zandvoort.”
Conditions were dry for the race start, in stark contrast to the two previous days, which were impacted by heavy rain at the 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Leclerc, who won his first F1 race here in 2019, made a solid start but Perez’s extra pace soon put him in front. Verstappen rose two places to fourth after Sainz bumped into Piastri on the first corner.
Piastri had to retire, while Verstappen overtook Hamilton on Lap 6, Leclerc three laps later and made short work of Perez just before some rain fell briefly.
Some good overtaking from Ocon moved the Frenchman up from 10th to eighth in the closing stages.
It was an early end for Piastri, who had impressed with a second place in Saturday’s sprint race.
A bad day for Sainz saw him retiring on Lap 25 and Leclerc moving above him in the standings.
“Of course the race was good on my side, a shame for Carlos as we had good pace,” Leclerc said. "When you look at the Red Bulls we still have a lot of work to do.”
After the F1 break there will be 10 races left, but most of the competition for places will be behind Verstappen.
Alonso is one point ahead of Hamilton in third overall, with Leclerc and Russell level and Sainz seven points behind them.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wsls.com/sports/2023/07/30/verstappen-wins-belgian-gp-to-extend-huge-f1-lead-red-bull-teammate-perez-2nd/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:53 | 1 | https://www.wsls.com/sports/2023/07/30/verstappen-wins-belgian-gp-to-extend-huge-f1-lead-red-bull-teammate-perez-2nd/ |
CHESANING, MI — Saginaw County Fair organizers will trade rodeos for demolition derby and a concert from a popular band this year.
The fair will return for its 110th season, from Tuesday to Saturday, Aug. 1-5, at the Saginaw County Fairgrounds, 11350 Peet in Chesaning. | https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2023/07/demolition-derbies-jedi-mind-trick-concert-new-to-saginaw-county-fair-lineup.html | 2023-07-30T16:05:54 | 0 | https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2023/07/demolition-derbies-jedi-mind-trick-concert-new-to-saginaw-county-fair-lineup.html |
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The oldest historically Black collegiate fraternity in the U.S. says it is relocating a planned convention in two years from Florida because of what it described as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration’s “harmful, racist and insensitive” policies towards African Americans.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity said this week that it would move its 2025 convention from Orlando to another location that is yet undecided. The convention draws between 4,000 and 6,000 people and has an economic impact of $4.6 million, the fraternity said.
The decision comes after the NAACP and other civil rights organizations this spring issued a travel advisory for Florida, warning that recently passed laws and policies are openly hostile to African Americans, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Willis Lonzer, the fraternity’s general president, said in statement on Wednesday that the decision was motivated in part by Florida’s new education standards that require teachers to instruct middle school students that slaves developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“Although we are moving our convention from Florida, Alpha Phi Alpha will continue to support the strong advocacy of Alpha Brothers and other advocates fighting against the continued assault on our communities in Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis,” Lonzer said.
An email seeking comment on Saturday about the fraternity’s decision was sent to Jeremy Redfern, the governor’s press secretary and the governor’s office.
DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, has come under fire this week over Florida’s new education standards. Among those criticizing the Florida governor on Friday was a rival for the Republican nomination, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the sole Black Republican in the Senate.
Responding to the criticism, DeSantis said Friday that he was “defending” Florida “against false accusations and against lies. And we’re going to continue to speak the truth.”
In May, the NAACP joined the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a Latino civil rights organization, and Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group, in issuing travel advisories for the Sunshine State, where tourism is one of the state’s largest job sectors. The groups cited recent laws that prohibited state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as critical race theory, and the Stop WOKE Act that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses.
They also cited laws that they say made life more difficult for immigrants in Florida and limited discussions on LGBTQ topics in schools.
At least nine other organizations or associations have pulled the plug on hosting conventions in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, two of the state’s most population convention cities, because of Florida’s political climate, according to local media reports.
Florida is one of the most popular states in the U.S. for tourists, and tourism is one of its biggest industries. More than 137.5 million tourists visited Florida last year, marking a return to pre-pandemic levels, according to Visit Florida, the state’s tourism promotion agency. Tourism supports 1.6 million full-time and part-time jobs, and visitors spent $98.8 billion in Florida in 2019, the last year figures are available.
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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/politics/ap-historically-black-fraternity-drops-florida-for-convention-because-of-desantis-policies/ | 2023-07-30T16:05:54 | 1 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/politics/ap-historically-black-fraternity-drops-florida-for-convention-because-of-desantis-policies/ |
Max Scherzer is coming back to the American League for the first time since he suited up for the Detroit Tigers.
The 39-year-old future Hall-of-Famer was traded by the New York Mets to the Texas Rangers in an unexpected blockbuster deal that was first reported on Saturday. Neither team has officially confirmed the trade.
According to multiple reports, the deal would send infielder Luisangel Acuña, one of the Rangers’ top prospects, to New York.
Acuña is the younger brother of Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr.
Additionally, Scherzer has agreed to exercise a player option for 2024 worth $43 million. The Mets would pay about $35 million to the Rangers to defray his $58 million in remaining salary obligations.
The Mets (49-55) appeared to be assembling a superteam this winter, but have been the biggest disappointment in baseball in 2023. They’re 18 games behind first-place Atlanta in the National League East and 6 1/2 games back in the Wild Card race.
They’ve traded closer David Robertson and could look to deal veteran starter Justin Verlander, who like Scherzer signed a rich, short-term deal with the Mets.
Scherzer and Verlander started back-to-back games at Comerica Park when the Mets came to town in early May. (The Tigers won both games and swept the Mets, which might have been an early sign that not everything would go according to plan for the Mets in 2023).
Scherzer pitched for the Tigers from 2010-2014. Upon reaching free agency, he signed a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Washington Nationals after the 2014 season. It turned out to be a bargain for the Nats, who made the playoffs three times and won the 2019 World Series during Scherzer’s tenure.
“It was definitely tough (leaving Detroit),” Scherzer said. “You’re here, you want things to work out. But sometimes a business situation doesn’t work out in your favor. That was just the way it worked. I don’t need to rehash old stories about that. I made my decision. I felt comfortable with it. I knew what I wanted to do. And I ended up having a great seven years there in Washington.”
Scherzer signed a three-year, $130 million deal with the Mets that will take his career earnings over $300 million.
He’ll now reach that milestone -- and turn 40 -- with the Texas Rangers. | https://www.mlive.com/tigers/2023/07/former-tigers-starter-back-in-al-after-blockbuster-trade.html | 2023-07-30T16:06:00 | 0 | https://www.mlive.com/tigers/2023/07/former-tigers-starter-back-in-al-after-blockbuster-trade.html |
PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Not long ago, Marine Col. Jennifer Nash, a combat engineer with war deployments under her belt, made a vow to fellow officers as they headed to a dinner in Atlanta: She would get two new recruiting contacts by the end of the evening.
She admits recruiting is not the job that she or other Marines had in mind when they enlisted. But after stints as a recruiter and senior officer at the Eastern recruiting command, she has become emblematic of the Corps’ tradition of putting its best, battle-tested Marines on enlistment duty. They get results.
Marine leaders say they will make their recruiting goal this year, while the active-duty Army, Navy and Air Force all expect to fall short. The services have struggled in the tight job market to compete with higher-paying businesses for the dwindling number of young people who can meet the military’s physical, mental and moral standards.
On that night, Nash achieved her own goal. She had gotten the valet at the hotel and the hostess at the restaurant to provide their phone numbers and to consider a Marine career.
Nash’s boss, Brig. Gen. Walker Field, who head the Eastern recruiting region, says the Corps has historically put an emphasis on selecting top-performing Marines to fill recruiting jobs. He says that has been a key to the Marines’ recruiting success, along with efforts to increase the number of recruiters, extend those who do well and speed their return to high schools, where in-person recruiting stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said his recruiters — who cover the territory between Canada and Puerto Rico and as far west as Mississippi — will meet their mission and expect to have 30% of their 2024 goal when they start the next fiscal year, Oct. 1. More broadly, Marine officials say they expect the Corps to achieve its recruiting target of more than 33,000.
Last year, the Navy, Air Force and Marines had to eat into their pools of delayed entry applicants in order to make their goals. The Marines will avoid that this year.
“That would be a great ending,” said Field, speaking to The Associated Press on a recent steamy day at South Carolina’s Parris Island, along the Atlantic Coast. “I’m bearish for not only concluding FY23 on a strong footing, but also how we set the conditions for FY24.”
The Marine Corps may get some help from its small size. The Army, for example, has a recruiting goal of 65,000 this year, which is nearly double the Corps’, and expects to fall substantially short of that. Air Force and Navy officials say they will also miss their goals, although the Space Force, which is the smallest service and does its recruiting within Air Force stations, is expected to meet its goal of about 500 recruits.
Sitting in the shadow of Parris Island’s replica of the Iwo Jima monument, Field said his biggest challenge is that a number of Marine hopefuls cannot pass the military’s academic test, known as the Armed Services Voluntary Aptitude Battery.
That is a widespread problem, but the Army recently set up a program that targets recruits who score below 30 on the test and provides schooling for several weeks to help them pass. Already more than 8,800 recruits have successfully gone through the classes, raised their scores and moved on to basic training.
The Navy is taking another route with a pilot program that allows up to 20% of their recruits to score below 30 on the test, as long as they meet specific standards for their chosen naval job. Marine leaders, however, do not take those lowest scoring recruits, and so far have no plans for any type of formal improvement program such as the Army’s.
Field said the Marines are repositioning recruiting stations, moving them around based on where population totals have increased in the latest census. More important, he said, the Corps maintains its focus on choosing the right recruiters, encouraging successful ones to stay in the job and increasing the number of Marine reservists tapped for recruit duties from the current 31 to 96 by the end of next year.
Nash, who until last month was assistant chief of staff for the Eastern region, said Marines are hand-selected for recruiting command jobs. Many three- and four-star Marines, including former Defense Secretary James Mattis, will cite their years doing enlistment duty.
“We put our best and brightest in those positions,” said Nash, adding that those chosen for recruiting posts have a proven track record of success in previous assignments and have demonstrated critical leadership skills. “That’s why they got selected, because they were above their peers.”
She acknowledged that the first time she was picked for a recruiting job she was “voluntold.” But now, recounting her sales pitch in Atlanta, her rapid fire pitch comes without taking a breath.
“I say, ‘Hey, ever thought about being Marine? We’re a bunch of Marines. And, you know, I think you potentially could be a good Marine. You ever thought about it?’ And usually you get, ‘Yeah, I thought about it.’ And I’m, like, ‘What’s holding you back? Would you like to learn more about your opportunities?’ ‘Absolutely.’ `OK. Mind giving me your name and phone number? I’ll have one of my recruiters give you a phone call.’”
The Marines have resisted increasing bonuses to attract recruits — something the other services have found helpful.
Gen. Eric Smith, the acting Marine Corps commandant, got some ribbing for his response when he was asked about bonuses during a naval conference in February.
“Your bonus is you get to call yourself a Marine,” he said. “That’s your bonus, right? There’s no dollar amount that goes with that.”
Field, Nash and others also say the Corps prefers to give a lot of recruits a few thousand dollars, rather than increasing the amount and giving money to far fewer people.
Field said that getting Marine recruiters in uniform back into high schools this year, after several years of COVID-19 restrictions, has been a key driver. There, young people line up to compete in pull-up contests, vying for a free T-shirt if they can do 20. And recruiters say many are drawn to the cache of being a Marine.
“If you told me you’ll give me $10 million worth of advertising and I can do something with it, or you’ll give me 10 great-looking Marines in a Marine uniform — what’s going to get the most value? Give me those 10 Marines and give me a day,” Nash said. “We’ll go out and we’ll get more out of that, I think, than $10 million in advertising.” | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/politics/ap-the-few-and-the-proud-arent-so-few-marines-recruiting-surges-while-other-services-struggle/ | 2023-07-30T16:06:01 | 1 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/politics/ap-the-few-and-the-proud-arent-so-few-marines-recruiting-surges-while-other-services-struggle/ |
MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — A shooting at a large party in Indiana early Sunday morning left one person dead, police said. A hospital said 19 people were being treated for injuries at its facility.
Muncie police responded to multiple reports of gunfire on the city’s east side just after 1 a.m., The Star Press reported. Police said in a news release that there was no active threat to the community and that “multiple” victims were injured, including some critically.
“Due to the number of victims and nature of the incident, multiple agencies were contacted to assist,” Muncie Deputy Police Chief Melissa Criswell said in a statement sent to The Star Press.
Police did not say how many people were injured, but officials at Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie told The Associated Press that 19 victims were treated in their emergency department for injuries related to the shooting, and 13 remained at the hospital in stabilized condition Sunday morning. Criswell said some victims sustained critical injuries and were transferred by medical helicopter to other facilities. | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/one-person-is-dead-and-multiple-were-wounded-in-indiana-shooting-police-say/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_business | 2023-07-30T16:06:05 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/one-person-is-dead-and-multiple-were-wounded-in-indiana-shooting-police-say/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_business |
In the world of pizza, Chicago will forever be associated with the gut-busting deep-dish version. But recently, it’s the city’s crisp-crusted, tavern-style pie that’s dominating menus from New York to Los Angeles.
“Nothing is more Chicago than a cracker-thin pizza,” maintains Tony Scardino, a Windy City pizzaiolo who runs the Professor Pizza pop-up. His family started serving tavern pies to Chicagoans 80 years ago.
A tavern pie bears little resemblance to its pudgy, deep-dish cousin. The slim, butter-imbued crust can be as crunchy as a Saltine cracker when it’s done right. It’s loaded with toppings — the classic is Italian sausage — that spill from edge to edge and over the sides of the round pie. It’s cut into small squares, perfect for balancing a beer in one hand and a slice in the other.
In fact, the shape is key to the pie’s origin story. Steve Dolinsky, Chicago pizza expert and author of “The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide: A History of Squares & Slices in the Windy City,” believes the style was born in the 1940s when bar owners with kitchens started offering customers a salty bite alongside a frosty beer or whiskey shot. They cut them into small squares “so they’d fit on a cocktail napkin,” says Dolinsky, enabling patrons to eat without plates or utensils.
It was a way for tavern owners “to keep patrons at the bar as long as possible after their workday,” explains Scardino. In the ’40s, his grandfather, also named Tony Scardino, began making the crisp pies: He would “lace the pizzas with anchovy oil or diced anchovies for added salt content — in order to entice patrons to order more beer.”
Besides offering the ability to double fist a slice with a drink, the pizzas have the advantage of being cooked in gas ovens. Although Pizza Master ovens are the equipment of choice for many chefs, home cooks could ultimately fire a tavern-style pie in a home oven that can reach 500 degrees.
Software engineer-turned-pizza maker Dave Lichterman launched Windy City Pie out of his Seattle condo in 2015; now, he runs it from an unfussy, art deco-styled dining room in Phinney Ridge. After nearly five years of research, he added tavern pizzas to the menu.
In addition to a build-your-own option, he’s serving two of his own arrangements: the Starkness ($25), made with red sauce, mozzarella, roasted garlic, pepperoni and mushrooms, and the Dolinsky ($23), an ode to the renowned pizza expert, with the same red sauce and mozzarella plus housemade Italian sausage and hot giardiniera. In the spirit of Chicago, the amari-focused bar program includes the city’s notorious Malört on tap.
This low-barrier, dogma-free entry — compared with, say, the requisite 1,000 degrees, often wood-fueled inferno needed to leopard spot a Neapolitan pie — makes the tavern style especially appealing to chefs. An added benefit for New York pizza shop owners: They won’t be affected by a proposed law that would require restaurants baking with coal- and wood-fueled hearths to cut down on carbon emissions by buying expensive air filtration systems. Tavern-style pizza fervor has already gripped Manhattan, thanks to Windy City native Emmett Burke and his hip Midwestern pizza parlor, Emmett’s on Grove.
“When I was growing up in Chicago, tavern-style thin crust pizza was not a destination pizza,” recalls Lichterman, who began serving the pies almost a decade ago. He’s watching the pizza landscape change. “There are chefs in and out of the Midwest really elevating and enhancing [tavern] pizza with their unique spin, ingredients and culinary perspective,” he says. | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/the-pizza-thats-taking-over-the-u-s-and-seattle/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_business | 2023-07-30T16:06:05 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/the-pizza-thats-taking-over-the-u-s-and-seattle/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_business |
Miguel Cabrera will start this third consecutive game against the Marlins as he completes his weekend sendoff in Miami on Sunday afternoon.
Jake Rogers will get the start at catcher. Andy Ibanez will be back at second base, with Zack Short at third.
How to Watch the Detroit Tigers vs. Miami Marlins: Channel, Stream
The full lineup is below. Catcher Eric Haase; infielder Nick Maton; infielder/outfielder Zach McKinstry; and outfielder Akil Baddoo will be available off the bench.
On the mound, Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal (1-1, 3.71 ERA) will face Marlins lefty Jesus Luzardo (8-5, 3.22).
Skubal pitched five dominant innings to beat the San Francisco Giants in his last start on Monday in Detroit. Skubal allowed just two singles and struck out nine batters without allowing a walk to earn his first win since July 21, 2022.
Tigers vs. Marlins: Odds, picks and predictions | https://www.mlive.com/tigers/2023/07/tigers-lineup-miguel-cabrera-making-third-straight-start-in-miami.html | 2023-07-30T16:06:06 | 1 | https://www.mlive.com/tigers/2023/07/tigers-lineup-miguel-cabrera-making-third-straight-start-in-miami.html |
DENVER (AP) — As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breath, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered it’s 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees (43 Celsius) Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn’t have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.”
It’s the poorest and people of color, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York City and beyond, who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metros.
“The temperature differences … between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. “There are these really big consequences like death. … But there’s also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing,” said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a nonprofit in Kansas City, Kansas, as temperatures soared to 101, and high humidity made it feel like 109. When the central air conditioning at her rental house went on the fritz, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. She’s taken the bus to the library to cool off. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat. … They don’t complain.”
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursday to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16% of the nation’s eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don’t offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
While frigid temperatures and high heating bills birthed the term “heat or eat,” she said, “we can now transition to AC or eat, where people are going to have to make difficult decisions.”
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America’s low-income neighborhoods like Gallegos’ Denver suburb of Globeville, where people live along stretches of asphalt and concrete that hold heat like a cast-iron skillet. Surface temperatures there can be roughly 8 degrees hotter than in Denver’s wealthier neighborhoods, where a sea of vegetation cools the area, according to the environmental advocacy group American Forests.
This disparity plays out nationwide. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70%, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter.
About one in 10 U.S. households have no air conditioning, a disparity compounded for marginalized groups, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Less than 4% of Detroit’s white households don’t have air conditioning; it’s 15% for Black households.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit’s westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker pours water on her head, freezes towels to put around her neck, and sits in her car with the air conditioner on. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
Shannon Lewis, 38, lived in her Detroit home for nearly 20 years without air conditioning. Lewis’s bedroom was the only place with a window unit, so she’d squeeze her teenager, 8-year-old and 3-year-old-twins into her queen-size bed to sleep, eat meals and watch television.
“So it was like cool in one room and a heat stroke in another,” Lewis said. For the first time, Lewis now has air conditioning through a local non-profit, she said. “We don’t have to sleep or eat in the same room, we are able to come out, sit at the dining room table, eat like a family.”
After at least 54 died during a 2021 heat wave, mostly elderly people without air conditioning, in the Portland area, Oregon passed a law prohibiting landlords from placing blanket bans on air conditioning units. By and large, however, states don’t have laws requiring landlords to provide cooling.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. For people like Gallegos, who doesn’t pay taxes, the available credits are worthless.
The law also offers rebates, the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver’s Globeville suburb cool. She bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature. When the back door opens in the afternoon, she said, the indoor temperature jumps a degree.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, it’s not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can’t afford it.
“I’m finding that you have to afford the project in the first place and then it’s like having a bonus coupon to take $5,000 off of the sticker price,” she said.
Lucy Molina, a single mom in Commerce City, one of Denver’s poorest areas, said her home has reached 107 degrees without air conditioning. Nearby, Molina’s two teenage children slurped popsicles to cool off, lingering in front of the open freezer.
For Molina, who bustled around her kitchen on a recent day when temperatures reached 99 degrees outdoors, it’s hard to see any path to a cooling respite.
“We’re just too poor,” she said.
____
Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
——
Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-of-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seattle-news | 2023-07-30T16:06:07 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-of-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seattle-news |
NEW YORK (AP) — At a moment of growing legal peril, Donald Trump ramped up his calls for his GOP rivals to drop out of the 2024 presidential race as he threatened to primary Republican members of Congress who fail to focus on investigating Democratic President Joe Biden and urged them to halt Ukrainian military aid until the White House cooperates with their investigations into Biden and his family.
“Every dollar spent attacking me by Republicans is a dollar given straight to the Biden campaign,” Trump said at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night. The former president and GOP front-runner said it was time for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others he dismissed as “clowns” to clear the field, accusing them of “wasting hundreds of millions of dollars that Republicans should be using to build a massive vote-gathering operation” to take on Biden in November.
The comments came two days after federal prosecutors unveiled new criminal charges against Trump as part of the case that accuses him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club and refusing to turn them over to investigators. The superseding indictment unsealed Thursday alleges that Trump and two staffers sought to delete surveillance at the club in an effort to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation.
The case is just one of Trump’s mounting legal challenges. His team is currently bracing for additional possible indictments, which could happen as soon as this coming week, related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election brought by prosecutors in both Washington and Georgia. Trump already faces criminal charges in New York over hush money payments made to women who accused him of sexual encounters during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Nevertheless, Trump remains the dominant early figure for the Republican nomination and has only seen his lead grow as the charges have mounted and as his rivals have struggled to respond. Their challenge was on display at a GOP gathering in Iowa Friday night, where they largely declined to go after Trump directly. The only one who did — accusing Trump of “running to stay out of prison” — was booed as he left the stage.
In the meantime, Trump has embraced his legal woes, turning them into the core message of his bid to return to the White House as he accuses Biden of using the Justice Department to maim his chief political rival. The White House has said repeatedly that the president has had no involvement in the cases.
At rallies — including Saturday’s — Trump has tried to frame the charges, which come with serious threats of jail time, as an attack not just on him, but those who support him.
“They’re not indicting me, they’re indicting you. I just happen to be standing in the way,” he told the arena crowd in Erie, adding that, “Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it actually a great badge of honor…. Because I’m being indicted for you.”
But the investigations are also sucking up enormous resources that are being diverted from the nuts and bolts of the campaign. The Washington Post first reported Saturday that Trump’s political action committee, Save America, will report Monday that it spent more than $40 million on legal fees during the first half of 2023 defending Trump and all of the current and former aides whose lawyers it is paying. The total is more than the campaign raised during the second quarter of the year.
“In order to combat these heinous actions by Joe Biden’s cronies and to protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed, the leadership PAC contributed to their legal fees to ensure they have representation against unlawful harassment,” said Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung.
At the rally — held in a former Democratic stronghold that Trump flipped in 2016, but Biden won narrowly in 2020 — Trump also threatened Republicans in Congress who refuse to go along with efforts to impeach Biden. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said this past week that Republican lawmakers may consider an impeachment inquiry into the president over unproven claims of financial misconduct.
Trump, who was impeached twice while in office, said Saturday that, “The biggest complaint that I get is that the Republicans find out this information and then they do nothing about it.”
“Any Republican that doesn’t act on Democrat fraud should be immediately primaries and get out — out!” he told the crowd to loud applause. “They have to play tough and … if they’re not willing to do it, we got a lot of good, tough Republicans around … and they’re going to get my endorsement every singe time.”
Trump, during the 2022 midterm elections, made it his mission to punish those who had voted in favor of his second impeachment and succeeded in unseating most who had by backing primary challengers.
At the rally, Trump also called on Republican members of Congress to halt the authorization of additional military support to Ukraine, which has been mired in a war fighting Russia’s invasion, until the Biden administration cooperates with Republican investigations into Biden and his family’s business dealings — words that echoed the call that lead to his first impeachment.
“He’s dragging into a global conflict on behalf of the very same country, Ukraine, that apparently paid his family all of these millions of dollars,” Trump alleged. “In light of this information,” Congress, he said, “should refuse to authorize a single additional payment of our depleted stockpiles … the weapons stockpiles to Ukraine until the FBI, DOJ and IRS hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden crime family’s corrupt business dealings.”
House Republicans have been investigating the Biden family’s finances, particularly payments Hunter, the president’s son, received from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that became tangled in the first impeachment of Trump.
An unnamed confidential FBI informant claimed that Burisma company officials in 2015 and 2016 sought to pay the Bidens $5 million each in return for their help ousting a Ukrainian prosecutor who was purportedly investigating the company. But a Justice Department review in 2020, while Trump was president, was closed eight months later with insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.
Trump’s first impeachment by the House resulted in charges that he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to dig up dirt on the Bidens while threatening to withhold military aid. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate. | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/politics/ap-trump-amid-legal-perils-calls-on-gop-to-rally-around-him-as-he-threatens-primary-challenges/ | 2023-07-30T16:06:07 | 0 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/politics/ap-trump-amid-legal-perils-calls-on-gop-to-rally-around-him-as-he-threatens-primary-challenges/ |
OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) — Two people were killed and two others injured Saturday in a midair collision at an airport in Wisconsin.
A Rotorway 162F helicopter and an ELA Eclipse 10 gyrocopter collided shortly after noon local time at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, authorities said. The aircraft belonged to individuals attending the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual fly-in convention in Oshkosh but were not involved in the air show, a statement from the organization said.
The association, citing the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, said two people were killed and two injured. The injured were taken to a local hospital and were in stable condition.
The association said further information would be released as additional details are confirmed. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
Separately, a plane earlier Saturday crashed into Lake Winnebago near Oshkosh, killing two people, according to the sheriff’s office. The NTSB is also investigating that case, which involved a single-engine North American T-6 aircraft. | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-4-dead-2-injured-in-separate-aircraft-accidents-in-wisconsin-authorities-say/ | 2023-07-30T16:06:14 | 0 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-4-dead-2-injured-in-separate-aircraft-accidents-in-wisconsin-authorities-say/ |
A skeptical grand jury that convened in December to investigate the February 2022 shooting death of an Alvo man at the hands of a Cass County Sheriff's deputy ultimately voted not to indict the deputy, clearing him of criminal wrongdoing in Andrew Stratton's death.
The grand jury — which spent much of two days in a Plattsmouth courtroom reviewing bodycam footage and hearing witness testimony in Stratton's Feb. 13, 2022, killing — voted 14-2 not to indict Deputy Elliot Schmit, who shot Stratton seven times with his personally owned semiautomatic rifle, according to the grand jury transcript filed last month.
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Though they ultimately absolved Schmit of criminal misconduct, jurors were skeptical of the decisions deputies made in the lead-up to Stratton's shooting, according to a Journal Star review of the 515-page transcript of the grand jury's investigation.
Jurors also raised their eyebrows at Schmit's brief-but-checkered history as a law enforcement agent and at the deputy's claim that Stratton was preparing to shoot a bow and arrow at him when Schmit shot the 34-year-old in the darkened basement of Stratton's father's home that night, according to the transcript.
The jury questioned why deputies didn't call a mental health professional to help subdue Stratton, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had previously barricaded himself from law enforcement, prompting an armed standoff with the Nebraska State Patrol that Schmit acknowledged came to "a more peaceful resolution" than the 2022 incident.
Jurors spent more than an hour watching and rewatching clips of bodycam footage from Schmit and other law enforcement agents on scene in an effort to determine whether Stratton had actually pointed at Schmit the compact bow found near his body.
And the jury, at times, seemed dubious of Schmit himself.
The deputy had been back on patrol for the Cass County Sheriff's Office for less than a month at the time of Stratton's shooting following a yearlong deployment to the Middle East, where he had been sent to help set up law enforcement operations in Jordan, according to his own grand jury testimony.
Before his February 2021 deployment there, Schmit had been with the sheriff's office for approximately seven months. He started in Cass County in July 2020 — four months after he was fired from the State Patrol for a pursuit policy violation less than a year removed from his graduation from the patrol's academy.
Still, it was Schmit's own testimony, which he gave voluntarily, that seemed to help convince jurors not to indict him — and then recommend several policy and procedure changes to the sheriff's office in an effort to prevent another such shooting, according to the transcript.
"I never shot anybody before. That was one of the most traumatic things I’ve ever done," Schmit told the jury, after indicating that equipment like a ballistic shield, pepper ball launchers or other "less-lethal" projectiles might have led to a different outcome if such equipment would have been available.
“If I could’ve done it any other way, I would’ve," he said. "I had no intent of doing it this way. If — if (Stratton) would’ve come and talked to us, he would still be alive. He ultimately chose it. It was a very unfortunate thing. I wish it had never happened.”
What led up to the shooting
Two Cass County deputies, Schmit and Sgt. Karl Boehm, responded to Stratton's grandma's house in Greenwood at around 9:30 p.m. that night after the 34-year-old's dad, Gregg Stratton, called them there, according to the transcript.
Gregg Stratton told Schmit and Boehm that his son had struck him in the head during an altercation that transpired earlier that evening at 23418 Alvo Road, where the two men lived.
The elder Stratton warned the deputies of his son's diagnosis, that he hadn't been taking his medication and that he might have access to a bow and arrow.
"Andrew needed some kind of help was, basically, his position on the events of that night, whether that was going to jail first and then getting the help or just getting (placed in emergency protective custody)," Schmit told jurors.
"He felt that Andrew was out of control and needed something.”
At 10:15 p.m., the deputies left the house in Greenwood and drove toward Alvo, arriving at the house on Alvo Road at 10:27 p.m.
“Did an attempt (happen) to get any social worker or therapist involved?" an alternate juror asked Cass County Attorney Chris Perrone, who guided the grand jury through its investigation in December.
"Because I heard 'schizophrenia,'" the juror said.
"You won’t get any evidence that that night there was any contact with social workers or mental health professionals or anybody like that," Perrone said. "So that could come down to the — it could affect whether or not you decide to charge or not charge."
Upon their arrival at the Strattons' house in Alvo, Schmit and Boehm knocked on the front and back doors without a response before Schmit asked Boehm, his supervisor, if they should call a captain to the scene.
Instead, the deputies asked a third colleague, Deputy Mike McKnelly, to pick up Gregg Stratton from his mom's house in Greenwood and drive him to his Alvo property before they entered the home, where they planned to arrest Andrew Stratton on suspicion of misdemeanor third-degree assault.
Back at his house, Gregg Stratton again warned the deputies that his son might have access to the compound bow, according to the transcript.
So the three sheriff's deputies devised a plan to enter and clear the home, according to their grand jury testimony.
Schmit, a 10-year military veteran with hand-to-hand combat experience, would lead the way into the house, armed with his own Colt M4. Boehm would be armed with a Taser. And McKnelly, the third man to enter the house, would carry his service pistol.
After entering the home in a "T" formation, the three deputies cleared the main floor of the house without finding anyone, and as they prepared to descend into the basement, Schmit announced their presence again.
Andrew Stratton called back from downstairs and the two began to negotiate the Alvo man's potential surrender.
"He seemed very, kind of, all over the place," Schmit told the jury. "He was talking about everything from how he was the one that killed Osama bin Laden to he was downstairs strapped to a bomb."
Schmit implored Andrew Stratton to come upstairs and talk things out, to resolve the standoff peacefully, he said.
“Honestly, I thought I was making some headway," he testified. "And then he just went silent and just stopped talking.”
When Andrew Stratton went quiet, the deputies initially planned to stay upstairs until reinforcements arrived. At least one trooper with the State Patrol was already on his way, according to the transcript.
But, Schmit said, deputies soon heard a noise that sounded as if Andrew Stratton had fallen over. Fearing he was injured, Schmit and Boehm began a slow walk into the basement, sending McKnelly outside in case Stratton tried to flee from the house through a downstairs door.
The deputies' decision to enter the basement was among the most frequent sources of criticism from grand jurors.
“My thought is: Were they rushing downstairs to just dissolve the situation as fast as possible?" juror No. 5 asked State Patrol Investigator Amanda DeFreece, who led the agency's probe into the shooting as a part of the patrol's Special Investigations Team.
"Where on their list of importance was preservation of life?" the juror asked. "They could’ve sat upstairs for 10 hours with him in the basement. I mean, you would’ve been in the same spot you were when you started, but he also wouldn’t be dead.”
The shooting and the aftermath
The decision to enter the basement already made, Schmit and Boehm inched downstairs into a darkened room and found themselves in what Schmit told jurors was "what is known … as a fatal funnel."
The deputies, holding flashlights, couldn't see Stratton, who was about 10 yards to the north of the staircase's landing and had line of sight to the bookcase that deputies were using for cover.
"It’s a very bad place to be," Schmit said.
Perrone, the county attorney, asked him why they didn't retreat from the position they had placed themselves in.
“It’s incredibly dangerous to turn around on those stairs like that, and that would mean crossing back across that fatal funnel again, which is also a huge no," Schmit said in part.
As Schmit and Boehm concealed themselves behind the bookcase, Schmit said, he heard a metallic click coming from Stratton's direction — one he believed to be the sounds of "a safety on a weapon of some kind or any number of potential threats," he testified.
So Schmit peered around the corner and caught a glimpse of Stratton, who Schmit said was holding a bow in his left hand and had started to draw back an arrow to fire it toward the deputies.
"He clearly had attempted to draw the string back and it had failed and his arm was — his right arm was now up by his head," Schmit said.
"OK," Perrone said. "And what are you thinking at that time?"
“He’s trying to kill me, but I still was trying to not kill him," Schmit said. "At that time I decided to issue commands or at least attempt it."
Schmit ordered Stratton to drop his weapon, he testified.
Instead, he said, Stratton started to draw an arrow back again.
"Then you shoot at him," Perrone said. "Why?"
“Because I know that that arrow, if he gets to shoot it, will go through my armor that I'm currently wearing," Schmit recalled. "The soft armor does not stop arrows, which means whatever he does is going to severely injure me or kill me."
A week after the shooting, Boehm told State Patrol investigators he thought Schmit fired four rounds. But investigators later determined the deputy fired nine times, striking Stratton seven times, including in the back and left arm, according to his death certificate.
Schmit and Boehm stepped toward Stratton before Schmit turned back and ran to his cruiser to retrieve a medical kit to help provide first aid to the man he had just shot.
Stratton died at the scene.
Erin Linde, the pathologist who conducted the Alvo man's autopsy, testified that the shooting caused "extensive injury of all of (Stratton's) organs" that likely killed him in seconds.
Footage from Schmit's bodycam was hindered by the lack of light in the basement and the angle the deputy had when he shot Stratton, leaving one of the grand jury's most consistent subjects of questioning — whether Stratton had pointed the bow and arrow toward Schmit before the shooting — without a definitive answer.
Still, the State Patrol's Special Investigative Team concluded Stratton, who was wearing an arrow grip on his right hand, was pointing the crossbow toward deputies at the time of his shooting, Investigator Pedram Nabegh told jurors.
Nabegh said the team came to that conclusion by analyzing the bodycam video, Stratton's autopsy bullet trajectories and the bow itself, which had “a bullet defect on the front of the bow, which told me that it was, most likely, in a raised position" when he was shot.
DeFreece, who led the State Patrol's investigation into the shooting, said the team concluded Schmit's use of force in the incident was justified, pointing to the "deadly force" Stratton seemed prepared to use against deputies.
Skeptical of that assessment, jurors pressed DeFreece on the need for deputies to enter the basement at all.
"So do you think that making the decision to go downstairs immediately was the correct one or do think that there should have been some type of further de-escalation done to prevent loss of life?" juror No. 5 asked.
"I'd say that’s a great question for Deputy Schmit," DeFreece said, later adding: "There was, I guess, no concern that we had at the appropriateness of them going ahead and going down and trying to contact him."
Schmit told jurors that deputies had entered the house with the intent to arrest Stratton, accused of a misdemeanor crime.
Schmit, who was reassigned to work at the county jail for nine months while the State Patrol investigated the shooting, returned to road patrol in December after the grand jury cleared him of criminal wrongdoing, the county attorney said.
What the jury had to say
“I mean, you’ve watched the video and (you've had) ten months to bank on this thing, and given all the training you’ve had and everything else, is there anything you’d do differently?” juror No. 6 asked Schmit at the tail end of his December testimony.
His response — “No, not with the resources available," he said — seemed to inform the recommendations the jury emerged from deliberations with.
Schmit told jurors that additional non-lethal weapons at his disposal — such as a pepper ball gun, 40-millimter less-lethal launchers or a ballistic shield — "would’ve made a difference" that night.
The grand jury, which cleared Schmit of criminal wrongdoing after less than an hour of deliberating, unanimously recommended three policy and procedure changes for the Cass County Sheriff's Office.
The jury recommended the agency expand its de-escalation and use of force training, particularly for incidents that involve subjects with mental health issues, and implored deputies to utilize "in-county resources," such as K9 units or infrared technology to help navigate standoffs.
Jurors also implored Cass County to explore options to provide the sheriff's office with "more less-than-lethal equipment" — like the kind Schmit said might have saved Stratton's life in Alvo that night.
In the months since the jury convened, the sheriff's office has began to invest in new equipment and is reexamining their training practices — but not on the advice of jurors, said Matt Watson, the office's chief deputy sheriff.
Watson and Sheriff Bob Sorensen took office in January and, Watson said, weren't made aware of the jury's recommendations until the Journal Star inquired about their response last week.
"Have there been changes? Yes," Watson said Friday afternoon. "Are there more changes coming? Yes. Have they been a direct result of that grand jury investigation? No."
Watson said he and Sorensen — both of whom started their careers at the sheriff's office but later moved to the Plattsmouth Police Department before returning after Sorensen won the seat last year following former Sheriff William Brueggemann's retirement — have ordered an independent audit into the county jail's practices and plan to request another audit for the office's road patrol unit to address "everything you can think of."
Even without the jury's recommendations in hand, he said, the sheriff's office is rebuilding its K9 unit, has started training with infrared equipment, is exploring new de-escalation training opportunities and has purchased the agency's first batch of ballistic shields.
"The ballistic shields, again, I mean it's something we recognized right away that it's just almost unheard of for a law enforcement agency, especially of this size — it's in an area designated as metro, we are part of the Omaha metro — where we don't have shields," Watson said. "We didn't have a single one."
Watson said he and Sorensen are trying to rebuild their sheriff's office from the ground up — an undertaking he described as "chaos."
"We're new, and we're trying to make connections that have been strained over the years with other law enforcement (agencies) and build partnerships to get us more resources, more tools.
"And then just share knowledge and admit, like, publicly, 'Hey, we need help and we'll take it,'" he said. "We don't have egos over here." | https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-courts/cass-county-deputy-not-indicted-for-killing-alvo-man/article_ff5a8dc6-2c9e-11ee-932c-a7302e0438e1.html | 2023-07-30T16:06:16 | 0 | https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-courts/cass-county-deputy-not-indicted-for-killing-alvo-man/article_ff5a8dc6-2c9e-11ee-932c-a7302e0438e1.html |
SEATTLE — Changes made to the retirement system a few years ago now have additional adjustments that could impact your retirement savings plan or college fund savings.
At the end of 2022, President Joe Biden signed a $1.7 trillion budget bill that included the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022, or SECURE Act 2.0. It builds on the changes made to the retirement system by 2019’s Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act.
According to Northwestern Mutual in Seattle, the new legislation made saving for retirement easier.
It's important to note, not all changes outlined in the SECURE Act 2.0 will take effect immediately.
Key takeaways:
- Changes to required minimum distributions (RMDs)
- Part-time employers could be offered retirement plans if they have at least 500 hours of service for three consecutive years
- Penalty-free withdrawals allowed from retirement accounts for growing families
New law grants employers a “fiduciary safe harbor” when choosing an annuity provider - Inherited IRAs required to be drawn down within 10 years if the IRA or qualified plan owner dies after 2019; existing inherited IRAs are not affected until the current beneficiary passes away | https://www.king5.com/article/money/personal-finance/secure-act-impact-washingtonians-college-funds/281-3d92c9df-89a8-446e-a338-aeafa4f45456 | 2023-07-30T16:06:16 | 1 | https://www.king5.com/article/money/personal-finance/secure-act-impact-washingtonians-college-funds/281-3d92c9df-89a8-446e-a338-aeafa4f45456 |
The planned execution of a 45-year-old Missouri man with schizophrenia is back on after an appellate court reversed course Saturday.
Johnny Johnson is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre for killing 6-year-old Casey Williamson after trying to sexually assault her in 2002.
With questions swirling about his mental competency, the execution was halted last Tuesday by a divided three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court. But after the Missouri Attorney General’s Office asked that the full court reconsider, that decision was reversed in a 7-3 ruling.
The case will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court before the scheduled execution date.
Attorneys for Johnson have claimed his schizophrenia prevents him from understanding the link between his crime and the punishment. They have also said Johnson has delusions about the devil using his death to bring about the end of the world.
The Missouri Supreme Court in June declined to halt the execution based on the mental health claim. The attorney general’s office challenged the credibility of psychiatric evaluations of Johnson and contended that medical records indicate he is able to manage his mental illness through medication.
Johnson lured the girl to an abandoned glass factory, even carrying her on his shoulders on the walk to the dilapidated site. When he tried to sexually assault her, Casey screamed and tried to break free. He killed her with bricks and rocks, then washed off in the Meramec River. Johnson confessed to the crimes.
Casey’s disappearance set off a frantic search involving first responders and volunteers. Her body was found in a pit less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from her home, buried beneath rocks and debris.
The execution would be the fourth in Missouri this year. | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-appellate-court-rules-that-missouri-man-with-schizophrenia-can-be-executed-after-all/ | 2023-07-30T16:06:21 | 0 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-appellate-court-rules-that-missouri-man-with-schizophrenia-can-be-executed-after-all/ |
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China accused the United States of turning Taiwan into an “ammunition depot” after the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taipei, and the self-ruled island said Sunday it tracked six Chinese navy ships in waters off its shores.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement late Saturday opposing the military aid to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.
“No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office.
“Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” the statement said.
China’s People’s Liberation Army has increased its military maneuvers in recent years aimed at Taiwan, sending fighter jets and warships to circle the island.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked six Chinese navy ships near the island.
Taiwan’s ruling administration, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, has stepped up its weapons purchases from the U.S. as part of a deterrence strategy against a Chinese invasion.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Taiwan has never been governed by China’s ruling Communist Party.
Unlike previous military purchases, the latest batch of aid is part of a presidential authority approved by the U.S. Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales.
While Taiwan has purchased $19 billion worth of weaponry, much of it has yet to be delivered to Taiwan. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles to Taiwan. | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-china-says-us-military-aid-to-taiwan-will-not-deter-its-will-to-unify-the-island/ | 2023-07-30T16:06:27 | 1 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-china-says-us-military-aid-to-taiwan-will-not-deter-its-will-to-unify-the-island/ |
Police said at least eight dogs being transported inside an uncooled cargo van in Indiana died of heat-related injuries this week as temperatures soared amid an intense heat wave gripping much of the United States. The heat was not letting up Saturday in many areas, including in New York City, where temperatures were expected to surge into the lower 90s (around 35 C). Officials say the humid, thick air could make it feel well over the century mark for many Americans.
The sizzling air has heated up everything from the ocean to pools, making it difficult to cool off. One woman in the Southwest has been throwing blocks of ice in her pool.
Metro Phoenix hit its 30th consecutive day of record-breaking heat on Saturday. Scientists calculate this month will be the hottest globally on record and likely the warmest human civilization has seen.
Here’s what’s happening related to extreme weather and the climate right now:
— Police said the eight dogs that died were among 18 Shepherds being transported from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago to a K-9 training facility in Michigan City, Indiana. The driver told police he was unaware that the air conditioning unit was not cooling the back of the van until he heard dogs barking. He pulled over in Lake Station, Indiana, to open the back. Lake Station police said he then found several dogs dead and others suffering.
— Heat advisories continued in New York City, where high humidity has made it uncomfortable and dangerous. Some 500 cooling centers have opened across the city’s five boroughs, and the governor authorized the state’s swimming pools to stay open later. The extreme heat was forecast to ease Sunday.
— Parts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut were under a heat advisory through Saturday night. In northern New England, temperatures were down 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit after getting into the 90s (around 35 degrees Celsius) on Friday, but the humidity lingered throughout the region.
— The weather was equally stifling and muggy in the center of the United States. An excessive heat warning was issued for much of Missouri, Kansas and western Illinois, where the sweaty mix of heat and humidity could make it feel like up to 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44.4 degrees Celsius) in some areas. St. Louis health director Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis said the risk of heat stroke was high and warned that interior car temperatures could reach lethal levels in minutes.
— Similar warnings were issued for much of the Deep South, which encompasses Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, with temperatures in the 90s (around 35 Celsius) and heat indexes past 100 (43.3 Celsius).
— The extreme heat has refocused attention on the lack of air conditioning in prisons. The Prison Policy Initiative, a national think tank, included Missouri and Kansas in a 2019 list of 13 “famously hot states” that lack universal air conditioning in prisons. In Missouri, only half of the prisons are fully air conditioned. And in Kansas, adding air conditioning to the newest prison sparked outrage among some lawmakers who saw it as coddling inmates.
— Phoenix broke another heat record Saturday, marking the 30th consecutive day of temperatures reaching or surpassing 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius). With the arrival of monsoon rains, temperatures are forecast to start to drop in the hottest areas in the U.S. Southwest, especially Phoenix. Temperatures are also expected to ease in Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Death Valley, California.
— With the scorching heat, even going for a swim offered little to no relief. Sea surface temperatures rose above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) at a spot off Florida’s southern tip, while swimming pools in the Southwest gave the sensation of being in soup.
— The high temperatures are reaching across the globe, including in Bolivia, where a drought alert has been declared for Lake Titicaca after water levels of the world’s highest navigable lake receded to a critically low threshold.
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Associated Press writers Bobby Caina Calvan in New York; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Ken Ritter in Las Vegas; Chevel Johnson in New Orleans; John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
) | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-climate-glimpse-heres-what-you-need-to-see-and-know-today-8/ | 2023-07-30T16:06:33 | 0 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-climate-glimpse-heres-what-you-need-to-see-and-know-today-8/ |
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.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-frances-le-maire-presses-china-on-market-access-and-lobbies-for-electric-car-investment/ | 2023-07-30T16:06:40 | 0 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-frances-le-maire-presses-china-on-market-access-and-lobbies-for-electric-car-investment/ |
SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Passionate about her own education, Diya Nahar of Sammamish wanted to ensure young students who needed a place to learn were granted that safe, welcoming and nurturing space.
Nahar, a rising senior at Eastside Preparatory School in Kirkland, started a fundraising campaign with Pencils of Promise about three years ago. The goal was to raise $50,000 to build an entire school in a country where the funds were much-needed.
Pencils of Promise is a global community with a mission to provide access to quality education to everyone. The organization builds schools in Laos, Ghana, and Guatemala.
To raise money, Nahar commissioned several custom art pieces in exchange for donations. | https://www.king5.com/article/news/community/sammamish-teen-build-school/281-825fd41b-78bf-4bd0-a698-6908792ef0c9 | 2023-07-30T16:06:44 | 1 | https://www.king5.com/article/news/community/sammamish-teen-build-school/281-825fd41b-78bf-4bd0-a698-6908792ef0c9 |
For those of us involved in the hunting lifestyle and its year-round process, summer means a myriad of things to do if we are to have a safe, successful fall hunt.
I know you have been spending some time on the target range practicing with your firearm or bow. I know you have been down the aisles of sporting goods stores perusing the newest hunting clothing and equipment and checking for special sales. In fact, I purchased a new deer hunting rifle at a bargain price.
But even with some tasks done, there’s more to do. There is much hunting homework that needs to be done.
Here is a checklist to make certain we are fully prepared when our Nebraska hunting seasons arrive:
* Connect with the landowner or land manager where you plan to hunt. In-person contact is best.
* Arrange time off work for crucial dates like opening days, weekends, weeks or the peak of the deer rut. Also arrange lodging or make state park cabin or camping reservations.
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* Purchase required permits and stamps and acquire other items for your hunt, if necessary, such as Harvest Information Program number, East Zone grouse hunting permit and a state park entry permit.
* Check hunter education requirements for youths and other young folks.
* Study the current laws and regulations that apply to the game animals or birds you plan to hunt. Put the local conservation officer’s phone number and Nebraska Wildlife Crimestoppers phone number in your phone.
* Download new mobile apps to get up-to-date, detailed maps of your hunting areas.
* Review your compass, map and GPS interpreting skills. If your mobile device or GPS stopped working, could you navigate out of a remote location like the Sandhills or Pine Ridge with a compass and a topographic map?
* Scout your hunting land repetitively, and install game cameras and start monitoring them.
* Trim tree limbs or brush for shooting lanes, mow deer/game trails, and water and weed your spring-planted food plots.
* Make any repairs to tree stands, blinds, decoys and waders.
* Service your ATV or UTV.
* Obtain a comprehensive, lightweight first-aid kit.
* Purchase ammunition and other hunting-related supplies.
* Wash your hunting clothes in unscented soap and store in a plastic bag.
* Compile a small survival kit that includes a multitool, lighter, fire-starting materials, water, high-energy snacks, emergency space blanket and some rope or cord.
* Put fresh batteries in headlamps, flashlights, cameras, GPS units, etc.
* Sharpen your field-dressing, skinning and other hunting knives.
* Schedule a physical examination for yourself and a preseason checkup for with your veterinarian for your dog.
* Practice shooting as much as possible.
* Practice calling, from ducks to bucks.
* Break in new hunting boots.
* Locate a deer processor to use this fall.
* Place all your hunting gear in one, easily accessible place, such as a large plastic or wooden storage box. Better yet, arrange it neatly in your hunting packs.
Preparing for fall’s great hunts is a large assignment. But as the old saying goes: Failure to plan is a plan for failure. It is so true when it comes to hunting.
To learn more about hunting in Nebraska, visit OutdoorNebraska.gov. | https://journalstar.com/outdoors/successful-fall-hunt-begins-with-summer-prep/article_93be42d4-2dc9-11ee-9434-d31cf2657506.html | 2023-07-30T16:06:44 | 1 | https://journalstar.com/outdoors/successful-fall-hunt-begins-with-summer-prep/article_93be42d4-2dc9-11ee-9434-d31cf2657506.html |
OKANOGAN COUNTY, Wash. — UPDATE at 12:40 a.m. -
The Eagle Bluff Fire has burned an estimated 5,000 acres as of 10:47 p.m. Saturday, according to Okanogan County Emergency Management.
The fire also crossed the border into Canada, where it's being called the Lone Pine Creek Fire.
OCEM said the fire's calm down since it started Saturday afternoon, but it remains very active.
The fire prompted evacuations, including Level 3 evacuations for both Loomis-Oroville Road from River Street to Enloe Dam Road and for Boundary Point Road on the west side of State Route 97.
OCEM also issued a new Level 3 evacuation early Sunday at 12:14 a.m. for people living on the west side of the State Route 97 from Shirley Road near the border to Oroville due to the fire turning south.
State mobilization's been authorized for this fire, according to the Washington State Patrol.
An emergency shelter has been set up at Oroville High School by the American Red Cross. They're located at 1008 Ironwood St in Oroville.
Red Cross officials said assistance at the shelter will include food, cots and other urgent needs. However, they're encouraging evacuees to bring the following for each family member: prescription and emergency medication, extra clothing, pillows, blankets, hygiene supplies, important documents and other comfort items.
They're also recommending special items for children and infants, such as diapers, formulas & toys, should also be brought, along with other items for family members who may have other needs.
OCEM says people needing shelter for their animals can go to the Tonasket Rodeo Grounds. The address is 12 Rodeo Rd in Tonasket.
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A wildfire burning in Okanogan County prompted evacuation notices on Saturday.
According to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, the Eagle Bluff Fire’s burned about 2,500 acres.
The fire’s located southwest of Oroville.
DNR said the fire's burning north towards Canada.
Okanogan County Emergency Management (OCEM) officials told KREM 2 there are both Level 1 and 2 evacuations in place.
A Level 3 evacuation was also issued on the Loomis-Oroville Road from River Street to Enloe Dam Road, according to OCEM. An emergency notification was not sent since law enforcement is going door to door to notify people affected.
The rocky and steep terrain made it difficult for fire crews to get access to the fire, according to DNR. Breezy to gusty winds have also been an issue.
This is a developing story. | https://www.king5.com/article/news/eagle-bluff-fire-burns-2500-acres-near-oroville/293-23a864f7-54e7-4271-b920-3b3d8f95f1ff | 2023-07-30T16:06:49 | 1 | https://www.king5.com/article/news/eagle-bluff-fire-burns-2500-acres-near-oroville/293-23a864f7-54e7-4271-b920-3b3d8f95f1ff |
COLUMBIA, S.C. — 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:
WHO'S QUALIFIED
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.
WHO HASN'T QUALIFIED:
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. | https://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-world/republican-presidential-candidates-august-gop-debate/507-705744a6-d4a1-4333-af89-210923a3d87b | 2023-07-30T16:06:51 | 0 | https://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-world/republican-presidential-candidates-august-gop-debate/507-705744a6-d4a1-4333-af89-210923a3d87b |
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.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-guatemala-presidential-candidate-rushes-to-expand-base-beyond-urban-youth/ | 2023-07-30T16:06:53 | 1 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/ap-guatemala-presidential-candidate-rushes-to-expand-base-beyond-urban-youth/ |