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LPD: juvenile injured in early morning shooting
LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ)- Lexington police are investigating an early morning shooting in the city.
Police say they received a call around 2 AM Sunday for a juvenile girl who had been shot.
Police say the shooting happened along New Circle Road. According to LPD, the victim was a passenger in a car traveling on West New Circle when another vehicle fired shots into the car.
The victim was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
No one else in the car was hurt.
Police say no suspects have been caught at this time.
Anyone with information is asked to call Lexington Police. | https://www.wtvq.com/lpd-juvenile-injured-in-early-morning-shooting/ | 2023-07-30T23:51:08 | 0 | https://www.wtvq.com/lpd-juvenile-injured-in-early-morning-shooting/ |
Richmond police investigate double murder; suspect arrested after overnight search
RICHMOND, Ky (WTVQ)- Richmond police are investigating an overnight shooting that left two people dead.
Police say they received a call around 10:17 p.m. Saturday to Foxhaven Drive for a shooting. When officers arrived, they found a man who had been shot in a parking lot. During the investigation, police also found a woman in a car who had also been shot.
The victims have been identified as 33-year-old Warren Bowman and 24-year-old Makayla Walker.
Richmond police say they arrested 24-year-old Stephon Laroy Baskerville in connection with the shooting deaths. He’s been charged with murder (domestic violence), murder and tampering with physical evidence.
Police say Baskerville was Walker’s boyfriend.
According to police, Baskerville and Walker were involved in a domestic dispute when the shooting happened. They believe Bowman was a witness who attempted to intervene.
Police say Baskerville ran from the area. Officers began a search that continued into the night.
Police found Baskerville in the area of South Keeneland Drive and Tates Creek just after 6:30 Sunday morning, where he was arrested. | https://www.wtvq.com/richmond-police-investigate-double-murder-suspect-arrested-after-overnight-search/ | 2023-07-30T23:51:14 | 0 | https://www.wtvq.com/richmond-police-investigate-double-murder-suspect-arrested-after-overnight-search/ |
TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays strengthened their depleted bullpen Sunday by acquiring right-hander Jordan Hicks in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Toronto sent minor league right-handers Adam Kloffenstein and Sem Robberse to St. Louis for the 26-year-old Hicks. The Blue Jays (59-47) are tied with Houston in the wild-card race, four games behind Tampa Bay. Toronto trails Baltimore by five games in the AL East.
A five-year veteran who had spent his entire career with the Cardinals, Hicks is 1-6 with a 3.67 ERA and eight saves in 11 chances. The hard-throwing Hicks has struck out 59 batters in 41 2/3 innings while walking 24.
Toronto put closer Jordan Romano on the 15-day injured list Saturday because of a sore back. Romano left the July 11 All-Star Game in Seattle because of back pain and did not pitch for the Blue Jays again until July 20. He left with two outs in the ninth inning of Friday’s 4-1 win over the Angels and was replaced by Yimi García.
Toronto lost Sunday’s series finale when García, who was pitching for the third straight day, gave up Hunter Renfroe’s two-run homer in the 10th. It was the first time this season García had pitched on three consecutive days.
The Blue Jays could get more relief help when right-hander Chad Green returns from Tommy John surgery. Green, who had elbow surgery last May, signed a two-year, $8.5 million contract with Toronto in January. The former Yankee made his third rehab appearance with Class-A Dunedin on Saturday and is expected to move up to Triple-A Buffalo next.
Kloffenstein was 5-5 with a 3.24 ERA in 17 starts at Double-A New Hampshire. Robberse, who is from the Netherlands, was 3-5 with a 4.06 ERA in 18 starts for the Fisher Cats.
Right-hander Mitch White was designated for assignment to make room for Hicks on Toronto’s 40-man roster. | https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/news/blue-jays-bolster-bullpen-by-acquiring-rhp-jordan-hicks-from-st-louis | 2023-07-30T23:51:30 | 1 | https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/news/blue-jays-bolster-bullpen-by-acquiring-rhp-jordan-hicks-from-st-louis |
What drivers had to say after Sunday’s Cup race at Richmond Raceway:
Chris Buescher — Winner: “We’ve had this one circled since last fall. I was really hopeful this could be the one that would turn the page for us. Sure enough, right off the truck I thought it was. I hate that qualifying went the way it did. I was sitting there beating myself up trying to figure out what we were going to do there. Made it to Victory Lane here in Richmond. I’d have told you to flood this place three years ago. My opinions are changing quite a bit here (smiling). What a day, though. That’s awesome.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 2nd: “I drove in way too deep. I was trying to get to the outside there. Really had a great run off of turn two on the restart and off of four again. But, yeah, I was just so close to him there that I wanted to try to squirt a little extra gas to try to get to the outside. Just too much brake. Man, I’m happy for Chris, RFK, those guys. I know they worked really hard to get to this point. I can appreciate the struggle that it is to get to this point. Congratulations to them. Definitely a great job by this Mavis team. Kept me in it all day long. We just lacked a little, little bit to be the best there. So we just need to improve on it. Still a good day.”
Kyle Busch — Finished 3rd: “We certainly fought hard on the long runs. It was after about lap 50 that we really dropped off and fell off. But the first 50 laps, we could hang on and do OK. Really appreciate the No. 8 Chevy team, X World Wallet, Netspend, Chevrolet. We just had a really good day on pit road and just a solid effort. We needed something like this to be solid on the short-tracks and to kind of get our momentum back heading in the right direction. Happy with what we’ve got right here. Thank you to RCR, ECR especially. I ran the heck out of this engine today. I think I spent most of the race in fourth gear, where about everybody else was fifth gear. It just helped me the way I was driving and it got us a good, third-place finish.”
Joey Logano — Finished 4th: “Just a little bit off from the best cars. Really couldn’t hang. If you put us at fifth, we could probably hang at fifth. Just qualifying as poorly as we did, slowly getting our way up there, a couple setbacks during the race, kind of made us hang around 7th and 10th place range for a little bit. I knew we just had to get there. (Crew chief Paul Wolfe) did a good job.”
Ryan Preece — Finished 5th: “We all did (run well). I think that’s just a product of working hard. Sitting and twiddling your thumbs isn’t gonna get you the results that you really want. I know that from racing, so we’ve just been working hard and trying to find what I like, find what Aric (Almirola) likes, Kevin (Harvick) likes, Chase (Briscoe) likes and I feel like we’re all trending in that direction.”
Brad Keselowski — Finished 6th: “We are incrementally building. Solid day for both teams here at RFK. I’m happy for everybody that works on these teams, everybody that supports us with Fastenal and Ford, Build Subs. We led a lot of laps with both cars. Neither car really started up front. Drove through. Great job with the pit crews. A lot to be proud of today. Of course, I want to win as a driver. Just happy that we’re as competitive as we are. We want to keep building and keep being more competitive every week.”
Martin Truex Jr. — Finished 7th: “It was tough – honestly, the whole day was tough. This place is never easy, but I felt like as loose as we were all day, that was a handful. It was so on edge. It was really, really difficult to drive and make two laps the same. We just really had to battle. Good job by the guys to do what they did to come up with that strategy. I was flipping out because I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t hear James (Small, crew chief) again on the radio. Just really a hard fought, battle of a day for our Bass Pro Shops Camry. I thought we were probably going to run fifth there without the caution. We were just so bad on the short runs today, for whatever reason, just luckily only lost two spots there at the end. All-in-all, a decent day, but man, it was tough.”
Aric Almirola — Finished 8th: “It was a strong day. I don’t know that we had anything for (Chris Buescher or Brad Keselowski). They were really good, but I could maintain and after about 55 laps I think we were arguably the best car on the racetrack from that point on. The first run it went 70 laps and from like Lap 50 to 70 I passed a ton of cars and unfortunately in those next few stages the runs aren’t as long. They’re only 45-50 laps when you break them up into three and I didn’t have enough of a long run to pass a lot of cars like I did previous. I’m frustrated that I bottomed out getting on to the apron coming to pit road under the green flag there and kind of took off in a four-wheel slide and barely clipped the orange box there with my right side tires. I’m frustrated. That’s a silly mistake. You can’t make those mistakes, but, all in all, it was a great day. I had a great Smithfield Ford Mustang. I’m really proud of our guys. We’ve been bringing some really good race cars to the racetrack lately, so we’ll see. We’ve got a few more here to try and get one.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 9th: “It was a solid race for us all day. We weren’t that great in the beginning and we just kind of tuned on it. We got really good at the end of stage 2 and the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevy was pretty solid. I want to thank all of our partners. Last week was tough – I feel like that should have been two top-10’s in a row, but we’ll take it. We’ve had a rough year all-in-all, but to get a top 10 here at Richmond, it means the world.”
Chase Briscoe — Finished 11th: “Overall, it was a decent day. Our qualifying effort hurt us more than I thought it was going to. I thought our car was really good on a long run, but just could never get the track position to go with it. It seemed like toward the end of the run we would be better than a lot of guys, but were never better enough to pass them. Overall, I thought our car was good, but just needed a little bit more speed to finish it off. With how our last couple of months have gone it’s definitely nice to have another solid run. It seems like all the short tracks we can always run good, it’s just the big tracks that we kind of struggle on so hopefully we can apply something we learned today for Michigan and move on.” | https://www.nbcsports.com/nascar/news/what-drivers-had-to-say-after-richmond-cup-race | 2023-07-30T23:51:31 | 1 | https://www.nbcsports.com/nascar/news/what-drivers-had-to-say-after-richmond-cup-race |
When the performers fight back...
Amid an apparent growing trend, Cardi B became the latest musician to be struck by material thrown by an audience member, and she was not having it. While the "WAP" rapper performed onstage at Drai's Beachclub at the Cromwell hotel in Las Vegas July 29, a person in the front row splashed their drink at her. Cardi responded by throwing her microphone at the offender.
She later retweeted a video of the incident, but has not commented on it. E! News has reached out to reps for Cardi and Drai's Beachclub but has not received a response.
While there have been several incidents of audience members throwing objects at musicians onstage for decades, such events have appeared to increase in recent weeks, while videos of them have gone viral.
In mid-June, a man hurled a phone at Bebe Rexha onstage, injuring her in the face. The perpetrator was arrested and charged with assault. He pleaded not guilty, while his lawyer told NBC News that his client's "sole intention was to have Ms. Rexha take photos with his phone, and return it as a keepsake" and that it "was never his intention to injure Ms. Rexha."
Later that month, Kelsea Ballerini paused an Idaho concert after a fan threw what appeared to be a bracelet at her, which hit her face. "Can we just talk about what happened?" she asked the crowd. "All I care about is keeping everyone safe. If you ever don't feel safe, please let someone around you know."
She added, "If anyone's pushing too much or you just have that gut feeling, just always flag it. Don't throw things. You know?"
And while Pink wasn't struck in the face while performing in June, one of her shows was also the scene of a throwing incident that definitely caught her off-guard. During her set at the British Summer Time Festival June 25, a fan tossed a bag of their mother's ashes onto the stage.
"This is your mom?" the "So What" singer asked the audience member, "I don't know how to feel about this."
Earlier this month, a fan threw an object at Harry Styles at his concert in Vienna. The singer was seen covering his face following the incident.
About a week prior, Adele addressed the throwing objects trend onstage at one of her Las Vegas residency concerts.
"Have you noticed how people are like forgetting f--king show etiquette at the moment?" she asked the crowd. "People just throwing s--t onstage. Have you seen them?"
The "Hello" singer joked, "I f--king dare you. Dare you to throw something at me and I'll f--king kill you."
Ironically, she made her remarks while firing a T-shirt into the audience. "'Stop throwing things at the artist, but you can shoot things into people,'" she continued with a laugh. "It's a total reverse." | https://www.eonline.com/news/1381718/cardi-b-throws-microphone-at-audience-member-who-tossed-drink-at-her?cmpid=rss-syndicate-genericrss-us-top_stories | 2023-07-30T23:51:47 | 0 | https://www.eonline.com/news/1381718/cardi-b-throws-microphone-at-audience-member-who-tossed-drink-at-her?cmpid=rss-syndicate-genericrss-us-top_stories |
NEW YORK (AP) — A week later, the “Barbenheimer” boom has not abated.
Seven days after Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” conspired to set box office records, the two films held unusually strongly in theaters. “Barbie” took in a massive $93 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. “Oppenheimer” stayed in second with a robust $46.2 million. Sales for the two movies dipped 43% and 44%, respectably — well shy of the usual week-two drops.
“Barbenheimer” has proven to be not a one-weekend phenomenon but an ongoing box-office bonanza. The two movies combined have already surpassed $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore, call it “a touchstone moment for movies, moviegoers and movie theaters.”
“Having two movies from rival studios linked in this way and both boosting each other’s fortunes — both box-office wise and it terms of their profile — I don’t know if there’s a comp for this in the annals of box-office history,” said Dergarabedian. “There’s really no comparison for this.”
Following its year-best $162 million opening, the pink-infused pop sensation of “Barbie” saw remarkably sustained business through the week and into the weekend. The film outpaced Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” to have the best first 11 days in theaters of any Warner Bros. release ever.
“Barbie” has rapidly accumulated $351.4 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, a rate that will soon make it the biggest box-office hit of the summer. Every day it’s played, “Barbie” has made at least $20 million.
And the “Barbie” effect isn’t just in North America. The film made $122.2 million internationally over the weekend. Its global tally has reached $775 million. It’s the kind of business that astounds even veteran studio executives.
“That’s a crazy number,” said Jeff Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros. “There’s just a built-in audience that wants to be part of the zeitgeist of the moment. Wherever you go, people are wearing pink. Pink is taking over the world.”
Amid the frenzy, “Barbie” is already attracting a lot of repeat moviegoers. Goldstein estimates that 12% of sales are people going back with friends or family to see it again.
For a movie industry that has been trying to regain its pre-pandemic footing — and that now finds itself largely shuttered due to actors and screenwriters strikes — the sensations of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have showed what’s possible when everything lines up just right.
“Post-pandemic, there’s no ceiling and there’s no floor,” Goldstein said. “The movies that miss really miss big time, and the movies that work really work big time.”
Universal Pictures’ “Oppenheimer,” meanwhile, is performing more like a superhero movie than a three-hour film about scientists talking.
Nolan’s drama starring Cillian Murphy as atomic bomb physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer has accrued $174.1 million domestically thus far. With an additional $72.4 million in international cinemas, “Oppenheimer” has already surpassed $400 million globally.
Showings in IMAX have typically been sold out. “Oppenheimer” has made $80 million worldwide on IMAX. The large-format exhibitor said Sunday that it will extend the film’s run through Aug. 13.
The week’s top new release, Walt Disney Co.’s “Haunted Mansion,” an adaptation of the Disney theme park attraction, was easily overshadowed by the “Barbenheimer” blitz. The film, which cost about $150 million, debuted with $24 million domestically and $9 million in overseas sales. “Haunted Mansion,” directed by Justin Simien (“Dear White People,” “Bad Hair”) and starring an ensemble of LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito and Rosario Dawson, struggled to overcome mediocre reviews.
“Talk to Me,” the A24 supernatural horror film, fared better. It debuted with $10 million. The film, directed by Australian filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou and starring Sophie Wilde, was a midnight premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and received terrific reviews from critics (95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). It was made for a modest $4.5 million.
While theaters being flush with moviegoers has been a huge boon to the film industry, it’s been tougher sledding for Tom Cruise, the so-called savior of the movies last summer with “Top Gun: Maverick.” “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I,” which debuted the week before the arrival of “Barbenheimer,” grossed $10.7 million in its third weekend. The film starring Cruise and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, has grossed $139.2 million domestically and $309.3 million oveseas.
Instead, the sleeper hit “Sound of Freedom” has been the best performing non-“Barbenheimer” release in theaters. The Angel Studios’ release, which is counting crowdfunding pay-it-forward sales in its box office totals, made $12.4 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its haul thus far to nearly $150 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Barbie,” $93 million.
2. “Opppenheimer,” $46.2 million.
3. “Haunted Mansion,” $24.2 million.
4. “Sound of Freedom,” $12.4 million.
5. “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” $10.7 million.
6. “Talk to Me,” $10 million.
7. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” $4 million.
8. “Elemental,” $3.4 million.
9. “Insidious: The Red Door,” $3.2 million.
10. “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani,” $1.6 million. | https://www.cbs42.com/entertainment/while-barbie-bonanza-continues-at-the-box-office-oppenheimer-holds-no-2-spot/ | 2023-07-30T23:51:56 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/entertainment/while-barbie-bonanza-continues-at-the-box-office-oppenheimer-holds-no-2-spot/ |
The Biden administration says it's hunting for destructive computer code or malware; it believes China has hidden deep inside networks controlling power grids, according to theNew York Times.
The discovery raises suspicions that hackers acting on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army have embedded malware designed to disrupt U.S. military operations in the event China were to invade Taiwan.
"So if it's not just localized and if it's a deep infiltration and it's utilized in that way, you can imagine the banking system or the power grid going down nationally or the water systems being ineffectual nationally, and that could obviously disrupt operations at home, not just for the purposes of slowing us down in response but actually taking us out of the game altogether, unable to resupply our forces and the like," said Jamil Jaffer, former counsel to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Earlier in May, tech giant Microsoft warned that hackers likely acting on behalf of China targeted U.S. military assets on the island of Guam, seeding harmful computer code in communications infrastructure.
SEE MORE: The evolution and future of the US-China relationship
"It was referred to as a vault typhoon. And obviously, this raises some concerns about how deep in are the Chinese in our systems. Are they in just military systems? Are they just in that region? Is it spread more broadly across the country, other military bases overseas, or in the United States?" said Jaffer.
The news about the malware adds tension to an increasingly fraught U.S.-China relationship, with clashes that include increasing threats towards Taiwan and American efforts to ban complex semi-conductor sales to China.
The U.S. has also blamed China for other major infrastructure computer hacks as well as accusing the foreign power of spying on the continental U.S. with school bus-sized balloons.
For its part, China accused the U.S. of hacking into its telecom giant, Huawei.
The U.S. recently reiterated its commitment to defending Taiwan, the island nation off the coast of mainland China. Taiwan recently held military exercises.
"With respect to Taiwan, you know, the capability that we are providing them is defensive capability, as you know, in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act. We are committed to helping them get the capability they need to defend themselves. And so, this is no change from what we've done in the past," said Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense.
China regards Taiwan as a rogue province and a constant source of tension between the U.S. and China. Two nations that are trading partners and, at the same time, increasingly wary adversaries.
In response to the New York Times article, the Chinese embassy in Washington reacted with dismay, denying it engages in hacking and calling the United States a far bigger offender.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.kxxv.com/nyt-officials-fear-chinese-hackers-malware-could-disrupt-us-military | 2023-07-30T23:52:01 | 1 | https://www.kxxv.com/nyt-officials-fear-chinese-hackers-malware-could-disrupt-us-military |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -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.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.ktre.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:02 | 0 | https://www.ktre.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
Senate GOP leaders didn’t want it to get to this point.
They tried and tried to get Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to lift the holds he’s placed on hundreds of military promotions — which have opened Republicans up to attacks from the Biden administration.
But their efforts have failed, and they are now in a situation where the earliest a resolution might be found is September — when lawmakers will also be busy trying to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.
“It’s hung around for a while. I support his goals,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican. “The challenge obviously is the mechanism he used to get to the result has created some challenges. We want to figure out a way to resolve it and address that.”
“There are conversations now going on, which is good — between him and the military and others. We’ll have some time in August to work on a path forward, and hopefully we’ll find it,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been among those trying to find a resolution, Thune said. Tuberville said he and McConnell discussed the holds Wednesday, hours after the GOP leader froze and felt lightheaded in front of reporters.
“At this point, everybody’s engaged trying to figure out how to solve this,” Thune added.
Tuberville began his holds in early March to protest a new Defense Department policy to reimburse service members who must travel to seek an abortion for those travel expenses.
Six months later, the list of holds has grown to 300. Senate Republicans were hoping to find a solution before leaving Washington for five weeks — five additional weeks during which those military officers will remain in limbo, fueling Democratic attacks and frustrating the Pentagon.
One Senate Republican said finding an offramp agreeable to both Tuberville and those opposed to the holds has become a “recurring discussion” in the Senate GOP conference, and that McConnell has been personally involved in that quest.
“There’s not a lunch that goes by that we don’t talk about it,” the senator said, but added there’s “no chance of a resolution” any time soon.
Aside from the potential political and national security implications of the holds, McConnell is worried about the institutional implications.
The longtime GOP leader recently told reporters at a press conference that he is concerned this could lead to a renewed Democratic effort to change the chamber’s rules.
Despite disagreeing with Tuberville’s tactic, however, he says he recognizes it is the prerogative of any single senator to place a hold on a nominee.
Senators on both sides of the aisle for months have been musing publicly and privately about what it would take to get the Alabama Republican to set his hold aside, but have come up empty at every turn.
Initially, there had been hope that a vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would reverse the abortion travel policy could do the trick, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) led the effort.
But more recently, Tuberville has maintained that not only does any vote have to be standalone, but that the Pentagon would have to reverse its policy before any vote could be taken.
Trying to bridge that gap for lawmakers has become a herculean challenge no one has been able to complete.
Tuberville didn’t comment on efforts by Senate GOP leaders to seek a remedy, but he criticized the Biden administration and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for their lack of outreach in trying to strike a deal. He also hasn’t had any further conversations with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin since their July 17 call and said that the initial series of calls didn’t yield anything productive.
“There’s no conversation from the other side. It’s ‘our way or the highway.’ … How does that help?” Tuberville said. “They’re not worried about it, I guess. … I hate it, for the promotions and all that.”
He added that he has yet to talk to Schumer, who has refused to use up floor time moving the nominees through regular order because he believes it is the Senate GOP’s job to figure a way out of the maze of military holds.
“This is the responsibility of the Republican Senate caucus. … It’s up to them. I think in August, pressure will mount on Tuberville, and I think the Republicans are feeling that heat,” Schumer said late Thursday. “He’s boxing himself into a corner.”
But Democrats are trying to increase that pressure, with President Biden on Thursday night laying into the Alabama Republican and arguing his holds are harming military readiness and creating instability within the ranks of the armed forces.
“This partisan freeze is already harming military readiness, security and leadership, and troop morale,” Biden said in remarks at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium in Washington. “Freezing pay, freezing people in place. Military families who have already sacrificed so much, unsure of where and when they change stations, unable to get housing or start their kids in the new school.”
Senate Democrats also took to the floor before and after the NDAA vote Thursday to criticize their GOP colleague. Since the hold was put into place, Democratic senators have made 12 attempts to move the military promotions in bloc via unanimous request.
Perhaps adding to the difficulty, Tuberville has received a boost in support from voters at home and from conservative corners of the Senate GOP conference who believe he is making the right call, albeit a difficult one.
They also argue that if Senate Democrats truly want to move on some of the nominations, they can start to do so via regular order — a move Democrats have avoided in order to not set precedent.
“Democrats think they have a winning political thing on this. I don’t think they do, and I think Sen. Tuberville morally is in the right position with regard to the issue of abortion,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said. “The [Defense] Department has just as much of a responsibility to find a path forward as any single member does, and I’m not seeing the Department try to work in any fashion other than to simply put pressure on Sen. Tuberville.”
“They’re not trying to find a path forward. They think this is one of those items where if they keep putting pressure on him, he’ll cave, and I don’t think he will,” Rounds continued. “On the issue, he’s correct.” | https://www.cbs42.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:02 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When viewed through a wide lens, renters across the U.S. finally appear to be getting some relief, thanks in part to the biggest apartment construction boom in decades.
Median rent rose just 0.5% in June, year over year, after falling in May for the first time since the pandemic hit the U.S. Some economists project U.S. rents will be down modestly this year after soaring nearly 25% over the past four years.
A closer look, however, shows the trend will likely be little comfort for many U.S. renters who’ve had to put an increasing share of their income toward their monthly payment. Renters in cities such as Cincinnati and Indianapolis are still getting hit with increases of 5% or more. Much of the new construction is located in just a few metro areas, and many of the new units are luxury apartments, which rent for well north of $2,000.
Median U.S. rent has risen to $2,029 this June from $1,629 in June 2019, according to rental listings company Rent, which tracks rents in 50 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Demand for apartments exploded during the pandemic as people who could work remotely sought more space or decided to relocate to another part of the country.
The steep rent increases have left tenants like Melissa Lombana, a high school teacher who lives in the South Florida city of Miramar, with progressively less income to spend on other needs.
The rent on her one-bedroom apartment jumped 13% last year to $1,700. It climbed another 6% to $1,800 this month when she renewed her lease.
“Even the $1,700 was a stretch for me,” said Lombana, 43, who supplements her teaching income with a side job doing educational testing. “In a year, I will not be able to afford living here at all.”
Lombana’s rent is now gobbling up nearly half her monthly income. That puts her in a category referred to as “cost-burdened” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, denoting households that pay 30% or more of their income toward rent. Last year, the average rent-to-income ratio per household rose to 30%. This March, it was 29.6%.
Lombana hasn’t had any luck finding a more affordable apartment. While South Florida is one of the metropolitan areas seeing a rise in apartment construction, the units are mostly high-end and not a viable option.
That scenario is playing out across the nation. Developers are rushing to complete projects that were green-lit during the pandemic-era surge in demand for rentals or left in limbo by delays in supplies of fixtures and building materials. Nearly 1.1 million apartments are currently under construction, according to the commercial real estate tracker CoStar, a pace not seen since the 1970s.
Increasing the supply of apartments tends to moderate rent increases over time and can give tenants more options on where to live. But more than 40% of the new rentals to be completed this year will be concentrated in about 10 high job growth metropolitan areas, including Austin, Nashville, Denver, Atlanta and New York, according to Marcus & Millichap. In many areas, the boost to overall inventory will be barely noticeable.
Even within metros where there’ll be a notable increase in available apartments, such as Nashville, most of it will be in the luxury category, where rents average $2,270, nationally. Some 70% of the new rental inventory will be the luxury class, said Jay Lybik, national director of multifamily analytics at CoStar.
That will leave most tenants unlikely to see a big enough reduction in rent to make a difference, industry experts and economists say.
“I think we’re in a period of rent flattening for 12 or 18 months, but it’s certainly not a big rent decline,” said Hessam Nadji, CEO of commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap.
“We’re building a multi-decade record number of units,” Nadji said. “It’s going to cause some softening and some pockets of overbuilding, but it’s not going to fundamentally resolve the housing shortage or the affordability problem for renters across the U.S.”
The surge in rents has made it difficult for workers to keep up with inflation despite solid wage gains the past few years and exacerbated a long-term trend. Between 1999 and 2022, U.S. rents soared 135%, while income grew 77%, according to data from Moody’s Analytics.
Realtor.com is forecasting that rents will drop an average of 0.9% this year. But while down nationally, rents are still rising in many markets around the country, especially those where hiring remains robust.
In the New York metro area, the median rent climbed 4.7% in June from a year earlier to $2,899, according to Realtor.com. In the Midwest, rents surged 5.6% in the Cincinnati metro area to $1,188, and 6.9% to $1,350 in the Indianapolis metro area.
The current spike in apartment construction alone isn’t going to be enough to address how costly renting has become for many Americans.
“For the rest of the 2020s rents will continue to grow because millennials are such a big generation and we’re very much in the hole in terms of building housing for that generation,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “It will take many good years of new construction to build adequate housing for millennials.”
The bigger challenge is building more work force housing, because the cost of land, labor and navigating the government approval process incentivize developers to put up luxury apartments buildings.
Expanding the supply of modestly priced rentals would help alleviate the strain from so many new apartments targeting renters with high incomes, “although additional subsidies will be needed to make housing affordable to households with the lowest incomes,” researchers at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies wrote in a recent report.
Despite the overall pullback in U.S. rents, Joey Di Girolamo, in Pembroke Pines, Florida, worries that he’ll face more sharp rent increases in coming years.
Last year, the web designer left a two-bedroom, two-bath townhome he rented for $2,200 a month to avoid a $600 a month increase. This year, his rent went up by $200, a nearly 10% jump.
“That blew me away,” said Di Girolamo, 50. “I’m just kind of dreading what it’s going to be like next year, but especially 3 or 4 years from now.” | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:08 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ |
- Innovative Relay Event Introduces Korean Ginseng Across to the East and West Coast
- with Billboard Ads Featuring Hollywood Stars Arden Cho and Kieu Chin
- HSW Brand expanding its lineup with Two New Sparkling Beverages Designed to Beat the Summer Heat: Recharge and Calm
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Korea Ginseng Corp., the world's number one ginseng brand and leading next-generation global herbal brand, is spreading the word about its new beverage product, HSW, which reflects the health functional food's major trend keyword, 'Food as Medicine,' in a guerilla marketing campaign in key areas of the United States.
Korea Ginseng Corp., unveiled a brand advertisement on a billboard in Times square, Manhattan in the past month. Building on this momentum, Korea Ginseng Corp. has recently announced their plans for a relay guerilla marketing campaign, starting from the K-week event held at the Rockefeller center in New York. The event showcased their newest product, HSW, and featured traditional Korean games like Yut-nori and Dddakji-chiji, capturing the attention of American K-Culture fans. Building on the success of this first event, the brand is currently holding relay events across the city.
On the West Coast, Korea Ginseng Corp. will send its new mobile Ginseng Museum Café to this year's editions of the 626 Night Market, the largest night market in the United States, and to the Moon Festival, which celebrates LA's booming Asian street food scene. To draw attention to their one-of-a-kind trailer café, KGC will be running a fun social media awareness campaign and hosting on-the-spot game events and interactive samplings.
HSW is Korea Ginseng Corp.'s latest beverage offering, a contemporary twist on its best-selling energy tonic, Hong Sam Won. The new product is very much in sync with the hottest health food trend – 'Food as Medicine' – and caters to consumers seeking healthy, natural beverage options. With less than 40 calories per serving and zero caffeine, HSW is a light and guilt-free indulgence for the diet-conscious. In addition, Korea Ginseng Corp. is expanding its lineup with 'Recharge' and 'Calm,' two sparkling beverages designed for this year's hot summer season.
Rian Heung Sil Lee, a representative of Korea Ginseng Corp. U.S., notes, "Korean culture is being embraced by Americans, and interest in Korean health foods is at all-time high. We will be redoubling our efforts to make Korean red ginseng's unparalleled role as a food-as-medicine better known."
Korea Ginseng Corp.'s U.S. expansion began in 2002 and reached a new high point in 2021 with the opening of its flagship Ginseng Museum Café, in Manhattan. Since then, the global brand has introduced a new American-specific product line, KORESELECT, and has broadened its appeal with new distribution channels, including Amazon and Costco. Over the past three years, sales have more than doubled, confirming the impressive potential of the American market.
Leveraging its new American R&D Center, the company is committed to a proactive localization strategy and is planning to launch even more new products with the major marketing support of Korea's aT Center for Globalizing Korean Foods.
About Korea Ginseng Corp.
Korea Ginseng Corp.(KGC) is the world's number one ginseng brand and herbal dietary company. Established in 1899, it is one of the most proven and trusted herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, providing the highest quality, traditionally harvested Korean Red Ginseng products to support health and well-being. KGC runs four regional headquarters in the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, in addition to South Korea, and exports products to over 40 countries. With over 40% world market share, its presence spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East region and the U.S. KGC's family of brands include KORESELECT, CheongKwanJang, Good Base, and Donginbi. The KGC brands, inclusive of over 250 products, use the most exceptional ginseng combined with the finest herbs and ingredients to deliver superior products to meet everyone's needs.
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SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.) | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:08 | 0 | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ |
AUSTIN (KXAN) — It’s no surprise that the summer heat can do significant damage to your vehicle. But as cities around the country continue to break temperature records and endure long heat waves, some car technicians are finding unusual vehicle issues.
Doc Watson, a national training manager with Bosch Diagnostics, said typical summertime issues include dead car batteries and flat tires. However, he said technicians in Texas and along the West Coast have also been recording more unusual vehicle complications due to the extensive heat waves.
In Texas, Arizona and California, technicians are reporting an emergence of “brake fade” cases in cars. When the temperature outside tops 100 degrees for extended periods of time, temperatures under the hood of vehicles during the summer can reach up to 230 degrees.
Brake fluids inside the cylinder under the hood of the car can absorb moisture, as the heat causes that moisture to expand within the fluid. When that happens, stepping on the brake pedal can feel “mushy.” That means the vehicle owner will need to take the car in for maintenance.
Both heat and humidity can add extra wear and tear to the windshield wiper blades, which have a typical lifespan between 12 and 18 months.
“People don’t stop to think about wiper blades — they don’t need them until it rains, right?” Watson said. “You’re driving around in 112-degree temperature, you’ve got heat reflecting off the glass, and that causes the rubber components of a wiper blade to break down.”
The plastic parts of the blades can also suffer.
“With these extreme temperatures that you guys are seeing, it’s the plastic breaking down off the wiper blade itself, and people not realizing that that’s happened until it’s too late,” he said. “The wiper blade breaks and then you’ve got this metal arm scratching the glass.”
Watson recommended car owners keep a checklist of key vehicle parts to monitor during the summer months. Those include:
- Car batteries: Traditionally, car batteries last between three and five years. Amid excessive heat spells, temperatures under the hood of a vehicle reach up to 230 degrees, which can lead to battery fluid evaporations and dead batteries. Watson suggests car owners have their batteries tested by a technician during the summer to get a condition status.
- Tires: Low tire pressure is exacerbated by hot asphalt on roadways. Watson encouraged car owners to purchase a tire pressure gauge and to test their vehicle’s tire pressure early in the morning while it’s still cool to ensure an accurate reading.
- Engine overflow tank: During the summer months, cooling an engine is critical. Watson said when car owners check underneath the hood, they’ll find a plastic overflow tank with a graduated scale. If it looks low, he suggested adding antifreeze to aid your engine.
- Wiper blades: Check wiper blades during dry spells (and before rain storms) to make sure they’re properly working and not deteriorating. If they show signs of wear and tear, replace them and make sure they’re upgraded every 12-18 months.
- Oil changes: Most newer vehicles require an oil change every 5,000 to 7,000 miles. However, remote starting a vehicle and running the air conditioning works the engine without adding any mileage to the vehicle. As a result, Watson suggested not waiting until you hit that 5,000 to 7,000-mile range if you often use remote start on your vehicle during the summer or winter months.
“People aren’t changing oil regularly like they think they are,” he said. “People need to pay more attention to them because these engines will go many miles — 200,000, 300,000 miles — as long as they’re maintained correctly. That’s big with this extreme heat.” | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/the-weird-car-issues-mechanics-are-seeing-during-heat-waves/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:14 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/the-weird-car-issues-mechanics-are-seeing-during-heat-waves/ |
3 dead after plane crashes into California airport hangar while taking off, authorities say By Chris Boyette, CNN Jul 30, 2023 1 hr ago Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save (CNN) — A small plane crashed into a California airport hangar as it was taking off Sunday, killing all three people on board, authorities say.The single-engine Beechcraft P35 crashed at Cable Airport in Upland at around 6:30 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. × This page requires Javascript. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. kAm“%9C66 @44FA2?ED @7 2:C4C27E =@42E65 56462D65] &?:ED 4@>>:EE65 E@ @G6C92F=] x?G6DE:82E@CD 6?C@FE6[” k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^EH:EE6C]4@>^$qr~&}%*ux#t^DE2EFD^`egdedfgcha_fbdbbccQ E2C86ElQ03=2?<QmE96 $2? q6C?2C5:?@ r@F?EJ u:C6 s6A2CE>6?E EH66E65]k^2mk^AmkAm%96 upp 2?5 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^EH:EE6C]4@>^}%$q0}6HDC@@>^DE2EFD^`egdegdg`_a``fc`ehenDla_Q E2C86ElQ03=2?<Qm}2E:@?2= %C2?DA@CE2E:@? $276EJ q@2C5k^2m 2C6 :?G6DE:82E:?8[ E96 286?4:6D D2:5]k^Am kAm%96 4:EJ @7 &A=2?5 :D 23@FE be >:=6D 62DE @7 {@D p?86=6D]k^AmkAm%96\r}}\(:C6k^AmkAm™ U2>Aj © a_ab r23=6 }6HD }6EH@C<[ x?4][ 2 (2C?6C qC@D] s:D4@G6CJ r@>A2?J] p== C:89ED C6D6CG65]k^Am Recommended for you +15 Photos: Fantastic Fifteen: Kameron Davis Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Tags Cnn Accidental Fatalities Accidents Accidents, Disasters And Safety Air Transportation Aircraft Accidents Airports Brand Safety-nsf Accidents And Disasters Brand Safety-nsf Air Travel Negative Brand Safety-nsf Death Brand Safety-nsf Sensitive Brand Safety-nsf Severe Brand Safety-nsf Travel Negative Business And Industry Sectors Business, Economy And Trade California Continents And Regions Death And Dying Deaths And Fatalities Domestic Alerts Domestic-us News Iab-air Travel Iab-bereavement Iab-disasters Iab-family And Relationships Iab-travel Iab-travel Type International Alerts International-us News North America Society Southwestern United States The Americas Transportation And Warehousing United States Air Travel Aviation Transportation Telecommunications Politics More News News 3 dead after plane crashes into California airport hangar while taking off, authorities say By Chris Boyette, CNN 1 hr ago News Bear cools off in a Burbank pool during heat wave By Cheri Mossburg and Zoe Sottile, CNNUpdated 42 min ago World & Nation Where Trump’s legal troubles stand after superseding indictment in documents case and January 6 charges loom: What you should know Molly Crane-Newman, Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News 2 hrs ago News 5 wounded, 2 critically, after shooting at Michigan shopping center By Jessica Xing, CNN 2 hrs ago Latest from the Albany Herald TARA FLETCHER: Video for Childers' beautiful 'In Your Love' stirs up controversy Squawkbox Ousted administrator puts county on notice: He's suing for $5 million Fantastic Fifteen: Lee County's Devin Collier wants to put the Trojans back on top Brennan Center fact-checks Trump call to Raffensperger Latest News Mariners roll 4-0 as Diamondbacks' struggles continue It's No Longer a Mystery—Here Are All of Daniel Silva's Books in Order Chris Buescher grabs first Cup Series win of season at Richmond Reds drub Dodgers 9-0 to claim season series » More News Most Popular Articles Images Videos Collections ArticlesGreyhound business decision leaves Albany riders out in the heatThree Albany State players selected for NBA campBank failure: Kansas Heartland Tri-State Bank closed by FDICCARLTON FLETCHER: There ain't no early birds out worm-huntin' around hereMcCoy files suit against Dougherty County CommissionFormer Albany Tomorrow Director Thomas Chatmon remembered as man of integrityThey took blockbuster drugs for weight loss and diabetes. Now their stomachs are paralyzed5 things we know about Niger’s new military leaderShocking video emerges of sexual assault in India’s Manipur state amid ethnic violence8 Vintage Allan Barbie Dolls You Just *Have* To See on eBay Right Now Images Videos CollectionsGET OUT THERE: 5 things to do in southwest Georgia this weekend, July 28-30PHOTOS: Albany Museum of Art pop-up market showcases young talentPhotos: Fantastic Fifteen: Kameron DavisGET OUT THERE: 5 things to do in southwest Georgia this weekend, July 21-23PHOTOS: Taylor Heinicke Collins Hill Football Golf TournamentPHOTOS: Alex Armah Jr. Football Camp at Dacula High SchoolPHOTOS: Lea Henry's Camp of ChampsPHOTOS: Bradley Roby Football Camp at Peachtree RidgePHOTOS: Atlanta Open Tennis, July 29, 2023GET OUT THERE: 5 things to do in southwest Georgia this weekend, July 14-16
News 3 dead after plane crashes into California airport hangar while taking off, authorities say By Chris Boyette, CNN 1 hr ago
News Bear cools off in a Burbank pool during heat wave By Cheri Mossburg and Zoe Sottile, CNNUpdated 42 min ago
World & Nation Where Trump’s legal troubles stand after superseding indictment in documents case and January 6 charges loom: What you should know Molly Crane-Newman, Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News 2 hrs ago
News 5 wounded, 2 critically, after shooting at Michigan shopping center By Jessica Xing, CNN 2 hrs ago | https://www.albanyherald.com/news/3-dead-after-plane-crashes-into-california-airport-hangar-while-taking-off-authorities-say/article_db7cf61a-39e4-5884-a23f-22150d11df16.html | 2023-07-30T23:52:14 | 0 | https://www.albanyherald.com/news/3-dead-after-plane-crashes-into-california-airport-hangar-while-taking-off-authorities-say/article_db7cf61a-39e4-5884-a23f-22150d11df16.html |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
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 breathe, 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 its 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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:14 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
(The Hill) – Northwestern is the latest in a long line of universities to come under public scrutiny due to a scandal over hazing, a practice that has refused to go extinct in colleges and high schools despite multiple concerted efforts to end it.
Hazing, which in rare instances has proven fatal, in particular plagues sports teams and Greek Life.
Experts say education on the issue and increased consequences are needed to create a real change, although they are skeptical the dangerous practice will exit school life anytime soon.
“Hazing has always been prevalent in society, not just in colleges. It’s anywhere that you see a different power dynamic between people who are trying to join a group [and] people who are in the group,” said Todd Shelton, executive director of the Hazing Prevention Network. “There’s research that shows that hazing starts long before college and in those younger ages. It’s especially prevalent in athletic teams camps, performing arts groups.”
The latest high-profile hazing incident comes from Northwestern University, where the head football coach was recently let go and a barrage of lawsuits have fallen on the school.
One of the reported rituals of hazing on the school’s football team was younger players getting restrained in the locker room by older ones while others dry humped the individual. Another incident described in a lawsuit against the school was a ritual called “carwash” where players were forced to rub themselves against a line of naked men in the showers.
“Certainly, it is typical hazing activities that we’ve seen before and it’s not unusual that they’re shrouded with secrecy. So I applaud the people who came forward and reported because that’s — that’s key for institutions to be able to make changes,” Shelton said. “I think those acts are horrible and examples of how hazing can quickly escalate from what individuals think is something that’s mild and or funny, to quickly being something that’s dangerous, either mentally or physically, to the victims.”
Experts say preventing hazing incidents has to start by educating people about its warning signs and dangers.
A study in 2008 showed 73 percent of students who have been in a sorority or fraternity said they experienced behaviors that meet the definition of hazing, such as being forced into drinking games or getting screamed at by other members.
The same study showed 74 percent of athletes in athletic programs also experienced behaviors that amount to hazing.
“Hazing is specific to that group context where someone is seeking inclusion or a sense of belonging in a club, team or organization. They’re a newcomer typically coming into this group situation, and because of that group dynamic there can be an incredible amount of peer pressure and sometimes a coercive environment. And so that can impede or be a barrier to recognizing and or reporting hazing because there can be a lot of fear,” Elizabeth Allan, a professor at the University of Maine, said.
These rituals and desires to be part of the in-group have led to some deadly consequences for young people.
In 2019, five Penn State University students were sentenced to jail after a 19-year-old student at a Beta Theta Pi fraternity house died at a party after hazing-based binge drinking.
While most hazing incidents don’t result in incarceration, there are other consequences for students who are caught for the crime.
“Financial, monetary damages. People have lost their jobs. People have gone to jail or had, criminal penalties, fines and so forth. Let’s say sometimes when it’s a student organization or a team so with a student organization, they’re often suspended or lose their recognition with the campus for a period of time, and with an athletic team sometimes a portion of the season is put on hold or canceled entirely sometimes at the high school level, we’ve seen that recently.” Allan, who also leads the organization Stop Hazing, said.
And yet, even as schools ramp up their efforts, hazing persists.
Allan says a multifaceted strategy is needed to tackle the problem, and her group has developed a “Hazing Prevention Framework” for schools to follow.
“They can use it to also do some strategic planning and set some goals for the improvements they want to make, and all this is really … based on a public health approach to organizational change and promoting healthy behaviors in a community setting,” Allan said.
Shelton said his group also advocates for hazing to be treated as a felony, whereas many states look at it as a misdemeanor.
“The problem is it’s not taken seriously in the law, and we’ve seen a lot of hazing cases, even when there’s been a death… [where] prosecutors don’t consider it hazing or don’t consider hazing to be a serious crime to go through the measures of prosecuting,” Shelton said. “And so that’s why we’ve been working hard to strengthen those state laws.” | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/why-is-hazing-so-hard-to-eliminate/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:20 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/why-is-hazing-so-hard-to-eliminate/ |
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Remains of WWII veteran killed in Romania identified, laid to rest
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - The remains of a missing U.S. Army Lieutenant were laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday.
According to WOIO, First Lieutenant Army Air Corps George “Bud” Julius Reuter was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Reuter, who was 25 years old at the time, was killed in action on August 1, 1943 near Ploiesti, Romania.
Reuter’s remains were identified January 10, 2023 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
After the war, many airmen were interred by Romanian citizens in the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiesti. The American Graves Registration Command exhumed many unknown remains to identify U.S. veterans who went missing. The organization eventually reinterred the remains that could not be identified.
Reuter was laid to rest near his parents John George and Elizabeth Theodocia Reuter.
A memorial service was held for the lieutenant which included the presentation of four military medals: the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal for conspicuous gallantry in action against the enemy.
Copyright 2023 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:21 | 0 | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ |
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Voting rights activists are returning to court to fight Alabama’s redrawn congressional districts, saying state Republicans failed to follow federal court orders to create a district that is fair to Black voters.
Plaintiffs in the high-profile redistricting case filed a written objection Friday to oppose Alabama’s new redistricting plan. They accused state Republicans of flouting a judicial mandate to create a second majority-Black district or “something quite close to it” and enacting a map that continues to discriminate against Black voters in the state.
A special three-judge panel in 2022 blocked use of the the state’s existing districts and said any new congressional map should include two districts where “Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority” or something close. That panel’s decision was appealed by the state but upheld in June in a surprise ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which concurred that having only one Black-majority district out of seven — in a state where more than one in four residents is Black — likely violated federal law.
The plaintiffs in the case, represented by the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and other groups, asked the three-judge panel to step in and draw new lines for the state.
“Alabama’s new congressional map ignores this court’s preliminary injunction order and instead perpetuates the Voting Rights Act violation that was the very reason that the Legislature redrew the map,” lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case wrote.
The new map enacted by the Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature maintained one-majority Black district but boosted the percentage of Black voters in the majority-white 2nd Congressional District, now represented by Republican Rep. Barry Moore, from about 30% to 39.9%
Lawyers representing plaintiffs in the case wrote Friday that the revamped district “does not provide Black voters a realistic opportunity to elect their preferred candidates in any but the most extreme situations.” They accused state Republicans of ignoring the courts’ directive to prioritize a district that would stay under GOP control “pleasing national leaders whose objective is to maintain the Republican Party’s slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
Alabama has maintained the new plan complies with the Voting Rights Act, and state leaders are wagering that the panel will accept their proposal or that the state will prevail in a second round of appeals to the Supreme Court. Republicans argued that the map meets the court’s directive and draws compact districts that comply with redistricting guidelines.
The state must file its defense of the map by Aug. 4. The three judges have scheduled an Aug. 14 hearing in the case as the fight over the map shifts back to federal court.
The outcome could have consequences across the country as the case again weighs the requirements of the Voting Rights Act in redistricting. It could also impact the partisan leanings of one Alabama congressional district in the 2024 elections with control of the U.S House of Representatives at stake.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said in a statement that Alabama’s new map is a “brazen defiance” of the courts.
“The result is a shameful display that would have made George Wallace—another Alabama governor who defied the courts—proud,” Holder said in a statement. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/politics/plaintiffs-in-voting-rights-case-urge-judges-to-toss-alabamas-new-congressional-map/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:26 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/politics/plaintiffs-in-voting-rights-case-urge-judges-to-toss-alabamas-new-congressional-map/ |
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Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -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.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:27 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
TUSCALOOSA COUNTY, Ala. (WIAT) — A crash on I-59 Friday morning caused a 37-year-old Woodstock woman to die.
According to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, Jessica R. Kelley was critically injured when the Toyota Highlander she was driving hit a Hyundai Elantra. After the crash, the Toyota overturned several times. Kelley was then airlifted to UAB Hospital. She was pronounced dead there Saturday.
The crash occurred about two miles south of Bucksville. Troopers with the ALEA’s Highway Patrol Division are investigating the crash. | https://www.cbs42.com/traffic/woman-dies-after-i-59-crash-in-tuscaloosa-county/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:32 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/traffic/woman-dies-after-i-59-crash-in-tuscaloosa-county/ |
Three people injured after domestic dispute leads to shooting
Authorities found that the incident stemmed from an isolated, domestic dispute regarding a child exchange that began in the parking lot of Windsor Park.
MATTHEWS, N.C. (WBTV) - Three people injured after a domestic dispute involving a child leads to multiple being shot.
This incident happened shortly after 12:00 p.m., at the 10100 block of Northeast Pkwy at Windsor Park.
According to The Matthews Police Department, a man and his girlfriend was shot after two men opened fire on them in the parking lot of Windsor Park.
The two men who opened fire had been identified as the ex-boyfriend and ex-boyfriend’s brother of the girl who was in the vehicle.
The men followed the victims to hospital and then left the area. Shortly thereafter, a Matthews Officer located a vehicle matching the description of the suspect’s vehicle traveling north on Matthews Mint Hill Rd.
The Officer stopped the suspect in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven located at 11200 block E. Independence Blvd.
The driver was found to be suffering from a significant wound to the arm. The suspect who also was the driver was treated and eventually taken to the hsopital
The suspect who was driving the vehicle had his brother who was also a suspect, and two children in the vehicle as well.
Authorities found that the incident stemmed from an isolated, domestic dispute regarding a child exchange that began in the parking lot of Windsor Park.
The male victim, in this case, was treated and released for a gunshot wound to his wrist, and the female victim was treated and released for injuries received from shattered glass and a physical assault.
The suspect continues to receive medical treatment and is currently in stable condition. No other injuries were reported from this incident.
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Copyright 2023 WBTV. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/30/three-people-injured-after-domestic-dispute-leads-shooting/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:34 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/07/30/three-people-injured-after-domestic-dispute-leads-shooting/ |
TONIGHT: Showers and thunderstorms are ending for the evening, leading to a partially cloudy sky for the remainder of tonight. Otherwise, warm and muggy with lows in the 70s along with patchy areas of fog.
MONDAY/TUESDAY: Drier air moves in to kick off the week. That won’t help much with high temperatures. We will still reach the mid to upper 90s both Monday and Tuesday. The drier air will drop our rain chances to near zero and bring the heat index closer to 100° to kick off the week.
WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY: Temperatures remain in the mid 90s through the second half of the work week. Humidity increases mid-week, increasing both our heat index and rain chances as we head into Thursday, Friday, and the start of next weekend.
TRACKING THE TROPICS: We are monitoring two systems in The Atlantic. One is located off the coast of North Carolina with low end chance for development over the coming days. A second disturbance is in The Atlantic with a higher chance to become a tropical depression. Fortunately, neither system is expected to have any significant impacts in The U.S. | https://www.cbs42.com/weather-birmingham-forecast/summer-heat-continues-but-not-as-humid-to-begin-the-week/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:36 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/weather-birmingham-forecast/summer-heat-continues-but-not-as-humid-to-begin-the-week/ |
THE BRONX (PIX11) — The streets of the Bronx turned into a giant party. Bachata and merengue music blasted through the speakers for the borough’s 34th annual Dominican Day Parade.
“It feels good. I’m happy that I’m here because I love my country. I’m glad to be here. Todos los dominicanos,” said parade goer Emily Martinez.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other city leaders kicked off the celebration Sunday. The city’s first Dominican Deputy Mayor, Ana Almanzar, joined him.
“I say it over and over again. I’m born in Alabama, but I’m Dominican baby,” said Adams.
A sea of flags waving along the grand concourse as different generations honored the folklore and traditions of their beloved quisquella.
“You can have a day off without internet,” said Alberg De La Cruz.
“I also like think it’s very important to spend the time with your family,” said Franciely De La Cruz.
Nearly 1 million people of Dominican descent call New York City home. It comes in second only to the island of Hispaniola as having the largest Dominican population.
“The energy, the people, the culture. Everything. Just to keep the culture altogether and to show that there’s is love in this people in this cruel world,” said Kiara Chevalier. | https://pix11.com/news/local-news/bronx/bronx-celebrates-34th-annual-dominican-day-parade/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:36 | 0 | https://pix11.com/news/local-news/bronx/bronx-celebrates-34th-annual-dominican-day-parade/ |
HOUSTON, Minn. (WXOW) - The Houston Area Museum is a newly formed non-profit organization in Houston, Minnesota.
With it’s inauguration in January, the purpose of the museum is to preserve various things that have made Houston a unique community.
Shelly Jerviss, Director of the Houston Area Museum, said this has always been a dream of area residents.
"Well it’s kind of been a dream of Jim Scray and I for a long time to have a museum,” she said. “Houston never had a museum. So when this building became available after it kind of shut down during COVID, and the city bought a different building for the community center, I went to the city council in September and talked to the board about my plan. And by January we had agreed upon an amount of money to pay for the museum. For the building rather, and then we just began working so its a dream that's coming true."
The museum houses many old Houston High School jerseys, cheerleading outfits as well as photos taken from different classes throughout the years. It also has an area dedicated for public services such as historic fire department gear and police department radios and uniforms.
The newest addition to the museum is a Catholic church pump organ. The organ was donated a few weeks ago from a local church.
“It might be 100 years old maybe,” Jerviss said. “And it still plays beautifully.”
The museum was recently awarded a grant from the Houston Area Community Foundation. Close to $1,500 will go towards the museum.
“Our grant will go toward past perfect software to catalog the whole collection,” Jerviss said. “Another individual donated a computer, printer and all of that for the software. The grant will also go toward file folders and paper for storing things in. Down on the other end of this room there will be archives and a research library. When people come back in the future and they can research their family.”
The Houston Area Museum saw over 70 people visit between Saturday and Sunday.
If you would like to reach out to the museum, or are looking for more information about it, you can visit their website www.houstonareamuseum.org or go to their Facebook page. | https://www.wxow.com/news/houston-area-museum-sees-many-visitors/article_82668056-2f2b-11ee-bc0a-5f583ec90af3.html | 2023-07-30T23:52:36 | 1 | https://www.wxow.com/news/houston-area-museum-sees-many-visitors/article_82668056-2f2b-11ee-bc0a-5f583ec90af3.html |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
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 breathe, 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 its 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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:36 | 0 | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
FLORAL PARK, Queens (PIX11) — More than 40 Indian nations are represented at a Thunderbird, American Indian powwow. It’s been a three-day celebration of Native Americans at the Queens county farm museum.
It’s the 44th year the Thunderbird American Indian dancers told everyone who wasn’t Native American more about their culture.
“One of the things that surprises a lot of people is that Native American culture is constantly changing,” Matt Cross, a member of the Kiowa Tribe near Anadarko, Oklahoma, told PIX11 News. “One of the dances mentions Pokeman and Pilachu.”
Julian Pellecier is a member of the Shinnecock Nation on Long Island and one of the dancers this weekend.
It’s not easy, he said, to dance in full Indian regalia, but it is necessary.
“It’s not an outfit or a costume,” Pellecier told PIX11 News. “It is what we wear for our traditional dance.”
This powwow is always held on the grounds of the Queens County Farm Museum.
“It’s the longest-running, continuously running farm, and on its 47 acres, we bring a living history to visitors,” Hayden Cubas, director of marketing for the Queens County Farm Museum, told PIX11 News.
In addition to the dancing and the drumming circle, there are also 40 food and craft vendors.
Nikki Apostolou, a member of the Mohawk tribe from the Kahnawake territory in Canada, was so excited to eat what she calls an Indian taco.
“It’s really delicious and it makes me homesick,” Apostolou told PIX11 News. | https://pix11.com/news/local-news/queens/its-not-a-costume-or-outfit-its-indian-regalia-native-american-powwow-in-queens/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:42 | 1 | https://pix11.com/news/local-news/queens/its-not-a-costume-or-outfit-its-indian-regalia-native-american-powwow-in-queens/ |
Remains of WWII veteran killed in Romania identified, laid to rest
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - The remains of a missing U.S. Army Lieutenant were laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday.
According to WOIO, First Lieutenant Army Air Corps George “Bud” Julius Reuter was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Reuter, who was 25 years old at the time, was killed in action on August 1, 1943 near Ploiesti, Romania.
Reuter’s remains were identified January 10, 2023 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
After the war, many airmen were interred by Romanian citizens in the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiesti. The American Graves Registration Command exhumed many unknown remains to identify U.S. veterans who went missing. The organization eventually reinterred the remains that could not be identified.
Reuter was laid to rest near his parents John George and Elizabeth Theodocia Reuter.
A memorial service was held for the lieutenant which included the presentation of four military medals: the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal for conspicuous gallantry in action against the enemy.
Copyright 2023 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:43 | 0 | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ |
(The Hill) – A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee say a high-profile hearing on UFOs is just the start of their push for answers.
And they are threatening to use heavier handed tactics if the Pentagon and intelligence agencies stand in their way.
Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) want more information on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) — commonly referred to as UFOs — beginning with new laws, a classified hearing and the possible creation of a select committee.
The lawmakers said they are willing to use subpoena power if needed to get the answers they’re seeking from the federal government.
“If there’s not a cover up, the government and the Pentagon are sure spending a lot of resources to stop us from studying it,” Burchett told The Hill.
He added that they hope House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) can aid them in setting up a select committee to study the issue of UAPs — as well as any government program that addresses them. If they don’t get leadership approval, they’ll “just start holding field hearings because the public is demanding that we have transparency,” Burchett said.
The effort comes after three former military officials earlier this week and under oath gave bombshell testimony on the unexplained aerial objects, telling lawmakers that for years they’ve been kept in the dark about the mysterious sightings and encounters.
David Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer, gave the most shocking testimony when he said he was told of a “multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program,” accusing the military of misdirecting funds to keep such operations secret.
The shocking testimony now has committee members questioning how Congress should begin to investigate the witness claims and demand more answers from the executive branch on programs it claims doesn’t exist.
Lawmakers hope to start with obtaining additional information and documents that Grusch said he submitted to the Pentagon’s inspector general after serving on two Defense Department task forces looking into UAPs.
To get the information from Grusch — who said he was unable to discuss specifics on what he told the Pentagon’s watchdog arm — lawmakers want to sit down with the former official in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) to get additional information from him.
The group has been blocked, however, by officials that have informed them that Grusch doesn’t currently have security clearance to discuss the issues in a SCIF, according to Burchett.
“I think we’ll get there eventually, it’s just frustrating. I’m ready to go and the American public are ready to go,” he said.
Luna argued the SCIF with Grusch would help lawmakers better understand the type of legislation they need to write regarding UAPs. She said she supports legislation that would declassify information on the phenomena.
With a growing amount of bipartisan interest for more government transparency surrounding the issue, a need for reporting procedures for UAP’s both in the miliary and commercial airspace, and “stronger and stricter punishment for those that try to silence whistleblowers,” the topic is more important than ever, she said.
There is currently a provision in the Senate’s version of the annual defense authorization bill, inserted by Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), which would force federal government agencies to hand over UAP records to a review panel with the power to declassify them. The bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, was passed by the Senate on Thursday and now must be reconciled with the House’s version, so the initiative could still be stripped out.
Burchett also made an attempt to put an amendment into a Federal Aviation Administration bill to improve air travel, passed July 20, that would have required UAP sightings be reported to Congress. The initiative was blocked, which Luna said was an indication that “we clearly have a battle ahead of us.”
Another avenue for lawmakers should they not receive access to a SCIF would be invoking the Holman rule.
During Wednesday’s hearing Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) vowed to do just that, saying that he would “personally volunteer to initiate the Holman rule against any personnel, or any program, or any agency that denies access to Congress.”
The Holman rule is a House power through which they can strip the salary of a specific government position, fire civil servants or cut a particular program.
Ogles’s pledge came after Grusch told lawmakers that the federal government for decades has secretly funded a “UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program” and that he believes the government is in possession of non-human crafts, based on interviews with 40 witnesses.
Moskowitz told The Hill that while it’s too early to use the Holman rule — as Congress must first “figure out where these positions exist and then examine whether or not they should be funded” — he hopes that by discussing the rule it will create more transparency with the federal government.
“This is about government transparency. I’m all for protecting national security, but that can’t just be a shield to deny the American people the basics of what we know about UAPs,” he said.
And Burchett said if lawmakers “start getting stonewalled” by the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, he will have “no hesitation,” to invoke the rule.
Luna, meanwhile, said whether lawmakers use the rule depends on the response they receive from various agencies, programs and appointees.
That process could start as soon as September when lawmakers consider the Defense Appropriations bill on the House floor.
“We know that enormous sums of money are being spent on UAP related activity, whether it’s retrieval/recovery, research and reverse engineering, or just security for whatever the government is hiding,” she told The Hill. “But none of that is on the books, so from a basic governance perspective, Congress needs to know where money is being misappropriated.”
The Hill’s Sarakshi Rai contributed reporting. | https://pix11.com/news/ufo-curious-lawmakers-brace-for-a-fight-over-government-secrets/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:48 | 1 | https://pix11.com/news/ufo-curious-lawmakers-brace-for-a-fight-over-government-secrets/ |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -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.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-30T23:52:50 | 0 | https://www.kxii.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
Our last day of the weekend has been pleasant as humidity is nice and low. This is a great change as the past seven days were dangerously hot and following the heat, stormy. The start of the work week continues comfy weather, however, higher levels of humidity is on the way.
For tonight, temperatures will cool down in the mid 50s with cool air from the northeast. Those that like having their windows open in the evening, tonight is the perfect night to do so.
Tomorrow, we are in for plenty of sunshine and will help get our temperatures into the low to mid 80s.
Humidity remains low now, but in the next few days it will increase back into higher levels. However, as levels are higher, temperatures will only rise into the upper 80s and low 90s. Real feels will be in the low to mid 90s.
As with any return in humidity, rain chances are present. However, these chances aren't looking too high, and the Coulee Region could be on the drier side this week. | https://www.wxow.com/news/top-stories/comfortable-humidity-continues-for-monday-before-higher-levels-return-later-in-the-week/article_d878a1ba-2f24-11ee-b448-8bb54354489d.html | 2023-07-30T23:53:01 | 0 | https://www.wxow.com/news/top-stories/comfortable-humidity-continues-for-monday-before-higher-levels-return-later-in-the-week/article_d878a1ba-2f24-11ee-b448-8bb54354489d.html |
From Stormtracker 18 Meteorologist Jeremy Landgrebe:
Our last day of the weekend has been pleasant as humidity is nice and low. This is a great change as the past seven days were dangerously hot and following the heat, stormy. The start of the work week continues comfy weather, however, higher levels of humidity is on the way.
For tonight, temperatures will cool down in the mid 50s with cool air from the northeast. Those that like having their windows open in the evening, tonight is the perfect night to do so.
For tomorrow's weather and a look at the 7-day forecast, click here. | https://www.wxow.com/weather/forecast/comfortable-humidity-continues-for-monday-before-higher-levels-return-later-in-the-week/article_d7d1c9e4-2f24-11ee-b3b2-ef4840705343.html | 2023-07-30T23:53:07 | 1 | https://www.wxow.com/weather/forecast/comfortable-humidity-continues-for-monday-before-higher-levels-return-later-in-the-week/article_d7d1c9e4-2f24-11ee-b3b2-ef4840705343.html |
Senate GOP leaders didn’t want it to get to this point.
They tried and tried to get Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to lift the holds he’s placed on hundreds of military promotions — which have opened Republicans up to attacks from the Biden administration.
But their efforts have failed, and they are now in a situation where the earliest a resolution might be found is September — when lawmakers will also be busy trying to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.
“It’s hung around for a while. I support his goals,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican. “The challenge obviously is the mechanism he used to get to the result has created some challenges. We want to figure out a way to resolve it and address that.”
“There are conversations now going on, which is good — between him and the military and others. We’ll have some time in August to work on a path forward, and hopefully we’ll find it,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been among those trying to find a resolution, Thune said. Tuberville said he and McConnell discussed the holds Wednesday, hours after the GOP leader froze and felt lightheaded in front of reporters.
“At this point, everybody’s engaged trying to figure out how to solve this,” Thune added.
Tuberville began his holds in early March to protest a new Defense Department policy to reimburse service members who must travel to seek an abortion for those travel expenses.
Six months later, the list of holds has grown to 300. Senate Republicans were hoping to find a solution before leaving Washington for five weeks — five additional weeks during which those military officers will remain in limbo, fueling Democratic attacks and frustrating the Pentagon.
One Senate Republican said finding an offramp agreeable to both Tuberville and those opposed to the holds has become a “recurring discussion” in the Senate GOP conference, and that McConnell has been personally involved in that quest.
“There’s not a lunch that goes by that we don’t talk about it,” the senator said, but added there’s “no chance of a resolution” any time soon.
Aside from the potential political and national security implications of the holds, McConnell is worried about the institutional implications.
The longtime GOP leader recently told reporters at a press conference that he is concerned this could lead to a renewed Democratic effort to change the chamber’s rules.
Despite disagreeing with Tuberville’s tactic, however, he says he recognizes it is the prerogative of any single senator to place a hold on a nominee.
Senators on both sides of the aisle for months have been musing publicly and privately about what it would take to get the Alabama Republican to set his hold aside, but have come up empty at every turn.
Initially, there had been hope that a vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would reverse the abortion travel policy could do the trick, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) led the effort.
But more recently, Tuberville has maintained that not only does any vote have to be standalone, but that the Pentagon would have to reverse its policy before any vote could be taken.
Trying to bridge that gap for lawmakers has become a herculean challenge no one has been able to complete.
Tuberville didn’t comment on efforts by Senate GOP leaders to seek a remedy, but he criticized the Biden administration and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for their lack of outreach in trying to strike a deal. He also hasn’t had any further conversations with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin since their July 17 call and said that the initial series of calls didn’t yield anything productive.
“There’s no conversation from the other side. It’s ‘our way or the highway.’ … How does that help?” Tuberville said. “They’re not worried about it, I guess. … I hate it, for the promotions and all that.”
He added that he has yet to talk to Schumer, who has refused to use up floor time moving the nominees through regular order because he believes it is the Senate GOP’s job to figure a way out of the maze of military holds.
“This is the responsibility of the Republican Senate caucus. … It’s up to them. I think in August, pressure will mount on Tuberville, and I think the Republicans are feeling that heat,” Schumer said late Thursday. “He’s boxing himself into a corner.”
But Democrats are trying to increase that pressure, with President Biden on Thursday night laying into the Alabama Republican and arguing his holds are harming military readiness and creating instability within the ranks of the armed forces.
“This partisan freeze is already harming military readiness, security and leadership, and troop morale,” Biden said in remarks at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium in Washington. “Freezing pay, freezing people in place. Military families who have already sacrificed so much, unsure of where and when they change stations, unable to get housing or start their kids in the new school.”
Senate Democrats also took to the floor before and after the NDAA vote Thursday to criticize their GOP colleague. Since the hold was put into place, Democratic senators have made 12 attempts to move the military promotions in bloc via unanimous request.
Perhaps adding to the difficulty, Tuberville has received a boost in support from voters at home and from conservative corners of the Senate GOP conference who believe he is making the right call, albeit a difficult one.
They also argue that if Senate Democrats truly want to move on some of the nominations, they can start to do so via regular order — a move Democrats have avoided in order to not set precedent.
“Democrats think they have a winning political thing on this. I don’t think they do, and I think Sen. Tuberville morally is in the right position with regard to the issue of abortion,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said. “The [Defense] Department has just as much of a responsibility to find a path forward as any single member does, and I’m not seeing the Department try to work in any fashion other than to simply put pressure on Sen. Tuberville.”
“They’re not trying to find a path forward. They think this is one of those items where if they keep putting pressure on him, he’ll cave, and I don’t think he will,” Rounds continued. “On the issue, he’s correct.” | https://cbs4indy.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ | 2023-07-30T23:54:01 | 0 | https://cbs4indy.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ |
A cold front moved across the state Saturday, giving us out 17th wet weekend of the year, and bringing in some drier air. Temperatures were warm on Sunday but lower humidity gave us a more comfortable day. The sunny, warm, less humid weather pattern will be with us to start the week. Temperatures and humidity will start to rise by Wednesday and our rain chance will increase to end the work week. Warmer temperatures, higher humidity and scattered storms will be in the forecast for Thursday and Friday as another storm system approaches. Behind our next cold front temperatures and humidity will lower for the weekend.
July was a very wet month for Indianapolis. We had measurable precipitation on 13 of 31 days of the month for a total of 6.06″ of rain, 1.64″ above average. For comparison sake, we had 6.27″ of rain during the combines months of April, May and June. July was also a mild month with near average temperatures. We only had three days of 90° heat, seven is average. We did however, have some extreme heat, during the last week of the month when the heat index was near 100°
The 30-day outlook for August is calling for near average temperatures and above average precipitation so our mild, wet trend is expected to continue through the rest of the summer.
Monday will be a sunny, warm day.
July was a mild, wet month and this will be a warm week.
August will be a mild, wet month. | https://cbs4indy.com/news/a-mild-dry-end-to-july-august-starts-with-temperatures-and-humidity-gradually-rising/ | 2023-07-30T23:54:07 | 1 | https://cbs4indy.com/news/a-mild-dry-end-to-july-august-starts-with-temperatures-and-humidity-gradually-rising/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When viewed through a wide lens, renters across the U.S. finally appear to be getting some relief, thanks in part to the biggest apartment construction boom in decades.
Median rent rose just 0.5% in June, year over year, after falling in May for the first time since the pandemic hit the U.S. Some economists project U.S. rents will be down modestly this year after soaring nearly 25% over the past four years.
A closer look, however, shows the trend will likely be little comfort for many U.S. renters who’ve had to put an increasing share of their income toward their monthly payment. Renters in cities such as Cincinnati and Indianapolis are still getting hit with increases of 5% or more. Much of the new construction is located in just a few metro areas, and many of the new units are luxury apartments, which rent for well north of $2,000.
Median U.S. rent has risen to $2,029 this June from $1,629 in June 2019, according to rental listings company Rent, which tracks rents in 50 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Demand for apartments exploded during the pandemic as people who could work remotely sought more space or decided to relocate to another part of the country.
The steep rent increases have left tenants like Melissa Lombana, a high school teacher who lives in the South Florida city of Miramar, with progressively less income to spend on other needs.
The rent on her one-bedroom apartment jumped 13% last year to $1,700. It climbed another 6% to $1,800 this month when she renewed her lease.
“Even the $1,700 was a stretch for me,” said Lombana, 43, who supplements her teaching income with a side job doing educational testing. “In a year, I will not be able to afford living here at all.”
Lombana’s rent is now gobbling up nearly half her monthly income. That puts her in a category referred to as “cost-burdened” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, denoting households that pay 30% or more of their income toward rent. Last year, the average rent-to-income ratio per household rose to 30%. This March, it was 29.6%.
Lombana hasn’t had any luck finding a more affordable apartment. While South Florida is one of the metropolitan areas seeing a rise in apartment construction, the units are mostly high-end and not a viable option.
That scenario is playing out across the nation. Developers are rushing to complete projects that were green-lit during the pandemic-era surge in demand for rentals or left in limbo by delays in supplies of fixtures and building materials. Nearly 1.1 million apartments are currently under construction, according to the commercial real estate tracker CoStar, a pace not seen since the 1970s.
Increasing the supply of apartments tends to moderate rent increases over time and can give tenants more options on where to live. But more than 40% of the new rentals to be completed this year will be concentrated in about 10 high job growth metropolitan areas, including Austin, Nashville, Denver, Atlanta and New York, according to Marcus & Millichap. In many areas, the boost to overall inventory will be barely noticeable.
Even within metros where there’ll be a notable increase in available apartments, such as Nashville, most of it will be in the luxury category, where rents average $2,270, nationally. Some 70% of the new rental inventory will be the luxury class, said Jay Lybik, national director of multifamily analytics at CoStar.
That will leave most tenants unlikely to see a big enough reduction in rent to make a difference, industry experts and economists say.
“I think we’re in a period of rent flattening for 12 or 18 months, but it’s certainly not a big rent decline,” said Hessam Nadji, CEO of commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap.
“We’re building a multi-decade record number of units,” Nadji said. “It’s going to cause some softening and some pockets of overbuilding, but it’s not going to fundamentally resolve the housing shortage or the affordability problem for renters across the U.S.”
The surge in rents has made it difficult for workers to keep up with inflation despite solid wage gains the past few years and exacerbated a long-term trend. Between 1999 and 2022, U.S. rents soared 135%, while income grew 77%, according to data from Moody’s Analytics.
Realtor.com is forecasting that rents will drop an average of 0.9% this year. But while down nationally, rents are still rising in many markets around the country, especially those where hiring remains robust.
In the New York metro area, the median rent climbed 4.7% in June from a year earlier to $2,899, according to Realtor.com. In the Midwest, rents surged 5.6% in the Cincinnati metro area to $1,188, and 6.9% to $1,350 in the Indianapolis metro area.
The current spike in apartment construction alone isn’t going to be enough to address how costly renting has become for many Americans.
“For the rest of the 2020s rents will continue to grow because millennials are such a big generation and we’re very much in the hole in terms of building housing for that generation,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “It will take many good years of new construction to build adequate housing for millennials.”
The bigger challenge is building more work force housing, because the cost of land, labor and navigating the government approval process incentivize developers to put up luxury apartments buildings.
Expanding the supply of modestly priced rentals would help alleviate the strain from so many new apartments targeting renters with high incomes, “although additional subsidies will be needed to make housing affordable to households with the lowest incomes,” researchers at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies wrote in a recent report.
Despite the overall pullback in U.S. rents, Joey Di Girolamo, in Pembroke Pines, Florida, worries that he’ll face more sharp rent increases in coming years.
Last year, the web designer left a two-bedroom, two-bath townhome he rented for $2,200 a month to avoid a $600 a month increase. This year, his rent went up by $200, a nearly 10% jump.
“That blew me away,” said Di Girolamo, 50. “I’m just kind of dreading what it’s going to be like next year, but especially 3 or 4 years from now.” | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ | 2023-07-30T23:54:13 | 1 | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ |
OWEN COUNTY, Ind. — The Owen County Sheriff’s Office is requesting the public’s assistance in locating a missing woman.
Officials are looking for Shelby L. Melton, who is described as a 5’1″ white female weighing 130 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes. OCSO said that Melton was last seen Saturday morning driving her blue 2014 Chevrolet Sonic in Owen County.
Those with information on Melton’s whereabouts are encouraged to contact the Owen County Communications Center at 812-829-4874. | https://cbs4indy.com/news/owen-county-sheriffs-office-requesting-assistance-in-locating-missing-woman/ | 2023-07-30T23:54:19 | 1 | https://cbs4indy.com/news/owen-county-sheriffs-office-requesting-assistance-in-locating-missing-woman/ |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
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 breathe, 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 its 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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kwch.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-30T23:54:19 | 0 | https://www.kwch.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
Remains of WWII veteran killed in Romania identified, laid to rest
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - The remains of a missing U.S. Army Lieutenant were laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday.
According to WOIO, First Lieutenant Army Air Corps George “Bud” Julius Reuter was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Reuter, who was 25 years old at the time, was killed in action on August 1, 1943 near Ploiesti, Romania.
Reuter’s remains were identified January 10, 2023 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
After the war, many airmen were interred by Romanian citizens in the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiesti. The American Graves Registration Command exhumed many unknown remains to identify U.S. veterans who went missing. The organization eventually reinterred the remains that could not be identified.
Reuter was laid to rest near his parents John George and Elizabeth Theodocia Reuter.
A memorial service was held for the lieutenant which included the presentation of four military medals: the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal for conspicuous gallantry in action against the enemy.
Copyright 2023 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kwch.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ | 2023-07-30T23:54:26 | 1 | https://www.kwch.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ |
Royals deal INF Nicky Lopez to Atlanta
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Royals announced today that they have acquired left-handed pitcher Taylor Hearn from the Atlanta Braves for infielder Nicky Lopez. Hearn, who is on the 40-man roster, was optioned to Triple-A Omaha.
Hearn, 28, made Texas’ Opening Day roster this year, but has spent most of the season at Triple-A Round Rock, where he had a 3.66 ERA (16 ER in 39.1 IP) with 54 strikeouts (12.4 K/9) in 24 appearances (2 starts). He was acquired by Atlanta last Monday and has pitched in 5 big league games this season, including 4 with the Rangers and 1 with the Braves.
Hearn made his Major League debut with the Rangers in 2019 and recorded at least 100.0 innings at the Major League level in both 2021 and 2022. He was named Texas’ Roberto Clemente Award nominee in 2022 and was the Jim Sundberg Community Achievement Award recipient that year.
Kansas City will be Hearn’s fifth organization since he was selected by Washington in the 5th round of the 2015 Draft. He was traded to Pittsburgh in 2016 and to Texas in 2018. In 93 career appearances (25 starts) over parts of five big league seasons, Hearn is 12-15 with 1 save and 219 strikeouts in 229.1 innings (8.6 K/9).
Lopez, 28, was selected by Kansas City in the 5th round of the 2016 Draft and has spent his entire professional career in the Royals organization. He made his Major League debut in 2019 and was named the Joe Burke Special Achievement Award recipient in 2021, after batting .300 (149-for-497) in 151 games. In 2022, Lopez was the Royals Roberto Clemente Award nominee for his involvement in the Kansas City community.
In 68 games this season, Lopez has hit .213 (34-for-160) while making starts at third base (24), second base (22), shortstop (4), left field (2) and first base (1). Over the last three seasons (since 2021), Lopez leads the Majors at all positions with 47 Outs Above Average.
Copyright 2023 KWCH. All rights reserved. To report a correction or typo, please email news@kwch.com | https://www.kwch.com/2023/07/30/royals-deal-inf-nicky-lopez-atlanta/ | 2023-07-30T23:54:33 | 0 | https://www.kwch.com/2023/07/30/royals-deal-inf-nicky-lopez-atlanta/ |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -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.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kwch.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-30T23:54:39 | 0 | https://www.kwch.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
Senate GOP leaders didn’t want it to get to this point.
They tried and tried to get Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to lift the holds he’s placed on hundreds of military promotions — which have opened Republicans up to attacks from the Biden administration.
But their efforts have failed, and they are now in a situation where the earliest a resolution might be found is September — when lawmakers will also be busy trying to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.
“It’s hung around for a while. I support his goals,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican. “The challenge obviously is the mechanism he used to get to the result has created some challenges. We want to figure out a way to resolve it and address that.”
“There are conversations now going on, which is good — between him and the military and others. We’ll have some time in August to work on a path forward, and hopefully we’ll find it,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been among those trying to find a resolution, Thune said. Tuberville said he and McConnell discussed the holds Wednesday, hours after the GOP leader froze and felt lightheaded in front of reporters.
“At this point, everybody’s engaged trying to figure out how to solve this,” Thune added.
Tuberville began his holds in early March to protest a new Defense Department policy to reimburse service members who must travel to seek an abortion for those travel expenses.
Six months later, the list of holds has grown to 300. Senate Republicans were hoping to find a solution before leaving Washington for five weeks — five additional weeks during which those military officers will remain in limbo, fueling Democratic attacks and frustrating the Pentagon.
One Senate Republican said finding an offramp agreeable to both Tuberville and those opposed to the holds has become a “recurring discussion” in the Senate GOP conference, and that McConnell has been personally involved in that quest.
“There’s not a lunch that goes by that we don’t talk about it,” the senator said, but added there’s “no chance of a resolution” any time soon.
Aside from the potential political and national security implications of the holds, McConnell is worried about the institutional implications.
The longtime GOP leader recently told reporters at a press conference that he is concerned this could lead to a renewed Democratic effort to change the chamber’s rules.
Despite disagreeing with Tuberville’s tactic, however, he says he recognizes it is the prerogative of any single senator to place a hold on a nominee.
Senators on both sides of the aisle for months have been musing publicly and privately about what it would take to get the Alabama Republican to set his hold aside, but have come up empty at every turn.
Initially, there had been hope that a vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would reverse the abortion travel policy could do the trick, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) led the effort.
But more recently, Tuberville has maintained that not only does any vote have to be standalone, but that the Pentagon would have to reverse its policy before any vote could be taken.
Trying to bridge that gap for lawmakers has become a herculean challenge no one has been able to complete.
Tuberville didn’t comment on efforts by Senate GOP leaders to seek a remedy, but he criticized the Biden administration and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for their lack of outreach in trying to strike a deal. He also hasn’t had any further conversations with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin since their July 17 call and said that the initial series of calls didn’t yield anything productive.
“There’s no conversation from the other side. It’s ‘our way or the highway.’ … How does that help?” Tuberville said. “They’re not worried about it, I guess. … I hate it, for the promotions and all that.”
He added that he has yet to talk to Schumer, who has refused to use up floor time moving the nominees through regular order because he believes it is the Senate GOP’s job to figure a way out of the maze of military holds.
“This is the responsibility of the Republican Senate caucus. … It’s up to them. I think in August, pressure will mount on Tuberville, and I think the Republicans are feeling that heat,” Schumer said late Thursday. “He’s boxing himself into a corner.”
But Democrats are trying to increase that pressure, with President Biden on Thursday night laying into the Alabama Republican and arguing his holds are harming military readiness and creating instability within the ranks of the armed forces.
“This partisan freeze is already harming military readiness, security and leadership, and troop morale,” Biden said in remarks at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium in Washington. “Freezing pay, freezing people in place. Military families who have already sacrificed so much, unsure of where and when they change stations, unable to get housing or start their kids in the new school.”
Senate Democrats also took to the floor before and after the NDAA vote Thursday to criticize their GOP colleague. Since the hold was put into place, Democratic senators have made 12 attempts to move the military promotions in bloc via unanimous request.
Perhaps adding to the difficulty, Tuberville has received a boost in support from voters at home and from conservative corners of the Senate GOP conference who believe he is making the right call, albeit a difficult one.
They also argue that if Senate Democrats truly want to move on some of the nominations, they can start to do so via regular order — a move Democrats have avoided in order to not set precedent.
“Democrats think they have a winning political thing on this. I don’t think they do, and I think Sen. Tuberville morally is in the right position with regard to the issue of abortion,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said. “The [Defense] Department has just as much of a responsibility to find a path forward as any single member does, and I’m not seeing the Department try to work in any fashion other than to simply put pressure on Sen. Tuberville.”
“They’re not trying to find a path forward. They think this is one of those items where if they keep putting pressure on him, he’ll cave, and I don’t think he will,” Rounds continued. “On the issue, he’s correct.” | https://www.localsyr.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ | 2023-07-30T23:55:54 | 1 | https://www.localsyr.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ |
Cardinals jump into trade deadline frenzy, trade Montgomery, Hicks, Stratton across multiple deals Sunday
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - The St. Louis Cardinals jumped into the trade deadline frenzy with fury Sunday afternoon, reportedly swinging multiple trades that will contribute to a completely reworked roster for the stretch run of the 2023 season.
As the Cardinals were busy beating the Cubs 3-0 to stave off a sweep at Busch Stadium, the St. Louis front office pulled off a pair of trades Sunday that will see starter Jordan Montgomery, closer Jordan Hicks and reliever Chris Stratton playing out the remainder of their seasons on new teams.
Montgomery and Stratton are heading to the Texas Rangers in exchange for infielder Thomas Saggese, right-handed pitcher Tekoah Roby and left-handed pitcher John King.
In a separate deal, Hicks is heading to the Toronto Blue Jays for a pair of right-handed pitchers Sem Robberse and Adam Kloffenstein.
The Cardinals have officially announced both deals, with Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak describing the frenzied day at the ballpark as an “event” in the context of their overall trade deadline plans.
Though Mozeliak hesitated to say how any or all of the prospects acquired by the Cardinals Sunday would factor into the 2024 roster at the big-league level, he expressed optimism about the talents of the players added through this sudden burst of activity.
“We do believe that some of these young men have some upside that will contribute for a long time here,” Mozeliak said.
The deal with the Blue Jays comes after Toronto closer Jordan Romano landed on the injured list this week with back inflammation, a transaction that conceivably ramped up Toronto’s urgency on the relief pitching front, compelling them to deal two Double-A arms for a couple of months of Hicks, who is a free agent at season’s end.
Adam Kloffenstein is a 22-year-old right-handed starter who has spent this season at Double-A New Hampshire. He’s compiled a 3.24 ERA while racking up 105 strikeouts in 89.0 innings pitched. It’s been a strong season for Toronto’s third-round draft pick from the 2018 MLB Draft, as he’s returned to the radar as a potential future big-leaguer following tumultuous campaigns in 2021 and 2022.
In those years, Kloffenstein posted ERAs of 6.22 in High-A and 6.07 in Double-A, respectively. His renaissance this season, though—a strong K-rate matched with a reasonable-enough walk rate (34 in 89 innings)—matches the style of pitching the Cardinals have described as attractive ahead of this deadline.
The other pitcher coming to St. Louis from the Hicks trade, Sem Robberse, fits that description, too. The 21-year-old Netherlands native participated in the 2023 Futures Game in Seattle earlier this month and has posted a 4.06 ERA with 86 strikeouts in 88.2 innings pitched at Double-A this year.
Both Kloffenstein and Robberse will report to Triple-A Memphis as the Cardinals begin the process to backfill their organizational pitching depth following the departures at the MLB level.
“I think the way I would look at, so far, what we’ve been able to get in our returns are people that are going to be pitching at our upper levels,” Mozeliak said. “We feel like we’ve added some depth that will have an immediate impact in 2024.”
The Rangers have been active in the trade market on the pitching front this weekend, acquiring veteran starter Max Scherzer from the Mets to bolster the pitching staff that is being shepherded by former Cardinals pitching coach Mike Maddux. With news emerging Sunday of a new injury for Texas starter Nathan Eovaldi, however, the Rangers still found the Cardinals an attractive trade partner.
An intriguing arm who was taken by the Rangers in the third round of the 2020 MLB Draft, Tekoah Roby has seen his professional career hampered by injury to this point. He’s dealt with elbow troubles in previous seasons and has been on the minor-league injured list in the current campaign since early June with a shoulder issue. Mozeliak said Sunday he expects Roby to pitch for a minor-league affiliate at some point in 2023. The 21-year-old had a 5.05 ERA in 46.1 innings pitched at Double-A Frisco this season.
With the exception of 28-year-old left-hander John King, each player acquired by the Cardinals in Sunday’s whirlwind has been at the Double-A level this season. King has a 5.79 ERA in 15 relief appearances with Texas at the MLB level this season. Though his landing spot within the organization could depend on other moves before the Cardinals take the field next on Tuesday night, King will likely join the St. Louis bullpen upon his arrival.
The one non-pitcher acquired by the Cardinals Sunday should draw attention for the player comparison Mozeliak granted him. The Cardinals’ lead baseball executive invoked Brendan Donovan’s name when it came to the versatility the Cardinals see in Double-A infielder Thomas Saggese, whose numbers offensively at Double-A also impressed St. Louis. Saggese has a .313/.379/.512 batting line with 15 home runs in 417 plate appearances for Frisco this season.
For Mozeliak, Sunday’s moves signal merely the launching-off point into the next series of trade discussions as the Cardinals don’t necessarily see their action dwindling down over the final push before Tuesday afternoon’s deadline.
“The trading deadline hasn’t come and gone,” Mozeliak said. “Today was an event. We moved three key players. Do I anticipate more to come? Probably.
“We have roughly 48 hours left in this. So we’re going to roll our sleeves back up after I leave here and reassess where we are. We might change some of our goals now because of what we were able to accomplish. So we’ll just talk through that this evening and then prep for tomorrow and Tuesday.”
As Mozeliak alluded to the potential of shifting goals, the next two days could be just as intriguing as Sunday was for St. Louis. The front office has successfully extracted value from three pitchers on expiring contracts, but Jack Flaherty still remains a plausible trade candidate of the same category. Paul DeJong has been heavily rumored to be on the block as well, as the prohibitive nature of his $12.5 million option for 2024 essentially renders him a rental player, too.
The Cardinals should be motivated to move both players, with a more general focus on talent--regardless of position--in their sights after Sunday’s accomplishments on the pitching front.
Copyright 2023 KMOV. All rights reserved. | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/30/cardinals-jump-into-trade-deadline-frenzy-reportedly-trade-montgomery-hicks-stratton-across-multiple-deals-sunday/ | 2023-07-30T23:55:54 | 0 | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/30/cardinals-jump-into-trade-deadline-frenzy-reportedly-trade-montgomery-hicks-stratton-across-multiple-deals-sunday/ |
VERONA, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Grammy Award winning country singer, Maren Morris performed at Turning Stone Resort & Casino at 7 p.m. today, July 30.
Her show was part of the lineup for Turning Stone’s 30th anniversary celebrations.
Morris’ four-time platinum-certified single “The Bones” dominated 2020, topping the billboard hot country songs chart for 19 consecutive weeks.
Following Morris at Turning Stone for its 30th anniversary celebrations will be The Beach Boys who are slated to take the stage on August 4 at 7:30 p.m. | https://www.localsyr.com/news/local-news/maren-morris-takes-the-stage-at-turning-stone/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:00 | 1 | https://www.localsyr.com/news/local-news/maren-morris-takes-the-stage-at-turning-stone/ |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
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 breathe, 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 its 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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:00 | 1 | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When viewed through a wide lens, renters across the U.S. finally appear to be getting some relief, thanks in part to the biggest apartment construction boom in decades.
Median rent rose just 0.5% in June, year over year, after falling in May for the first time since the pandemic hit the U.S. Some economists project U.S. rents will be down modestly this year after soaring nearly 25% over the past four years.
A closer look, however, shows the trend will likely be little comfort for many U.S. renters who’ve had to put an increasing share of their income toward their monthly payment. Renters in cities such as Cincinnati and Indianapolis are still getting hit with increases of 5% or more. Much of the new construction is located in just a few metro areas, and many of the new units are luxury apartments, which rent for well north of $2,000.
Median U.S. rent has risen to $2,029 this June from $1,629 in June 2019, according to rental listings company Rent, which tracks rents in 50 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Demand for apartments exploded during the pandemic as people who could work remotely sought more space or decided to relocate to another part of the country.
The steep rent increases have left tenants like Melissa Lombana, a high school teacher who lives in the South Florida city of Miramar, with progressively less income to spend on other needs.
The rent on her one-bedroom apartment jumped 13% last year to $1,700. It climbed another 6% to $1,800 this month when she renewed her lease.
“Even the $1,700 was a stretch for me,” said Lombana, 43, who supplements her teaching income with a side job doing educational testing. “In a year, I will not be able to afford living here at all.”
Lombana’s rent is now gobbling up nearly half her monthly income. That puts her in a category referred to as “cost-burdened” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, denoting households that pay 30% or more of their income toward rent. Last year, the average rent-to-income ratio per household rose to 30%. This March, it was 29.6%.
Lombana hasn’t had any luck finding a more affordable apartment. While South Florida is one of the metropolitan areas seeing a rise in apartment construction, the units are mostly high-end and not a viable option.
That scenario is playing out across the nation. Developers are rushing to complete projects that were green-lit during the pandemic-era surge in demand for rentals or left in limbo by delays in supplies of fixtures and building materials. Nearly 1.1 million apartments are currently under construction, according to the commercial real estate tracker CoStar, a pace not seen since the 1970s.
Increasing the supply of apartments tends to moderate rent increases over time and can give tenants more options on where to live. But more than 40% of the new rentals to be completed this year will be concentrated in about 10 high job growth metropolitan areas, including Austin, Nashville, Denver, Atlanta and New York, according to Marcus & Millichap. In many areas, the boost to overall inventory will be barely noticeable.
Even within metros where there’ll be a notable increase in available apartments, such as Nashville, most of it will be in the luxury category, where rents average $2,270, nationally. Some 70% of the new rental inventory will be the luxury class, said Jay Lybik, national director of multifamily analytics at CoStar.
That will leave most tenants unlikely to see a big enough reduction in rent to make a difference, industry experts and economists say.
“I think we’re in a period of rent flattening for 12 or 18 months, but it’s certainly not a big rent decline,” said Hessam Nadji, CEO of commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap.
“We’re building a multi-decade record number of units,” Nadji said. “It’s going to cause some softening and some pockets of overbuilding, but it’s not going to fundamentally resolve the housing shortage or the affordability problem for renters across the U.S.”
The surge in rents has made it difficult for workers to keep up with inflation despite solid wage gains the past few years and exacerbated a long-term trend. Between 1999 and 2022, U.S. rents soared 135%, while income grew 77%, according to data from Moody’s Analytics.
Realtor.com is forecasting that rents will drop an average of 0.9% this year. But while down nationally, rents are still rising in many markets around the country, especially those where hiring remains robust.
In the New York metro area, the median rent climbed 4.7% in June from a year earlier to $2,899, according to Realtor.com. In the Midwest, rents surged 5.6% in the Cincinnati metro area to $1,188, and 6.9% to $1,350 in the Indianapolis metro area.
The current spike in apartment construction alone isn’t going to be enough to address how costly renting has become for many Americans.
“For the rest of the 2020s rents will continue to grow because millennials are such a big generation and we’re very much in the hole in terms of building housing for that generation,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “It will take many good years of new construction to build adequate housing for millennials.”
The bigger challenge is building more work force housing, because the cost of land, labor and navigating the government approval process incentivize developers to put up luxury apartments buildings.
Expanding the supply of modestly priced rentals would help alleviate the strain from so many new apartments targeting renters with high incomes, “although additional subsidies will be needed to make housing affordable to households with the lowest incomes,” researchers at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies wrote in a recent report.
Despite the overall pullback in U.S. rents, Joey Di Girolamo, in Pembroke Pines, Florida, worries that he’ll face more sharp rent increases in coming years.
Last year, the web designer left a two-bedroom, two-bath townhome he rented for $2,200 a month to avoid a $600 a month increase. This year, his rent went up by $200, a nearly 10% jump.
“That blew me away,” said Di Girolamo, 50. “I’m just kind of dreading what it’s going to be like next year, but especially 3 or 4 years from now.” | https://www.localsyr.com/news/national/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:06 | 1 | https://www.localsyr.com/news/national/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ |
Remains of WWII veteran killed in Romania identified, laid to rest
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - The remains of a missing U.S. Army Lieutenant were laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday.
According to WOIO, First Lieutenant Army Air Corps George “Bud” Julius Reuter was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Reuter, who was 25 years old at the time, was killed in action on August 1, 1943 near Ploiesti, Romania.
Reuter’s remains were identified January 10, 2023 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
After the war, many airmen were interred by Romanian citizens in the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiesti. The American Graves Registration Command exhumed many unknown remains to identify U.S. veterans who went missing. The organization eventually reinterred the remains that could not be identified.
Reuter was laid to rest near his parents John George and Elizabeth Theodocia Reuter.
A memorial service was held for the lieutenant which included the presentation of four military medals: the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal for conspicuous gallantry in action against the enemy.
Copyright 2023 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:06 | 1 | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — A week later, the “Barbenheimer” boom has not abated.
Seven days after Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” conspired to set box office records, the two films held unusually strongly in theaters. “Barbie” took in a massive $93 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. “Oppenheimer” stayed in second with a robust $46.2 million. Sales for the two movies dipped 43% and 44%, respectably — well shy of the usual week-two drops.
“Barbenheimer” has proven to be not a one-weekend phenomenon but an ongoing box-office bonanza. The two movies combined have already surpassed $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore, call it “a touchstone moment for movies, moviegoers and movie theaters.”
“Having two movies from rival studios linked in this way and both boosting each other’s fortunes — both box-office wise and it terms of their profile — I don’t know if there’s a comp for this in the annals of box-office history,” said Dergarabedian. “There’s really no comparison for this.”
Following its year-best $162 million opening, the pink-infused pop sensation of “Barbie” saw remarkably sustained business through the week and into the weekend. The film outpaced Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” to have the best first 11 days in theaters of any Warner Bros. release ever.
“Barbie” has rapidly accumulated $351.4 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, a rate that will soon make it the biggest box-office hit of the summer. Every day it’s played, “Barbie” has made at least $20 million.
And the “Barbie” effect isn’t just in North America. The film made $122.2 million internationally over the weekend. Its global tally has reached $775 million. It’s the kind of business that astounds even veteran studio executives.
“That’s a crazy number,” said Jeff Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros. “There’s just a built-in audience that wants to be part of the zeitgeist of the moment. Wherever you go, people are wearing pink. Pink is taking over the world.”
Amid the frenzy, “Barbie” is already attracting a lot of repeat moviegoers. Goldstein estimates that 12% of sales are people going back with friends or family to see it again.
For a movie industry that has been trying to regain its pre-pandemic footing — and that now finds itself largely shuttered due to actors and screenwriters strikes — the sensations of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have showed what’s possible when everything lines up just right.
“Post-pandemic, there’s no ceiling and there’s no floor,” Goldstein said. “The movies that miss really miss big time, and the movies that work really work big time.”
Universal Pictures’ “Oppenheimer,” meanwhile, is performing more like a superhero movie than a three-hour film about scientists talking.
Nolan’s drama starring Cillian Murphy as atomic bomb physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer has accrued $174.1 million domestically thus far. With an additional $72.4 million in international cinemas, “Oppenheimer” has already surpassed $400 million globally.
Showings in IMAX have typically been sold out. “Oppenheimer” has made $80 million worldwide on IMAX. The large-format exhibitor said Sunday that it will extend the film’s run through Aug. 13.
The week’s top new release, Walt Disney Co.’s “Haunted Mansion,” an adaptation of the Disney theme park attraction, was easily overshadowed by the “Barbenheimer” blitz. The film, which cost about $150 million, debuted with $24 million domestically and $9 million in overseas sales. “Haunted Mansion,” directed by Justin Simien (“Dear White People,” “Bad Hair”) and starring an ensemble of LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito and Rosario Dawson, struggled to overcome mediocre reviews.
“Talk to Me,” the A24 supernatural horror film, fared better. It debuted with $10 million. The film, directed by Australian filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou and starring Sophie Wilde, was a midnight premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and received terrific reviews from critics (95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). It was made for a modest $4.5 million.
While theaters being flush with moviegoers has been a huge boon to the film industry, it’s been tougher sledding for Tom Cruise, the so-called savior of the movies last summer with “Top Gun: Maverick.” “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I,” which debuted the week before the arrival of “Barbenheimer,” grossed $10.7 million in its third weekend. The film starring Cruise and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, has grossed $139.2 million domestically and $309.3 million oveseas.
Instead, the sleeper hit “Sound of Freedom” has been the best performing non-“Barbenheimer” release in theaters. The Angel Studios’ release, which is counting crowdfunding pay-it-forward sales in its box office totals, made $12.4 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its haul thus far to nearly $150 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Barbie,” $93 million.
2. “Opppenheimer,” $46.2 million.
3. “Haunted Mansion,” $24.2 million.
4. “Sound of Freedom,” $12.4 million.
5. “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” $10.7 million.
6. “Talk to Me,” $10 million.
7. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” $4 million.
8. “Elemental,” $3.4 million.
9. “Insidious: The Red Door,” $3.2 million.
10. “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani,” $1.6 million. | https://www.localsyr.com/news/national/while-barbie-bonanza-continues-at-the-box-office-oppenheimer-holds-no-2-spot/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:12 | 1 | https://www.localsyr.com/news/national/while-barbie-bonanza-continues-at-the-box-office-oppenheimer-holds-no-2-spot/ |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -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.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:13 | 0 | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
TUPELO, Miss. - Agriculture is one of the top industries affected by heat. A flower farm in Tupelo is no different.
Fresh Farm grows flowers among other crops. Tending to blooms in Mississippi heat takes precision. Founder and owner Mori Freeze has to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to care for the crops. But, she says there are some positives to living in Mississippi as a flower farmer.
“I water early so that the plants have a chance to absorb the water instead of it just being evaporated when the sun is so hot and it will cause more wilting, if you water in the middle of the day,” Freeze said. “And, it's just a lot of lost evaporation when you do that. I love all the different blooms that you can have in our Mississippi heat. It is beneficial in some ways, you know, you get to have some great balloons. So I enjoy that a lot.”
Other tips to keep flowers safe in the heat
- Provide the right amount of shade for the plants.
- Make sure there are enough nutrients in the soil.
- Pick the right plants for your climate. | https://www.wtva.com/news/keeping-up-with-your-blooms-in-the-mississippi-heat/article_4ad5c6a4-2f23-11ee-b132-578357bad86a.html | 2023-07-30T23:56:17 | 0 | https://www.wtva.com/news/keeping-up-with-your-blooms-in-the-mississippi-heat/article_4ad5c6a4-2f23-11ee-b132-578357bad86a.html |
Boots and dog tags Alan Alda wore on ‘M-A-S-H’ sell at auction for $125,000 that will go to charity
By Jamie Stengle – Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) — The combat boots and dog tags Alan Alda wore while playing the wisecracking surgeon Hawkeye on the beloved television series “M-A-S-H” sold at auction Friday for $125,000.
Alda held onto the boots and dog tags for more than 40 years after the show ended but decided to sell them through Heritage Auctions in Dallas to raise money for his center dedicated to helping scientists and doctors communicate better.
The buyer’s name wasn’t released.
Alda, 87, said he wore the boots and dog tags for the 11-season run of the show about a Korean War medical unit. His character, Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, was a talented surgeon who helped ease the stress of working in a war zone with quips and practical jokes. The show’s final episode, which aired in 1983 and was written and directed by Alda, was the most watched TV show in U.S. history.
The boots and dog tags, given to him by the costume department, “made an impression on me every day that we shot the show,” said Alda, who won five Emmys for his work on the sitcom.
Alda said auctioning off the dog tags and boots now made sense. “I saw this as a chance to put them to work again,” he said.
The money raised from the auction will go to the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University in New York, which aims to help scientists and doctors communicate better through the use of improvisational exercises and other strategies.
For more news happening across the U.S., click here. | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/boots-and-dog-tags-alan-alda-wore-on-m-a-s-h-sell-at-auction-for-125000-that-will-go-to-charity/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:17 | 1 | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/boots-and-dog-tags-alan-alda-wore-on-m-a-s-h-sell-at-auction-for-125000-that-will-go-to-charity/ |
(The Hill) – Northwestern is the latest in a long line of universities to come under public scrutiny due to a scandal over hazing, a practice that has refused to go extinct in colleges and high schools despite multiple concerted efforts to end it.
Hazing, which in rare instances has proven fatal, in particular plagues sports teams and Greek Life.
Experts say education on the issue and increased consequences are needed to create a real change, although they are skeptical the dangerous practice will exit school life anytime soon.
“Hazing has always been prevalent in society, not just in colleges. It’s anywhere that you see a different power dynamic between people who are trying to join a group [and] people who are in the group,” said Todd Shelton, executive director of the Hazing Prevention Network. “There’s research that shows that hazing starts long before college and in those younger ages. It’s especially prevalent in athletic teams camps, performing arts groups.”
The latest high-profile hazing incident comes from Northwestern University, where the head football coach was recently let go and a barrage of lawsuits have fallen on the school.
One of the reported rituals of hazing on the school’s football team was younger players getting restrained in the locker room by older ones while others dry humped the individual. Another incident described in a lawsuit against the school was a ritual called “carwash” where players were forced to rub themselves against a line of naked men in the showers.
“Certainly, it is typical hazing activities that we’ve seen before and it’s not unusual that they’re shrouded with secrecy. So I applaud the people who came forward and reported because that’s — that’s key for institutions to be able to make changes,” Shelton said. “I think those acts are horrible and examples of how hazing can quickly escalate from what individuals think is something that’s mild and or funny, to quickly being something that’s dangerous, either mentally or physically, to the victims.”
Experts say preventing hazing incidents has to start by educating people about its warning signs and dangers.
A study in 2008 showed 73 percent of students who have been in a sorority or fraternity said they experienced behaviors that meet the definition of hazing, such as being forced into drinking games or getting screamed at by other members.
The same study showed 74 percent of athletes in athletic programs also experienced behaviors that amount to hazing.
“Hazing is specific to that group context where someone is seeking inclusion or a sense of belonging in a club, team or organization. They’re a newcomer typically coming into this group situation, and because of that group dynamic there can be an incredible amount of peer pressure and sometimes a coercive environment. And so that can impede or be a barrier to recognizing and or reporting hazing because there can be a lot of fear,” Elizabeth Allan, a professor at the University of Maine, said.
These rituals and desires to be part of the in-group have led to some deadly consequences for young people.
In 2019, five Penn State University students were sentenced to jail after a 19-year-old student at a Beta Theta Pi fraternity house died at a party after hazing-based binge drinking.
While most hazing incidents don’t result in incarceration, there are other consequences for students who are caught for the crime.
“Financial, monetary damages. People have lost their jobs. People have gone to jail or had, criminal penalties, fines and so forth. Let’s say sometimes when it’s a student organization or a team so with a student organization, they’re often suspended or lose their recognition with the campus for a period of time, and with an athletic team sometimes a portion of the season is put on hold or canceled entirely sometimes at the high school level, we’ve seen that recently.” Allan, who also leads the organization Stop Hazing, said.
And yet, even as schools ramp up their efforts, hazing persists.
Allan says a multifaceted strategy is needed to tackle the problem, and her group has developed a “Hazing Prevention Framework” for schools to follow.
“They can use it to also do some strategic planning and set some goals for the improvements they want to make, and all this is really … based on a public health approach to organizational change and promoting healthy behaviors in a community setting,” Allan said.
Shelton said his group also advocates for hazing to be treated as a felony, whereas many states look at it as a misdemeanor.
“The problem is it’s not taken seriously in the law, and we’ve seen a lot of hazing cases, even when there’s been a death… [where] prosecutors don’t consider it hazing or don’t consider hazing to be a serious crime to go through the measures of prosecuting,” Shelton said. “And so that’s why we’ve been working hard to strengthen those state laws.” | https://www.localsyr.com/news/national/why-is-hazing-so-hard-to-eliminate/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:18 | 1 | https://www.localsyr.com/news/national/why-is-hazing-so-hard-to-eliminate/ |
If four young girls get their wish, everyone in Custer County will visit the poultry barn at this year's Custer County Fair.
The four are members of the poultry club in the Round Valley Stockmen 4-H Club. This year is the first in many that a poultry show is part of the fair. The poultry barn at the fairgrounds in Mackay hasn't been open for years, poultry parent Ashley Thurber said.
The girls met last week to practice their demonstration skills and prepare the decorations for the poultry barn. There were plenty of blue paper ribbons trimmed, decorated and glued to poster board, in keeping with the 2023 fair theme of Blue Ribbon Memories. They were joined by moms and the guest of honor, Chuckles, a white rooster.
Emmalynn Arneson was working with Chuckles, a rooster she's borrowing as her fair project. A silkie, Chuckles welcomed pets and didn't wiggle at all while Emmalynn held him. He did crow a few times after she loaded him into his cage. But that's normal, the poultry moms said. Silkies "love people," the moms and daughters said.
"He's a nice chicken," Emmalynn said of Chuckles. Emmalynn, 8, has been working with Chuckles every day preparing him for the big show. She knows when they get to the fairgrounds her job includes making sure he's OK, has plenty of water and food and is clean.
"I wanted to try (poultry) out and see if I want to do it again," Emmalynn said. She has showed a pig in the open pee wee division of the fair and will take a pig this year in the open class division.
"I'm excited," for the fair, Emmalynn said, "but kind of nervous, too."
Seven-year-old Ruby Varney will show a white hen in the Cloverbud division at the fair. Like Emmalynn, Ruby said she's excited for the fair, but mostly because she gets to stay overnight in the family camper at the fairgrounds.
Ruby's sister Reann will enter two Easter egger roosters in this year's fair. Her birds are roosters, so they don't lay eggs, but Easter egger hens lay colored eggs -- shades of blue, pink, gray, tan and green.
Reann said she's hopeful "a lot of people come and see our chickens."
Tessa Thurber is taking two chickens to the fair, including the lone black chicken of the group, a silkie rooster. Her other bird is a turken -- a tiny bird with no feathers on its necks. Turkens are also known as "naked neck" chickens, mom and club leader Rebecca Varney said.
The poultry moms are happy to help their daughters with 4-H projects, whether it's poultry, pigs or horses. Ashley Thurber's daughter Paityn will enter the horse show at the fair with her gray quarter horse. The Horse Crazy 4-H Club was resurrected a few years ago, Ashley said.
While raising animals for the 4-H program "is definitely a commitment, we love encouraging it," Ashley Thurber said. "There's just something abut kids and their animals."
Rebecca Varney said one of the greatest skills 4-H teaches youths is public speaking. When she was in 4-H, the idea of public speaking was scary, but as she learned how to deliver her 4-H demonstrations and go through interviews, she became more comfortable speaking to groups and her social skills improved.
Things like public speaking and some other 4-H activities help kids learn to step outside their comfort zones, mom Keasha Arneson said.
4-Hers also learn responsibility -- how to care for an animal, including what kind of veterinary care may be needed, how to feed animals and the importance of water," Arneson said.
"4-H is awesome," Ashley Thurber said. "Everyone should do it."
Livestock numbers for this year's fair are up, Sarah Baker said. Baker, the University of Idaho extension educator for Custer County, said five more youths are in the beef program this year. A total of 33 kids will enter 43 steers in the 4-H and FFA contests at the fair in Mackay.
This year there are 31 kids in the two organizations with 49 hogs. And 23 kids have 37 lambs to enter in the fair.
Last year 71 animals were sold at the culminating market animal sale and this year there could be 87 animals sold. Youths do not have to sell their animals at the sale. For instance, Emmalynn Arneson isn't selling her pig this year. Instead her family intends to breed it. | https://www.postregister.com/messenger/news/custer-county-fair-kicks-off-monday/article_76daf046-2a71-11ee-a0aa-afd63b8c18a9.html | 2023-07-30T23:56:23 | 0 | https://www.postregister.com/messenger/news/custer-county-fair-kicks-off-monday/article_76daf046-2a71-11ee-a0aa-afd63b8c18a9.html |
Country music star enlist in the U.S. military
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—One country star is ready to serve his country again to heighten morale and help recruit new troops.
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) was in attendance to witness country music star Craig Morgan as he was sworn into the U.S. Army Reserve in front of a sold-out Grand Ole Opry crowd in Nashville on Saturday.
Blackburn commended Morgan for enlisting to not only serve his country but to work with DoD leadership to boost recruitment rates.
According to Blackburn, the U.S. Army was 15,000 recruits short of last year’s goal. It was then that her office started working with the Department of Defense (DoD) and U.S. Army to allow Morgan to enlist, even though he is a few years away from mandatory retirement age. It was through Morgan’s willingness to serve his country and the cause along with Blackburn’s team that it was all possible.
In a statement from the news release, Senator Blackburn had this to say, “It has been such an honor to work alongside Craig on his return to the U.S. Army Reserve. Craig has long been a champion of our military, with his support spanning his previous active-duty service and an accomplished career in music. His dedication to serving our country exemplifies the very best of the Volunteer Spirit, and I know his story will be an inspiration to Americans considering the call to serve.”
Morgan stated in the release, “I’m excited to once again serve my country and be all I can be in hopes of encouraging others to be a part of something greater than ourselves.” He continued, “I love being an artist but I consider it a true privilege and honor to work with what I believe are the greatest of Americans, my fellow soldiers. God Bless America. Go Army.”
Morgan previously served his country for 17 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve. He served with the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions. His certifications include Airborne, Air Assault, and Rappel Master.
Morgan will now serve as a Staff Sergeant and Warrant Officer candidate. He plans to continue touring and making new music while also serving his country in the U.S. Army Reserve.
For more Tennessee news stories, click here | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/country-music-star-enlist-in-the-u-s-military/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:23 | 1 | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/country-music-star-enlist-in-the-u-s-military/ |
Another hot day across the area with temperatures peaking into the mid to upper 90s for most of us. On top of the hot temperatures, the sticky, muggy air made it feel even worse outside. Temperatures will be on the downswing heading into the evening dropping all the way into the mid 70s. A few of us may deal with an isolated shower or thunderstorm, but chances diminish to practically nothing once the sun goes down. These showers will have brief heavy downpours and a few strong wind gusts.
These showers and thunderstorms are associated with a cold front moving in from our north. Once the front clears on Monday, we will reach a slight lull that will keep conditions dry briefly. Temperatures will also take a hit as a result of the cold front dropping into the mid 90s. Unfortunately, muggy air will still be sticking around so those heat index values will continue to be a bit higher as a result reaching into the triple digits.
Towards the rest of the week, we will see bits and pieces of low pressure systems that will bring those usual summer afternoon thunderstorms. As of now, we don't expect any of these to reach severe potential, but we will continue to monitor if there are changes in the long term forecast. Temperatures do pick back up into the upper 90s, maybe even triple digits for a few of us by the time we get to the end of our work week. Low temperatures will pick back up into the upper 70s around that same time frame. The last couple days of summer break are not going away without a fight from the heat so make sure we stay hydrated and take frequent breaks from the outdoors. | https://www.wtva.com/news/top-stories/temperatures-a-bit-cooler-to-start-our-work-week/article_abeee58e-2f1d-11ee-bf8c-23a307e41ca0.html | 2023-07-30T23:56:23 | 1 | https://www.wtva.com/news/top-stories/temperatures-a-bit-cooler-to-start-our-work-week/article_abeee58e-2f1d-11ee-bf8c-23a307e41ca0.html |
PHOENIX (AP) — A historic heat wave that has gripped the U.S. Southwest throughout July, blasting residents and baking surfaces like brick, is beginning to abate with the late arrival of monsoon rains.
Forecasters expect that by Monday, people in metro Phoenix will begin to see high temperatures fall under 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) for the first time in a month.
But not on Saturday. The high temperature in the desert city with more than 1.6 million residents climbed past 110 F for the 30th straight day, the National Weather Service said. The previous record stretch of 110 F or above was for 18 days in 1974.
There are increased chances on Sunday of cooling monsoon thunderstorms. Though wet weather can also bring damaging winds, blowing dust and the chance of flash flooding, the weather service warned. Sudden rains running off hard-baked surfaces can quickly fill normally dry washes.
Already this week, the overnight low at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport fell under 90 F (32.2 C) for the first time in 16 days, finally giving residents some respite from the stifling heat once the sun goes down.
Temperatures also were expected to ease in Las Vegas, Albuquerque and even in Death Valley, California, where the weather service said the expected high of 122 F (50 C) on Saturday is forecast to lower to 113 F (45 C) by Tuesday — along with a slight chance of rain.
Also in California, triple-digit heat was expected in parts of the San Joaquin Valley from Saturday through Monday, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford, California.
Gusty, late-afternoon winds were expected Saturday and Sunday in Santa Barbara County, posing an elevated risk of fire weather, the weather service in Los Angeles said. Hot, dry weather was also expected across nearby valleys, lower mountains and desert areas.
In Riverside County, more than 1,300 people were ordered to evacuate their homes and another 1,400 were facing evacuation warnings as crews battled a wildfire that charred 3.2 square miles (8.3 square kilometers) in the community of Aguanga, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of San Diego, authorities said Saturday. One firefighter was reported to have been injured in the so-called Bonny Fire, which authorities said was about 5% contained.
The heat is impacting animals, as well. Police in the city of Burbank, California, found a bear cooling off in a Jacuzzi behind a home on Friday. Police released a video of the animal in a neighborhood about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Los Angeles near the Verdugo Mountains and warned residents to lock up food and garbage.
A downward trend in Southwest heat started Wednesday night, when Phoenix saw its first major monsoon storm since the traditional June 15 start of the thunderstorm season. While more than half of the greater Phoenix area saw no rainfall from that storm, some eastern suburbs were pummeled by high winds, swirling dust and localized downfalls of up to 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) of precipitation.
Storms gradually increasing in strength are expected over the weekend.
Scientists calculate that July will prove to be the hottest globally on record and perhaps the warmest human civilization has seen. The extreme heat is now hitting the eastern part of the U.S, as soaring temperatures moved from the Midwest into the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, where some places are seeing their warmest days so far this year.
The new heat records being set this summer are just some of the extreme weather being seen around the U.S. this month, such as flash floods in Pennsylvania and parts of the Northeast.
"Anyone can be at risk outside in this record heat," the fire department in Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, warned residents on social media while offering ideas to stay safe.
For many people such as older adults, those with health issues and those without access to air conditioning, the heat can be dangerous or even deadly.
Maricopa County, the most populous in Arizona and home to Phoenix, reported this week that its public health department had confirmed 25 heat-associated deaths this year as of July 21, with 249 more under investigation.
Results from toxicological tests that can takes weeks or months after an autopsy is conducted could eventually result in many deaths listed as under investigation as heat associated being changed to confirmed.
Maricopa County confirmed 425 heat-associated deaths last year, and more than half of them occurred in July.
Elsewhere in Arizona next week, the agricultural desert community of Yuma is expecting highs ranging from 104 to 112 (40 C to 44.4 C) and Tucson is looking at highs ranging from 99 to 111 (37.2 C to 43.9 C).
The highs in Las Vegas are forecast to slip as low as 94 (34.4 C) next Tuesday after a long spell of highs above 110 (43.3 C). Death Valley, which hit 128 (53.3 C) in mid-July, will cool as well, though only to a still blistering hot 116 (46.7 C).
In New Mexico, the highs in Albuquerque this week are expected to be in the mid to high 90s (around 35 C), with party cloudy skies. | https://www.postregister.com/news/national/30-days-over-110-f-in-phoenix-but-expected-monsoon-rains-could-cool-historically-hot/article_1a94a504-2ee8-11ee-82d0-47019afd9b67.html | 2023-07-30T23:56:29 | 1 | https://www.postregister.com/news/national/30-days-over-110-f-in-phoenix-but-expected-monsoon-rains-could-cool-historically-hot/article_1a94a504-2ee8-11ee-82d0-47019afd9b67.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.
Trump claimed in the lawsuit that references in news articles or by the network’s hosts to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” were 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.
To read more details of this story, click here.
For more news happening across the U.S., click here. | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-the-big-lie-dismissed-in-florida/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:29 | 1 | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/donald-trumps-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn-over-the-big-lie-dismissed-in-florida/ |
Judge blocks Arkansas law allowing librarians to be criminally charged over ‘harmful’ materials
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas is temporarily blocked from enforcing a law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors, a federal judge ruled Saturday.
U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which also would have created a new process to challenge library materials and request that they be relocated to areas not accessible by kids. The measure, signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year, was set to take effect Aug. 1.
A coalition that included the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock had challenged the law, saying fear of prosecution under the measure could prompt libraries and booksellers to no longer carry titles that could be challenged.
The judge also rejected a motion by the defendants, which include prosecuting attorneys for the state, seeking to dismiss the case.
The ACLU of Arkansas, which represents some of the plaintiffs, applauded the court’s ruling, saying that the absence of a preliminary injunction would have jeopardized First Amendment rights.
“The question we had to ask was — do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties,” Holly Dickson, the executive director of the ACLU in Arkansas, said in a statement.
The lawsuit comes as lawmakers in an increasing number of conservative states are pushing for measures making it easier to ban or restrict access to books. The number of attempts to ban or restrict books across the U.S. last year was the highest in the 20 years the American Library Association has been tracking such efforts.
Laws restricting access to certain materials or making it easier to challenge them have been enacted in several other states, including Iowa, Indiana and Texas.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in an email Saturday that his office would be “reviewing the judge’s opinion and will continue to vigorously defend the law.”
The executive director of Central Arkansas Library System, Nate Coulter, said the judge’s 49-page decision recognized the law as censorship, a violation of the Constitution and wrongly maligning librarians.
“As folks in southwest Arkansas say, this order is stout as horseradish!” he said in an email.
“I’m relieved that for now the dark cloud that was hanging over CALS’ librarians has lifted,” he added.
Cheryl Davis, general counsel for the Authors Guild, said the organization is “thrilled” about the decision. She said enforcing this law “is likely to limit the free speech rights of older minors, who are capable of reading and processing more complex reading materials than young children can.”
The Arkansas lawsuit names the state’s 28 local prosecutors as defendants, along with Crawford County in west Arkansas. A separate lawsuit is challenging the Crawford County library’s decision to move children’s books that included LGBTQ+ themes to a separate portion of the library.
The plaintiffs challenging Arkansas’ restrictions also include the Fayetteville and Eureka Springs Carnegie public libraries, the American Booksellers Association and the Association of American Publishers.
To find more news happening across the U.S. click here. | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/judge-blocks-arkansas-law-allowing-librarians-to-be-criminally-charged-over-harmful-materials/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:35 | 0 | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/judge-blocks-arkansas-law-allowing-librarians-to-be-criminally-charged-over-harmful-materials/ |
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.
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Remains of WWII veteran killed in Romania identified, laid to rest
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - The remains of a missing U.S. Army Lieutenant were laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday.
According to WOIO, First Lieutenant Army Air Corps George “Bud” Julius Reuter was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Reuter, who was 25 years old at the time, was killed in action on August 1, 1943 near Ploiesti, Romania.
Reuter’s remains were identified January 10, 2023 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
After the war, many airmen were interred by Romanian citizens in the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiesti. The American Graves Registration Command exhumed many unknown remains to identify U.S. veterans who went missing. The organization eventually reinterred the remains that could not be identified.
Reuter was laid to rest near his parents John George and Elizabeth Theodocia Reuter.
A memorial service was held for the lieutenant which included the presentation of four military medals: the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal for conspicuous gallantry in action against the enemy.
Copyright 2023 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wymt.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:36 | 0 | https://www.wymt.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ |
Truck fire erupts under Tacony-Palmyra Bridge in Philadelphia, closing roadway
Officials say the blaze was reported just before 5 p.m.
This story originally appeared on 6abc.
A truck fire erupted underneath the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge in Philadelphia on Sunday, closing the roadway.
Officials say the blaze was reported just before 5 p.m.
Firefighters are currently at the scene.
Video shows plumes of smoke billowing into the sky.
Action News was told a tractor-trailer was on fire in a lot north of the bridge.
It is unclear what started the fire or if there are any injuries at the scene.
Officials are also unsure when the bridge may reopen.
The roadway is a vital route for New Jersey and Pennsylvania commuters, with about 70,000 vehicles using it each day.
This is a developing story.
WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today. | https://whyy.org/articles/truck-fire-tacony-bridge-philadelphia-roads-closed/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:37 | 1 | https://whyy.org/articles/truck-fire-tacony-bridge-philadelphia-roads-closed/ |
Meet the new Miss Tennessee Volunteer, Jada Brown
JACKSON, Tenn.—A new Miss Tennessee Volunteer has been crowned.
We speak with her and find how she feels about her new title.
After 36 young women laid it all on the line for the crown, last night Jada brown was announced the winner.
We got to speak to Brown on Sunday after the historic night that she had.
When asked how did she feel when she was announced the winner, her response was that she could not believe it and still cannot believe it.
Brown said she is super excited and looks forward to getting a lot accomplished over this next year.
Brown tells us how she mentally prepared for the pageant.
“The main thing that I stuck by last night, is that I’m on God’s path and whatever path he has for me is what is going to happen,” Brown said.
On top of being Miss Tennessee Volunteer she is also the very first African American to win the title. Brown said that she is over the moon for this accomplishment and that she loves representing Lane College.
“As now the first ever African American Miss Tennessee Volunteer, I’m so excited to be that representation for our youth. To let them know that no matter where they come from, how much money they have, where they go to school, that they can achieve their goals,” Brown said.
Brown tells us one of her favorite parts about competing in this pageant was how welcoming everyone was. She said that she was kind of shy and in her shell at first, but they were not afraid to bring her along and speak to her. She said that this made her feel very welcomed.
Brown would like to thank her family, friends, and supporters. She says that she could not have done this without them.
To find more local news stories, click here. | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/meet-the-new-miss-tennessee-volunteer-jada-brown/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:41 | 0 | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/meet-the-new-miss-tennessee-volunteer-jada-brown/ |
In this image taken from video provided by the Burbank Police Department, a bear sits in a jacuzzi in the city of Burbank, Calif., on Friday, July 28, 2023. Burbank Police said the officers were responding to a sighting of the bear in the area when they found it enjoying a short dip at the residence in the city’s Paseo Redondo block. The bear afterward climbed over a wall and headed to a tree behind the home, police said in a statement Friday.
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — With the summer heat wave in full swing in Southern California, a backyard pool is a tempting place to take a dip.
Even for a bear.
Police in the city of Burbank responded to a report of a bear sighting in a residential neighborhood and found the animal sitting in a Jacuzzi behind one of the homes.
After a short dip, the bear climbed over a wall and headed to a tree behind the home, police said in a statement Friday.
Police released a video of the animal in the neighborhood, which is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Los Angeles and near the Verdugo Mountains.
The Burbank police have issued warnings for residents to avoid bears and to keep all garbage and food locked up to discourage bears from coming to their residences.
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Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -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.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wymt.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:43 | 0 | https://www.wymt.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
Mega Millions winning ticket sold in Tennessee
MURFREESBORO, Tenn.—Mega Millions winning ticket sold in Tennessee.
According to information from the TN Lottery, one Tennessee Mega Millions ticket holder is a $50,000 winner.
Two players matched the four numbers plus the Mega Ball in Friday’s drawing to win $10,000. And one player from Murfreesboro added the Megaplier feature for a buck, the number drawn was 5, that prize was quintupled to $50,000.
The winning tickets were sold at the following locations. The $50,000 ticket was sold at Kroger, 2050 Lascassas Pike in Murfreesboro and the $10,000 ticket was sold at Tobacco Plus, located at 933 N. Charles Sevier Blvd. in Clinton.
The Mega Millions jackpot now sits at $1.05 billion for Tuesday’s drawing.
The Tennessee Lottery urges players to always play responsibly.
The Tennessee Lottery has raised more $7 billion to fund education programs.
For more news happenings in Tennessee, click here. | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/mega-millions-winning-ticket-sold-in-tennessee/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:47 | 0 | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/mega-millions-winning-ticket-sold-in-tennessee/ |
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
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Experts warn that borax cleaning powder isn't safe to ingest, as social media posts claim
CLAIM: Taking borax daily can help with a range of ailments, including osteoporosis, kidney stones, chronic fatigue and erectile dysfunction.
THE FACTS: Not only is there no evidence to support purported health benefits touted around the cleaning product, health experts say ingesting borax can be harmful or deadly to humans if swallowed. Yet social media users are touting the chemical compound commonly found in household cleaners as the latest wonder drug. One widely circulating TikTok video features a woman claiming that taking just a small amount of the substance each day can help stave off osteoporosis, ease joint pain, break down kidney stones, fight chronic fatigue and boost testosterone levels for men dealing with erectile dysfunction, among other things. "It's super inexpensive and I've been using it for probably over two months now, and I have seen a drastic reduction in my joint pain," the woman claims in the video, which at one point cuts to a package of borax that includes the words "detergent booster" and "multi-purpose household cleaner." But there's nothing to support any of the health claims. "If a person is ingesting borax for a health issue, they should be prepared for bigger health issues than the one they are trying to improve," warns Liz Weinandy, a registered dietitian at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Even the detergent brand 20 Mule Team Borax, which helped popularize commercial use of the chemical when it was introduced in 1891, stresses on its website that its product isn't intended as a dietary supplement and shouldn't be used for bathing, applying to skin or ingesting. "The improper use of Borax is deeply concerning, and we urge consumers to use this product – and all household products – only as directed. Purposefully ingesting or otherwise misusing it can cause serious harm," the company said in an emailed statement. Experts say social media users appear to be conflating boron, a naturally occurring mineral, with borax, which is also naturally occurring and is produced when boron is combined with sodium, hydrogen and oxygen. Boron is an essential element for plant growth so it's readily found in fruits, vegetables and nuts, says Kelly Johnson-Arbor, interim executive director at the National Capital Poison Center in Washington, D.C. Various companies also make boron pills as dietary supplements for human consumption but the verdict is out on whether they're truly beneficial, she said. "We don't fully understand all the ways that boron may affect the human body," Johnston-Arbor explained. Indeed the National Institutes of Health, the nation's primary scientific research agency, cautions on its website that boron isn't considered an essential nutrient for humans and people should limit their daily intake until more research is done on its purported benefits. Too much boron, the agency notes, can lead to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, headaches and convulsions in humans. Very high amounts can lead to death. Jeffrey Bernstein, medical director for the Florida Poison Information Center in Miami, said a healthy, balanced diet should provide all the boron a person requires.
— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.
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Congress didn't pass law allowing consumers to erase negative credit information after two years
CLAIM: A new law passed by Congress "allows you to permanently remove any negative debt" from your credit report that is over two years old.
THE FACTS: The law referenced in the video to support that claim, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, has been around since 1970. The law requires that most negative information be removed from your credit report after seven years. Experts say there have been no legislative changes that allow consumers to simply remove negative, but accurate, information after just two. Still, an Instagram video from a self-described "credit expert" claims that "Congress passed a new law (fcra law) which allows you to permanently remove any negative debt older than 2 years & is affecting your credit score." The video goes on to offer $20 letters to purportedly aid people in removing student loans, hospital bills and more. "I'm not aware of any law that comes close to this," David Silberman, a former acting deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told the AP in an email. Silberman said proposals to shorten the time period in which delinquent debts disappear have been put forth, but none have passed. Likewise, Ariel Nelson, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, said she was aware of no such change. "That would be a major amendment to the FCRA," she added. The CFPB referred the AP to its website, which notes that consumer reporting agencies are legally required to remove most negative information after seven years — though some information, such as bankruptcies, may remain longer. But prior to that consumers generally can't have current, negative information removed from their credit reports if it's accurate, the federal agency points out. Consumer reporting agencies are expected under the law to have reasonable procedures to ensure accuracy, Nelson noted, and individuals are entitled to dispute inaccurate information. The CFPB advises consumers to be aware of potential credit repair scams.
— Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in New Jersey contributed this report.
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Obamas' chef wasn't found dead on the anniversary of Jeffrey Epstein's suicide
CLAIM: Former President Barack Obama's personal chef, Tafari Campbell, was found dead on the anniversary of Jeffrey Epstein's death.
THE FACTS: Campbell's body was recovered from a pond on Martha's Vineyard on July 24 after he went under water while paddleboarding a day earlier. Epstein, who was facing federal sex trafficking charges at the time of his death, was pronounced dead on Aug. 10, 2019. A headline about Epstein in posts circulating online refers to an earlier, suspected suicide attempt. "So today a body is found in Obama's pond," reads a popular post on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter. "This on the same day as this anniversary of Epstein. Something big coming?" The post includes a screenshot of a headline reading: "BREAKING: Jeffrey Epstein Found Injured in NYC Jail Cell After Possible Suicide Attempt or Assault." It doesn't show the date or provide any more details about that incident or when Epstein actually died. In reality, that July 24, 2019, news report was about Epstein being found injured in his Manhattan jail cell following a suspected July 23 suicide attempt. Epstein survived that incident and was placed on suicide watch. Weeks later, Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell early Aug. 10 and pronounced dead soon after. The AP last month reported on newly obtained records that provided new details on Epstein's detention and death. Campbell's body, meanwhile, was found July 24 as part of a search that began a day earlier following reports that a paddleboarder in Edgartown Great Pond went under water and didn't resurface. Campbell was not wearing a life jacket, police said. The 45-year-old from Virginia had worked at the White House during the Obama administration and then worked for the former president and first lady. Massachusetts State Police said in a statement provided to the AP that the investigation and an initial medical examiner review found no evidence the death was suspicious. Officials say there was no external trauma or injuries.
— Angelo Fichera
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Canada isn't pushing minors to end their lives. Current euthanasia laws don't apply to them anyway
CLAIM: Canada is encouraging minors to commit suicide through its medical assistance in dying process.
THE FACTS: Social media users making the claim are sharing a screenshot from the website of an independent organization called Dying With Dignity Canada, which is advocating for certain minors with severe medical conditions to be able to end their lives. But medical assistance in dying, or MAID, is currently only available to adults 18 or older with a serious illness, disease or disability. Canada's government has said it will pursue research about end-of-life options for young people, but a spokesperson for the country's federal health agency said it has no immediate plans to lower the minimum age requirement for eligibility. The screenshot circulating online shows the top of a page titled "Mature minors" on the website of Dying With Dignity Canada. It includes a photo of a child in bed and states: "With the appropriate safeguards in place, mature minors should be allowed the right to choose MAID." One tweet sharing the screenshot reads, "Canada is inciting minors to commit suicide with the excuse of being 'mature'? @JustinTrudeau making Hitler look like a choir boy." Other posts with the screenshot go a step further, claiming that minors can already use MAID to end their lives. But Dying With Dignity Canada is independent of the country's government, and minors do not currently qualify for MAID, a process that allows Canadians to end their lives via euthanasia or assisted suicide. What's more, the posts are misrepresenting Dying With Dignity Canada's position. Its website advocates for access to end-of-life options such as MAID for mature minors — children who are deemed mature enough to make their own decisions about medical treatment — with severe medical conditions. Sarah Dobec, a spokesperson for the organization, told the AP that it "does not encourage minors, or anyone else, to die, including by suicide." A person must be 18 years old and mentally capable of making their own health care decisions to currently qualify for MAID. "The Government of Canada has no plans to alter the minimum age requirement to access MAID," Health Canada spokesperson Anne Genier told the AP. "Health Canada is considering undertaking research to understand the views and perspectives of young people, and their parents/caregivers, about suffering and end of life options, including Medical Assistance in Dying." Those seeking MAID must have a medical condition that is "grievous and irremediable," voluntarily request assistance and give informed consent to receive it, and be eligible for Canadian health services. Two independent medical practitioners assess each MAID request. The medical condition does not need to be terminal, but must be in an advanced, irreversible state that causes "unbearable physical or mental suffering" that cannot be addressed "under conditions you consider acceptable." This may include certain disabilities, a fact that has concerned some experts. People whose only medical condition is a mental illness will be considered starting on March 17, 2024. MAID became legal in 2016. In 2018, a report on mature minors and MAID commissioned by the Canadian government was released, but did not contain any specific recommendations. A Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, composed of lawmakers from the country's Parliament, explored the issue and in a final report released in February recommended that "minors deemed to have the requisite decision-making capacity upon assessment" be eligible. In its June response to this report, the Canadian government wrote that it "has actions underway, or planned, in many of the areas covered by the Committee's recommendations." This includes funding for research on MAID and marginalized people, including mature minors, and engagement with Indigenous people on the topic.
— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this report.
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Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck | https://www.postregister.com/news/national/not-real-news-a-look-at-what-didnt-happen-this-week/article_4c4d7b74-2ee4-11ee-8710-03ef9048c40d.html | 2023-07-30T23:56:47 | 1 | https://www.postregister.com/news/national/not-real-news-a-look-at-what-didnt-happen-this-week/article_4c4d7b74-2ee4-11ee-8710-03ef9048c40d.html |
Fever vs. Mercury Prediction & Picks: Line, Spread, Over/Under - August 1
The Indiana Fever (6-19) carry a four-game skid into a home contest versus the Phoenix Mercury (6-18), who have dropped three straight. It begins at 7:00 PM ET (on ESPN3 and AZFamily) on Tuesday, August 1, 2023.
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Fever vs. Mercury Game Info & Odds
- When: Tuesday, August 1, 2023 at 7:00 PM ET
- Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana
- TV: ESPN3 and AZFamily
- Favorite: Fever (-4.5)
- Over/Under: 164.5
Check out the latest odds and place your bets on the Fever or Mercury with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use our link for the best new user offer, no promo code required!
Fever vs. Mercury Score Prediction
Prediction: Mercury 85 Fever 81
Spread & Total Prediction for Fever vs. Mercury
- Pick ATS: Mercury (+4.5)
- Pick OU: Over (164.5)
Fever vs. Mercury Spread & Total Insights
- Indiana's record against the spread is 13-10-0.
- The Fever have no wins ATS (0-1) as a 4.5-point favorite or greater this season.
- This season, 12 of Indiana's 24 games have gone over the point total.
- The Fever have had an average of 166.3 points in their games this season, 1.8 fewer than this matchup's total.
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Fever Performance Insights
- The Fever's offense, which ranks seventh in the league with 80.6 points per game, has performed better than their worst defense (85.6 points allowed per game).
- Indiana ranks second-best in the WNBA by allowing just 32.5 rebounds per game. It ranks fifth in the league by pulling down 34.5 rebounds per contest.
- The Fever are committing 13.8 turnovers per game (eighth-ranked in WNBA) this year, while forcing 12.7 turnovers per contest (ninth-ranked).
- The Fever have struggled to rack up threes, ranking second-worst in the league with 6.3 threes made per game. They rank ninth with a 32.2% shooting percentage from beyond the arc this year.
- In terms of threes, the Fever's defense is struggling, as they rank second-worst in the league in three-pointers allowed (8.4 per game) and worst in three-point percentage allowed (36.9%).
- Indiana is attempting 49.6 two-pointers per game this year, which account for 71.7% of the shots it has attempted (and 79.3% of the team's baskets). Meanwhile, it is attempting 19.6 three-pointers per contest, which are 28.3% of its shots (and 20.7% of the team's buckets).
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wymt.com/sports/betting/2023/08/01/fever-mercury-wnba-picks-predictions/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:49 | 0 | https://www.wymt.com/sports/betting/2023/08/01/fever-mercury-wnba-picks-predictions/ |
Tax free weekend concludes in TN
JACKSON, Tenn.—Tax free weekend comes to an end.
Many people were hitting the stores over the weekend to take advantage of the final days of tax free weekend.
Sunday marked the last day with the tax holiday ending at 11:59 p.m.
Many of the people that were shopping were doing back to school shopping.
If you missed out on the savings, the three month grocery tax holiday begins August 1 and will end October 28, 2023.
To find out more about the Grocery Tax Holiday, click here.
For more local news stories, click here. | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/tax-free-weekend-concludes-in-tn/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:53 | 0 | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/tax-free-weekend-concludes-in-tn/ |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
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 breathe, 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 its 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.
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Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
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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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wymt.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:56 | 1 | https://www.wymt.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
Aubrey Danielle Alexander, 6, was born for this moment.
Aubrey wove her way through the crowd until she was at the very front. She stepped, swayed and jumped through the merengue and the bachata, looking back every so often at the people who brought her here: her grandmother, Lynda Butler, and family friend Vince Robertson, a grandfather figure.
“She started out with me, but then pushed me away,” Robertson laughed. “She said, ‘I can do this by myself.’ ”
When the lesson was over, Alexander came back to them, panting. “I’m going to practice at home,” she said, her tongue sticking out. “I love to dance. It makes me happy.”
This kind of unadulterated joy was on display throughout the festival at Veterans Plaza, where hundreds of people came to eat, dance and connect with African and Latin cultures. Color burst from dozens of vendor stalls: dresses from Cameroon, fans from Ghana, Kenyan rings made from the horns of a bull. Smells and smoke intermingled from food stalls selling everything from grilled lamb to plantains to cotton candy.
“The DMV area is a melting pot, but not every community has been visually celebrated,” said Narger Joseph, who co-organized the event. Afro-Latinos — Black people with Latin American ancestry descending from the enslaved person trade — are rarely highlighted as an intersectional group, he said. A Washington Post analysis found that the 2020 Census largely undercounted this group.
“Is it Afro or is it Latino?” said Jackson, who taught dances to festivalgoers. “No, it’s an amalgamation of both.”
“We have no idea where our ancestors originated,” said his wife, Adea Jackson. “It would be so important to know. But this feels like home in my heart — a merge of African Latino culture.”
Slavery destroyed any specific knowledge of their homeland, she said, but sometimes there are little hints. When the couple attends cultural events such as the Afro-Latino Festival, they often encounter African immigrants who tell them they look like they are from a certain region or country.
“It’s as if they’re confirming,” Stephen Jackson said. “There’s nothing like being embraced by someone who doesn’t know you, but they know your soul.”
They stopped by a slew of vendor stalls, including Vanessa Nijchoum’s the Kulture Vibes. The 31-year-old designs kaba, colorful dresses from her home country. When she travels back to Cameroon, she has locals make the one-of-a-kind dresses.
“I came here when I was 7,” Nijchoum said. “It’s always been important to me to go back and support the local people from my country.”
Nearby was Daijah Fletcher’s stall with homemade soaps, incense and specialty oils. A flurry of ingredients — gardenia, sage, patchouli, jasmine buds and sweet almond oil — promised protections and blessings. Many recipes are inspired by a recent trip to South Africa, where she met with traditional healers called sangoma.
Fletcher, 27, traces her roots to Jamaica and Hoodoo spirituality from the Deep South. Sometimes, she said, the ancestors visit her in her dreams and inspire her to add an extra ingredient to her oils. When her son can’t sleep, she puts frankincense on his forehead to ease his nightmares.
“I am carrying on the traditions and practices from my ancestors,” she said. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/07/30/afro-latino-festival-silver-spring/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:58 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/07/30/afro-latino-festival-silver-spring/ |
The ‘Barbie’ bonanza continues at the box office, ‘Oppenheimer’ holds the No. 2 spot
By Jake Coyle – AP Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — A week later, the “Barbenheimer” boom has not abated.
Seven days after Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” conspired to set box office records, the two films held unusually strongly in theaters. “Barbie” took in a massive $93 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. “Oppenheimer” stayed in second with a robust $46.2 million. Sales for the two movies dipped 43% and 44%, respectably — well shy of the usual week-two drops.
“Barbenheimer” has proven to be not a one-weekend phenomenon but an ongoing box-office bonanza. The two movies combined have already surpassed $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore, call it “a touchstone moment for movies, moviegoers and movie theaters.”
“Having two movies from rival studios linked in this way and both boosting each other’s fortunes — both box-office wise and it terms of their profile — I don’t know if there’s a comp for this in the annals of box-office history,” said Dergarabedian. “There’s really no comparison for this.”
Following its year-best $162 million opening, the pink-infused pop sensation of “Barbie” saw remarkably sustained business through the week and into the weekend. The film outpaced Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” to have the best first 11 days in theaters of any Warner Bros. release ever.
“Barbie” has rapidly accumulated $351.4 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, a rate that will soon make it the biggest box-office hit of the summer. Every day it’s played, “Barbie” has made at least $20 million.
And the “Barbie” effect isn’t just in North America. The film made $122.2 million internationally over the weekend. Its global tally has reached $775 million. It’s the kind of business that astounds even veteran studio executives.
“That’s a crazy number,” said Jeff Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros. “There’s just a built-in audience that wants to be part of the zeitgeist of the moment. Wherever you go, people are wearing pink. Pink is taking over the world.”
Amid the frenzy, “Barbie” is already attracting a lot of repeat moviegoers. Goldstein estimates that 12% of sales are people going back with friends or family to see it again.
For a movie industry that has been trying to regain its pre-pandemic footing — and that now finds itself largely shuttered due to actors and screenwriters strikes — the sensations of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have showed what’s possible when everything lines up just right.
“Post-pandemic, there’s no ceiling and there’s no floor,” Goldstein said. “The movies that miss really miss big time, and the movies that work really work big time.”
Universal Pictures’ “Oppenheimer,” meanwhile, is performing more like a superhero movie than a three-hour film about scientists talking.
Nolan’s drama starring Cillian Murphy as atomic bomb physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer has accrued $174.1 million domestically thus far. With an additional $72.4 million in international cinemas, “Oppenheimer” has already surpassed $400 million globally.
Showings in IMAX have typically been sold out. “Oppenheimer” has made $80 million worldwide on IMAX. The large-format exhibitor said Sunday that it will extend the film’s run through Aug. 13.
The week’s top new release, Walt Disney Co.’s “Haunted Mansion,” an adaptation of the Disney theme park attraction, was easily overshadowed by the “Barbenheimer” blitz. The film, which cost about $150 million, debuted with $24 million domestically and $9 million in overseas sales. “Haunted Mansion,” directed by Justin Simien (“Dear White People,” “Bad Hair”) and starring an ensemble of LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito and Rosario Dawson, struggled to overcome mediocre reviews.
“Talk to Me,” the A24 supernatural horror film, fared better. It debuted with $10 million. The film, directed by Australian filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou and starring Sophie Wilde, was a midnight premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and received terrific reviews from critics (95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). It was made for a modest $4.5 million.
While theaters being flush with moviegoers has been a huge boon to the film industry, it’s been tougher sledding for Tom Cruise, the so-called savior of the movies last summer with “Top Gun: Maverick.” “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I,” which debuted the week before the arrival of “Barbenheimer,” grossed $10.7 million in its third weekend. The film starring Cruise and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, has grossed $139.2 million domestically and $309.3 million oveseas.
Instead, the sleeper hit “Sound of Freedom” has been the best performing non-“Barbenheimer” release in theaters. The Angel Studios’ release, which is counting crowdfunding pay-it-forward sales in its box office totals, made $12.4 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its haul thus far to nearly $150 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Barbie,” $93 million.
2. “Opppenheimer,” $46.2 million.
3. “Haunted Mansion,” $24.2 million.
4. “Sound of Freedom,” $12.4 million.
5. “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” $10.7 million.
6. “Talk to Me,” $10 million.
7. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” $4 million.
8. “Elemental,” $3.4 million.
9. “Insidious: The Red Door,” $3.2 million.
10. “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani,” $1.6 million.
For more U.S. news stories, click here. | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/the-barbie-bonanza-continues-at-the-box-office-oppenheimer-holds-the-no-2-spot/ | 2023-07-30T23:56:59 | 0 | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/the-barbie-bonanza-continues-at-the-box-office-oppenheimer-holds-the-no-2-spot/ |
- Innovative Relay Event Introduces Korean Ginseng Across to the East and West Coast
- with Billboard Ads Featuring Hollywood Stars Arden Cho and Kieu Chin
- HSW Brand expanding its lineup with Two New Sparkling Beverages Designed to Beat the Summer Heat: Recharge and Calm
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Korea Ginseng Corp., the world's number one ginseng brand and leading next-generation global herbal brand, is spreading the word about its new beverage product, HSW, which reflects the health functional food's major trend keyword, 'Food as Medicine,' in a guerilla marketing campaign in key areas of the United States.
Korea Ginseng Corp., unveiled a brand advertisement on a billboard in Times square, Manhattan in the past month. Building on this momentum, Korea Ginseng Corp. has recently announced their plans for a relay guerilla marketing campaign, starting from the K-week event held at the Rockefeller center in New York. The event showcased their newest product, HSW, and featured traditional Korean games like Yut-nori and Dddakji-chiji, capturing the attention of American K-Culture fans. Building on the success of this first event, the brand is currently holding relay events across the city.
On the West Coast, Korea Ginseng Corp. will send its new mobile Ginseng Museum Café to this year's editions of the 626 Night Market, the largest night market in the United States, and to the Moon Festival, which celebrates LA's booming Asian street food scene. To draw attention to their one-of-a-kind trailer café, KGC will be running a fun social media awareness campaign and hosting on-the-spot game events and interactive samplings.
HSW is Korea Ginseng Corp.'s latest beverage offering, a contemporary twist on its best-selling energy tonic, Hong Sam Won. The new product is very much in sync with the hottest health food trend – 'Food as Medicine' – and caters to consumers seeking healthy, natural beverage options. With less than 40 calories per serving and zero caffeine, HSW is a light and guilt-free indulgence for the diet-conscious. In addition, Korea Ginseng Corp. is expanding its lineup with 'Recharge' and 'Calm,' two sparkling beverages designed for this year's hot summer season.
Rian Heung Sil Lee, a representative of Korea Ginseng Corp. U.S., notes, "Korean culture is being embraced by Americans, and interest in Korean health foods is at all-time high. We will be redoubling our efforts to make Korean red ginseng's unparalleled role as a food-as-medicine better known."
Korea Ginseng Corp.'s U.S. expansion began in 2002 and reached a new high point in 2021 with the opening of its flagship Ginseng Museum Café, in Manhattan. Since then, the global brand has introduced a new American-specific product line, KORESELECT, and has broadened its appeal with new distribution channels, including Amazon and Costco. Over the past three years, sales have more than doubled, confirming the impressive potential of the American market.
Leveraging its new American R&D Center, the company is committed to a proactive localization strategy and is planning to launch even more new products with the major marketing support of Korea's aT Center for Globalizing Korean Foods.
About Korea Ginseng Corp.
Korea Ginseng Corp.(KGC) is the world's number one ginseng brand and herbal dietary company. Established in 1899, it is one of the most proven and trusted herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, providing the highest quality, traditionally harvested Korean Red Ginseng products to support health and well-being. KGC runs four regional headquarters in the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, in addition to South Korea, and exports products to over 40 countries. With over 40% world market share, its presence spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East region and the U.S. KGC's family of brands include KORESELECT, CheongKwanJang, Good Base, and Donginbi. The KGC brands, inclusive of over 250 products, use the most exceptional ginseng combined with the finest herbs and ingredients to deliver superior products to meet everyone's needs.
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SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.) | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ | 2023-07-30T23:57:02 | 0 | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ |
The Emmy Awards are postponed due to the Hollywood actors and writers strike, source says
By Alicia Rancillo – Associated Press
The 75th Emmy Awards are the latest production to be put on pause due to the Hollywood strikes and will not air as planned in September.
A person familiar with the postponement plans but not authorized to speak publicly pending an official announcement confirmed the delay Friday. No information about a new date was immediately available.
The Emmy Awards were scheduled to be broadcast on Fox on Sept. 18. Rules laid out by the actors’ union, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, say stars cannot campaign for the Emmys or attend awards shows while on strike.
Writers are also not permitted to work on awards shows until the strike ends.
Whenever the next Emmy Awards are held, HBO will walk in as the leading contender. The network is up for 74 awards for three of its top shows: ” Succession,” “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us.”
“Ted Lasso” has the most comedy category nominations with 21, including best comedy series and best actor for Jason Sudeikis.
Roughly 65,000 SAG-AFTRA actors and 11,500 Writers Guild of America screenwriters are on strike, calling for better pay, structure with residual payments and protection from the use of artificial intelligence.
For more U.S. news stories, click here. | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/the-emmy-awards-are-postponed-due-to-the-hollywood-actors-and-writers-strike-source-says/ | 2023-07-30T23:57:05 | 0 | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2023/07/30/the-emmy-awards-are-postponed-due-to-the-hollywood-actors-and-writers-strike-source-says/ |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -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.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-30T23:57:11 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
The Biden administration says it's hunting for destructive computer code or malware; it believes China has hidden deep inside networks controlling power grids, according to theNew York Times.
The discovery raises suspicions that hackers acting on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army have embedded malware designed to disrupt U.S. military operations in the event China were to invade Taiwan.
"So if it's not just localized and if it's a deep infiltration and it's utilized in that way, you can imagine the banking system or the power grid going down nationally or the water systems being ineffectual nationally, and that could obviously disrupt operations at home, not just for the purposes of slowing us down in response but actually taking us out of the game altogether, unable to resupply our forces and the like," said Jamil Jaffer, former counsel to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Earlier in May, tech giant Microsoft warned that hackers likely acting on behalf of China targeted U.S. military assets on the island of Guam, seeding harmful computer code in communications infrastructure.
SEE MORE: The evolution and future of the US-China relationship
"It was referred to as a vault typhoon. And obviously, this raises some concerns about how deep in are the Chinese in our systems. Are they in just military systems? Are they just in that region? Is it spread more broadly across the country, other military bases overseas, or in the United States?" said Jaffer.
The news about the malware adds tension to an increasingly fraught U.S.-China relationship, with clashes that include increasing threats towards Taiwan and American efforts to ban complex semi-conductor sales to China.
The U.S. has also blamed China for other major infrastructure computer hacks as well as accusing the foreign power of spying on the continental U.S. with school bus-sized balloons.
For its part, China accused the U.S. of hacking into its telecom giant, Huawei.
The U.S. recently reiterated its commitment to defending Taiwan, the island nation off the coast of mainland China. Taiwan recently held military exercises.
"With respect to Taiwan, you know, the capability that we are providing them is defensive capability, as you know, in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act. We are committed to helping them get the capability they need to defend themselves. And so, this is no change from what we've done in the past," said Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense.
China regards Taiwan as a rogue province and a constant source of tension between the U.S. and China. Two nations that are trading partners and, at the same time, increasingly wary adversaries.
In response to the New York Times article, the Chinese embassy in Washington reacted with dismay, denying it engages in hacking and calling the United States a far bigger offender.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.abc15.com/nyt-officials-fear-chinese-hackers-malware-could-disrupt-us-military | 2023-07-30T23:58:12 | 0 | https://www.abc15.com/nyt-officials-fear-chinese-hackers-malware-could-disrupt-us-military |
BisMarket hosts coffee and art for older adults Saturday
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - On Saturday at BisMarket, older adults had coffee and created artwork.
Theo Art School and BisMarket teamed up to put this event together. BisMarket says they wanted to have activities for those who may not be able to make it to a lot of the other events. Participants created an art tile and painted a design while drinking coffee from Capitol Café.
“I just want them to be here. I want them to see how exciting it is. It is a beautiful day after a really hot week, so we are glad to provide in the shelter another activity for people to do and get people to see all of our amazing vendors. I love to be able to meet and greet everybody and show them a different side of Bismarck and our community,” said Courtney Hamilton, board secretary of BisMarket.
BisMarket hopes to do this event again next year.
Copyright 2023 KFYR. All rights reserved. | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/30/bismarket-hosts-coffee-art-older-adults-saturday/ | 2023-07-30T23:58:22 | 1 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/30/bismarket-hosts-coffee-art-older-adults-saturday/ |
Morton Mandan Public Library hosts Little Mo Writers Tour Saturday
MANDAN, N.D. (KFYR) - Aspiring authors got feedback from actual authors on Saturday at the Morton Mandan Public Library.
This is the first year the library has been a part of the Little Mo Writers Tour, which is put on by the Humanities of North Dakota organization. Authors Debra Marquart, Tayo Basquiat, Erika Bolstad and David Bjerklie — all of whom lived in North Dakota at some point — listened and gave feedback.
“I believe it’s a great opportunity to honor opinions, insight, our own experiences. One of the authors mentioned that if you don’t tell your story, who will? I think that’s a great nugget of inspiration to share what we know, whether it’s about our past, some of them have written about their family members from their previous generation. Some are writing about what they are experiencing now. It’s just a neat way to express what our life is like,” said Shawna Marion, community engagement coordinator at the Morton Mandan Public Library.
The Morton Mandan Public Library is looking forward to hosting more events like this in the future.
Copyright 2023 KFYR. All rights reserved. | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/30/morton-mandan-public-library-hosts-little-mo-writers-tour-saturday/ | 2023-07-30T23:58:28 | 1 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/30/morton-mandan-public-library-hosts-little-mo-writers-tour-saturday/ |
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Las Vegas concert quickly turned sour after an audience member throws water on Cardi B, prompting her to chuck her microphone at them.
The rap singer was clearly fed up with the disrespectful gesture from a fan on Saturday at Drai’s Beachclub in Nevada.
The video, taken on TikTok by @j_blizzy, shows water being splashed at Cardi B, and her immediately reacting back while her song “Bodak Yellow” plays in the background.
Security then swarmed the concertgoer as she appeared to be escorted out, as the rapper yells intelligible words at her. | https://www.wfla.com/entertainment-news/cardi-b-gets-drink-thrown-at-her-throws-microphone-back-at-concertgoer-in-las-vegas/ | 2023-07-30T23:58:32 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/entertainment-news/cardi-b-gets-drink-thrown-at-her-throws-microphone-back-at-concertgoer-in-las-vegas/ |
Third annual Celebrate My Ride Show takes place Saturday
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - Car and truck enthusiasts came together on Saturday to show off their vehicles and also raise money for different causes.
The annual Celebrate My Ride car and truck show took place at Legacy High School in Bismarck. The Camaros of North Dakota Club hosts the show every year and picks different organizations for proceeds to go towards. This year, the show chose Legacy High School, the 31:8 Project, and the Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Center.
The show had everything from Camaros to Mustangs and even trucks. The vehicles don’t have to be historic, they can be any year.
“We are helping different organizations with all of our proceeds going to them. It gets people out in the community and see what other people love with their hobbies,” said Cassie Anderson, treasurer of Camaros of North Dakota.
This year, the Camaros of North Dakota club said that 150 vehicles were on display at the show.
Copyright 2023 KFYR. All rights reserved. | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/30/third-annual-celebrate-my-ride-show-takes-place-saturday/ | 2023-07-30T23:58:35 | 1 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/30/third-annual-celebrate-my-ride-show-takes-place-saturday/ |
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Ever since Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster hit “Oppenheimer” premiered in theatres, many have noticed that Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Tyler Glasnow looks eerily similar to Cillian Murphy, who plays the lead role of J. Robert Oppenheimer in the film.
After Glasnow went viral on social media for looking like Murphy’s “long-lost twin,” many wondered if Muprhy even knew he had a “doppelganger” since he’s not online, let alone one who plays professional baseball.
It turns out he’s very aware.
In an interview with Josh Horowitz on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Murphy was asked who’s the last actor he got mistaken for. When Murphy responded, saying it doesn’t really happen to him, Horowitz brought up Tampa Bay’s Tyler Glasnow.
“Are you aware – again, I know you’re not online, this baseball player that’s been mistaken for you?” Horowitz asked.
To which Murphy surprisingly replied, “Yes, I’ve been sent that.”
“You’re the first person to say, but wasn’t that like an AI-generated image or something?” Murphy asked. “Many people have sent the [picture]. I need to turn off more notifications.”
While the Rays’ photo of Glasnow may have been a little touched up, the resemblance between the two is still uncanny.
Although there are several differences between Glasnow and Murphy, like the staggering 18-year age gap and the fact Murphy probably can’t throw a 96 mph fastball, fans can’t help but be in awe over their looks.
“You’ve got a long-lost twin,” Horowitz told Murphy.
“Yeah, well, he’s a lot better at baseball than I am,” Murphy said. When told that he’s probably “a bit better at acting” than Glasnow, Murphy joked, “Well, we’ve all got our skills.”
Horowitz shared that clip of his interview with Murphy on Twitter with the caption, “Yes, Cillian Murphy is aware of his baseball doppelgänger.”
As of right now, Glasnow has yet to publicly comment on the resemblance. | https://www.wfla.com/entertainment-news/oppenheimer-star-cillian-murphy-acknowledges-rays-pitcher-as-doppelganger-hes-a-lot-better-at-baseball-than-i-am/ | 2023-07-30T23:58:38 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/entertainment-news/oppenheimer-star-cillian-murphy-acknowledges-rays-pitcher-as-doppelganger-hes-a-lot-better-at-baseball-than-i-am/ |
Monday morning will start out mainly dry with the slight chance of a coastal shower by mid morning. Temperatures in the Bay Area will start out in the low 80s with plenty of sunshine and humidity. Scattered showers and storms increase by lunchtime and linger through the afternoon and evening hours. Highs will be in the low to mid 90s with feels like temperatures between 105 and 110 degrees.
Tuesday and Wednesday will feature a similar pattern, but rain will come earlier in the morning with a wetter day Tuesday. Lows will remain in the low 80s with highs in the low to mid 90s.
Thursday will be a bit drier with increased storms Friday into the weekend. Storms will arrive late morning into the afternoon and linger into the evening as highs rise to the mid 90s. | https://www.wfla.com/news/increased-showers-and-storms-monday/ | 2023-07-30T23:58:44 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/news/increased-showers-and-storms-monday/ |
MUNCIE, Ind. (WXIN) — A street party in Muncie, Indiana, turned into the scene of a deadly shooting early Sunday morning.
One man died and nearly two dozen others were injured. Of those wounded, 19 were treated at Ball Memorial Hospital’s emergency room, and four were taken to other hospitals. Thirteen victims remained hospitalized in stable condition Sunday afternoon.
After the mass shooting, police announced that there was no further danger to the general public.
”Stranger comes up and decides to take it personal on somebody he knows in the crowd,” said one anonymous man who claimed his nephew was the block party’s disc jockey. “And you can’t fight against an AR. He let loose in the crowd. Everywhere in the crowd.”
The Delaware County coroner identified the deceased victim as 30-year-old Joseph Bonner. There’s no indication if Bonner played an active role in the shooting, whether any other victims are suspected of firing guns, or if any firearms were recovered.
A witness at IU/Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie described a scene of emergency department chaos with more than 100 people descending on the facility — many of whom were victims that were taken to the hospital by private vehicles.
Officers from several agencies — including a Muncie-based FBI agent — secured the crime scene and collected evidence while doctors and nurses treated the wounded from the mass casualty event.
By midday, detectives were still walking the debris-strewn street and parking lot with brown bags filled with collected evidence. A tow truck was also seen hauling away a bullet-riddled red Buick that appeared to have crashed during an attempt to leave the scene.
The Muncie Homecoming Festival committee said the street party where the shooting happened was not part of the official MHF celebration going on this week.
Muncie Parks Superintendent Carl Malone told Nexstar’s WXIN he chaired a neighborhood crime watch meeting last Thursday, and residents expressed fear that this weekend could turn volatile.
”We was a little concerned about violence that we thought might happen,” said Malone, who described Muncie Homecoming as a city-wide welcome home celebration held once every four years for former residents and family members to reconnect with their hometown. ”You had a lot of people congregating in one area, just hanging out and wanting to be part of the neighborhood activities. And then, at that point at time, it got into late night, and when you get into late nights, you usually have some sort of curfew violations, alcohol, guns and drugs seem to be a problem.”
Malone said Muncie has not had a community-wide gun violence initiative since 2015.
”We’ve always had concerns about this area and teenagers involved with handguns,” said Malone, whose niece attended the party. ”She just got out of surgery. She’s doing well. She’s whole. And then my godson was being treated out at Ball Hospital.”
Malone said he will meet with the city’s police leadership Monday morning to review the shooting and plans for keeping Muncie streets safe the rest of the summer.
”The mayor knows my push for gun violence, the lack of gun violence education, the lack of gun violence awareness, the lack of how to report gun violence in and out of our homes,” Malone said. “There’s a way to report crime, there’s a way to report guns, and we just have to report guns in and out of our backpacks and homes.”
Muncie is about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis. The city is home to about 65,000 people. | https://www.wfla.com/news/national/1-dead-23-wounded-after-street-party-shooting-in-indiana/ | 2023-07-30T23:58:50 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/news/national/1-dead-23-wounded-after-street-party-shooting-in-indiana/ |
One of my all-time favorite quotes from my favorite basketball player of all time, Kobe Bryant, is, “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.”
This quote alone speaks volumes about a person’s personality and work ethic and makes you ask questions about yourself. Am I the type of person to crumble when things get tough or am I someone that can fight through adversity?
I imagine that’s a question that Amory’s Ella Grace Phillips had to ask herself before the start of last year’s volleyball season after receiving heartbreaking news that her mom was diagnosed with colon cancer. Fast forward to this year, I realized after my sit-down interview that Ella and her mom are both fighters.
Instead of taking some time away from the sport that she loves, Phillips decided to take a different route and continue to compete hard as she knew her mom wanted her to. This was her first time going through an entire volleyball season without her mom being able to attend a game, but she made the most of it.
In her sophomore season, Phillips helped the Lady Panthers claim their third-straight division title while being named the team’s MVP and 4-3A Division Player of the Year. The Lady Panthers’ volleyball season ended in the second round, but Phillips continued to play hard for her mom going into softball season.
As we know, the Lady Panthers rose on many different occasions to have a very good season despite facing the challenges that the tornado caused. Phillips also posted some of her best numbers at the plate and was named the 4-3A Division Player of the Year.
Ella’s fight through the season is just one headline to this story as her mom, Amanda, fought her way back onto the softball field to root her on this past season.
Coming into the summer, Ella’s story was high on my list of features to do because it not only teaches us about overcoming adversity, but it also shows us how the Lord works in mysterious ways. I’m glad that I got the opportunity to sit down with her and her mother to make this story possible, and I will continue to keep them in my prayers as they continue to fight.
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Deon Blanchard is the Sports Editor of the Monroe Journal. Contact him at deon.blanchard@journalinc.com or follow him on Twitter: @dblanchard21.
...HEAT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 8 PM CDT THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...Heat index values up to 108 degrees expected.
* WHERE...Portions of East Arkansas and North Mississippi.
* WHEN...From noon today to 8 PM CDT this evening.
* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat
illnesses to occur.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out
of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young
children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles
under any circumstances.
Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When
possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or
evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat
stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when
possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent
rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone
overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.
Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.
&& | https://www.djournal.com/monroe/sports/we-all-can-learn-a-lot-from-ella-grace-s-story/article_7d9d350c-2f2a-11ee-88d6-5796114ec92a.html | 2023-07-30T23:59:32 | 1 | https://www.djournal.com/monroe/sports/we-all-can-learn-a-lot-from-ella-grace-s-story/article_7d9d350c-2f2a-11ee-88d6-5796114ec92a.html |
(CNN) — A small plane crashed into a California airport hangar as it was taking off Sunday, killing all three people on board, authorities say.
The single-engine Beechcraft P35 crashed at Cable Airport in Upland at around 6:30 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Three occupants of aircraft located deceased. Units committed to overhaul. Investigators enroute,” the San Bernardino County Fire Department tweeted.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating, the agencies said.
The city of Upland is about 36 miles east of Los Angeles.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlfi.com/news/national/3-dead-after-plane-crashes-into-california-airport-hangar-while-taking-off-authorities-say/article_e9291700-aee3-5b15-98c4-2be180dc6ac6.html | 2023-07-31T00:00:15 | 0 | https://www.wlfi.com/news/national/3-dead-after-plane-crashes-into-california-airport-hangar-while-taking-off-authorities-say/article_e9291700-aee3-5b15-98c4-2be180dc6ac6.html |
(CNN) — Police in Burbank, California, were called over an unexpected visitor having a bear-y good time taking a dip in a neighbor’s pool.
Police responded to reports of a bear sighting around 3:30 p.m. PT Friday at the 1300 block of Paseo Redondo, the Burbank Police Department said in a news release. When officers arrived, they found the bear relaxing in a jacuzzi toward the rear of one of the homes, the release said.
Shortly after officers arrived, the bear took his leave and “made his way over the wall” and into a tree near the rear of the residence, according to the release. Police monitored the situation with the assistance of the Burbank Animal Shelter and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the release said.
Burbank police also shared an adorable video of the bear cooling off in the water.
The city is under a heat advisory until 8:00 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, and is expected to see a high of 96 degrees Fahrenheit.
California is home to an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 black bears, according to the state’s Department of Fish and Game. The department urges residents to avoid approaching the animals, which can weigh up to 500 pounds and run up to 35 miles per hour, and “if encountered, always leave them an escape route.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlfi.com/news/national/bear-cools-off-in-a-burbank-pool-during-heat-wave/article_dacd6e69-320a-55e5-8d45-f3588e6d62d5.html | 2023-07-31T00:00:21 | 1 | https://www.wlfi.com/news/national/bear-cools-off-in-a-burbank-pool-during-heat-wave/article_dacd6e69-320a-55e5-8d45-f3588e6d62d5.html |
Senate GOP leaders didn’t want it to get to this point.
They tried and tried to get Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to lift the holds he’s placed on hundreds of military promotions — which have opened Republicans up to attacks from the Biden administration.
But their efforts have failed, and they are now in a situation where the earliest a resolution might be found is September — when lawmakers will also be busy trying to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.
“It’s hung around for a while. I support his goals,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican. “The challenge obviously is the mechanism he used to get to the result has created some challenges. We want to figure out a way to resolve it and address that.”
“There are conversations now going on, which is good — between him and the military and others. We’ll have some time in August to work on a path forward, and hopefully we’ll find it,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been among those trying to find a resolution, Thune said. Tuberville said he and McConnell discussed the holds Wednesday, hours after the GOP leader froze and felt lightheaded in front of reporters.
“At this point, everybody’s engaged trying to figure out how to solve this,” Thune added.
Tuberville began his holds in early March to protest a new Defense Department policy to reimburse service members who must travel to seek an abortion for those travel expenses.
Six months later, the list of holds has grown to 300. Senate Republicans were hoping to find a solution before leaving Washington for five weeks — five additional weeks during which those military officers will remain in limbo, fueling Democratic attacks and frustrating the Pentagon.
One Senate Republican said finding an offramp agreeable to both Tuberville and those opposed to the holds has become a “recurring discussion” in the Senate GOP conference, and that McConnell has been personally involved in that quest.
“There’s not a lunch that goes by that we don’t talk about it,” the senator said, but added there’s “no chance of a resolution” any time soon.
Aside from the potential political and national security implications of the holds, McConnell is worried about the institutional implications.
The longtime GOP leader recently told reporters at a press conference that he is concerned this could lead to a renewed Democratic effort to change the chamber’s rules.
Despite disagreeing with Tuberville’s tactic, however, he says he recognizes it is the prerogative of any single senator to place a hold on a nominee.
Senators on both sides of the aisle for months have been musing publicly and privately about what it would take to get the Alabama Republican to set his hold aside, but have come up empty at every turn.
Initially, there had been hope that a vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would reverse the abortion travel policy could do the trick, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) led the effort.
But more recently, Tuberville has maintained that not only does any vote have to be standalone, but that the Pentagon would have to reverse its policy before any vote could be taken.
Trying to bridge that gap for lawmakers has become a herculean challenge no one has been able to complete.
Tuberville didn’t comment on efforts by Senate GOP leaders to seek a remedy, but he criticized the Biden administration and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for their lack of outreach in trying to strike a deal. He also hasn’t had any further conversations with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin since their July 17 call and said that the initial series of calls didn’t yield anything productive.
“There’s no conversation from the other side. It’s ‘our way or the highway.’ … How does that help?” Tuberville said. “They’re not worried about it, I guess. … I hate it, for the promotions and all that.”
He added that he has yet to talk to Schumer, who has refused to use up floor time moving the nominees through regular order because he believes it is the Senate GOP’s job to figure a way out of the maze of military holds.
“This is the responsibility of the Republican Senate caucus. … It’s up to them. I think in August, pressure will mount on Tuberville, and I think the Republicans are feeling that heat,” Schumer said late Thursday. “He’s boxing himself into a corner.”
But Democrats are trying to increase that pressure, with President Biden on Thursday night laying into the Alabama Republican and arguing his holds are harming military readiness and creating instability within the ranks of the armed forces.
“This partisan freeze is already harming military readiness, security and leadership, and troop morale,” Biden said in remarks at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium in Washington. “Freezing pay, freezing people in place. Military families who have already sacrificed so much, unsure of where and when they change stations, unable to get housing or start their kids in the new school.”
Senate Democrats also took to the floor before and after the NDAA vote Thursday to criticize their GOP colleague. Since the hold was put into place, Democratic senators have made 12 attempts to move the military promotions in bloc via unanimous request.
Perhaps adding to the difficulty, Tuberville has received a boost in support from voters at home and from conservative corners of the Senate GOP conference who believe he is making the right call, albeit a difficult one.
They also argue that if Senate Democrats truly want to move on some of the nominations, they can start to do so via regular order — a move Democrats have avoided in order to not set precedent.
“Democrats think they have a winning political thing on this. I don’t think they do, and I think Sen. Tuberville morally is in the right position with regard to the issue of abortion,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said. “The [Defense] Department has just as much of a responsibility to find a path forward as any single member does, and I’m not seeing the Department try to work in any fashion other than to simply put pressure on Sen. Tuberville.”
“They’re not trying to find a path forward. They think this is one of those items where if they keep putting pressure on him, he’ll cave, and I don’t think he will,” Rounds continued. “On the issue, he’s correct.” | https://www.koin.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ | 2023-07-31T00:00:50 | 1 | https://www.koin.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ |
PORTLAND, Ore. (Portland Tribune) — The first heavy-duty all-electric Freightliner truck to be put into service in Oregon was celebrated at a Southeast Portland truck yard on Sunday.
The eCascadia’s initial assignment was driving dozens of guests around the large parking lot at TITAN Freight Systems. They were among dozens of elected and appointed officials, business leaders, environmental activists, workers and family members who attended the July 30 morning kick-off party there.
“These heavy-duty electric trucks are a natural evolution in our journey to be a carbon neutral transportation company. We now have a new zero-emission, lower operating-cost tool to help us get closer to realizing our sustainability goals,” said company President and CEO Keith Wilson, a longtime advocate for reducing fossil fuel emissions in the trucking industry. His current fleet of trucks run on renewable diesel.
Read the full article on the Portland Tribune site, a media partner with KOIN 6 News. | https://www.koin.com/news/portland/first-all-electric-freightliner-heavy-duty-truck-starts-work-in-portland/ | 2023-07-31T00:00:56 | 1 | https://www.koin.com/news/portland/first-all-electric-freightliner-heavy-duty-truck-starts-work-in-portland/ |
Senate GOP leaders didn’t want it to get to this point.
They tried and tried to get Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to lift the holds he’s placed on hundreds of military promotions — which have opened Republicans up to attacks from the Biden administration.
But their efforts have failed, and they are now in a situation where the earliest a resolution might be found is September — when lawmakers will also be busy trying to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.
“It’s hung around for a while. I support his goals,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican. “The challenge obviously is the mechanism he used to get to the result has created some challenges. We want to figure out a way to resolve it and address that.”
“There are conversations now going on, which is good — between him and the military and others. We’ll have some time in August to work on a path forward, and hopefully we’ll find it,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been among those trying to find a resolution, Thune said. Tuberville said he and McConnell discussed the holds Wednesday, hours after the GOP leader froze and felt lightheaded in front of reporters.
“At this point, everybody’s engaged trying to figure out how to solve this,” Thune added.
Tuberville began his holds in early March to protest a new Defense Department policy to reimburse service members who must travel to seek an abortion for those travel expenses.
Six months later, the list of holds has grown to 300. Senate Republicans were hoping to find a solution before leaving Washington for five weeks — five additional weeks during which those military officers will remain in limbo, fueling Democratic attacks and frustrating the Pentagon.
One Senate Republican said finding an offramp agreeable to both Tuberville and those opposed to the holds has become a “recurring discussion” in the Senate GOP conference, and that McConnell has been personally involved in that quest.
“There’s not a lunch that goes by that we don’t talk about it,” the senator said, but added there’s “no chance of a resolution” any time soon.
Aside from the potential political and national security implications of the holds, McConnell is worried about the institutional implications.
The longtime GOP leader recently told reporters at a press conference that he is concerned this could lead to a renewed Democratic effort to change the chamber’s rules.
Despite disagreeing with Tuberville’s tactic, however, he says he recognizes it is the prerogative of any single senator to place a hold on a nominee.
Senators on both sides of the aisle for months have been musing publicly and privately about what it would take to get the Alabama Republican to set his hold aside, but have come up empty at every turn.
Initially, there had been hope that a vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would reverse the abortion travel policy could do the trick, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) led the effort.
But more recently, Tuberville has maintained that not only does any vote have to be standalone, but that the Pentagon would have to reverse its policy before any vote could be taken.
Trying to bridge that gap for lawmakers has become a herculean challenge no one has been able to complete.
Tuberville didn’t comment on efforts by Senate GOP leaders to seek a remedy, but he criticized the Biden administration and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for their lack of outreach in trying to strike a deal. He also hasn’t had any further conversations with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin since their July 17 call and said that the initial series of calls didn’t yield anything productive.
“There’s no conversation from the other side. It’s ‘our way or the highway.’ … How does that help?” Tuberville said. “They’re not worried about it, I guess. … I hate it, for the promotions and all that.”
He added that he has yet to talk to Schumer, who has refused to use up floor time moving the nominees through regular order because he believes it is the Senate GOP’s job to figure a way out of the maze of military holds.
“This is the responsibility of the Republican Senate caucus. … It’s up to them. I think in August, pressure will mount on Tuberville, and I think the Republicans are feeling that heat,” Schumer said late Thursday. “He’s boxing himself into a corner.”
But Democrats are trying to increase that pressure, with President Biden on Thursday night laying into the Alabama Republican and arguing his holds are harming military readiness and creating instability within the ranks of the armed forces.
“This partisan freeze is already harming military readiness, security and leadership, and troop morale,” Biden said in remarks at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium in Washington. “Freezing pay, freezing people in place. Military families who have already sacrificed so much, unsure of where and when they change stations, unable to get housing or start their kids in the new school.”
Senate Democrats also took to the floor before and after the NDAA vote Thursday to criticize their GOP colleague. Since the hold was put into place, Democratic senators have made 12 attempts to move the military promotions in bloc via unanimous request.
Perhaps adding to the difficulty, Tuberville has received a boost in support from voters at home and from conservative corners of the Senate GOP conference who believe he is making the right call, albeit a difficult one.
They also argue that if Senate Democrats truly want to move on some of the nominations, they can start to do so via regular order — a move Democrats have avoided in order to not set precedent.
“Democrats think they have a winning political thing on this. I don’t think they do, and I think Sen. Tuberville morally is in the right position with regard to the issue of abortion,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said. “The [Defense] Department has just as much of a responsibility to find a path forward as any single member does, and I’m not seeing the Department try to work in any fashion other than to simply put pressure on Sen. Tuberville.”
“They’re not trying to find a path forward. They think this is one of those items where if they keep putting pressure on him, he’ll cave, and I don’t think he will,” Rounds continued. “On the issue, he’s correct.” | https://www.myarklamiss.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ | 2023-07-31T00:00:57 | 1 | https://www.myarklamiss.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ |
UPLAND, Calif. (CNN) — A small plane crashed into a California airport hangar as it was taking off Sunday, killing all three people on board, authorities say.
The single-engine Beechcraft P35 crashed at Cable Airport in Upland at around 6:30 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Upland(Final): IC advising knock down on fire. Three occupants of aircraft located deceased. Units committed to overhaul. Investigators enroute.
— San Bernardino County Fire (@SBCOUNTYFIRE) July 30, 2023
“Three occupants of aircraft located deceased. Units committed to overhaul. Investigators enroute,” the San Bernardino County Fire Department tweeted.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating, the agencies said.
NTSB investigating the crash of a Beech P35 airplane near Upland, California.
— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) July 30, 2023
The city of Upland is about 36 miles east of Los Angeles.
----
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- Follow us on Youtube | https://www.kgun9.com/news/national/three-dead-after-plane-crashes-into-airport-hangar-while-taking-off | 2023-07-31T00:00:57 | 0 | https://www.kgun9.com/news/national/three-dead-after-plane-crashes-into-airport-hangar-while-taking-off |
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Following the 4-alarm fire that ripped through an old Kmart building in NE Portland, a class action lawsuit was filed against the owners of the building alleging that their failure to maintain the property led to the fire which impacted thousands of residents of the Parkrose neighborhood.
Suing on behalf of himself and other Parkrose residents, the plaintiff claims several reports were made to the building owners, named as RFC Joint Venture in the court documents, about trash littering the property and that the building was openly accessible and being used by homeless people.
The court documents also name Zygmunt Wilf as a general partner in RFC Joint Venture and Prologis 2, L.P. as a limited partnership that leased the property to RFC.
According to the court documents, the plaintiff also claims the July 19 fire impacted the daily lives of residents of the Parkrose neighborhood, preventing them from making use of their yards and causing a concern about the safety of allowing children to play in their yards.
The class action suit claims, in part, that “by allowing the derelict building on the property to accumulate dangerous and flammable materials as well as allowing unhoused individuals to freely enter the site without appropriate supervision or safety precautions, defendants failed to maintain the property so as not to interfere with the neighbors’ property.”
A map released by the Department of Environmental Quality showed a wide area south of the Kmart where debris was found after the fire. Some debris was found over 2 miles away from the blaze.
“You don’t know what’s in this debris. Some of the debris tested positive for asbestos, others didn’t. Some tested positive for glass fibers, others didn’t,” said attorney Michael Fuller with the Underdog Law Office. “And so people like my client had to go out and hire a company to come out and actually test what’s in their yard and get advice on how to clean it up.”
Fuller said they “just received a formal notice from the City of Portland that was provided to the property owner back in early July, notifying them of violations on their property and notifying them of a nuisance on their property. So it’s the smoking gun if anybody was not convinced that these owners knew or should have known that their property was a hazard and did nothing about it.”
In addition to that violation notice dated just 13 days before the fire, the complaint outlines 2 other formal violations sent to the property owners just this year.
The plaintiff is requesting a jury trial, the documents said, where they are seeking relief for both negligence and nuisance.
In a statement to KOIN 6 News, limited partner Prologis said, in part: “The fire last week was an unfortunate and unexpected event. It is our understanding that an arson investigation is still underway. We have been working with the public agencies to help respond, including helping clean community parks and schools.”
Along with conducting debris removal at parks and nearby schools, the company started sending crews to clean up the neighborhood on Friday and said they would continue those efforts through the weekend.
Anyone with questions about the Kmart fire large debris neighborhood cleanup, email kmartfireneighborhoodcleanup@gmail.com or call 503-276-7389. | https://www.koin.com/news/portland/lawsuit-alleges-nuisance-negligence-after-ne-portland-old-kmart-fire/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:02 | 1 | https://www.koin.com/news/portland/lawsuit-alleges-nuisance-negligence-after-ne-portland-old-kmart-fire/ |
CLEVELAND (WJW) – Verizon customers with older phone plans could see their bill go up next month.
According to the company, starting Aug. 29, some older plans will be charged an additional $3 or $5 per mobile phone line every month.
Customers with Go Unlimited 2.0, Beyond Unlimited 2.0, Above Unlimited, and 5G Start 1.0 plans will see the $3 monthly increase, while single basic phone plans will see the $5 monthly increase.
The company says unlimited plans that are currently available to new customers won’t get hit with the additional charge.
Verizon says lines with tablets, smartwatches, and other devices also won’t be affected.
This comes after a price hike back in April, which, as reported by USA Today, saw a $2 monthly increase for some wireless plans.
In June 2022, Verizon raised some plan fees in response to “pressure,” the company’s head of business said at the time. It led to a $1.35 increase on its administrative fees, and an “Economic Adjustment Charge” for companies using the business plans. It was the first time the fees had been increased since 2019. | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/have-an-older-verizon-phone-plan-your-bill-could-increase-soon/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:03 | 1 | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/have-an-older-verizon-phone-plan-your-bill-could-increase-soon/ |
ANTARCTICA (CNN) — As the Northern Hemisphere swelters under a record-breaking summer heat wave, much further south, in the depths of winter, another terrifying climate record is being broken. Antarctic sea ice has fallen to unprecedented lows for this time of year.
Every year, Antarctic sea ice shrinks to its lowest levels towards the end of February, during the continent’s summer. The sea ice then builds back up over the winter.
But this year scientists have observed something different.
The sea ice has not returned to anywhere near expected levels. In fact it is at the lowest levels for this time of year since records began 45 years ago. The ice is around 1.6 million square kilometers (0.6 million square miles) below the previous winter record low set in 2022, according to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
In mid-July, Antarctica’s sea ice was 2.6 million square kilometers (1 million square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average. That is an area nearly as large as Argentina or the combined areas of Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado
‘The game has changed’
The phenomenon has been described by some scientists as off-the-charts exceptional – something that is so rare, the odds are that it only happens once in millions of years.
But Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, said that speaking in these terms may not be that helpful.
“The game has changed,” he told CNN. “There’s no sense talking about the odds of it happening the way the system used to be, it’s clearly telling us that the system has changed.”
Scientists are now scrambling to figure out why.
The Antarctic is a remote, complex continent. Unlike the Arctic, where sea ice has been on a consistently downwards trajectory as the climate crisis accelerates, sea ice in the Antarctic has swung from record highs to record lows in the last few decades, making it harder for scientists to understand how it is responding to global heating.
But since 2016, scientists have begun to observe a steep downwards trend. While natural climate variability affects the sea ice, many scientists say climate change may be a major driver for the disappearing ice.
“The Antarctic system has always been highly variable,” Scambos said. “This [current] level of variation, though, is so extreme that something radical has changed in the past two years, but especially this year, relative to all previous years going back at least 45 years.”
Several factors feed into sea ice loss, Scambos said, including the strength of the westerly winds around Antarctica, which have been linked to the increase of planet-heating pollution.
“Warmer ocean temperatures north of the Antarctic Ocean boundary mixing into the water that’s typically somewhat isolated from the rest of the world’s oceans is also part of this idea as to how to explain this,” Scambos said.
In late February of this year, Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest extent since records began,at 691,000 square miles.
This winter’s unprecedented occurrence may indicate a long-term change for the isolated continent, Scambos said. “It is more likely than not that we won’t see the Antarctic system recover the way it did, say, 15 years ago, for a very long period into the future, and possibly ‘ever.’”
Others are more cautious. “It’s a large departure from average but we know that Antarctic sea ice exhibits large year to year variability,” Julienne Stroeve, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center told CNN, adding “it’s too early to say if this is the new normal or not.”
Cascading effects
Sea ice plays a vital role. While it doesn’t directly affect sea level rise, as it’s already floating in the ocean, it does have indirect effects. Its disappearance leaves coastal ice sheets and glaciers exposed to waves and warm ocean waters, making them more vulnerable to melting and breaking off.
A lack of sea ice could also have significant impacts on its wildlife, including krill on which many of the region’s whales feed, and penguins and seals that rely on sea ice for feeding and resting.
More broadly, Antarctica’s sea ice contributes to the regulation of the planet’s temperature, meaning its disappearance could have cascading effects far beyond the continent.
The sea ice reflects incoming solar energy back to space, when it melts, it exposes the darker ocean waters beneath which absorb the sun’s energy.
Parts of Antarctica have been seeing alarming changes for a while. The Antarctic Peninsula, a spindly chain of icy mountains which sticks off the west side of the continent, is one of the fastest warming places in the Southern Hemisphere.
Last year, scientists said West Antarctica’s vast Thwaites Glacier – also known as the “Doomsday Glacier” – was “hanging on by its fingernails” as the planet warms.
Scientists have estimated global sea level rise could increase by around 10 feet if Thwaites collapsed completely, devastating coastal communities around the world.
Scambos said that this winter’s record low level of sea ice is a very alarming signal.
“In 2016, [Antarctic sea ice] took the first big down-turn. Since 2016, it’s remained low, and now the bottom has fallen out. Something major in a huge part of the planet is suddenly behaving differently from what we saw for the past 45 years.”
----
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- Follow us on Youtube | https://www.kgun9.com/news/world/antarctica-is-missing-an-argentina-sized-amount-of-sea-ice | 2023-07-31T00:01:03 | 0 | https://www.kgun9.com/news/world/antarctica-is-missing-an-argentina-sized-amount-of-sea-ice |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When viewed through a wide lens, renters across the U.S. finally appear to be getting some relief, thanks in part to the biggest apartment construction boom in decades.
Median rent rose just 0.5% in June, year over year, after falling in May for the first time since the pandemic hit the U.S. Some economists project U.S. rents will be down modestly this year after soaring nearly 25% over the past four years.
A closer look, however, shows the trend will likely be little comfort for many U.S. renters who’ve had to put an increasing share of their income toward their monthly payment. Renters in cities such as Cincinnati and Indianapolis are still getting hit with increases of 5% or more. Much of the new construction is located in just a few metro areas, and many of the new units are luxury apartments, which rent for well north of $2,000.
Median U.S. rent has risen to $2,029 this June from $1,629 in June 2019, according to rental listings company Rent, which tracks rents in 50 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Demand for apartments exploded during the pandemic as people who could work remotely sought more space or decided to relocate to another part of the country.
The steep rent increases have left tenants like Melissa Lombana, a high school teacher who lives in the South Florida city of Miramar, with progressively less income to spend on other needs.
The rent on her one-bedroom apartment jumped 13% last year to $1,700. It climbed another 6% to $1,800 this month when she renewed her lease.
“Even the $1,700 was a stretch for me,” said Lombana, 43, who supplements her teaching income with a side job doing educational testing. “In a year, I will not be able to afford living here at all.”
Lombana’s rent is now gobbling up nearly half her monthly income. That puts her in a category referred to as “cost-burdened” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, denoting households that pay 30% or more of their income toward rent. Last year, the average rent-to-income ratio per household rose to 30%. This March, it was 29.6%.
Lombana hasn’t had any luck finding a more affordable apartment. While South Florida is one of the metropolitan areas seeing a rise in apartment construction, the units are mostly high-end and not a viable option.
That scenario is playing out across the nation. Developers are rushing to complete projects that were green-lit during the pandemic-era surge in demand for rentals or left in limbo by delays in supplies of fixtures and building materials. Nearly 1.1 million apartments are currently under construction, according to the commercial real estate tracker CoStar, a pace not seen since the 1970s.
Increasing the supply of apartments tends to moderate rent increases over time and can give tenants more options on where to live. But more than 40% of the new rentals to be completed this year will be concentrated in about 10 high job growth metropolitan areas, including Austin, Nashville, Denver, Atlanta and New York, according to Marcus & Millichap. In many areas, the boost to overall inventory will be barely noticeable.
Even within metros where there’ll be a notable increase in available apartments, such as Nashville, most of it will be in the luxury category, where rents average $2,270, nationally. Some 70% of the new rental inventory will be the luxury class, said Jay Lybik, national director of multifamily analytics at CoStar.
That will leave most tenants unlikely to see a big enough reduction in rent to make a difference, industry experts and economists say.
“I think we’re in a period of rent flattening for 12 or 18 months, but it’s certainly not a big rent decline,” said Hessam Nadji, CEO of commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap.
“We’re building a multi-decade record number of units,” Nadji said. “It’s going to cause some softening and some pockets of overbuilding, but it’s not going to fundamentally resolve the housing shortage or the affordability problem for renters across the U.S.”
The surge in rents has made it difficult for workers to keep up with inflation despite solid wage gains the past few years and exacerbated a long-term trend. Between 1999 and 2022, U.S. rents soared 135%, while income grew 77%, according to data from Moody’s Analytics.
Realtor.com is forecasting that rents will drop an average of 0.9% this year. But while down nationally, rents are still rising in many markets around the country, especially those where hiring remains robust.
In the New York metro area, the median rent climbed 4.7% in June from a year earlier to $2,899, according to Realtor.com. In the Midwest, rents surged 5.6% in the Cincinnati metro area to $1,188, and 6.9% to $1,350 in the Indianapolis metro area.
The current spike in apartment construction alone isn’t going to be enough to address how costly renting has become for many Americans.
“For the rest of the 2020s rents will continue to grow because millennials are such a big generation and we’re very much in the hole in terms of building housing for that generation,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “It will take many good years of new construction to build adequate housing for millennials.”
The bigger challenge is building more work force housing, because the cost of land, labor and navigating the government approval process incentivize developers to put up luxury apartments buildings.
Expanding the supply of modestly priced rentals would help alleviate the strain from so many new apartments targeting renters with high incomes, “although additional subsidies will be needed to make housing affordable to households with the lowest incomes,” researchers at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies wrote in a recent report.
Despite the overall pullback in U.S. rents, Joey Di Girolamo, in Pembroke Pines, Florida, worries that he’ll face more sharp rent increases in coming years.
Last year, the web designer left a two-bedroom, two-bath townhome he rented for $2,200 a month to avoid a $600 a month increase. This year, his rent went up by $200, a nearly 10% jump.
“That blew me away,” said Di Girolamo, 50. “I’m just kind of dreading what it’s going to be like next year, but especially 3 or 4 years from now.” | https://www.koin.com/news/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:08 | 0 | https://www.koin.com/news/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When viewed through a wide lens, renters across the U.S. finally appear to be getting some relief, thanks in part to the biggest apartment construction boom in decades.
Median rent rose just 0.5% in June, year over year, after falling in May for the first time since the pandemic hit the U.S. Some economists project U.S. rents will be down modestly this year after soaring nearly 25% over the past four years.
A closer look, however, shows the trend will likely be little comfort for many U.S. renters who’ve had to put an increasing share of their income toward their monthly payment. Renters in cities such as Cincinnati and Indianapolis are still getting hit with increases of 5% or more. Much of the new construction is located in just a few metro areas, and many of the new units are luxury apartments, which rent for well north of $2,000.
Median U.S. rent has risen to $2,029 this June from $1,629 in June 2019, according to rental listings company Rent, which tracks rents in 50 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Demand for apartments exploded during the pandemic as people who could work remotely sought more space or decided to relocate to another part of the country.
The steep rent increases have left tenants like Melissa Lombana, a high school teacher who lives in the South Florida city of Miramar, with progressively less income to spend on other needs.
The rent on her one-bedroom apartment jumped 13% last year to $1,700. It climbed another 6% to $1,800 this month when she renewed her lease.
“Even the $1,700 was a stretch for me,” said Lombana, 43, who supplements her teaching income with a side job doing educational testing. “In a year, I will not be able to afford living here at all.”
Lombana’s rent is now gobbling up nearly half her monthly income. That puts her in a category referred to as “cost-burdened” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, denoting households that pay 30% or more of their income toward rent. Last year, the average rent-to-income ratio per household rose to 30%. This March, it was 29.6%.
Lombana hasn’t had any luck finding a more affordable apartment. While South Florida is one of the metropolitan areas seeing a rise in apartment construction, the units are mostly high-end and not a viable option.
That scenario is playing out across the nation. Developers are rushing to complete projects that were green-lit during the pandemic-era surge in demand for rentals or left in limbo by delays in supplies of fixtures and building materials. Nearly 1.1 million apartments are currently under construction, according to the commercial real estate tracker CoStar, a pace not seen since the 1970s.
Increasing the supply of apartments tends to moderate rent increases over time and can give tenants more options on where to live. But more than 40% of the new rentals to be completed this year will be concentrated in about 10 high job growth metropolitan areas, including Austin, Nashville, Denver, Atlanta and New York, according to Marcus & Millichap. In many areas, the boost to overall inventory will be barely noticeable.
Even within metros where there’ll be a notable increase in available apartments, such as Nashville, most of it will be in the luxury category, where rents average $2,270, nationally. Some 70% of the new rental inventory will be the luxury class, said Jay Lybik, national director of multifamily analytics at CoStar.
That will leave most tenants unlikely to see a big enough reduction in rent to make a difference, industry experts and economists say.
“I think we’re in a period of rent flattening for 12 or 18 months, but it’s certainly not a big rent decline,” said Hessam Nadji, CEO of commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap.
“We’re building a multi-decade record number of units,” Nadji said. “It’s going to cause some softening and some pockets of overbuilding, but it’s not going to fundamentally resolve the housing shortage or the affordability problem for renters across the U.S.”
The surge in rents has made it difficult for workers to keep up with inflation despite solid wage gains the past few years and exacerbated a long-term trend. Between 1999 and 2022, U.S. rents soared 135%, while income grew 77%, according to data from Moody’s Analytics.
Realtor.com is forecasting that rents will drop an average of 0.9% this year. But while down nationally, rents are still rising in many markets around the country, especially those where hiring remains robust.
In the New York metro area, the median rent climbed 4.7% in June from a year earlier to $2,899, according to Realtor.com. In the Midwest, rents surged 5.6% in the Cincinnati metro area to $1,188, and 6.9% to $1,350 in the Indianapolis metro area.
The current spike in apartment construction alone isn’t going to be enough to address how costly renting has become for many Americans.
“For the rest of the 2020s rents will continue to grow because millennials are such a big generation and we’re very much in the hole in terms of building housing for that generation,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “It will take many good years of new construction to build adequate housing for millennials.”
The bigger challenge is building more work force housing, because the cost of land, labor and navigating the government approval process incentivize developers to put up luxury apartments buildings.
Expanding the supply of modestly priced rentals would help alleviate the strain from so many new apartments targeting renters with high incomes, “although additional subsidies will be needed to make housing affordable to households with the lowest incomes,” researchers at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies wrote in a recent report.
Despite the overall pullback in U.S. rents, Joey Di Girolamo, in Pembroke Pines, Florida, worries that he’ll face more sharp rent increases in coming years.
Last year, the web designer left a two-bedroom, two-bath townhome he rented for $2,200 a month to avoid a $600 a month increase. This year, his rent went up by $200, a nearly 10% jump.
“That blew me away,” said Di Girolamo, 50. “I’m just kind of dreading what it’s going to be like next year, but especially 3 or 4 years from now.” | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:09 | 1 | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ |
The Biden administration says it's hunting for destructive computer code or malware; it believes China has hidden deep inside networks controlling power grids, according to theNew York Times.
The discovery raises suspicions that hackers acting on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army have embedded malware designed to disrupt U.S. military operations in the event China were to invade Taiwan.
"So if it's not just localized and if it's a deep infiltration and it's utilized in that way, you can imagine the banking system or the power grid going down nationally or the water systems being ineffectual nationally, and that could obviously disrupt operations at home, not just for the purposes of slowing us down in response but actually taking us out of the game altogether, unable to resupply our forces and the like," said Jamil Jaffer, former counsel to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Earlier in May, tech giant Microsoft warned that hackers likely acting on behalf of China targeted U.S. military assets on the island of Guam, seeding harmful computer code in communications infrastructure.
SEE MORE: The evolution and future of the US-China relationship
"It was referred to as a vault typhoon. And obviously, this raises some concerns about how deep in are the Chinese in our systems. Are they in just military systems? Are they just in that region? Is it spread more broadly across the country, other military bases overseas, or in the United States?" said Jaffer.
The news about the malware adds tension to an increasingly fraught U.S.-China relationship, with clashes that include increasing threats towards Taiwan and American efforts to ban complex semi-conductor sales to China.
The U.S. has also blamed China for other major infrastructure computer hacks as well as accusing the foreign power of spying on the continental U.S. with school bus-sized balloons.
For its part, China accused the U.S. of hacking into its telecom giant, Huawei.
The U.S. recently reiterated its commitment to defending Taiwan, the island nation off the coast of mainland China. Taiwan recently held military exercises.
"With respect to Taiwan, you know, the capability that we are providing them is defensive capability, as you know, in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act. We are committed to helping them get the capability they need to defend themselves. And so, this is no change from what we've done in the past," said Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense.
China regards Taiwan as a rogue province and a constant source of tension between the U.S. and China. Two nations that are trading partners and, at the same time, increasingly wary adversaries.
In response to the New York Times article, the Chinese embassy in Washington reacted with dismay, denying it engages in hacking and calling the United States a far bigger offender.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.kgun9.com/nyt-officials-fear-chinese-hackers-malware-could-disrupt-us-military | 2023-07-31T00:01:09 | 1 | https://www.kgun9.com/nyt-officials-fear-chinese-hackers-malware-could-disrupt-us-military |
UNION PARISH, La. (KTVE/KARD) — The Union Parish Sheriff’s Office responded to a crash on Highway 33 near Hicks Frazier Road around 12 p.m. Sunday, July 30.
According to deputies, a 70-year-old man was traveling North when he hit a tree and caught fire. Officials say local residents helped pull the man out of the vehicle before the explosion. The man was traveling with his dog, and they are both safe. He was taken to a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries. Although traffic is still going, deputies say the other lane will be back open as soon as crews clean up debris from the scene.
The accident remains under investigation. | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/union-parish-deputies-respond-to-car-fire-on-highway-33/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:15 | 0 | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/union-parish-deputies-respond-to-car-fire-on-highway-33/ |
BRIGHTON, Iowa — You-pick farms are struggling through heat, drought and haze as customers cancel picking appointments and crops across Iowa refuse to grow.
Kim Anderson told The Gazette that her well started faltering during last summer’s heat and drought at her 5-acre Blueberry Bottom Farm near Brighton in southeastern Iowa.
Many of her blueberry bushes became parched. And recently, for the first time in the farm’s five-season history, she had to cancel a day of picking appointments because there weren’t enough ripe berries.
“I just never anticipated something like this, that the well wouldn’t have enough water,” she said.
Similarly, Dean Henry told The Gazette that these are the worst conditions he has seen in his 56 years of operating the Berry Patch Farm in Nevada in central Iowa.
Henry said the Iowa Department of Natural Resources restricted his well water usage from 20 acres a day to 1 acre a day. But his strawberry plants need lots of water.
This year, his entire crop failed.
The heat has affected customers too. Some you-pick farms reported a decrease in customer visits, according to The Gazette. If people do come, they aren’t staying as long as normal to take in the entertainment at the farms, like picnic tables or games.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires also caused Iowa skies to grow hazy and air quality to be poor several times this summer. Customers canceled their appointments on especially hazy days, Anderson said. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/farms-heat-drought-crops-iowa-midwest-berries-youpick/e74ac824-2f2b-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:01:20 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/farms-heat-drought-crops-iowa-midwest-berries-youpick/e74ac824-2f2b-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
- Innovative Relay Event Introduces Korean Ginseng Across to the East and West Coast
- with Billboard Ads Featuring Hollywood Stars Arden Cho and Kieu Chin
- HSW Brand expanding its lineup with Two New Sparkling Beverages Designed to Beat the Summer Heat: Recharge and Calm
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Korea Ginseng Corp., the world's number one ginseng brand and leading next-generation global herbal brand, is spreading the word about its new beverage product, HSW, which reflects the health functional food's major trend keyword, 'Food as Medicine,' in a guerilla marketing campaign in key areas of the United States.
Korea Ginseng Corp., unveiled a brand advertisement on a billboard in Times square, Manhattan in the past month. Building on this momentum, Korea Ginseng Corp. has recently announced their plans for a relay guerilla marketing campaign, starting from the K-week event held at the Rockefeller center in New York. The event showcased their newest product, HSW, and featured traditional Korean games like Yut-nori and Dddakji-chiji, capturing the attention of American K-Culture fans. Building on the success of this first event, the brand is currently holding relay events across the city.
On the West Coast, Korea Ginseng Corp. will send its new mobile Ginseng Museum Café to this year's editions of the 626 Night Market, the largest night market in the United States, and to the Moon Festival, which celebrates LA's booming Asian street food scene. To draw attention to their one-of-a-kind trailer café, KGC will be running a fun social media awareness campaign and hosting on-the-spot game events and interactive samplings.
HSW is Korea Ginseng Corp.'s latest beverage offering, a contemporary twist on its best-selling energy tonic, Hong Sam Won. The new product is very much in sync with the hottest health food trend – 'Food as Medicine' – and caters to consumers seeking healthy, natural beverage options. With less than 40 calories per serving and zero caffeine, HSW is a light and guilt-free indulgence for the diet-conscious. In addition, Korea Ginseng Corp. is expanding its lineup with 'Recharge' and 'Calm,' two sparkling beverages designed for this year's hot summer season.
Rian Heung Sil Lee, a representative of Korea Ginseng Corp. U.S., notes, "Korean culture is being embraced by Americans, and interest in Korean health foods is at all-time high. We will be redoubling our efforts to make Korean red ginseng's unparalleled role as a food-as-medicine better known."
Korea Ginseng Corp.'s U.S. expansion began in 2002 and reached a new high point in 2021 with the opening of its flagship Ginseng Museum Café, in Manhattan. Since then, the global brand has introduced a new American-specific product line, KORESELECT, and has broadened its appeal with new distribution channels, including Amazon and Costco. Over the past three years, sales have more than doubled, confirming the impressive potential of the American market.
Leveraging its new American R&D Center, the company is committed to a proactive localization strategy and is planning to launch even more new products with the major marketing support of Korea's aT Center for Globalizing Korean Foods.
About Korea Ginseng Corp.
Korea Ginseng Corp.(KGC) is the world's number one ginseng brand and herbal dietary company. Established in 1899, it is one of the most proven and trusted herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, providing the highest quality, traditionally harvested Korean Red Ginseng products to support health and well-being. KGC runs four regional headquarters in the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, in addition to South Korea, and exports products to over 40 countries. With over 40% world market share, its presence spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East region and the U.S. KGC's family of brands include KORESELECT, CheongKwanJang, Good Base, and Donginbi. The KGC brands, inclusive of over 250 products, use the most exceptional ginseng combined with the finest herbs and ingredients to deliver superior products to meet everyone's needs.
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SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.) | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:20 | 1 | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ |
The city of San Francisco sent representatives twice this weekend to inquire about the flashing, gargantuan “X” logo that Elon Musk installed atop his social media platform’s downtown headquarters, the latest in his attempts to rebrand the company.
A city building inspector has since tried twice — on Friday and on Saturday — to gain access to the new rooftop sign, according to the city’s complaint tracker. X representatives denied access to the inspector, allegedly telling the official that the structure “is a temporary lighted sign for an event,” according to the city’s complaint. The city inspector explained to on-site X representatives that the structure must be removed or abide by city code.
It’s unclear what penalties the company may face, but building violations often incur fees, according to the city website, at least to “reimburse the department for the cost of the investigation and enforcement.” City officials did not immediately respond to The Washington Post on Sunday.
San Francisco requires a permit to approve new letters or symbols on a building’s sign “to ensure consistency with the historic nature of the building and to ensure the new additions are safely attached to the sign,” Patrick Hannan, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Building Inspection, told The Post last week.
The X headquarters’ revamp sparked scrutiny Monday, when the company brought in a crane to pluck the decade-old Twitter logo off the building and disrupted two lanes of traffic at a busy intersection. Local police received reports around 1 p.m. about a “possible unpermitted street closure,” The Post reported. The crane left by midafternoon, leaving the company’s old logo removal haphazardly unfinished.
Musk’s new logo took its looming place on Friday, and by Saturday, he posted a nearly 20-second video, displaying the enormous, beaming “X” in slow-motion. The company did not immediately respond to The Post on Sunday.
“Many have offered rich incentives for X (fka Twitter) to move its HQ out of San Francisco. Moreover, the city is in a doom spiral with one company after another left or leaving. Therefore, they expect X will move too,” Musk posted on Saturday. “We will not. You only know who your real friends are when the chips are down. San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend.” (Musk has previously regarded San Francisco with apparent disdain.)
Meanwhile, many users on X were quick to criticize the sign, blasting it as inconsiderate for nearby residences and distasteful.
Musk announced the social media platform’s new name and logo, X, early last week.
It’s the most recent source of confusion regarding the company, which has been mired in controversy and chaos since Musk acquired it for $44 billion last fall. The company has been sued for failing to pay millions in rent and investigated for illegally converting offices into bunk rooms. It shed more than 80 percent of its workforce. It ended its verification system in favor of blue check marks for purchase. Now, the new name X has spurred bewilderment among users and raised questions about brand management.
Trisha Thadani contributed to this report. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/musk-flashing-x-sign-twitter/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:20 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/musk-flashing-x-sign-twitter/ |
ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Four people are dead after the all-terrain vehicle they were in rolled over and burst into flames on a dirt road in central Washington’s Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.
No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
Also in the vehicle were Jenkins’ friend, 23-year-old Benjamin Gomez Santana of Covington, and a couple they met that day; 26-year-old Devon Anonson of Kent and 24-year-old Halle Cole of Maple Valley.
Gomez Santana and Cole died at the scene. Jenkins and Anonson were flown by helicopter to a burn center in Seattle, where they both died.
The open field where the crash happened is a popular spot for campers and off-roaders. Investigators have not said what caused the ATV to roll. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2023/07/30/washington-atv-fatal-crash/376651d6-2f2f-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:01:21 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2023/07/30/washington-atv-fatal-crash/376651d6-2f2f-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
(The Hill) – Northwestern is the latest in a long line of universities to come under public scrutiny due to a scandal over hazing, a practice that has refused to go extinct in colleges and high schools despite multiple concerted efforts to end it.
Hazing, which in rare instances has proven fatal, in particular plagues sports teams and Greek Life.
Experts say education on the issue and increased consequences are needed to create a real change, although they are skeptical the dangerous practice will exit school life anytime soon.
“Hazing has always been prevalent in society, not just in colleges. It’s anywhere that you see a different power dynamic between people who are trying to join a group [and] people who are in the group,” said Todd Shelton, executive director of the Hazing Prevention Network. “There’s research that shows that hazing starts long before college and in those younger ages. It’s especially prevalent in athletic teams camps, performing arts groups.”
The latest high-profile hazing incident comes from Northwestern University, where the head football coach was recently let go and a barrage of lawsuits have fallen on the school.
One of the reported rituals of hazing on the school’s football team was younger players getting restrained in the locker room by older ones while others dry humped the individual. Another incident described in a lawsuit against the school was a ritual called “carwash” where players were forced to rub themselves against a line of naked men in the showers.
“Certainly, it is typical hazing activities that we’ve seen before and it’s not unusual that they’re shrouded with secrecy. So I applaud the people who came forward and reported because that’s — that’s key for institutions to be able to make changes,” Shelton said. “I think those acts are horrible and examples of how hazing can quickly escalate from what individuals think is something that’s mild and or funny, to quickly being something that’s dangerous, either mentally or physically, to the victims.”
Experts say preventing hazing incidents has to start by educating people about its warning signs and dangers.
A study in 2008 showed 73 percent of students who have been in a sorority or fraternity said they experienced behaviors that meet the definition of hazing, such as being forced into drinking games or getting screamed at by other members.
The same study showed 74 percent of athletes in athletic programs also experienced behaviors that amount to hazing.
“Hazing is specific to that group context where someone is seeking inclusion or a sense of belonging in a club, team or organization. They’re a newcomer typically coming into this group situation, and because of that group dynamic there can be an incredible amount of peer pressure and sometimes a coercive environment. And so that can impede or be a barrier to recognizing and or reporting hazing because there can be a lot of fear,” Elizabeth Allan, a professor at the University of Maine, said.
These rituals and desires to be part of the in-group have led to some deadly consequences for young people.
In 2019, five Penn State University students were sentenced to jail after a 19-year-old student at a Beta Theta Pi fraternity house died at a party after hazing-based binge drinking.
While most hazing incidents don’t result in incarceration, there are other consequences for students who are caught for the crime.
“Financial, monetary damages. People have lost their jobs. People have gone to jail or had, criminal penalties, fines and so forth. Let’s say sometimes when it’s a student organization or a team so with a student organization, they’re often suspended or lose their recognition with the campus for a period of time, and with an athletic team sometimes a portion of the season is put on hold or canceled entirely sometimes at the high school level, we’ve seen that recently.” Allan, who also leads the organization Stop Hazing, said.
And yet, even as schools ramp up their efforts, hazing persists.
Allan says a multifaceted strategy is needed to tackle the problem, and her group has developed a “Hazing Prevention Framework” for schools to follow.
“They can use it to also do some strategic planning and set some goals for the improvements they want to make, and all this is really … based on a public health approach to organizational change and promoting healthy behaviors in a community setting,” Allan said.
Shelton said his group also advocates for hazing to be treated as a felony, whereas many states look at it as a misdemeanor.
“The problem is it’s not taken seriously in the law, and we’ve seen a lot of hazing cases, even when there’s been a death… [where] prosecutors don’t consider it hazing or don’t consider hazing to be a serious crime to go through the measures of prosecuting,” Shelton said. “And so that’s why we’ve been working hard to strengthen those state laws.” | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/why-is-hazing-so-hard-to-eliminate/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:21 | 1 | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/why-is-hazing-so-hard-to-eliminate/ |