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Believe the hype. Teenager Linda Caicedo is for real, and so are Colombia’s chances of going far at the Women’s World Cup.
As for the country’s fans, who gave Sydney Football Stadium the feel of a Colombia home game on Sunday, their passionate support created a jubilant atmosphere that lingered long after a 2-1 win over two-time champion Germany provided one of the tournament’s great upsets.
Germany has never failed to advance from the group stage of the World Cup and this was its first loss in a group game since 1995.
It is still expected to beat South Korea in its last game of Group H, but will likely have to settle for second place, which could set up a round of 16 match with France.
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Caicedo, 18, produced another moment of magic to put Colombia on course for back-to-back wins with her opening goal in the 52nd minute. She needed treatment late in regulation but stayed on the field and, five minutes later, Alexandra Popp equalized from the penalty spot.
That setback for Colombia in the 89th merely preceded an even later twist when defender Manuela Vanegas headed in a winner in seventh minute of stoppage time.
Cue wild celebrations from Colombia, and looks of disbelief among the German players.
Caicedo and her teammates certainly have had a dramatic campaign.
The Real Madrid star, already a cancer survivor, had a health scare earlier in the week when she dropped to the ground, holding her chest in a practice session. Team officials said it was fatigue, and she certainly appeared to be in full flight for her stunning second-half strike.
Caicedo had already scored from distance in the 2-0 win against South Korea on Tuesday. But while that goal involved an error from goalkeeper Yoon Young-geul, on this occasion it was all about individual brilliance.
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Collecting the ball from just inside the area after a corner, she worked her way into space by bewildering two German defenders in a fast-stepping move before lashing a shot into the top corner.
“Linda Caicedo is a fantastic player. We knew that before the World Cup,” Germany coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg said. “We needed to be very attentive.
“It was a good goal. I have to admit that. But we definitely should be better. We should keep ball.”
Germany is unlikely to be the last team to get the Caicedo treatment in her debut World Cup, provided she remains healthy.
Caicedo needed medical treatment behind play in the 84th minute. She dropped to the ground and, as she lay face down on the pitch, was checked by trainers as the referee stood nearby. She got up and started walking to the bench but, after signaling she was OK, went back onto the field and continued the game.
Marsiglia later tried to allay concerns, explaining that the teen had been exhausted but adding that there was a “bit of acceleration” in her heart.
While Caicedo has been her country’s inspiration at the tournament, Vanegas’s late strike embodied the wide spread of talent in the team.
She rose to head in substitute Leicy Santos’s corner deep into time added on to move Colombia to the top of the group.
“This was a decisive match to qualify for the next round,” Marsiglia said. “This is a great win for the whole country but the game and tournament still continues.”
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New Zealand all done
New Zealand outshot Switzerland and even moved goalkeeper Victoria Esson into an attack position several times, but failed to break a 0-0 tie and became the first host nation to be eliminated in group play in tournament history.
All 25,947 seats at Forsyth Barr Stadiums were filled — the only one of Dunedin’s six tournament matches to sell out. The raucous crowd stomped and cheered all night, to no avail.
The Football Ferns are co-hosting the World Cup with Australia, which must win Monday against Canada to avoid its own early elimination.
“Just gutted, I think,” said New Zealand midfielder Malia Steinmetz of the elimination. “Obviously we talked and we were proud of ourselves and what we’ve been able to accomplish, but at the end of the day we wanted to get out of this group stage and we just didn’t. It’s just black and white. So, obviously gutted.”
Switzerland advanced to the round of 16. The Swiss also played to a scoreless draw against Norway, but won the group with the draw against New Zealand, coupled with the Norwegians’ simultaneous 6-0 rout of the Philippines.
New Zealand controlled the pace for long stretches and had its chances to score, outshooting Switzerland, 12-3. Jacqui Hand knocked a shot off the right post in the 24th minute.
Roman Haug’s hat trick powers Norway
Sophie Roman Haug’s hat trick kick-started Norway’s dormant offense and sparked a 6-0 blowout of the Philippines in Auckland, New Zealand, that moved the Norwegians into to the knockout stage.
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The Philippines’ debut run in the tournament came to an end as Norway scored early and often, netting three goals in the first 31 minutes.
The Philippines were fresh off of a historic 1-0 win over New Zealand, the squad’s first Women’s World Cup win. Eden Park was turned into a makeshift home match for the Philippines, as fans screamed in unison any time the Philippines touched the ball, even as the deficit grew.
The Norwegians had yet to score in 2023 before their six-goal eruption. Roman Haug one-timed a ball into the net in the sixth minute, and scored again 11 minutes later. Caroline Graham Hansen added a long-distance shot in the 31st minute.
Roman Haug completed the hat trick in injury time.
In the second half, an Alicia Barker own goal in the 48th minute and Guro Reiten’s penalty kick in the 53rd minute extended Norway’s lead to 5-0. Filipina defender Sofia Harrison received a red card in the 67th minute for using excessive force, and the Philippines played the rest of the match a player down. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/linda-caicedo-18-sparks-colombia-shocking-upset-germany-womens-world-cup/ | 2023-07-31T01:11:29 | 1 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/linda-caicedo-18-sparks-colombia-shocking-upset-germany-womens-world-cup/ |
Heated emotions could mean fireworks at Richmond
July 28, 2023 10:36 AM
Dustin Long previews the top storylines for the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, from the heated emotions post-Pocono to outlooks for Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, and those on the playoff bubble. | https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/nascar/preece-submits-best-cup-finish-of-season | 2023-07-31T01:11:28 | 0 | https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/nascar/preece-submits-best-cup-finish-of-season |
Stepping onto the field against South Korea in Morocco’s second match, defender Nouhaila Benzina made history as the first player to wear a hijab while competing at a senior-level global tournament.
A FIFA ban on playing in religious head coverings in its sanctioned games for “health and safety reasons” was overturned in 2014 after advocacy from activists, athletes, and government and soccer officials.
Benzina plays professional club soccer for the Association’s Sports of Forces Armed Royal — the eight-time defending champion in Morocco’s top women’s league. She did not play in Morocco’s opening 6-0 loss to Germany in Melbourne, and had to wait six days to finally get her start in the Group H game in Adelaide.
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It was worth it. The Atlas Lionesses played with more freedom in an afternoon game against South Korea, scoring in the sixth minute and hanging on for a 1-0 win. Benzina played an important role in the defensive line, and picked up a yellow card late in the game as South Korea counterattacked.
The No. 72-ranked Atlas Lionesses, playing in their first Women’s World Cup, got its first goal on a glancing header from Ibtissam Jraïdi off Hanane Aït El Haj’s cross in the 6th minute.
“We need to savor the win tonight, all together,” Morocco coach Reynald Pedros said. “From tomorrow, this game is behind us. What’s important is what is going to happen against Colombia.”
In the men’s World Cup last year, Morocco strung together its own run of upsets. The team advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since 1986 and became the first African or Arab nation to reach the World Cup semifinals.
The women’s team has already made Women’s World Cup history as the first Arab or North African nation to qualify. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/moroccos-nouhaila-benzina-first-wear-hijab-womens-world-cup/ | 2023-07-31T01:11:35 | 1 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/moroccos-nouhaila-benzina-first-wear-hijab-womens-world-cup/ |
King's three focal points from Bills training camp
July 30, 2023 04:20 PM
Peter King gives his three takeaways from the Buffalo Bills training camp including, Josh Allen looking to limit turnovers, Damar Hamlin's return, and how the Bills will overcome their 'bad' playoff loss to the Bengals. | https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/nfl/the-peter-king-podcasts/allen-still-has-bitter-taste-after-bengals-loss | 2023-07-31T01:11:39 | 0 | https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/nfl/the-peter-king-podcasts/allen-still-has-bitter-taste-after-bengals-loss |
SAN FRANCISCO — The Red Sox invested in Rafael Devers when they signed him to a $313.5 million contract extension in January. But he also invested in them.
Devers wants to be remembered for championships, not his contract. He helped the Sox win the 2018 World Series and wants to be back on that stage.
Devers believes chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom should add to the roster before the trade deadline on Tuesday afternoon.
“Everybody knows what we need,” Devers told the Globe on Sunday before a 4-3 loss in 11 innings against the Giants. “Hopefully we can get that in the next few days. We can’t control that as players. All we can do is give 100 percent on the field. But we need pitching.”
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The Sox played their way into contention this month, overcoming injuries and what at times has been a wonky roster to get within two games of a wild-card berth.
Devers sees the 56-49 Sox as having done their part to earn help from outside the organization. They are 15-7 this month.
“Of course, of course. I think we’ve played good baseball and we’ve tried very hard. We’ve been killing ourselves to be in the position we are in now,” Devers said via a team translator.
“We would like them to reward us with a few good players coming in before the deadline. I think that’s something we’re looking forward to.”
Devers has a .955 OPS and 26 RBIs in 26 career playoff games. October baseball is what matters most to him.
“I’m a player who wants to win,” Devers said. “I love the intensity of the playoffs and everything that goes with it. I would love to be back there.
“That’s the reason everybody plays, to win the World Series.”
Devers has not spoken to Bloom or anybody in the front office about his views on the roster. He trusts manager Alex Cora to handle that on behalf of the players.
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In his mind, it’s pretty obvious.
“I don’t need to talk to them. Everybody knows what we need,” Devers said. “There’s no reason to talk to them about it. This year is a much different story than last year. We weren’t in a position to compete last year but this year we are.
“We have shown we can compete with the best teams. That’s why this year is different. We have shown we can succeed.”
With Tanner Houck, Chris Sale, Trevor Story, and Garrett Whitlock expected to return from the injured list in the coming weeks, the Sox will get some reinforcements.
For a team with a potent offense, adding a starting pitcher could have a major impact.
“We’re getting good players back,” Devers said. “I think we need a little help beyond that.”
Devers was 1 for 4 with a double and a walk on Sunday. He also committed a costly error in the fifth inning that led to a run. The third baseman is hitting .261 with an .846 OPS. He hit .292 with an .884 OPS over the previous three years.
Devers was still in his uniform and cleats 15 minutes after the game ended, fingers interlaced behind his head as he stared into his locker with a blank expression.
The Giants intentionally walked him with a runner on second in the 10th inning to get to Yu Chang, who struck out.
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“I have a lot to improve,” Devers said. “Right now I want to finish the season strong over the next two months. It’s consistency, that’s been the thing I’m trying to find.”
The Blue Jays, who are only 2½ games ahead of the Sox, traded for hard-throwing Cardinals closer Jordan Hicks on Sunday. Toronto will be at Fenway Park for a three-game series starting Friday.
As rumors swirl and the Sox players wait for what they hope will be positive news, Cora does not feel a need to address the team.
“No. Never done it,” he said. “I lived it as a player. Nobody had to explain to me what people were doing and what they were thinking. That’s the way I saw it.
“Right now, where we’re at, everybody’s looking at what’s going on right in front of us and around us. That’s the best way.
“They have questions and people get anxious and all that. But at the end you have to perform, right? You have a job to do. It sounds very businesslike but you’re getting paid to play baseball. Just go out there and do your best.”
Cora didn’t offer an opinion on what Bloom should do. He pointed to the players coming back from injuries as an avenue of improvement.
“It’s a lot different than last year,” he said.
Devers feels that way, too. His team has done its part and now he wants the front office to do theirs.
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Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him @PeteAbe. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/red-sox-invested-rafael-devers-now-he-wants-them-invest-team-playoff-push/ | 2023-07-31T01:11:41 | 1 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/red-sox-invested-rafael-devers-now-he-wants-them-invest-team-playoff-push/ |
ROME — At a 15th-century palace that is steps from the Vatican and set to become a luxury hotel, archaeologists did what they always do in Rome, an ancient city thick with buried treasures.
They started to dig.
Rome is the gift that keeps on giving to archaeologists, though no one knew what would come from this preliminary exploration, a familiar routine at Italian building sites and development projects.
To the archaeologists’ surprise — and immense delight — the dig brought to light traces of a first-century theater that the team believes was built by Nero, the emperor with a now disputed reputation for tyranny, debauchery, and a desire to indulge his inner artist. Although chronicled by Roman-era historians, the theater had never emerged from Rome’s archaeologically rich underbelly.
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“It’s been stupendous, wonderful, amazing,” said Marzia Di Mento, the archaeologist who oversaw the dig at the palace, the Palazzo della Rovere. “It’s what every archaeologist would like to do.”
The archaeologists began uncovering walls — some with traces of stucco with gold-leaf decoration — that they hypothesize belonged to Nero’s private theater. The excavation has also turned up hundreds of artifacts that, though still being studied, have already shed new insight on life near the Vatican across centuries of Roman history.
Among the finds are small bronze amulets that pilgrims would have worn when trekking to Rome to see where St. Peter — one of the first leaders of the early Christian church — was buried, along with animal bones bored to make beads for rosaries. Both signal the presence of pilgrims, who grew in greater number as Christianity spread.
These artifacts can be added to others found in recent months through other excavations — both archaeological and preliminary work on construction projects. They include sundry statues, burial grounds, ancient thruways and traces of an ancient Roman road that may or may not be part of the legendary Appian Way.
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The excavation of the palazzo garden, on the wide avenue that leads to St. Peter’s Basilica, began in 2020 before a large-scale renovation. One wing of the palazzo, which is owned by the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, is scheduled to open as a Four Seasons Hotel in time for the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee, when millions of pilgrims are expected to visit Rome.
Leonardo Visconti di Modrone, the governor general of the order, told reporters Wednesday that the rental fee from the hotel would help cover costs for many of its charitable activities in the Middle East, including schools and hospitals.
By law, building projects in Italy must be preceded by preliminary excavations to ensure that no damage is done to what is underground — a rule that some critics say creates a costly, time-consuming obstacle for construction projects, if it doesn’t halt them altogether.
Alessio De Cristofaro, one of the archaeologists who oversaw the excavation on behalf of the city of Rome, described the dig at the palazzo as “a virtuous example where archaeology acts as a driving force to an important building renovation project.”
Once the artifacts from the site have been studied and restored, some of the best-preserved will be showcased inside the hotel. They include rare fragments dating from around the 10th century, a period that left few remains to document because Rome was “in economic and demographic decline,” said Di Mento.
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But it is the evidence of the first century that has caught many people’s attention. Nero built his theater in a pleasure garden that, according to historical texts, once belonged to his grandmother Agrippina and his uncle Caligula. Roman chronicler Pliny the Elder, no fan of the emperor, described the theater as “large enough to satisfy even Nero’s desire to sing before a full house.”
Although uncertain about the building’s identification at first, De Cristofaro said that the high quality of some materials uncovered at the theater, including columns of rare African marble and gold leaf decoration, pointed to an imperial commission. Stamps on some bricks date the structure to the middle of the first century.
“Archaeology works by hypothesis,” said Alessandro Viscogliosi, a professor of ancient architecture at La Sapienza University in Rome. Attributing the remains as belonging to Nero’s theater was “a reasonable” theory, he said, although it was “too soon” to know for sure, because not much had emerged.
“If they continue digging and we find the seats, then we’ll be certain,” he said.
Some recent scholarship has challenged Nero’s reputation for profligacy, suggesting that he was portrayed by ancient historians as a villain, accused of playing a lyre while Rome burned in 64 A.D.
“He was actually well loved by his people,” said Ernesto Migliacci, a coauthor (with his father, Franco Migliacci, a writer of the Italian classic “Volare”) of a short-lived but highly entertaining rock opera about Nero that cast the emperor as a more nuanced antihero, thwarted from pursuing what his heart really desired: a life declaiming poetry and song.
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Pelted with criticism because the stage had been built on the Palatine Hill overlooking the Colosseum, the show shut down after 11 days after nuns in a nearby convent complained about the music, Ernesto Migliacci said. He accused historians who criticized Nero, like Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio, of creating politically motivated fake news.
After archaeologists finish their study, including mapping the site, the ancient structures will be reburied.
Covering it back up is the “best way to protect the site,” said Di Mento. Its story can be told through “other means,” including 3D reconstructions, detailed maps created by drones and online material that will make the structure “more understandable even to those who aren’t experts,” she said.
Then the artifacts that have been unearthed will need to be cataloged.
“It will take years to study everything,” Di Mento said. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/world/excavations-uncover-hints-neros-theater-rome-much-more/ | 2023-07-31T01:11:47 | 1 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/world/excavations-uncover-hints-neros-theater-rome-much-more/ |
4 killed in fiery ATV rollover crash in central Washington
ELLENSBURG, Wash. (AP) — 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. Kittitas County sheriff’s officials say the side-by-side ATV crashed west of the town of Liberty on Saturday afternoon, and first responders arrived within minutes to prevent the gas-fueled fire from spreading. No other vehicles were involved in the crash. Two victims died at the scene, and two others died at a burn center in Seattle. Investigators have not said what caused the ATV to roll. | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/4-killed-in-fiery-atv-rollover-crash-in-central-washington/ | 2023-07-31T01:12:19 | 1 | https://kion546.com/ap-colorado/2023/07/30/4-killed-in-fiery-atv-rollover-crash-in-central-washington/ |
PITTSBURGH — Endy Rodriguez hit a go-ahead, bases-loaded triple and drove in four runs, fellow rookie Liover Peguero had a home run among his three hits and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Phillies 7-6 on Saturday night.
Rodriguez’s triple sparked a four-run fifth inning against Aaron Nola (9-7) that put the Pirates in front 7-4. Phillies center fielder Brandon Marsh was unable to make a play on the sinking liner and Rodriguez then scored on Alika Williams’ single, which was his first career hit.
Peguero hit a leadoff home run in the third, his second, to open the scoring.
Yet another rookie, Quinn Priester (2-1), won his second straight start despite allowing five runs and six walks in five innings.
Closer David Bednar entered the game in the eighth inning with the Pirates leading 7-5 and gave up a run-scoring single to rookie Johan Rojas. However, he got J.T. Realmuto to hit into a game-ending double play with runners on first and third for his 21st save.
Bryson Stott had three hits as the Phillies lost for just the second time in six games. They entered the night leading the NL wild-card standings by percentage points over Cincinnati.
Nola was tagged for seven runs — five earned — and nine hits in 4 2/3 innings. He had won four of his previous five decisions.
The Phillies scored four runs in the fourth inning to move in front 4-1. Marsh ripped a three-run double to the gap in right-center and scored on Jake Cave’s double.
The Pirates got within a run in the bottom of the fourth as Rodriguez hit an RBI double and scored on a single by Peguero. Pittsburgh went ahead an inning later.
Kyle Schwarber drew a bases-loaded walk from Ryan Borucki in the sixth to draw the Phillies to 7-5.
Jack Suwinski, on his 25th birthday, had two hits along with Rodriguez and Ji-Man Choi for the Pirates, who have alternated wins and losses in their last nine games.
The Pirates had their first sellout since opening day with a crowd of 38,434.
PHILLIES WAIVE NAVY VET
The Phillies designated Navy veteran Noah Song for assignment before the game.
The 26-year-old right-handed pitcher was taken by the Phillies from Boston in the Rule 5 draft during the league’s winter meetings in December with hopes he would play after completing his military service.
If Song clears waivers, Boston will have the option of taking him back to its organization.
Song reported to major league spring training on Feb. 23 after the Navy granted his transfer from active duty to the reserves. Song hadn’t pitched in a professional game since Aug. 29, 2019, for Class A Lowell.
Song went 1-0 with a 7.36 ERA in eight games in stints with three of Philadelphia’s minor league teams while on the major league injured list with a lower-back strain. Song’s 30-day rehab assignment ended this week, forcing the Phillies to decide whether to add him to the active roster or expose him to waivers and offer him back to the Red Sox if he is not claimed.
TURNER DROPPED IN ORDER
Slumping Phillies shortstop Trea Turner was dropped to seventh in the batting order from his customary No. 2 spot. Turner entered the game in a 0-for-12 slump and is hitting .242 in his first season since signing an 11-year, $300-million contract as a free agent.
“I think he’s disappointed but not because he’s batting seventh but because he expects to produce more than he’s producing,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson. “He’s trying to do too much.”
Turner went 1 for 3 with a walk.
Thomson said he hopes Turner hitting near the bottom of the lineup will be only temporary.
“When he gets his stroke back and looks comfortable, I’ll put him back up there,” Thomson said. “I’ve said all along that I think our best lineup is with Trea hitting second.”
UP NEXT
Phillies LHP Cristopher Sanchez (0-3, 2.98 ERA) starts in Sunday’s series finale against LHP Rich Hill (7-10, 4.82), who could be making his last start for the Pirates with baseball’s trade deadline approaching Tuesday. | https://www.trentonian.com/2023/07/29/brandon-marsh-misplay-helps-pirates-beat-aaron-nola-and-phillies/ | 2023-07-31T01:12:21 | 1 | https://www.trentonian.com/2023/07/29/brandon-marsh-misplay-helps-pirates-beat-aaron-nola-and-phillies/ |
Mainly dry weather this week with a warmer start to August
The final weekend of July is quickly wrapping up, coming with drier and more comfortable weather. High pressure sits over the Northern Plains and will slide eastward tonight into Monday. After seeing highs in the 70s today, it will be another pleasantly cool night to keep the windows open and let fresh air inside. A clear sky will be with us through the night with temperatures dropping into the lower half of the 50s to start Monday morning. The same high will dominate our weather for the final day of the month, leading to a mostly sunny sky and light winds. Temperatures will warm back to average with highs reaching the low 80s.
The high will be on the move, sliding to the east into Tuesday. This shift will lead to the return of southeast and southerly flow, allowing for a warm up as we welcome the month of August on Tuesday. A few clouds will be around, otherwise the dry weather will continue with afternoon highs reaching into the mid 80s. The warm up will likely continue through the first few days of the new month as the high remains nearly in place east of the Great Lakes. This will keep southerly flow into the state, not only allowing for the return of warmer air, but also higher humidity. Dew points are forecast to rise from the 50s into the 60s by Tuesday, and up close to 70 by Wednesday into Thursday. Combined with temperatures well into the 80s, it will again become quite uncomfortable. Meanwhile, we will be keeping an eye on the movement of the next cold front sliding through the Plains and into Minnesota by Thursday. Though a stray shower or storm is possible even Wednesday afternoon, chances should be a little better by Thursday as the front moves closer. This is expected to pass through by Thursday night with a few showers and storms, but drier weather will quickly follow into Friday. Another high parked to the north will take over, dropping temperatures and humidity just a bit as we shift into the start of the weekend.
Copyright 2023 WEAU. All rights reserved. | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/31/mainly-dry-weather-this-week-with-warmer-start-august/ | 2023-07-31T01:12:21 | 0 | https://www.weau.com/2023/07/31/mainly-dry-weather-this-week-with-warmer-start-august/ |
Opinion: My Southwest city alone can’t stop climate change. But here’s what we are doing to make summers more livable
Opinion by Jon Gabriel
(CNN) — Editor’s note: Jon Gabriel is editor-in-chief of Ricochet.com and an opinion contributor to The Arizona Republic. Follow him on Twitter at @ExJon. The views expressed here are his own. Read more opinion at CNN.
The scorching weather that has parched the southwestern United States, along with much of the rest of the country, may finally — finally — be about to relent. Forecasters say that for the first time in a month, high temperatures in Phoenix may finally dip below 110 degrees Fahrenheit this week.
But relief is a relative term. We are on the cusp of the start of August, which in Arizona historically is just a couple of degrees cooler than July. And in this year of record-shattering heat, it’s impossible to know whether the past patterns will hold.
Phoenix was actually enjoying a surprisingly mild summer. Then July hit. The city has made headlines around the globe and broken all sorts of records. It’s currently enduring the longest stretch topping 110 F or higher (29 days and counting). Phoenix just finished 16 straight days with lows above 90 F. Mid-July featured nine consecutive days at or above 115 F.
I’ve lived in the aptly named “Valley of the Sun” since childhood, so I’m used to the region’s scorching heat and dust-dry desert climate. But even for natives, the month has been brutal.
The city’s transportation service is providing buses to the homeless so they can at least sit in an air-conditioned space during the hottest part of the day. For those even less fortunate, the county coroner has rented refrigerated containers as backup storage.
“While we typically see a surge in intakes to the Office of the Medical Examiner in July, this year has been worse than prior years,” Jason Berry, a Maricopa County spokesman, said last week.
Phoenix still hasn’t topped its all-time high of 122 F back in 1990 — at least not yet. As I write, it’s a balmy 112 F.
Many commentators are quick to blame climate change but offer few concrete solutions to mitigate the issue Phoenix summers will always be hot — I mean, it’s Phoenix — but smart solutions can keep it from getting worse.
I often explain to outsiders that Phoenix only has two months of awful heat — about mid-July to mid-September. That’s when the humidity rises a touch, with the temperatures north of 100 F late into the evening. (I’ll still take two hot months over four months of gray, icy winter misery in the upper Midwest.)
That said, it doesn’t take a climate scientist to recognize the rising intensity of our summers. Growing up on the northern edge of the sprawling city, the days were hot, but nights cooled off considerably. There isn’t much heat retention in the open desert, especially compared with the hundreds of square miles of black pavement and urban sprawl. Once the sun sets, city streets slowly release the pent-up heat for many hours.
Our Sonoran Desert region also gets annual monsoon storms this time of year, which usually help mitigate the highest highs. So far, those dramatic thunderstorms haven’t made much of an appearance. Seemingly it’s less so each year.
The rapid growth of Phoenix has created a “heat island” effect. Replacing virgin desert with concrete, glass and steel resulted in a thermal dome extending vertically above the city, leading to much higher nighttime temperatures.
As monsoon storms gather strength in the late afternoon, the rising urban heat raises the atmospheric pressure above the city. This pushes the cooling rains away from Phoenix and its expansive suburbs. More rain for the open deserts, but precious little for us sweaty city folk.
And the more desert cities grow, the worse the heat island effect. Thankfully, new fixes are being rolled out to reduce the problem.
Visitors often remark on Arizona “lawns” consisting of sandy-colored desert rock and a few desert plants. (My Midwestern relatives never let me hear the end of it.) But adaptive xeriscaping reduces the use of precious water and returns these little plots of land into cooler desert spaces.
On a larger scale, replacing blazing-hot asphalt with “cool pavements” reflects more solar energy, enhances water evaporation and doesn’t retain as much heat. Following a successful 2021 pilot program, Phoenix began coating streets with a unique treatment that significantly reduces street temperatures. So far, 100 miles have been covered, with many more on the way.
The city also instituted a cool roof program 10 years ago, replacing darker standard roofs with much more reflective colors and materials. So far, only 3.5% of buildings in the area can be considered “cool,” but it’s well worth the upgrade. A 2021 study by Arizona State University found the process reduces energy use by an average of 17% and keeps roofs as much as 50 degrees cooler.
By redoubling its commitment to these promising technologies, Phoenix can reduce the heat island effect and help temperatures return to their natural level. At the same time, these technologies can reduce energy demand, air conditioning costs and health issues, helping both residents and the climate.
Phoenix doesn’t have the luxury to wait for world leaders to “fix” the climate, whatever that might entail. The city’s rapid growth helped create the rising urban temperatures; it’s up to us residents to solve it.
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Trader Joe’s is recalling a broccoli cheddar soup that may contain insects and cooked falafel that may contain rocks, about one week after the grocery chain recalled two cookie products over similar concerns.
The soup recall impacts Trader Joe’s Unexpected Broccoli Cheddar Soup with “Use By” dates ranging from July 18 to Sept. 15, according to a Thursday announcement from the company. On Friday, the grocer announced that Trader Joe’s Fully Cooked Falafel sold in 35 states and Washington, D.C., was also under recall.
On July 21, Trader Joe’s announced that it was recalling Trader Joe’s Almond Windmill Cookies and Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Chunk and Almond Cookies with “sell by” dates ranging from Oct. 17 to Oct. 21. Like the falafel, the cookies may also contain rocks, the company said.
When asked for further information about how the insects and rocks may have gotten into these products, a Trader Joe’s spokesperson said that “there was an issue in the manufacturing processes in the facilities.” Suppliers alerted Trader Joe’s of the possible foreign material for each recall, the company said.
“We pulled the product from our shelves as soon as we were made aware of the issue. Once we understood the issue we notified our customers,” the spokesperson said in a statement sent to The Associated Press Saturday.
All of the recalled cookies, soup and falafel have been removed from sale or destroyed, Trader Joe’s said in its announcements. But the Monrovia, California-based company is still urging consumers to check their kitchens for the products.
Trader Joe’s says customers who have the recalled products should throw them away or return them to any store for a full refund. Lot codes and further details about the products under recall, as well as customer service contact information, can be found on the company’s website.
Trader Joe’s did not specify how many products were impacted with each recall or identify suppliers. But one Food and Drug Administration notice cited by NBC News says that the Unexpected Broccoli Cheddar Soup recall impacts around 10,889 cases sold in seven states. Winter Gardens Quality Foods, Inc. is identified as the recalling firm, per the notice.
No formal releases about the three recalls were published on the FDA’s Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts page as of Saturday. The Associated Press reached out to the FDA and Winter Gardens Quality Foods for information on Saturday.
“We have a close relationship with our vendors and they alerted us of these issues. We don’t hesitate or wait for regulatory agencies to tell us what to do,” the Trader Joe’s spokesperson said. “We will never leave to chance the safety of the products we offer.” | https://www.trentonian.com/2023/07/29/more-trader-joes-recalls-soup-bugs-falafel-rocks/ | 2023-07-31T01:12:27 | 0 | https://www.trentonian.com/2023/07/29/more-trader-joes-recalls-soup-bugs-falafel-rocks/ |
Joc Pederson’s 10th-inning single lifts San Francisco Giants past Boston Red Sox 4-3
By MICHAEL WAGAMAN
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Joc Pederson singled in Patrick Bailey in the 10th inning, and the San Francisco Giants beat Boston 4-3 on Sunday for their first home series win against the Red Sox since 2004.
Bailey began the inning at second base. After Casey Schmitt was hit by a pitch from Mauricio Llovera (1-1), Brandon Crawford attempted to sacrifice the runners over. But Boston catcher Connor Wong was unable to field the ball and Crawford reached on an infield single.
Pederson then lined a 1-2 sinker from Llovera into right field.
It was the second time this season that San Francisco won on a game-ending play with Pederson at the plate. He drew a bases-loaded walk to beat San Diego on June 20.
“You definitely want to be aggressive,” Pederson said. “The pressure’s on the pitcher. They’re wanting to throw strikes and not get behind in the count. That definitely plays into it.”
Wilmer Flores and Luis Matos each had two hits for San Francisco (58-48), which is on top of the NL wild-card standings after winning six of seven.
“Some teams just have a flair for some late-inning heroics. Seems like this team has that for sure,” said Ross Stripling, who pitched 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball in relief of opener Scott Alexander. “Sometimes we don’t even come alive until like the seventh inning. The struggles that we’ve been through have brought us really close together as a group.”
Justin Turner and Adam Duvall homered for Boston. The Red Sox have lost consecutive road series for the first time this season.
Boston (56-49) missed a chance to take the lead in the top of the 10th when Tristan Beck (2-0) got Yu Chang to strike out swinging with two runners on.
The Giants were up 2-1 when Turner hit his 17th homer, a two-run shot off Tyler Rogers in the eighth. But Bailey tied it at 3 with a run-scoring groundout in the bottom half.
Turner’s drive to left spoiled a strong outing by Stripling, one of San Francisco’s top offseason acquisitions.
Stripling retired 13 of his 17 batters. He allowed four hits, struck out three and walked none.
After Duvall chased Stripling with his leadoff homer in the seventh, the Red Sox put two runners on before Triston Casas flew out to center fielder Luis Matos, who threw to second for an inning-ending double play.
FOR OPENERS
Alexander threw 16 pitches and retired five batters. Boston’s Brennan Bernardino allowed one hit and one run on 27 pitches in one inning of work.
San Francisco improved to 13-4 this season when using an opener.
GOLD GLOVE GEM
The 36-year-old Crawford returned to the lineup after missing 12 games with left knee inflammation, and the shortstop showed why he’s still considered one of the best infielders in the game. The four-time Gold Glove winner snared Turner’s sharp grounder then made a backhanded flip to second baseman Schmitt, who threw to first to complete a double play.
“What I see is a team that’s playing really good defense and pretty consistent defense,” San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler said. “In the biggest moments we’re making plays.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Giants: RHP Anthony DeSclafani was placed on the injured list with an elbow flexor strain. … OF Mike Yastrzemski was removed from the game due to left hamstring tightness.
UP NEXT
Red Sox: RHP Nick Pivetta (7-5, 4.11 ERA) will make his first start since May 16 when Boston begins a three-game series in Seattle on Monday.
Giants: Kapler has not announced a starter for Monday’s home game against the Diamondbacks.
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Breanna Stewart has 25 points and 9 rebounds to help Liberty beat Sparks 87-79
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Breanna Stewart scored 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Jonquel Jones added 13 points and 13 boards and New York never trailed Sunday in the Liberty’s 87-79 win over the Los Angeles Sparks.
Marine Johannes made 5 of 7 from 3-point range and finished with 15 points for the Liberty (19-6). Sabrina Ionescu added 14 points, six rebounds and five assists and Courtney Vandersloot scored eight points with nine assists and six rebounds.
New York, which played its seventh game in 12 days, is off to the best 25-game start in franchise history. The Liberty have won five of their last six.
Ionescu and Johannes each hit two 3-pointers in a 19-0 run that made it 21-2 with 2:52 left in the first quarter. Nneka Ogwumike scored for the Sparks to make it 2-2 but they went scoreless for the next nearly-six minutes, missing 12 straight field-goal attempts.
Los Angeles (9-16), which had won back-to-back games over the Indiana Fever, has lost nine of its last 11.
Dearica Hamby scored 21 points, Jordin Canada added 17 and Azurá Stevens 13 for the Sparks. Ogwumike had 10 points.
The Liberty moved a game in front of third-place Connecticut in the WNBA standings, 3 1/2 games back of first-place Las Vegas.
New York hit 15 3-pointers and finished with 26 assists on 32 made field goals. The Liberty became just the second team in WNBA history to have at least 12 games with 25-plus assists in a single-season, joining the 2022 Chicago Sky (18).
___
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Sanchez and Snell lead the Padres to a 5-3 win over the Rangers for a 3-game sweep
By BERNIE WILSON
AP Sports Writer
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Gary Sánchez homered twice, Juan Soto doubled in Fernando Tatis Jr. from first base and left-hander Blake Snell had another strong start for the San Diego Padres, who beat the struggling Texas Rangers 5-3 on Sunday for a three-game sweep.
Hours earlier, Texas announced the acquisition of Max Scherzer from the New York Mets and obtained left-hander Jordan Montgomery from the St. Louis Cardinals. The AL West leaders then lost for the seventh time in nine games while keeping a one-game lead over the Houston Astros, who lost 8-2 to Tampa Bay.
“It’s behind us already,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “We’re off tomorrow, regroup, see if we can get back on track and and play our brand of ball. It was a tough series. We faced some really good pitching.”
Bochy said the Rangers’ batters expanded the strike zone “more than what we had been doing. Just shows you that we were maybe a little anxious, a little amped up. We’ve got to get back to who we are.”
Josh Hader retired Josh Jung with the bases loaded in the ninth inning for his 25th save in 29 chances.
Padres second baseman Ha-Seong Kim exited with a jammed right shoulder after sliding headfirst into home plate on Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly in the third.
The disappointing Padres, who reached the NL Championship Series last season and then bulked up their payroll to about $250 million, must decide by Tuesday’s trade deadline whether they’ll be buyers or sellers. They came into Sunday buried in fourth place in the NL West, nine games behind the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, and 5 1/2 games out of the third wild-card spot.
The Padres’ three-game winning streak matches their season best. It came after two dismal losses to Pittsburgh, which at the time was last in the NL Central. It was just their second three-game sweep of the season.
After the Pittsburgh series, Tatis said the Padres’ play had been “terrible.” That all changed in three games.
“It’s huge. I feel like we needed this a long time ago,” Tatis said Sunday. “It was really good baseball this series — offense backing up pitching, pitching backing up offense — and hopefully we can keep this going.”
Snell (8-8), who has been mentioned as a trade possibility, along with Hader, lowered his big league-leading ERA to 2.50 by holding the Rangers to an unearned run and four hits in five innings. He struck out nine and walked four. The only run he allowed came on his throwing error in the fourth.
“It feels good,” Snell said. “Texas is a really, really good team. Great offense. We knew that coming into it and knew we had to make our pitches this series and it went our way.”
As for the looming trade deadline, “I don’t want to go anywhere,” Snell said.
Sánchez homered leading off the fourth against Jose Leclerc (0-2) for a 2-1 lead and connected again with two outs in the fifth off Brock Burke for a 4-1 lead. He has 12 this season.
Tatis reached on a fielder’s choice in the fourth and scored on Soto’s opposite-field double into the corner in left.
The Rangers pulled to 4-3 on Marcus Semien’s two-run single off Nick Martinez in the sixth.
Tatis hit an RBI single in the eighth.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rangers: Placed RHP Nathan Eovaldi on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to Thursday, with a right forearm strain and recalled right-hander Grant Anderson from Triple-A Round Rock.
Padres: Manager Bob Melvin said it’s his guess Kim won’t play Monday night “but hopefully it’s not too long.”
UP NEXT
Rangers: Hadn’t announced their starter for Tuesday night’s opener of a three-game home series against the Chicago White Sox.
Padres: RHP Seth Lugo (4-5, 3.62 ERA) is scheduled to start Monday night in the opener of a series at Colorado, which will counter with LHP Austin Gomber (8-8, 5.83).
___
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The St. Louis Cardinals are unloading valuable arms ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline.
The Cardinals traded former Yankees starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery to the Texas Rangers, according to reports. St. Louis will also send right-hander Chris Stratton to Texas. In return, the Cardinals will reportedly receive two top 30 prospects — right-hander Tekoah Roby and infielder Thomas Saggese — and left-hander John King.
The moves come a day after the Rangers acquired ace Max Scherzer from the Mets in exchange for minor-league middle infielder Luisangel Acuna, who is the 21-year-old brother of Braves superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. and one of the Rangers’ top prospects.
The Cardinals also sent reliever Jordan Hicks to the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday, according to reports. In return, the Blue Jays traded minor league right-handers Sem Robberse and Adam Kloffenstein. Hicks landing in Toronto strengthens a bullpen that recently lost closer Jordan Romano. Romano landed on the 15-day injured list with lower-back inflammation on Saturday.
Hicks joins Toronto with a 3.67 ERA in 40 appearances this season.
This is the second straight season Montgomery has been traded at the deadline. Last season, the Yankees sent the starter to St. Louis in exchange for outfielder Harrison Bader. Montgomery owns a 6-9 record with a 3.42 ERA in 21 starts with the Cardinals this season.
() | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/30/cardinals-trade-ex-yankees-pitcher-jordan-montgomery-to-rangers-jordan-hicks-sent-to-blue-jays-reports/ | 2023-07-31T01:12:48 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/30/cardinals-trade-ex-yankees-pitcher-jordan-montgomery-to-rangers-jordan-hicks-sent-to-blue-jays-reports/ |
8-year-old survives ‘extraordinarily rare’ cougar attack near Washington’s Lake Angeles
By Zoe Sottile, CNN
(CNN) — An 8-year-old was left with minor injuries after being attacked by a cougar in Washington’s Olympic National Park on Saturday evening, park officials said.
The child was camping with their mother at Lake Angeles, in the Heart O’ the Hills area south of Port Angeles when the cougar attacked, according to a news release from the National Park Service.
The feline predator “casually abandoned its attack after being yelled and screamed at by the child’s mother,” the park service said.
Park personnel were notified about the attack at 6:30 p.m. and quickly responded, the release said.
The child experienced “minor injuries” and was taken to the hospital for further evaluation. Park staff escorted the family back to the trailhead, says the release.
Staff evacuated all campers in the Lake Angeles area and closed the Lake Angeles and Heather Park areas until further notice.
“Due to the extreme nature of this incident, we are closing the Lake Angeles area and several trails in the vicinity,” said Olympic National Park wildlife biologist Tom Kay in the news release. “Out of an abundance of caution, the Lake Angeles Trail, Heather Park Trail, Switchback Trail, and the entire Klahhane Ridge Trail are closed until further notice.”
On Saturday at 5:00 a.m., park law enforcement and “wildlife personnel specializing in cougar tracking” were sent to the animal’s last known location, the release added. If they locate the cougar, they will euthanize it and perform a necropsy, according to the release.
“This may provide clues as to why the animal attacked since cougars are rarely seen and attacks on humans are extraordinarily rare,” the park service said.
Washington is home to around 1,900 to 2,100 adult cougars, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The department notes that the animals – also called panthers, pumas, and mountain lions – are elusive and rarely interact with humans.
“A person is one thousand times more likely to be struck by lightning than attacked by a cougar,” according to the department. “But as Washington’s human population grows, and more and more people are recreating outdoors, the chance of observing or encountering cougars may increase.”
All of Olympic National Park is considered “cougar territory,” the park service said. The agency urged visitors to avoid hiking or jogging alone, stay alert to their surroundings, and make lots of noise if they do encounter a cougar.
The Lake Angeles campground is about 100 miles west of Seattle.
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BALTIMORE — Usually, it’s opponents that are careful with Aaron Judge.
But with the slugger back from a torn toe ligament that’s not 100% healed, he and the Yankees know they need to proceed with caution. That’s why, as of Saturday night, Aaron Boone favored resting Judge for Sunday’s rubber match against the division-leading Orioles.
“I don’t know yet,” Boone said when asked if Judge would play Sunday. “Right now, I’m leaning towards no, but we’ll see.”
The Yankees activated Judge on Friday and had him DH. He walked three times in a losing effort before playing right field, recording three hits and crushing a 442-foot home run in Saturday’s 8-3 win. With the Yankees in last place and 3.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot, their lineup looked reenergized with Judge in it, thus prompting follow-ups to Boone’s already-stated, probable plan to give the captain a day off this weekend.
That plan has been met with criticism on social media each time it’s come up given where the Yankees are in the standings prior to Tuesday’s trade deadline. But the team wants to make sure that Judge builds up properly after the Yanks chose not to send him on a rehab assignment. Instead, Judge participated in three simulated games at Yankee Stadium and at the club’s complex in Tampa.
With the Yankees in the midst of an uninterrupted 13-game stretch, there are no natural off days to work with.
“I want him in every game,” Boone said. “We have 13 in a row. I kind of look at it as, hopefully, he’s in a position to start nine or 10 of them. And as much as I want to run him every day, forget the toe. He hasn’t come close to even playing games for almost two months. So as much as I want him in there, we got to be smart here a little bit, especially in this run.”
Judge, meanwhile, has said that he’d like to play in each of the Orioles games, as he feels he needs to make up for “a lot of missed time.” Told of Boone’s plan for the 13-game stretch, he struck a balance between wanting to compete and getting why the team wants to avoid overdoing it.
“I understand it,” he said with a smile. “I’m not happy about it, but that’s a discussion we’ll have on our own. We’ll see the schedule we come up with and kind of go from there.”
() | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/30/with-days-off-planned-yankees-practicing-caution-with-aaron-judge/ | 2023-07-31T01:12:54 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/30/with-days-off-planned-yankees-practicing-caution-with-aaron-judge/ |
‘We’ve made a mistake’: Frisco police mistakenly pull over family headed to a basketball tournament with guns drawn
By Rebekah Riess, CNN
(CNN) — The Frisco, Texas, police chief issued an apology on Friday after a family from Little Rock, Arkansas, who were headed to a basketball tournament in Grapevine, was mistakenly pulled over in a “high-risk stop,” after a Frisco officer ran the car’s plates as being from Arizona, instead of Arkansas, leading police to believe it was stolen, according to body camera video and information released by police.
On July 23, a Frisco police officer saw a black Dodge Charger with an out-of-state license plate leave a hotel and ran a check of the vehicle’s license plate. According to a news release from Frisco Police, when entering the information, the officer mistakenly entered the plate as being from Arizona, instead of Arkansas, causing an incorrect registration return and leading the officer to believe that the vehicle was possibly stolen.
The officer then initiated a “high-risk traffic stop” on the Dallas North Tollway and waited for backup officers to arrive, the release said. Police closed the southbound lanes of the tollway and conducted the high-risk stop, which the department said is “standard procedure for stolen vehicles.”
Body camera video from two officers, released by the department on Friday, shows the mother who was driving and her 6th grade son, who was in the back seat, being ordered out of the vehicle.
“Slowly exit the vehicle. Face away from us. (…) Turn around. Do not face us,” says one officer who has his gun drawn toward the car. “Everybody in the car – hands outside the window. (…) Driver, slowly lift up your shirt, only for us to see your waistband. Slowly spin around.”
“If you reach in that car, you may get shot so be careful. Do not reach in the car,” the officer shouts once they have been told, by the driver, that her licensed handgun is locked in the glove compartment.
Police say an incident review is underway.
“We made a mistake,” Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said in a statement Friday. “Our department will not hide from its mistakes. Instead, we will learn from them. The officer involved quickly accepted responsibility for what happened, which speaks to integrity. I’ve spoken with the family. I empathize with them and completely understand why they’re upset.”
The body camera video shows the officer who initiated the stop taking the mother aside and questioning her about her car’s tags. The woman tells the officer that the children in the back of the car are her son and nephew. Meanwhile, body camera video shows the driver’s husband talking to a second officer, saying “Listen sir, this is my wife’s car. We’re just in a basketball tournament.”
“I’m a basketball coach. Look at this bro,” he continues, as his son can be heard crying.
“I got conceal carry … Y’all put a gun on my son for no reason.”
A Frisco police sergeant then arrived, and officers realized a mistake had been made.
One officer explains that it was an honest mistake.
“That’s a terrible experience,” responds the father. “You all got to do your job, but we’re all legit,” he said.
“It looks like I made a mistake,” the officer tells the family after her sergeant ordered officers to stand down and called off the high-risk stop. “So I ran it AZ for Arizona, instead of AR – and that’s what happened.”
The father then responds, “It could have gone all wrong for us.”
Distraught, the driver’s husband can then be seen turning away from the officers and breaking down in tears.
“We’re so sorry that happened like this. We had no intent on doing this, you know?” another officer tells the family. “We’re humans as well and we make mistakes. I’m not justifying anything, I’m just saying, like, it wasn’t a computer that ran it. It was our human error that did this. So please forgive us.”
According to police, the incident review was initiated that day to determine “what happened, how it was managed, and to evaluate what needed to be addressed to prevent this from happening in the future.” Police said an ongoing review would identify further changes to the department’s “training, policies, and procedures” needed.
“I apologized on behalf of our department and assured them that we will hold ourselves accountable and provide transparency through the process. This incident does not reflect the high standard of service that our officers provide on a daily basis to our residents, businesses and visitors,” the chief added in his statement.
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CNN’s Sarah Moon contributed to this report. | https://kion546.com/news/national-world/cnn-national/2023/07/30/weve-made-a-mistake-frisco-police-mistakenly-pull-over-family-headed-to-a-basketball-tournament-with-guns-drawn/ | 2023-07-31T01:12:57 | 0 | https://kion546.com/news/national-world/cnn-national/2023/07/30/weve-made-a-mistake-frisco-police-mistakenly-pull-over-family-headed-to-a-basketball-tournament-with-guns-drawn/ |
Mar-a-Lago employee overseeing surveillance cameras previously received target letter in Trump classified documents probe
CNN
By Zachary Cohen, Kaitlan Collins and Katelyn Polantz, CNN
(CNN) — Yuscil Taveras, a Mar-a-Lago employee who oversees the property’s surveillance cameras, received a target letter from federal prosecutors after former President Donald Trump was first indicted in June on charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office, sources told CNN.
Taveras also met with investigators following the initial indictment in the classified documents case overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, sources said.
While it is unclear whether Taveras is cooperating with prosecutors, some of the new allegations against Trump that were included in a superseding indictment filed last week were based, at least in part, on information he provided during that interview, CNN has learned.
A lawyer for Taveras previously declined to comment to CNN.
The updated indictment, which adds major accusations against Trump and a new co-defendant to the case, refers to Taveras as “Trump Employee 4,” CNN previously reported.
Unlike Trump’s longtime valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager and new co-defendant Carlos De Oliveira, Taveras is not currently facing charges in the classified documents case despite having been informed he is a target in the probe.
But he is at the center of the new accusations added to the indictment, including an exchange he had with De Oliveira on June 27, 2022. In that conversation, De Oliveira asked to have a private discussion in an “audio closet” with Taveras, including questioning how long the footage from the security tapes lasted and whether it could be deleted.
When Taveras said “he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the rights to do that,” De Oliveira said “the boss” wanted it deleted, according to the indictment.
Smith’s team had previously heard testimony about odd conversations between Taveras, Nauta and De Oliveira regarding surveillance footage. The grand jury in Washington, before the case was fully relocated to southern Florida, had also heard testimony specifically regarding De Oliveira’s unusual behavior toward the footage, three people told CNN.
Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty.
After receiving the target letter, Taveras changed lawyers because his attorney, Stan Woodward, also represented Nauta, which presented a conflict, sources said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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Mar-a-Lago employee overseeing surveillance cameras previously received target letter in Trump classified documents probe
CNN
By Zachary Cohen, Kaitlan Collins and Katelyn Polantz, CNN
(CNN) — Yuscil Taveras, a Mar-a-Lago employee who oversees the property’s surveillance cameras, received a target letter from federal prosecutors after former President Donald Trump was first indicted in June on charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office, sources told CNN.
Taveras also met with investigators following the initial indictment in the classified documents case overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, sources said.
While it is unclear whether Taveras is cooperating with prosecutors, some of the new allegations against Trump that were included in a superseding indictment filed last week were based, at least in part, on information he provided during that interview, CNN has learned.
A lawyer for Taveras previously declined to comment to CNN.
The updated indictment, which adds major accusations against Trump and a new co-defendant to the case, refers to Taveras as “Trump Employee 4,” CNN previously reported.
Unlike Trump’s longtime valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager and new co-defendant Carlos De Oliveira, Taveras is not currently facing charges in the classified documents case despite having been informed he is a target in the probe.
But he is at the center of the new accusations added to the indictment, including an exchange he had with De Oliveira on June 27, 2022. In that conversation, De Oliveira asked to have a private discussion in an “audio closet” with Taveras, including questioning how long the footage from the security tapes lasted and whether it could be deleted.
When Taveras said “he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the rights to do that,” De Oliveira said “the boss” wanted it deleted, according to the indictment.
Smith’s team had previously heard testimony about odd conversations between Taveras, Nauta and De Oliveira regarding surveillance footage. The grand jury in Washington, before the case was fully relocated to southern Florida, had also heard testimony specifically regarding De Oliveira’s unusual behavior toward the footage, three people told CNN.
Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty.
After receiving the target letter, Taveras changed lawyers because his attorney, Stan Woodward, also represented Nauta, which presented a conflict, sources said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://kion546.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2023/07/30/mar-a-lago-employee-overseeing-surveillance-cameras-previously-received-target-letter-in-trump-classified-documents-probe-3/ | 2023-07-31T01:13:10 | 1 | https://kion546.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2023/07/30/mar-a-lago-employee-overseeing-surveillance-cameras-previously-received-target-letter-in-trump-classified-documents-probe-3/ |
Trump ally Kerik will meet with special counsel ‘in about a week,’ attorney tells CNN
By Aaron Pellish, CNN
(CNN) — Former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik will meet with special counsel Jack Smith in the coming days to discuss efforts taken by former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to investigate potential election fraud in the wake of the 2020 election, Kerik’s attorney said Sunday.
The attorney, Timothy Parlatore, who has also previously represented Trump, said in an interview with CNN’s Paula Reid that the special counsel’s office will meet with Kerik and his lawyers “in about a week” and will “get into … the core” of the intentions behind Trump and Giuliani’s unfounded claims of voter fraud.
“We have a meeting scheduled in about a week with the special counsel’s office to talk about a lot of the efforts that the Giuliani team was taking at the time to investigate fraud, and that’s really going to get into, you know, the core of whether they can charge somebody with having corrupt intent,” Parlatore said.
CNN has previously reported on Kerik’s intention to meet with the special counsel’s office.
Kerik’s meeting comes after he turned over documents to the special counsel’s office connected to the debunked voter fraud claims made by Trump and Giuliani, including affidavits claiming widespread “irregularities” and shoddy statistical analyses claiming proof of “fraudulent activities.”
Kerik worked alongside Giuliani in the weeks after the 2020 election to search for evidence of fraud that could have shifted the results of the election in Trump’s favor. Kerik had previously shielded some documents from Congress and federal investigators on attorney-client privilege grounds before he ultimately turned over the documents earlier this month.
Parlatore said it would “imbecilic” and “incredibly stupid” for the special counsel to issue an indictment against Trump before meeting with Kerik, arguing a rushed indictment would play into an argument Trump has repeatedly made on the campaign trail – that the multiple investigations targeting him constitute election interference.
“When you have something like this, to bring an indictment before you’ve finished your investigation, for whatever reason they may choose to do it, it feeds directly into the Trump campaign narrative about this all being, you know, about election interference. And so I think it would be incredibly stupid for them to go forward with indicting before they finish their investigation,” Parlatore said.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://kion546.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2023/07/30/trump-ally-kerik-will-meet-with-special-counsel-in-about-a-week-attorney-tells-cnn/ | 2023-07-31T01:13:16 | 1 | https://kion546.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2023/07/30/trump-ally-kerik-will-meet-with-special-counsel-in-about-a-week-attorney-tells-cnn/ |
Trump team creating legal defense fund
By Kristen Holmes, CNN
(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump’s team is creating a legal defense fund to help offset some of the enormous bills incurred as his legal troubles mount, two sources familiar with the planning told CNN.
The fund is expected to cover the bills of some of Trump’s current and former aides and employees who have been wrapped up in various investigations into the former president. Trump’s political action committee, Save America, spent more than $40 million on legal fees for him and many of his associates since the start of 2023.
The new fund will be called the Patriot Legal Defense Fund Inc., according to the sources, and will be led by Trump associate and adviser Michael Glassner.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://kion546.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2023/07/30/trump-team-creating-legal-defense-fund/ | 2023-07-31T01:13:22 | 1 | https://kion546.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2023/07/30/trump-team-creating-legal-defense-fund/ |
SUZHOU, China, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Transcenta Holding Limited ("Transcenta") (HKEX: 06628), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company with fully-integrated capabilities in discovery, research, development and manufacturing of antibody-based therapeutics, announces that it has received approval from China Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) to initiate Phase II clinical trial of TST002(Blosozumab). This study aims to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of TST002(Blosozumab) after single and multiple intravenous administrations in patients with reduced bone mineral density.
Osteoporosis is a significant health concern for the middle-aged and elderly population in China. It is estimated that by 2050, the number of osteoporosis patients will reach 120 million. Compared with RANKL mAbs, sclerostin mAbs successfully achieve the dual goal of preventing bone loss and rebuilding the bone. Evenity (Romosozumab) of Amgen is the only anti-sclerostin antibody drug that has been approved by the FDA in the United States. Up to the present, there was no anti-sclerostin antibody drug approved in China.
In May 2023, Transcenta presented Phase I unblinded data, which showed that the overall safety and tolerability of TST002 (Blosozumab) in all dose cohorts is favorable. On the efficacy side, all dose cohorts from 200-1,200 mg have shown a clinically meaningful increase in lumbar spine BMD on Day 85 (D85) after a single dose of TST002 (Blosozumab) and comparable to those of Blosozumab single dose study at the similar dose levels. The average increase of lumbar spine BMD at Day 85 (D85) from baseline ranged from 3.52% to 6.20% across dose cohorts, all exceeding the least significant difference (2.77%). The increase of lumbar spine BMD in the placebo group was only 0.30% even with optimal calcium and vitamin D supplemental treatment. In addition, encouraging BMD increase in total hip from 1.30% to 2.24% across dose cohorts were observed after single dose of TST002 (Blosozumab). In comparison, the mean percent change in lumbar spine BMD from baseline to month 12 was 5.4% after one year of Denosumab treatment.1
"We are excited to have received the clearance to move forward from CDE. Our Phase II will assess several regimens of TST002 (Blosozumab) with reduced dosing frequency, bringing us closer to our Phase III. We look forward to fully exploring the differentiated profile of TST002 to address the unmet medical need of the large patient population who suffers from osteoporosis," said Dr. Caroline Germa, Transcenta's Executive Vice President, Global Medicine Development and Chief Medical Officer.
Reference:
1 https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/105/3/e255/5607536
About TST002 (Blosozumab)
TST002 (Blosozumab) is a humanized anti-sclerostin monoclonal antibody as a drug candidate for osteoporosis and other bone loss diseases. It has a dual effect possessing both anabolic and anti-resorptive effects, which stimulates bone formation and inhibits bone absorption, resulting in fast increase in bone mineral density and bone strength. Blocking sclerostin activity in human treated with anti-sclerostin antibody or with naturally occurring genetic deletion has been shown to be an effective approach in increasing bone mineral density (BMD) and reducing bone fracture. Currently there is no approved anti-sclerostin antibody therapy in China yet although Romosozumab from Amgen has been approved in the United States, Europe and Japan.
About Transcenta Holding Limited
Transcenta (HKEX: 06628) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company with fully integrated capabilities in antibody-based biotherapeutics discovery, research, development and manufacturing.
Transcenta has established global footprint, with Headquarters and Discovery, Clinical and Translational Research Center in Suzhou, Process and Product Development Center and Manufacturing Facility in Hangzhou, and Clinical Development Centers in Princeton, US and in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou of China, and External Partnering Center in Boston and Los Angeles, US. Transcenta has also initiated the construction of the Group Headquarters and the second high-end biopharmaceutical facility with ICB as its core technology in Suzhou Industrial Park. Transcenta is developing 13 therapeutic antibody molecules for oncology and selected non-oncology indications including bone and kidney disorders.
For more information, please visit www.transcenta.com and https://www.linkedin.com/company/transcenta.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain certain forward-looking statements that are, by their nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties. The words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend" and similar expressions, as they relate to Transcenta, are intended to identify certain of such forward-looking statements. Transcenta does not intend to update these forward-looking statements regularly.
These forward-looking statements are based on the existing beliefs, assumptions, expectations, estimates, projections and understandings of the management of Transcenta with respect to future events at the time these statements are made. These statements are not a guarantee of future developments and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond Transcenta's control and are difficult to predict. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from information contained in the forward-looking statements as a result of future changes or developments in our business, Transcenta's competitive environment and political, economic, legal and social conditions.
Transcenta, the Directors and the employees of Transcenta assume (a) no obligation to correct or update the forward-looking statements contained in this site; and (b) no liability in the event that any of the forward-looking statements does not materialize or turn out to be incorrect.
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SOURCE Transcenta Holding Limited | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/07/31/transcenta-anti-sclerostin-monoclonal-antibody-tst002-blosozumab-received-approval-china-cde-initiate-phase-ii-clinical-trial-patients-with-reduced-bone-mineral-density/ | 2023-07-31T01:13:28 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/07/31/transcenta-anti-sclerostin-monoclonal-antibody-tst002-blosozumab-received-approval-china-cde-initiate-phase-ii-clinical-trial-patients-with-reduced-bone-mineral-density/ |
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.cenlanow.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ | 2023-07-31T01:13:31 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ |
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.cenlanow.com/national/1-dead-23-wounded-after-street-party-shooting-in-indiana/ | 2023-07-31T01:13:37 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/1-dead-23-wounded-after-street-party-shooting-in-indiana/ |
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.cenlanow.com/national/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ | 2023-07-31T01:13:43 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ |
ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- A federal prisoner who was supposed to be housed at the Lehigh County Jail temporarily escaped early Sunday evening, but was captured a short time later.
Officials said the prisoner escaped from the sally port, before he ever made it into the jail itself. That's a secured area where inmates are taken as they are transferred into a jail.
There's no word yet from officials on how he managed to get away, but he was caught just 10 minutes later at the site of the old Banana Joe's nightclub in the 300 block of Hamilton Street.
At this point, details are limited. Allentown Police noted that the incident had no connection to their department.
The prisoner's name has not yet been released, and it's not known what federal charges he was being held on.
Officials said he will now be facing escape charges on the state level. | https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/lehighvalley/federal-prisoner-who-was-supposed-to-be-housed-overnight-at-lehigh-county-jail-escapes-caught/article_d2f47880-2f2a-11ee-aba0-67217e6418af.html | 2023-07-31T01:13:46 | 1 | https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/lehighvalley/federal-prisoner-who-was-supposed-to-be-housed-overnight-at-lehigh-county-jail-escapes-caught/article_d2f47880-2f2a-11ee-aba0-67217e6418af.html |
CAL FIRE’s Open House highlights safety, disaster preparedness
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Community leaders invited people in Pebble Beach to learn more about public safety at CAL FIRE's annual Open House.
Fire Captain of CAL FIRE Curtis Rhodes, said that it was not only important for community members to meet their first responders, but also to learn from them as well.
“We brought out all the folks from the community to come and engage with our local co-operators, “We have 32 vendors out here today, including the Department of Emergency Management, Monterey County, Pacific Gas and Electric, Cal Fire. We have earthquake simulators out here. And really, we just want to bring exposure to being prepared for natural disasters or wildfire preparedness here in the county and in the state of California.”
After a three-year absence because of the pandemic, The Pebble Beach Community Service District opened its doors Saturday for this year’s public safety day. Kids in the neighborhood such as Chloey Rhodes and Charlotte and Lillian Silvera, were excited to explore the fire station, participate in all the activities, but most importantly, to learn.
“I’m mostly excited about learning about the fire extinguisher.” Chloey said.
“Maybe the earthquakes.” Charlotte added.
“I think the same as Chloey, the fire extinguishers” Lillian said.
To help their youngest guest learn how to stay safe in the event of an emergency, staff gave out passport lanyards to be stamped at different stations. Each station would teach a different safety preparedness skill.
“With the kids we've created a passport system,” Rhodes said. “When they come through here they have to gain knowledge on what to do in the event of an earthquake, how to simulate pass, aim, squeeze, sweep with fire extinguishers. They get to mingle amongst all the CalFire personnel that are here. Sign up for things like safe sitters and learn CPR. So it's really our goal and mission to engage with the children as they are the next generation and keep all of us safe.”
Alayna Gocke, one of the members of the Cal Fire engineering team, hopes this event inspires kids to want to maybe take up a career with the fire department in the future.
“I hope they just get a little inspired about maybe what they want to do in the future,” Gocke said. “That'd be so cool to have more young women and engineering and STEM fields in general.” | https://kion546.com/top-stories/2023/07/30/cal-fires-open-house-highlights-safety-disaster-preparedness/ | 2023-07-31T01:13:53 | 1 | https://kion546.com/top-stories/2023/07/30/cal-fires-open-house-highlights-safety-disaster-preparedness/ |
MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE, Calif. – A massive wildfire burning out of control in California's Mojave National Preserve was spreading rapidly amid erratic winds, while firefighters reported progress against another major blaze to the southwest that prompted evacuations.
The York Fire that erupted Friday near the remote Caruthers Canyon area of the vast wildland preserve crossed the state line into Nevada on Sunday and sent smoke further east into the Las Vegas Valley.
Wind-driven flames 20 feet (6 meters) high in some spots charred more than 110 square miles (284 square kilometers) of desert scrub, juniper and Joshua tree woodland, according to an incident update. There was zero containment.
“The dry fuel acts as a ready ignition source, and when paired with those weather conditions it resulted in long-distance fire run and high flames, leading to extreme fire behavior,” the update said. No structures were threatened.
To the southwest, the Bonny Fire was holding steady at about 3.4 square miles (8.8 square kilometers) in rugged hills of Riverside County. More than 1,300 people were ordered to evacuate their homes Saturday near the community of Aguanga that is home to horse ranches and wineries.
Gusty winds and the chance of thunderstorms into Monday will heighten the risk of renewed growth, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a statement.
One firefighter was injured in the blaze, which was 5% contained. | https://www.wsls.com/news/national/2023/07/30/erratic-winds-challenge-firefighters-battling-two-major-california-blazes/ | 2023-07-31T01:14:00 | 1 | https://www.wsls.com/news/national/2023/07/30/erratic-winds-challenge-firefighters-battling-two-major-california-blazes/ |
SUZHOU, China, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Transcenta Holding Limited ("Transcenta") (HKEX: 06628), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company with fully-integrated capabilities in discovery, research, development and manufacturing of antibody-based therapeutics, announces that it has received approval from China Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) to initiate Phase II clinical trial of TST002(Blosozumab). This study aims to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of TST002(Blosozumab) after single and multiple intravenous administrations in patients with reduced bone mineral density.
Osteoporosis is a significant health concern for the middle-aged and elderly population in China. It is estimated that by 2050, the number of osteoporosis patients will reach 120 million. Compared with RANKL mAbs, sclerostin mAbs successfully achieve the dual goal of preventing bone loss and rebuilding the bone. Evenity (Romosozumab) of Amgen is the only anti-sclerostin antibody drug that has been approved by the FDA in the United States. Up to the present, there was no anti-sclerostin antibody drug approved in China.
In May 2023, Transcenta presented Phase I unblinded data, which showed that the overall safety and tolerability of TST002 (Blosozumab) in all dose cohorts is favorable. On the efficacy side, all dose cohorts from 200-1,200 mg have shown a clinically meaningful increase in lumbar spine BMD on Day 85 (D85) after a single dose of TST002 (Blosozumab) and comparable to those of Blosozumab single dose study at the similar dose levels. The average increase of lumbar spine BMD at Day 85 (D85) from baseline ranged from 3.52% to 6.20% across dose cohorts, all exceeding the least significant difference (2.77%). The increase of lumbar spine BMD in the placebo group was only 0.30% even with optimal calcium and vitamin D supplemental treatment. In addition, encouraging BMD increase in total hip from 1.30% to 2.24% across dose cohorts were observed after single dose of TST002 (Blosozumab). In comparison, the mean percent change in lumbar spine BMD from baseline to month 12 was 5.4% after one year of Denosumab treatment.1
"We are excited to have received the clearance to move forward from CDE. Our Phase II will assess several regimens of TST002 (Blosozumab) with reduced dosing frequency, bringing us closer to our Phase III. We look forward to fully exploring the differentiated profile of TST002 to address the unmet medical need of the large patient population who suffers from osteoporosis," said Dr. Caroline Germa, Transcenta's Executive Vice President, Global Medicine Development and Chief Medical Officer.
Reference:
1 https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/105/3/e255/5607536
About TST002 (Blosozumab)
TST002 (Blosozumab) is a humanized anti-sclerostin monoclonal antibody as a drug candidate for osteoporosis and other bone loss diseases. It has a dual effect possessing both anabolic and anti-resorptive effects, which stimulates bone formation and inhibits bone absorption, resulting in fast increase in bone mineral density and bone strength. Blocking sclerostin activity in human treated with anti-sclerostin antibody or with naturally occurring genetic deletion has been shown to be an effective approach in increasing bone mineral density (BMD) and reducing bone fracture. Currently there is no approved anti-sclerostin antibody therapy in China yet although Romosozumab from Amgen has been approved in the United States, Europe and Japan.
About Transcenta Holding Limited
Transcenta (HKEX: 06628) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company with fully integrated capabilities in antibody-based biotherapeutics discovery, research, development and manufacturing.
Transcenta has established global footprint, with Headquarters and Discovery, Clinical and Translational Research Center in Suzhou, Process and Product Development Center and Manufacturing Facility in Hangzhou, and Clinical Development Centers in Princeton, US and in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou of China, and External Partnering Center in Boston and Los Angeles, US. Transcenta has also initiated the construction of the Group Headquarters and the second high-end biopharmaceutical facility with ICB as its core technology in Suzhou Industrial Park. Transcenta is developing 13 therapeutic antibody molecules for oncology and selected non-oncology indications including bone and kidney disorders.
For more information, please visit www.transcenta.com and https://www.linkedin.com/company/transcenta.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain certain forward-looking statements that are, by their nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties. The words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend" and similar expressions, as they relate to Transcenta, are intended to identify certain of such forward-looking statements. Transcenta does not intend to update these forward-looking statements regularly.
These forward-looking statements are based on the existing beliefs, assumptions, expectations, estimates, projections and understandings of the management of Transcenta with respect to future events at the time these statements are made. These statements are not a guarantee of future developments and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond Transcenta's control and are difficult to predict. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from information contained in the forward-looking statements as a result of future changes or developments in our business, Transcenta's competitive environment and political, economic, legal and social conditions.
Transcenta, the Directors and the employees of Transcenta assume (a) no obligation to correct or update the forward-looking statements contained in this site; and (b) no liability in the event that any of the forward-looking statements does not materialize or turn out to be incorrect.
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SOURCE Transcenta Holding Limited | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2023/07/31/transcenta-anti-sclerostin-monoclonal-antibody-tst002-blosozumab-received-approval-china-cde-initiate-phase-ii-clinical-trial-patients-with-reduced-bone-mineral-density/ | 2023-07-31T01:14:00 | 0 | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2023/07/31/transcenta-anti-sclerostin-monoclonal-antibody-tst002-blosozumab-received-approval-china-cde-initiate-phase-ii-clinical-trial-patients-with-reduced-bone-mineral-density/ |
The brown Bridgetower sign at the entrance welcomes drivers off of Ustick Road with flowers and some small scale businesses. A kid zips through the subdivision on a scooter. Sprinkles water a green lawn. Children splash in a pool.
But inside this idyllic, tree-lined, 900-plus-home subdivision, a small group of homeowners is fighting a battle over their homeowners association. The conflict has played out in emails, social media posts, multiple legal opinions and a 150-page lawsuit from one of the members of the subdivision.
The homeowners found out in the first couple months of 2023 that their original HOA was an LLC, not a nonprofit, and was controlled by the developer instead of residents, a very atypical structure.
The neighbors consulted for this story point out the issue is bigger than one neighborhood: It highlights the lack of laws governing management, they said. It can also be a warning to would-be homebuyers to check their HOA set up.
The LLC was eventually dissolved, but technically the common areas in the subdivision are still in that dissolved LLC’s name. However, a May email from the property management company and shared with the Idaho Press said they are in the process of deeding these over to the new HOA.
The new HOA was created this year with three people on its board of directors. But it continues to draw scrutiny from the group of homeowners who say that the CC&Rs for the subdivision do not give the new HOA any legal authority to act as an HOA. CC&Rs are covenants, conditions and restrictions and are essentially the rules for the community.
“Aesthetically this place looks amazing, but it’s like you have this beautiful house with a rotten foundation,” said Ana Osborn, a homeowner in the subdivision who is part of the small group of homeowners disputing the HOA’s legal authority. “We don’t have any other purpose or desire. We just want to do things right.”
The property management company, AMI, was acquired by Keystone in 2022. In a statement, Keystone said it was a “responsive, high-quality property management firm.”
“Keystone has expended significant resources in maintaining and enhancing the Bridgetower community and looks forward to working with the Bridgetower HOA Board and all its community members to ensure a high quality of life now and into the future,” the statement said.
An attempt to reach the original developer, Frank Varriale, was not successful. An email seeking comment sent to David Fogg, an attorney working with the HOA board and AMI, was not returned. Attempts to reach the board were not successful. Steve Strickland, a member of the board, declined to comment when reached at his home.
THE LLC APPROACH
There is a lot of disagreement between the sides but two separate legal opinions shared with the Idaho Press agreed on one thing: Forming the original HOA as an LLC was “legally questionable,” and “problematic.” HOAs are typically nonprofits and their primary goal is to maintain property values and common areas.
“The declarant created a limited liability company (the “LLC”) with the intent that the LLC would essentially claw away, from the fee simple homeowners, certain rights related to their property and the common areas contained within the subdivision,” Fogg wrote to the property management company.
Fee simple is a term that refers to complete ownership of a property, as opposed to a lease.
The problem, according to the two legal opinions, is that the homeowners are likely liable for accidents that happen in Bridgetower’s common areas without a new HOA. For example, if someone died at the Bridgetower pool, the homeowners could be liable.
Fogg also wrote that the LLC had one sole member. Through late 2020, neither the property management company nor the homeowners were aware of the LLC or the absence of “traditional articles and bylaws,” he wrote in the legal opinion.
“Any of which alone is problematic … but together, we believe, is a significant defect and could be viewed as a purposeful attempt to misdirect and misinform homeowners,” Fogg wrote in a legal analysis.
Plus, no copies of the LLC’s operating agreement were ever included in the closing package for those who bought homes, Fogg said.
Fogg also wrote that he is unaware of any mechanism that would allow an LLC to force membership upon unknowing individuals. However, Fogg also wrote that the CC&Rs gave the LLC HOA the authority to levy assessments through an agent.
And he said the lack of transparency could open the door to litigation.
“Our analysis of the LLC is that while we understand what was attempted, the execution of mashing together an LLC operating agreement and traditional HOA bylaws created a confusing, extremely ambiguous, and largely unenforceable document,” Fogg said.
AN ATTEMPT AT A SOLUTION
In December, Osborn — one of the homeowners — and her neighbor Trinity Burak, noticed that their HOA assessment increased by $200 a year. They started looking into the structure of the subdivision and found out about the LLC situation.
The management company said in a letter to homeowners that the assessment was last set before 2009. Expenses had increased over 13 years and the community had aged, the letter said.
“We did not realize what we were up against at that point,” Burak said. “Everyone just assumed we were told when we bought our houses that we were part of an HOA.”
Burak and Osborn, along with a third neighbor, met with the management’s attorney in mid-February, they said. A week later, they went to the annual meeting and found out that the old LLC HOA had been dissolved the day before, on Feb. 22.
Plus, on the 22nd, the new HOA had been incorporated, by Jeffrey Wolff, Joe Gruber and Steve Strickland, the board of directors.
Fogg wrote in his opinion that paragraph 4.7 of the CC&Rs said that the LLC’s assets can be dedicated or transferred to a public body or another nonprofit with similar purposes.
But a legal opinion provided by attorney Brindee Collins to the group including Osborn and Burak disputes that the incorporation was handled correctly. In Collins’ mind, a new nonprofit HOA is the right way to go, but that the execution was wrong.
For example, Collins wrote that the original CC&Rs that govern the subdivision don’t compel membership in the new HOA. Essentially, Collins said they created a new HOA that doesn’t have the authority to assess fees or perform other HOA actions.
Collins asserted that 70% of the homeowners would have to vote to approve the changes and new entity.
“It has not been created pursuant to any authority in the CC&Rs,” Collins wrote. “The terms of the CC&Rs, as they are presently written, directly conflict with its existence and operation.”
In the meantime, Burak said they are in a “holding pattern.”
“Some of us have not paid our assessments. We’re in the process of putting that money in an escrow account,” Burak said. “We paid, because there is not a legal entity to pay to.”
The Friends of Bridgetower are also unhappy that the homeowners did not get to vote on the three people chosen for the board of directors, who were previously involved on the advisory and architectural control committee.
In an update from the management company in March, AMI said that the developer chose the three people selected. The developer required those specific people, AMI said.
“He felt they would provide continuity and be the best selection at this time for Bridgetower to lead through this transition,” the update said. “The change in management style could not have taken place without the concurrence of the developer.”
FIGHTING BACK
The group’s efforts to fight back against the new HOA have drawn criticism from neighbors, a cease and desist letter and a slew of legal back-and-forth, Osborn and Burak said.
“As this small group, when we started talking, we seriously thought, this is messed up,” Burak said. “We’re the ones who should have some say in what goes on.”
Burak said they have been referred to as a “just a small disgruntled group of homeowners.”
Their group, the Friends of Bridgetower, also set up a website: bridgetowerhoa.com. The website drew a cease and desist letter from Fogg’s company, ELC Legal Services, LLC, which said that the website contained “false, misleading, and potentially defamatory statements.”
The letter also said the website confuses the homeowners in the area about how to contact the property management company.
“For example, we recently learned of an issue related to gophers that was directed not to the property management company, but to Your website,” the letter wrote.
A homeowner, Adam Simonds ended up filing a 240-page lawsuit that he hopes to turn into a class action lawsuit. He is aligned with the group that includes Osborn and Burak but his actions are independent, Burak said. Ultimately, the judge decided he had to rewrite the complaint more clearly.
It’s now a 150-page lawsuit that alleges breach of contract, three counts of negligence, tortious interference, unjust enrichment and collusion to defraud.
At one point, the Friends of Bridgetower tried to broker an agreement to get the new HOA dropped out of the lawsuit if certain members of the board resigned and new ones were appointed. The Friends of Bridgetower said those who should resign had already expressed interest in doing so. Emails shared with the Idaho Press appear to show that the board did not consider this an actual proposal from Simonds himself and were concerned it was “Quid pro Quo.”
Ultimately, Osborn and Burak also said they reached out to different officials. They said something ought to change in state law to ensure transparency, that all the paperwork is in place and the organization is properly set up. The two want to ensure that homeowners can access financial documents and contracts related to HOAs and management companies.
“Nobody wants to touch the hot potato of HOAs, it’s a four-letter word,” Burak said.
“Why do we have to go through this nightmare?” Osborn added. “One-thousand households, right now, we’re in limbo.” | https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/rotten-foundation-how-a-small-group-of-homeowners-is-fighting-against-an-atypical-hoa/article_b64e04ee-2b24-11ee-8c9c-bb0ed61fafb3.html | 2023-07-31T01:14:27 | 0 | https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/rotten-foundation-how-a-small-group-of-homeowners-is-fighting-against-an-atypical-hoa/article_b64e04ee-2b24-11ee-8c9c-bb0ed61fafb3.html |
ROME — At a 15th-century palace that is steps from the Vatican and set to become a luxury hotel, archaeologists did what they always do in Rome, an ancient city thick with buried treasures.
They started to dig.
Rome is the gift that keeps on giving to archaeologists, though no one knew what would come from this preliminary exploration, a familiar routine at Italian building sites and development projects.
To the archaeologists’ surprise — and immense delight — the dig brought to light traces of a first-century theater that the team believes was built by Nero, the emperor with a now disputed reputation for tyranny, debauchery and a desire to indulge his inner artist. Although chronicled by Roman-era historians, the theater had never emerged from Rome’s archaeologically rich underbelly.
“It’s been stupendous, wonderful, amazing,” said Marzia Di Mento, the archaeologist who oversaw the dig at the palace, the Palazzo della Rovere. “It’s what every archaeologist would like to do.”
The archaeologists began uncovering walls — some with traces of stucco with gold-leaf decoration — that they hypothesize belonged to Nero’s private theater. The excavation has also turned up hundreds of artifacts that, though still being studied, have already shed new insight on life near the Vatican across centuries of Roman history.
Among the finds are small bronze amulets that pilgrims would have worn when trekking to Rome to see where St. Peter — one of the first leaders of the early Christian church — was buried, along with animal bones bored to make beads for rosaries. Both signal the presence of pilgrims, who grew in greater number as Christianity spread.
These artifacts can be added to others found in recent months through other excavations — both archaeological and preliminary work on construction projects. They include sundry statues, burial grounds, ancient thruways and traces of an ancient Roman road that may or may not be part of the legendary Appian Way.
The excavation of the palazzo garden, on the wide avenue that leads to St. Peter’s Basilica, began in 2020 before a large-scale renovation. One wing of the palazzo, which is owned by the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, is scheduled to open as a Four Seasons Hotel in time for the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee, when millions of pilgrims are expected to visit Rome.
Leonardo Visconti di Modrone, the governor general of the order, told reporters Wednesday that the rental fee from the hotel would help cover costs for many of its charitable activities in the Middle East, including schools and hospitals.
By law, building projects in Italy must be preceded by preliminary excavations to ensure that no damage is done to what is underground — a rule that some critics say creates a costly, time-consuming obstacle for construction projects, if it doesn’t halt them altogether.
Alessio De Cristofaro, one of the archaeologists who oversaw the excavation on behalf of the city of Rome, described the dig at the palazzo as “a virtuous example where archaeology acts as a driving force to an important building renovation project.”
Once the artifacts from the site have been studied and restored, some of the best-preserved will be showcased inside the hotel. They include rare fragments dating from around the 10th century, a period that left few remains to document because Rome was “in economic and demographic decline,” said Di Mento.
But it is the evidence of the first century that has caught many people’s attention. Nero built his theater in a pleasure garden that, according to historical texts, once belonged to his grandmother Agrippina and his uncle Caligula. Roman chronicler Pliny the Elder, no fan of the emperor, described the theater as “large enough to satisfy even Nero’s desire to sing before a full house.”
Although uncertain about the building’s identification at first, De Cristofaro said that the high quality of some materials uncovered at the theater, including columns of rare African marble and gold leaf decoration, pointed to an imperial commission. Stamps on some bricks date the structure to the middle of the first century.
“Archaeology works by hypothesis,” said Alessandro Viscogliosi, a professor of ancient architecture at La Sapienza University in Rome. Attributing the remains as belonging to Nero’s theater was “a reasonable” theory, he said, although it was “too soon” to know for sure, because not much had emerged.
“If they continue digging and we find the seats, then we’ll be certain,” he said.
Some recent scholarship has challenged Nero’s reputation for profligacy, suggesting that he was portrayed by ancient historians as a villain, accused of playing a lyre while Rome burned in 64 A.D.
“He was actually well loved by his people,” said Ernesto Migliacci, a co-author (with his father, Franco Migliacci, a writer of the Italian classic “Volare”) of a short-lived but highly entertaining rock opera about Nero that cast the emperor as a more nuanced antihero, thwarted from pursuing what his heart really desired: a life declaiming poetry and song.
Pelted with criticism because the stage had been built on the Palatine Hill overlooking the Colosseum, the show shut down after 11 days after nuns in a nearby convent complained about the music, Ernesto Migliacci said. He accused historians who criticized Nero, like Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio, of creating politically motivated fake news.
After archaeologists finish their study, including mapping the site, the ancient structures will be reburied.
Covering it back up is the “best way to protect the site,” said Di Mento. Its story can be told through “other means,” including 3D reconstructions, detailed maps created by drones and online material that will make the structure “more understandable even to those who aren’t experts,” she said.
Then the artifacts that have been unearthed will need to be cataloged.
“It will take years to study everything,” Di Mento said. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/excavations-uncover-hints-of-neros-theater-in-rome-and-much-more/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_world | 2023-07-31T01:14:27 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/excavations-uncover-hints-of-neros-theater-in-rome-and-much-more/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_world |
HELSINKI (AP) — Denmark’s foreign minister said Sunday the government will seek to make it illegal to desecrate the Quran or other religious holy books in front of foreign embassies in the Nordic country.
Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in an interview with the Danish public broadcaster DR that the burning of holy scriptures “only serves the purpose of creating division in a world that actually needs unity.”
“That is why we have decided in the government that we will look at how, in very special situations, we can put an end to mockery of other countries, which is in direct conflict with Danish interests and the safety of the Danes,” he said.
A recent string of public Quran desecrations by a handful of anti-Islam activists in Denmark and neighboring Sweden have sparked angry demonstrations in Muslim countries.
Løkke Rasmussen said the Cabinet of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is determined to find “a legal tool” to prohibit such acts without compromising freedom of expression, but he acknowledged that would not be easy.
“There must be room for religious criticism, and we have no thoughts of reintroducing a blasphemy clause,” he told DR. “But when you stand up in front of a foreign embassy and burn a Quran or burn the Torah scroll in front of the Israeli embassy, it serves no other purpose than to mock.”
His comments followed a statement issued late Sunday by the Danish government saying freedom of expression is one of the most important values in Danish society.
But, it added, the descreation of the Muslim holy book in Denmark has resulted in the nation being viewed in many places around the world “as a country that facilitates insult and denigration of the cultures, religions, and traditions of other countries.”
The government repeated its condemnation of such descecrations, say they are “deeply offensive and reckless acts committed by few individuals” and “do not represent the values the Danish society is built on.”
In Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sunday on Instagram that his government is analyzing the legal situation regarding desecration of the Quran and other holy books, given the animosity such acts are stirring up against Sweden.
“We are in the most serious security policy situation since the Second World War,” Kristersson said.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has called an emergency remote meeting Monday to discuss the Quran burnings in Sweden and Denmark. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/world/denmark-seeks-to-legally-prevent-burnings-of-quran-or-other-religious-scriptures/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_world | 2023-07-31T01:14:33 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/world/denmark-seeks-to-legally-prevent-burnings-of-quran-or-other-religious-scriptures/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_world |
SunRay Kelley, a barefoot maverick builder of fantastical handmade castles, yurts, temples, spirit lodges, treehouses, pavilions and structures so fanciful that they defied conventional building typologies, died July 16 in Sedro-Woolley. He was 71.
Bonnie Howard, Kelley’s longtime partner, said that he had been suffering from cancer but that the cause of his death, in a hospital, was a blood clot from a recent operation.
Kelley was a hero in the world of unarchitected, alternative and vernacular building — a building movement distinguished by its handmade ethos, sustainable features and natural materials, which flourished in the counterculture years of the late 1960s and early ’70s but flagged a bit during the Reagan era.
For the past few decades, however, it has enjoyed a steady, if slightly fringe, resurgence as the costs, both environmental and financial, of traditional housing continue to escalate; new generations of back-to-the-landers and anti-consumerists of all stripes now cleave to its tenets.
Kelley’s whimsical, Tolkienesque designs were often featured on websites and blogs devoted to tiny houses and other environmentally friendly dwellings, as well as on television shows such as the Discovery Channel’s “Building Off the Grid.” He was the go-to guru for people looking to build their dream yurt or treehouse, and for spiritual centers looking for a certain mystical flair, as well as a sought-after speaker at natural-building conferences.
“There was no one like him,” said Lloyd Kahn, who has been chronicling handmade habitats in a series of books for his company Shelter Publications since the early 1970s, starting with “Shelter,” an engaging encyclopedia of vernacular architecture — and an early counterculture primer — which was first published in 1973 and is still in print. “There’s no other natural materials builder in the world who’s combined such ecology, design and craftsmanship in so many buildings on the American landscape.”
“He always said Mother Nature was his inspiration,” Kahn added, “which sounds woo-woo, but he really was tuned in to the spirits of nature. And his work wasn’t put together in some sloppy hippie style. They were extremely well-built masterpieces.”
His constructions were complex and improvisational; he worked from drawings, but he also worked spontaneously, evolving his designs in the construction process. “Evolutionary design,” he called it.
His buildings had undulating peaked roofs, or roofs shaped liked wings or the prow of a ship. They were often planted with sedum, moss and trailing nasturtiums (green roofs are naturally cooling). He loved cupolas and turrets. His preferred shape was the circle, which he felt was nature’s most resilient form; hence the preponderance of yurts in his oeuvre. He was a master of cob, a sturdy, thermally efficient sculptural material made from mud, sand and straw that has been used around the world for millenniums.
Other favored building materials were scavenged and used as they were — unmilled windfall trees, gnarled branches, rocks and boulders. “God’s hardware store,” Kelley called the woods of the Pacific Northwest, where many of his buildings were made. “I’m going shopping,” he would say in the middle of construction, striding off into the wilderness.
He made about 70 structures, mostly in North America but with a smattering in Central America as well.
The real showplace for his eclectic work and methods, however, was his own property: 9 acres in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains that had been in his family for three generations, a homestead otherwise known as SunRay shire, or simply the shire.
There, one will find the soaring, shingled Sky House and the funky Earth House, his first effort, with cast-bronze hands that support the roof beams; a hermit hut built on the massive stump of an old-growth tree; numerous ponds and waterfalls; and a collection of yurts large and small, including a sparkly pink number fashioned from cob flecked with mica and festooned with the sculpted forms of the female body. An enormous anatomically accurate representation serves as its doorway. This particular yurt was designed for yoga practice. Kelley called it the Yogurt.
For decades, the compound has drawn alternative-building pilgrims, whom Kelley would often cajole into work duty. Michael Tortorello, writing in The New York Times, described the place as a hippie Taliesin, referring to Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in Wisconsin.
With his peaked felt caps, exuberant white mane and dreadlocked beard, dusted with bits of straw and wood, Kelley presided over it all like a burly woodland wizard — except that instead of a wand, he brandished a chain saw. A man constantly in motion, he wasn’t exactly accident prone, but he did throw himself into his work, and he nearly lost a few body parts in the process.
He was a sculptor first and a builder second, said Howard, who collaborated with Kelley for two decades. She would look over his shoulder as he sketched and add function to the form: closets, for example, and light switches.
The couple met in 2004 when Kelley was building what might be his magnum opus, an exquisite retreat center called the Temple at Harbin Hot Springs in Middletown, Calif. Essentially an enormous yurt, it was made from straw bale and cob walls topped with an artful spiral ceiling and a peaked roof clad in shingles laid in a wavy pattern, like the ridges of a scallop shell. (The temple was razed by the wildfires that swept through Middletown in 2015.)
Howard was attending a workshop on cob and straw bale construction led by Kelley, the end result of which was to build the retreat’s walls. To make cob, fiberlike straw is mixed with mud, either mechanically or by humans stomping it in with their feet. It was that method that Kelley taught his students. Since Harbin Hot Springs is clothing-optional, they worked naked, which is more practical than the alternative, Howard said: It’s easier to wash mud off your body than your clothes.
Howard said she fell in love with both the mud and the man.
Raymond Elbert Kelley, one of five children, was born Dec. 1, 1951, in Sedro-Woolley. His father, Cecil, was a mechanic in a mill. His mother, Wanda (Janicki) Kelley, was a homemaker who baked her own bread and churned butter; her parents, Polish immigrants, had homesteaded the land Ray grew up on. The family raised beef and dairy cows.
Ray studied drafting in high school and attended Western Washington University on a football scholarship. He studied art there but dropped out after two years and started designing buildings. When he showed his swirling sketches to a local builder, he later recalled, the man said, “You better get a hammer, boy, because nobody is going to build this stuff for you.”
In addition to Howard, Kelley is survived by a brother, Tim; a daughter, Kumara Kelley; three sons, Rafe Kelley, Kai Farrar and Eli Erpenbach; and seven grandchildren. His marriage to Judy Farrar, in 1978, ended in divorce.
Kelley lived by a few credos, which included what he called “barefootism” — he adamantly eschewed footwear, believing that being barefoot was a grounding behavior that connected him to the earth’s energy, no matter the weather.
Howard recalled buying him a pair of boots one winter early in their relationship and coming home one blizzardy day to find the boots by the door where she had left them and a track of footprints leading away from the house and disappearing into the deep snow.
“Dessert first” was another mantra. Kelley’s habit was to eat dessert before dinner, and he did so with terrific gusto — Tortorello of The Times recalled him enjoying a hot-from-the-oven apple crisp with his bare hands. “His line,” Howard explained, “was ‘You never know when your bubble’s going to pop, so eat dessert first.’” | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/sunray-kelley-a-fantastical-builder-from-sedro-woolley-dies-at-71/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seattle-news | 2023-07-31T01:14:40 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/sunray-kelley-a-fantastical-builder-from-sedro-woolley-dies-at-71/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seattle-news |
Music streaming is through the roof this year.
With acts from all over the world taking over the charts and doing so in record fashion.
American music acts are on the list of chart-topping hits from Miley Cyrus, whose single "Flowers" reached one billion streams faster than any song in Spotifyhistory in 2023. To SZA's smash hit "Kill Bill," which has also amassed more than a billion streams this year.
Luminate, one of the leaders in global entertainment data and research, says global streams have already topped one trillion this year.
The fastest climb to a trillion streams since the inception of music streaming reached just three months into the year, a full month faster than last year. And with that growth comes an increasing interest in non-English-language music.
Luminate’s report found nearly 40% of music listeners in the U.S. enjoy music in languages other than English.
Spanish and K-pop are leading the surge in global pop music.
"They both have incredibly loyal and passionate fan bases, and that really creates an environment where fans are always on the lookout for new music," said Jaime Marconette.
Marconette is Luminate’s senior director of music insights and industry relations.
When asked if English-speaking artists are losing their global appeal, Marconette said what we're seeing is most likely due to the increase of people speaking other languages other than English in the country.
"I think that's a fair question, but I think that's a really complicated answer because I don't know if they're losing their appeal," said Marconette. "But I think that what we're seeing is probably a bit of a rise of native languages, or languages that are specific to certain regions, or even diasporas as they move to other countries, starting to grow."
SEE MORE: Why are Mexican Corridos gaining popularity on the music charts?
Latin megastar Bad Bunny’s "Un Verano Sin Ti," which dropped in the Spring of 2022, continues to dominate Luminate’s mid-year top album chart in 2023.
When it comes to both physical and digital sales, K-pop is as pop as it gets.
"The number one source of discovery for K-pop fans here in the U.S. is video and then also audio streaming services; you know, these K-pop fans are also 76% more likely to stream music than the average listener," said Marconette.
Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Italian, German, and Arabic have all emerged as popular languages for non-anglophonic music.
The cultural melting pot that is the U.S. is also helping the rise of non-English music.
"But one of the things that we're seeing is that changing population demographics is definitely making the import of music from other countries easier," said Marconette.
Content platforms like YouTube and social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram also bring the world’s music to U.S. listeners and make it easier for people to share new songs.
"There are really no borders; there are really no geographical barriers," said Marconette. "We're finding that fans in other countries are very easily able to access all sorts of music; you know, really, the world's music library is essentially available."
While it's safe to say English-speaking music will always be around, American music executives are certainly paying attention to the shift. That means they're scoping out international talent more than ever.
"Understanding population changes, you know, those sorts of things together can really guide the way for, you know, music to cross borders, whether, you know, internationally or coming into the U.S. as well," said Marconette.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.lex18.com/music-streams-for-2023-hit-1-trillion-in-record-time | 2023-07-31T01:14:56 | 1 | https://www.lex18.com/music-streams-for-2023-hit-1-trillion-in-record-time |
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.lex18.com/nyt-officials-fear-chinese-hackers-malware-could-disrupt-us-military | 2023-07-31T01:15:02 | 0 | https://www.lex18.com/nyt-officials-fear-chinese-hackers-malware-could-disrupt-us-military |
At 24, Alberto Rodriguez has grandparents younger than Joe Biden. But he’s more interested in the 80-year-old president’s accomplishments than his age.
“People as young as me, we’re all focusing on our day-to-day lives and he has done things to help us through that,” Rodriguez, a cook at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, said of Biden’s support among young voters. Rodriguez pointed specifically to federal COVID-19 relief payments and government spending increases on infrastructure and other social programs.
Voters like him were a key piece of Biden’s winning 2020 coalition, which included majorities of young people as well as college graduates, women, urban and suburban voters and Black Americans. Maintaining their support will be critical in closely contested states such as Nevada, where even small declines could prove consequential to Biden’s reelection bid.
His 2024 campaign plans to emphasize messages that could especially resonate with young people in the coming weeks as the anniversary of the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act approaches in mid-August. That legislation includes provisions that the White House will embrace to argue that Biden has done more than any other president to combat climate change.
Such efforts, however, could collide with Biden’s personal reality — like when he recalled that, while attending a St. Patrick’s Day parade at age 14, he appeared in a photo with President Harry S. Truman.
“Purely by accident — I assume it was an accident — the photographer from the newspaper got a picture of me making eye contact with Harry Truman,” Biden said to chuckles last week at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium in Washington.
In 2020, 61% of voters under age 30 — and 55% of those between 30 and 44 — supported Biden, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of the electorate.
It’s an age group with which Republicans hope to make inroads. Former President Donald Trump, who is the early front-runner in the GOP presidential primary and is only 3 1/2 years younger than Biden, said Friday, “We are hitting the young person’s market like nobody’s ever seen before.”
Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign, referred to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement in arguing that “young people are acutely impacted by the issues front and center in this election, driven by the extreme MAGA agenda.” He said that included inaction on climate change, gun violence and student debt.
“We will meet younger Americans where they are and turn their energy into action,” Munoz said in a statement.
That might not defuse questions about age, though, when it comes to Biden or Trump.
“There’s a frustration and exhaustion that they feel with the rematch,” Terrance Woodbury, co-founder & CEO of the Democratic polling firm HIT Strategies, said of young voters.
“That’s more of a problem than either of those two candidates individually, is that a system can just keep reproducing,” Woodbury added. “And I think a lot of people just find that untenable.”
An April poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 25% of Democrats under 45 said they would definitely support Biden in a general election, compared with 56% of older Democrats. A majority of Democrats across age groups said they would probably support him as the party’s nominee, however.
Biden’s campaign is relying heavily on the Democratic National Committee, which during last year’s midterms, hired campus organizers in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and other battleground states and offered weekly youth coordinating meetings to encourage in-class contacts and “dormstorms.” The DNC sees young people as some of the most critical voters it will need to reach in 2024 and promises “significant investments” to mobilize them. Plans are underway to expand on its work last cycle, including trainings it held on how best to turn out voters.
The Republican National Committee is trying to use Biden’s age against him, posting online videos of Biden seeming frail or making verbal gaffes, such as when he declared in June “God save the queen,” nearly nine months after the death of England’s Queen Elizabeth II.
Rodriguez shrugged off online attacks, “People can make all the hit pieces and memes and TikToks all they want.”
A starker contrast might be between the president and rising Democrats such as 46-year-old California Rep. Ro Khanna and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, 41, one of Biden’s primary rivals in 2020. Neither seriously entertained running for the White House in 2024 and have backed Biden’s reelection.
“The only thing that really matters is your ability to do the job,” Buttigieg, who was 37 when he launched his 2020 presidential bid, said recently on CNN. Khanna told Fox News Channel that age will “obviously” be a 2024 factor, but suggested that Biden’s staff “overprotects” him and “the more he’s out there, the better.”
Other top young Democrats have lined up to back Biden. Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost, who was elected to Congress last year at 26, is on the Biden campaign’s advisory board, as is Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, 44. New York Rep. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, 33, recently endorsed Biden.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a progressive who says strong turnout among young voters helped him win a runoff election this spring, said Biden’s policies transcend his age. Johnson noted that the president’s work “around climate justice speaks not just to this generation, but generations to come.”
“The excitement that I believe that we’re going to have is going to speak to the incredible work and organizing that we are committed to doing as a party,” said Johnson, 47. “And we’re looking forward to working with the president over the course of his next four years.”
Still, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, acknowledged that even the president’s supporters understand how demanding the White House can be.
“People worry about Joe Biden. They worry like you would worry about a beloved father or grandfather,” said Weingarten, 65. “What you normally hear from Democrats is this sense of, ‘OK, I just want him to be OK.’ And you’re hearing just the consternation of, ’This is a hard job.’”
Biden said he “took a hard look” at his age while deciding to seek a second term. But he’s also tried to suggest his age and experience are assets rather than liabilities by joking repeatedly about them. That’s a departure from 2020, when Biden called himself a “transition candidate” and pledged to be a “bridge” to younger Democrats.
Santiago Mayer, the founder of Voters of Tomorrow, which has 20-plus chapters nationwide and works to increase political engagement among young voters, argues that Biden is not defying his past promise by running for reelection, but keeping it.
“He just needs more time,” said Mayer, who graduated from California State University at Long Beach in May. “I think the second term is a very important part of that pledge. He’s building a progressive future for young people and he can’t actually pass the baton until that’s done.”
One key policy piece of Biden’s efforts to appeal to young voters, providing student debt relief, was recently struck down by the Supreme Court. The White House has launched a new effort, but it will take longer.
“Of course it’s going to dampen some of that because people are disappointed,” Weingarten said of the ruling’s effect on enthusiasm for Biden. But she said the decision could also motivate young Biden supporters anxious show their support for the president’s alternative plan.
“It is also about the fight,” Weingarten said “not just about the results.” | https://www.wowktv.com/national-news/joe-biden-the-oldest-sitting-president-needs-young-voters-will-his-age-matter/ | 2023-07-31T01:15:20 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/national-news/joe-biden-the-oldest-sitting-president-needs-young-voters-will-his-age-matter/ |
Country star Chris Young's latest single, “Young Love & Saturday Nights,” is a vivid love letter to summertime weekends, old trucks, dive bar bands, and crushes. And it might sound immediately familiar: The guitar lick that opens the track is lifted directly from David Bowie's 1974 hit “Rebel Rebel."
Bowie is credited posthumously as a songwriter on the track, making it one of the genre-melding icon's few forays into country music — noteworthy, because Bowie himself was not quite a fan of the genre.
“I think the only music I didn’t listen to was country and western, and that holds to this day,” Bowie told NPR's Terry Gross in 2002. “It’s much easier for me to say that, the kind of music I didn’t listen to was pretty much that.”
So how did Bowie, who died in 2016, end up on the track?
Warner Chappell Music became the custodian of Bowie’s musical legacy — acquiring the worldwide rights to over 400 of his songs, including “Rebel Rebel” — when the company purchased his extensive music catalog in 2022.
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Ben Vaughn, president and chief executive officer of Warner Chappell Music Nashville, says his team asked songwriter Jesse Frasure to “get creative using elements from Bowie’s catalog to write a new country song. He ended up doing an interpolation of ‘Rebel Rebel’ and the demo he turned in was an instant smash.”
“Getting the call from Bowie’s estate and Warner Chappell to creatively explore his catalog was an exciting day,” Frasure said in a statement. “Interpolations to me are a way of tipping a hat to my heroes and maybe even introducing their music to a new audience.”
He added that it is an honor to have Bowie’s music “be heard in the country genre.”
WCM A&R executive Spencer Nohe then pitched the song to Young’s team while their legal counsel, Steve Butler, negotiated the deal.
Young writes many of his own songs, but when he first heard the demo written by Ashley Gorley, Josh Thompson and Frasure, he knew he wanted to record it.
“It tackles universal themes that a lot of people can related to. That’s the end goal of the song: to make you feel like you’re in it,” Young told The Associated Press. “And the fact that David Bowie’s catalog got picked up and they decided to do something special like this, and list him as a songwriter on the song, is a really cool thing.”
But how would Bowie himself feel about the posthumous collaboration?
“Hate is a strong word,” said Tiffany Naiman, UCLA’s director of music industry programs and an expert on Bowie, of the icon's feelings toward the genre. “I think he had a very difficult relationship with certain parts of America including country music.”
It might have not been his thing, she said, but that didn't mean he never listened to country music. She urges listeners to consider Bowie's documented love of Elvis Presley, who began his career as a country star, and Bowie's cover of the country track “It Ain't Easy” by Ron Davis, recorded during his 1971 “Hunky Dory” sessions and released on 1972's “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.”
Young himself told the AP that he doesn't think his song is “introducing David Bowie to a new genre.”
Bowie might not have leaned into country music, Young says, but “if you asked country fans, ‘Hey, do you know who David Bowie is?’ they're going to name a song. And even if they don't, they're going to recognize the weight of the name.” | https://www.nwitimes.com/how-david-bowie-long-thought-ambivalent-to-country-music-became-a-writer-on-a-chris/article_f9e3bdfe-2d9d-11ee-a3eb-13abca5ab649.html | 2023-07-31T01:15:20 | 0 | https://www.nwitimes.com/how-david-bowie-long-thought-ambivalent-to-country-music-became-a-writer-on-a-chris/article_f9e3bdfe-2d9d-11ee-a3eb-13abca5ab649.html |
REDFIELD, S.D. — Tabor scored eight times in the second inning on Sunday night and cruised to a Class B state Legion baseball tournament elimination game victory over Clark/Willow Lake by a 13-1 margin. The game ended in the fifth inning due to the 10-run rule.
For Tabor, which had 13 hits, Landon Bares had two hits, two RBIs and scored three times to lead the Bluebirds, while Riley Rothschadl had two hits, three runs scored and one RBI. Brady Bierema had three hits and knocked in two runs, and Jace Toupal knocked in two runs, as well. Jackson Caba had two hits, two runs scored and two RBIs.
Tabor’s Landon Schmidt threw four innings in the start, allowing one hit, no runs and striking out seven. Toupal pitched the fifth inning, allowing a hit and a run.
For the Senators, Trey Huber and Jakob Steen had the lone hits, with the RBI coming from Huber in the fifth inning. Dawson Lantgen took the loss, throwing 1 1/3 innings and allowing six hits, nine runs and walking four. Cooper Pommer allowed seven hits and four runs in 3 2/3 innings.
Tabor (20-6) will play an elimination game against the winner of the Redfield and Dell Rapids game on Monday. Clark/Willow Lake’s season ends at 10-12.
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EPJ ends state run for SMC
REDFIELD, S.D. — With their seasons on the line Sunday afternoon, Elk Point/Jefferson stayed one step ahead of Salem/Montrose/Canova in a Class B state Legion baseball elimination game with a 5-3 victory.
EPJ (19-11) will play another elimination game on Monday afternoon with only four teams remaining in the state bracket. SMC’s season ends at 18-7.
EPJ scored three runs in the first innings and never trailed, stretching the lead to 5-2 by the fifth inning. Tayson Swatek kept the SMC hitters in check, allowing three runs on six hits in six innings. Ben Swatek earned the save in the seventh inning in relief. Keaton Gale had three hits and two runs scored, while Kayden Moore drove in a pair of runs, as EPJ outhit Salem by a 9-6 margin.
SMC’s Braeden Kerkhove threw 4 1/3 innings of relief, allowing five runs and seven hits and took the loss. Griffin Club covered the final 2 2/3 innings of relief with two hits and no runs allowed and four strikeouts.
Jack Neises had a pair of doubles and a run scored, while Weston Remmers had a double and two RBIs. Clubb had a hit and a run scored, and Jackson Remmers also drove in a run. | https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/sports/prep/tabor-routs-clark-willow-lake-to-reach-final-four-at-class-b-state-legion | 2023-07-31T01:15:20 | 1 | https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/sports/prep/tabor-routs-clark-willow-lake-to-reach-final-four-at-class-b-state-legion |
(NewsNation) — While questions remain about a mystery company buying 52,000 acres of land near an Air Force base, a congressman says farmers in the area are being targeted in a lawsuit.
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., has been speaking out over the past five years about the $800 million in land acquisitions by Flannery Associates near Travis Air Force Base in Northern California.
In an interview with NewsNation, Garamendi said he’s been in contact with the families of farmers who handed over their land to Flannery. He said they didn’t want to sell in the first place.
Since no California laws require them to sell, the land was bargained for by both parties at a much higher price. But now, Flannery is suing those families for $510 million, accusing them of conspiring together to inflate the value of the land.
“It’s a suit designed to force the farmers to lawyer up, spend tens of thousands of dollars on lawyering and maybe at the end of the day, bankrupt themselves,” Garamendi said. “In fact, that has happened to at least one family that I know of and I’ve heard rumors that another family simply said we can’t afford the lawyers.”
NewsNation reviewed a copy of the lawsuit. Attorneys for Flannery said they believe “this is a simple case about a group of wealthy landowners who saw an opportunity to conspire, collude, price fix and illegally overcharge Flannery.”
But Garamendi said there was no viable economic reason to justify spending several times more than what the land is worth in the first place.
The suit comes as companies with ties to China have been ramping up efforts to buy American farmland in recent years.
Public records show “Flannery Associates” has invested more than $800 million on more than 50,000 acres of land surrounding the Travis Air Force Base since 2018.
Legal representation for Flannery said the group is controlled by U.S. citizens, with 97% of its capital coming from U.S.-based investors. But after eight months of investigation, federal officials can’t confirm or deny this to be true and have not been able to determine exactly who is backing the company.
The Air Force’s Foreign Investment Risk Review office is currently investigating Flannery Associates. Garamendi said there are valid concerns that Flannery’s land acquisitions could be tied to foreign enemies.
“The fact they chose to buy all three sides of the Travis Air Force Base even raises immediate questions about national security,” Garamendi said. “So, is this Chinese money? We don’t know, but we do know that the Chinese money was being used in North Dakota and we have a very deep suspicion, given the amount of money, given the lack of attention to values, that they simply want to acquire all of this land.”
NewsNation investigated the now thwarted deal with a Chinese-owned company in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Last year, 300 acres of farmland were purchased near the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota by Chinese-owned Fufeng – a deal that raised red flags about potential spying.
After pushback from the community, the city council ultimately voted to end the project, citing national security risks.
Garamendi said local residents near Travis Air Force Base are riled up, just like the residents in Grand Forks, due to how critical the area is for the U.S. military.
“Travis Air Force Base is absolutely essential. It is the gateway to the Pacific,” Garamendi said, later adding, “A good deal of the munitions that are going to Ukraine also passed through Travis Air Force Base.”
China has been buying up American farmland for years. Nearly 384,000 acres of agricultural land in the U.S. is controlled by China, and the rate at which they are purchasing land is growing, the USDA reports.
Chinese ownership of American farmland has increased 55% in the past five years, with almost 75% of it located in the South and about 16% on the West Coast. | https://www.wowktv.com/national-news/mystery-group-buying-land-near-air-force-base-is-suing-farmers-congressman-says/ | 2023-07-31T01:15:26 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/national-news/mystery-group-buying-land-near-air-force-base-is-suing-farmers-congressman-says/ |
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.
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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.
Associated Press writer Ken Miller in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. | https://www.nwitimes.com/life-entertainment/boots-and-dog-tags-alan-alda-wore-on-m-a-s-h-sell-at-auction/article_600eb244-2da0-11ee-b9d5-1f0a7a1c4d29.html | 2023-07-31T01:15:26 | 0 | https://www.nwitimes.com/life-entertainment/boots-and-dog-tags-alan-alda-wore-on-m-a-s-h-sell-at-auction/article_600eb244-2da0-11ee-b9d5-1f0a7a1c4d29.html |
BEIRUT (AP) — Fighting raged Sunday in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon, killing at least five people and wounding seven, Palestinian officials said.
UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, put the death toll at six, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two children were among those wounded.
The Palestinian officials, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the fighting broke out after an unknown gunman tried to kill Islamist militant Mahmoud Khalil, killing a companion of his instead.
Later, Islamist militants shot and killed a Palestinian military general from the Fatah group and three escorts as they were walking through a parking lot, another Palestinian official told AP.
Ein el-Hilweh is notorious for its lawlessness and violence is not uncommon. The U.N. says about 55,000 people live in the camp, which was established in 1948 to house Palestinians displaced by Israeli forces during the establishment of Israel.
On Sunday, factions blazed away with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers and lobbed hand grenades in the camp as ambulances zoomed through its narrow streets to take the wounded to the hospital.
The fighting stopped for several hours in the morning, though state media said there was still sporadic sniper fire, but fighting erupted again after the killing of the Palestinian general and his escorts.
Some residents in Sidon neighborhoods near the camp fled their homes as stray bullets hit buildings and shattered windows and storefronts. The public Sidon General Hospital evacuated its staff and patients.
The Lebanese army said in a statement that a mortar shell hit a military barracks outside the camp and wounded one soldier, whose condition is stable. Military commandos deployed near the camp’s entrances as clashes continued into the night.
UNRWA said two of its schools that serve some 2,000 students were damaged in the fighting. It said it suspended all its operations in Ein el-Hilweh.
Fatah in a statement condemned the killing of its security official, saying the attack was part of a “bloody scheme that targets the security and stability of our camps.” It vowed to hold the “perpetrators accountable.”
In Ramallah, the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement decrying violence in a camp for Palestinian refugees.
“No one is allowed to intimidate our people and tamper with their security,” it said. “We support what the Lebanese government is doing to impose law and order, and we affirm our commitment to Lebanon’s sovereignty, including the Palestinian refugee camps, and maintaining security and the rule of law.”
Late in the day, the factions said in a joint statement that they had agreed to a ceasefire during a mediation meeting hosted by the Lebanese Shiite Amal movement and militant Hezbollah group in Sidon. But local media said fighting continued. A spokesperson from the Palestinian militant group Hamas told AP that the groups were working to implement the truce.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the clashes. “We call on the Palestinian leadership to cooperate with the army to control the security situation and hand over those meddling with security to the Lebanese authorities,” Mikati said in his statement.
Palestinian factions in the camp for years have cracked down on militant Islamist groups and fugitives seeking shelter in the camp’s overcrowded neighborhoods. In 2017, Palestinian factions engaged in almost a week of fierce clashes with a militant organization affiliated with the extremist Islamic State group.
___
Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-1-killed-6-wounded-in-overnight-clashes-in-crowded-palestinian-refugee-camp-in-lebanon/ | 2023-07-31T01:15:32 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-1-killed-6-wounded-in-overnight-clashes-in-crowded-palestinian-refugee-camp-in-lebanon/ |
MOSCOW (AP) — Ten people — including three children — died after high winds tore through central Russia, emergency services and a local official reported Sunday.
Eight of the dead were part of a group of tourists camping close to Lake Yalchik in the Mari-El region when the storm hit Saturday, Russia’s emergencies ministry said.
The strong winds caused a large number of trees to fall in the area, including where the group’s tents had been pitched on a stretch of wild beach inside the Mariy Chodra National Park, regional leader Yuri Zaitsev wrote on social media. He said that three children were among the dead. Russia’s investigative committee has opened a criminal case to determine whether unsafe or sub-standard services provided by the park’s management company contributed to the deaths.
Across the wider Volga Federal District, 76 people were injured in the storm, with thousands of households losing power, emergency services said. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-9-die-including-3-children-as-strong-winds-hit-tourist-camp-in-central-russia-officials-say/ | 2023-07-31T01:15:38 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-9-die-including-3-children-as-strong-winds-hit-tourist-camp-in-central-russia-officials-say/ |
It looks like the end of the road for one of the nation's largest freight carriers.
Yellow, a trucking company that just three years ago took a $700 million federal pandemic loan, has reportedly shut down after laying off employees at all locations. The company is expected to file for bankruptcy as soon as Monday, according to industry experts, following a recent exodus of customers amid union strife and on top of years of financial troubles.
With 30,000 jobs at stake, it would be the largest trucking bankruptcy in the history of the U.S., experts said. The company, formerly known as YRC Worldwide, is the third largest less-than-truckload carrier by revenue, behind FedEx and Old Dominion. LTL companies move pallet-sized shipments — smaller than a container, but bigger than a parcel.
Yellow has not publicly announced any plans for bankruptcy or a potential shutdown.
Here's what we know.
Employees are told to prepare for a company shutdown
The Wall Street Journal reported that Yellow shut down on Sunday afternoon, citing internal notices sent to customers and employees.
According to the industry outlet FreightWaves, which also obtained internal documents, Yellow says it plans to issue a public statement on Monday about "the state of the company and the operation."
NPR has not independently confirmed the shutdown and Yellow has not responded to NPR's requests for comment.
Yellow laid off an unknown number of its employees on Friday, reported FreightWaves, citing a memo sent to staff informing them that the company is "shutting down its regular operations" and "laying off employees at all of its locations."
Meanwhile, Teamsters, who represent Yellow's 22,000 unionized workers, advised Yellow employees to "prepare for the worst."
"Yellow appears to be headed to a complete shutdown within the next few days," said Teamsters National Freight Director John Murphy in a Friday memo shared with NPR. He advised drivers to collect their belongings so that they don't get caught up in bankruptcy liquidation.
The Teamsters union declined to comment about a potential bankruptcy or shutdown.
A strike threat delivered a final blow to cash-poor Yellow
Reports of a shutdown come days after a Teamsters strike at the company was averted. A week ago, a pension fund agreed to extend health benefits for workers at two Yellow operating companies after the carrier missed its $50 million benefits payment to the fund on July 15, the union said.
While the extension held off a July 24 strike, the threat of a walkout that could disrupt operations prompted a wave of Yellow customers to bolt.
"The Teamsters actions induced a high level of variability and uncertainty in the market for Yellow's customers. The market abhors variability and uncertainty," wrote Mike Regan, co-founder of TranzAct Technologies, which manages transportation services for retailers. "Consequently, Yellow lost substantial and much needed volume."
After the strike threat, Yellow's freight volumes fell 80% within the span of a week, according to Jack Atkins, a managing director at the financial services firm Stephens who researches the transportation sector.
At the same time, he said, Yellow's cries that it was running out of cash during union negotiation attempts scared off customers. Since then, customers haven't returned.
"Both sides bear fault," Atkins said. "Once that freight left, there was nothing left to really restructure," he added. "It was really too late to save the company."
The company has been at risk of bankruptcy for years
Animus between Yellow and Teamsters has grown in recent months, after the trucking carrier tried to restructure its operations this spring as a cost-saving measure that would allow it to refinance its debt. In June, Yellow sued the union for blocking the restructuring plan it said was "essential to the company's survival." The Teamsters in turn called the lawsuit "baseless," instead blaming Yellow for "decades of gross mismanagement," that included its alleged exhaustion of the $700 million bailout loan.
The company reported a net income of $21.8 million last year. Yellow has $1.3 billion in loan debt due in fall 2024, $729 million of which is owed to the federal government, according to the company's latest quarterly report.
Yellow received a $700 million loan from the government in 2020 as part of a COVID-19 rescue package. In return, the Treasury Department took a 30% stake in the company's shares, which have since plummeted to less than a dollar apiece as of Friday.
In June, a congressional probe found that the Treasury Department's disbursement of the loan was a mistake; the freight company — whose customers included the Department of Defense — did not actually meet the standards to qualify for the business loan because its survival was not "critical to maintaining national security."
"Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Yellow was a financially struggling company that had a long-term non-investment grade (i.e., junk) rating and previous close calls with bankruptcy over the years. The pandemic did not cause Yellow's longstanding problems, nor is the Treasury's loan to the company likely to solve those problems," the Congressional Oversight Commission report read.
A world without Yellow
An end to the Nashville-based company would mean the loss of 30,000 jobs. And Atkins doesn't expect the federal government to come to the rescue this time.
While there may be some slight disruptions, the analyst anticipates other freight carriers will have some capacity to absorb Yellow's business because of the dent in freight volumes.
"This is not going to create a supply-chain crisis," he said.
Retailers and manufacturers are likely to see higher shipping rates if the company folds, he said. Yellow is known for its low shipping rates compared to its rivals.
Atkins visited the Yellow terminal in Little Rock, Ark., on Sunday to find all gates chained up, a sign of ceased operations.
"They've been in wind-down mode, clearing the network out of all the remaining freight," he said. "This is the end."
NPR's Camila Domonoske contributed to this story.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wdiy.org/npr-news/2023-07-30/the-yellow-trucking-company-meltdown-explained | 2023-07-31T01:15:40 | 1 | https://www.wdiy.org/npr-news/2023-07-30/the-yellow-trucking-company-meltdown-explained |
KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally in a former stronghold of militants in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 44 people and wounding nearly 200 in an attack that a senior leader said was meant to weaken Pakistani Islamists.
The Bajur district near the Afghan border was a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban — a close ally of Afghanistan’s Taliban government — before the Pakistani army drove the militants out of the area. Supporters of hardline Pakistani cleric and political party leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, whose Jamiat Ulema Islam generally supports regional Islamists, were meeting in Bajur in a hall close to a market outside the district capital. Party officials said Rehman was not at the rally but organizers added tents because so many supporters showed up, and party volunteers with batons were helping control the crowd.
Officials were announcing the arrival of Abdul Rasheed, a leader of the Jamiat Ulema Islam party, when the bomb went off in one of Pakistan’s bloodiest attacks in recent years.
Provincial police said in a statement that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives vest close to the stage where several senior leaders of the party were sitting. It said initial investigations suggested the Islamic State group — which operates in Afghanistan and is an enemy of the Afghan Taliban — could be behind the attack, and officers were still investigating.
“There was dust and smoke around, and I was under some injured people from where I could hardly stand up, only to see chaos and some scattered limbs,” said Adam Khan, 45, who was knocked to the ground by the blast around 4 p.m. and hit by splinters in his leg and both hands.
The Pakistan Taliban, or TTP, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that the bombing was aimed at setting Islamists against each other. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that “such crimes cannot be justified in any way.”
The Afghan Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 emboldened the TTP. They unilaterally ended a cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government in November, and have stepped up attacks across the country.
The bombing came hours before the arrival of Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Islamabad, where he was to participate in an event to mark a decade of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, a sprawling package under which Beijing has invested billions of dollars in Pakistan.
In recent months, China has helped Pakistan avoid a default on sovereign payments. However, some Chinese nationals have also been targeted by militants in northwestern Pakistan and elsewhere.
Feroz Jamal, the provincial information minister, told The Associated Press that so far 44 people had been “martyred” and nearly 200 wounded in the bombing.
The bombing was one of the four worst attacks in the northwest since 2014, when 147 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar. In January, 74 people were killed in a bombing at a mosque in Peshawar. n February, more than 100 people, mostly policemen, died in a bombing at a mosque inside a high-security compound housing Peshawar police headquarters.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Arif Alvi condemned the attack and asked officials to provide all possible assistance to the wounded and the bereaved families. Sharif later, in a phone call to Rehman, the head of the JUI, conveyed his condolences to him and assured him that those who orchestrated the attack would be punished.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad also condemned the attack. In a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, it expressed its condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims killed in the attack..
Maulana Ziaullah, the local chief of Rehman’s party, was among the dead. JUI leaders Rasheed and former lawmaker Maulana Jamaluddin were also on the stage but escaped unhurt.
Rasheed, the regional chief of the party, said the attack was an attempt to remove JUI from the field before parliamentary elections in November, but he said such tactics would not work. The bombing drew nationwide condemnation, with the ruling and opposition parties extending condolences to the families of those who died in the attack.
Rehman is considered to be a pro-Taliban cleric and his political party is part of the coalition government in Islamabad. Meetings are being organized across the country to mobilize supporters for the upcoming elections.
“Many of our fellows lost their lives and many more wounded in this incident. I will ask the federal and provincial administrations to fully investigate this incident and provide due compensation and medical facilities to the affected ones,” Rasheed said.
Mohammad Wali, another attendant at the rally, said he was listening to a speaker address the crowd when the huge explosion temporarily deafened him.
“I was near the water dispenser to fetch a glass of water when the bomb exploded, throwing me to the ground,” he said. “We came to the meeting with enthusiasm but ended up at the hospital seeing crying, wounded people and sobbing relatives taking the bodies of their loved ones.”
___
Riaz Khan reported from Peshawar. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmad contributed from Islamabad. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-a-bomb-at-a-political-rally-in-northwest-pakistan-kills-10-people-and-wounds-more-than-50/ | 2023-07-31T01:15:44 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-a-bomb-at-a-political-rally-in-northwest-pakistan-kills-10-people-and-wounds-more-than-50/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-a-boom-in-apartment-construction-is-helping-to-curb-rents-but-not-all-renters-will-benefit/ | 2023-07-31T01:15:50 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-a-boom-in-apartment-construction-is-helping-to-curb-rents-but-not-all-renters-will-benefit/ |
CARDINALSArizona Cardinals safety Budda BakerArizona RepublicArizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker, during a Dec 12, 2022 game against the New England Patriots.Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY SportsArizona Cardinals’ Geoff Swaim (84), left, and Budda Baker (3), right, practice during the team’s training camp at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on July 29, 2023.Joel Angel Juarez/The RepublicJul 26, 2023; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker (3) during training camp at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-Arizona RepublicRob Schumacher/The RepublicArizona Cardinals free safety Budda Baker (3) signs autographs for fans during training camp at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Aug. 8, 2022.Michael Chow/The RepublicSep 11, 2022; Glendale, Arizona, United States; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) throws a pass while pressured by Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker (3) during the second quarter at State Farm Stadium.Michael Chow/The RepublicSaquon Barkley of the GiantsÊis chased by Budda Baker of the Cardinals during the game between the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium in east Rutherford on October 20, 2019.Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com-USA Today NetworkCardinals safety Budda Baker (32) tackles Lions receiver Marvin Jones Jr. (11) during the second half of a game Sept. 8 at State Farm Stadium.Rob Schumacher/The RepublicBudda Baker #3 of the Arizona Cardinals tackled by Eric Saubert #82 of the Denver Broncos after an interception during the third quarter at Empower Field At Mile High on Dec. 18, 2022, in Denver, Colorado.Justin Edmonds, Getty ImagesArizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker (3) runs back an interception against the Los Angeles Rams.Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY SportsAug 9, 2022; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker (3) during training camp at State Farm Stadium.Rob Schumacher/The Republic | https://www.azcentral.com/picture-gallery/sports/nfl/cardinals/2023/07/30/arizona-cardinals-safety-budda-baker/70495249007/ | 2023-07-31T01:15:54 | 1 | https://www.azcentral.com/picture-gallery/sports/nfl/cardinals/2023/07/30/arizona-cardinals-safety-budda-baker/70495249007/ |
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — African leaders have left two days of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin with little to show for their requests to resume a deal that kept grain flowing from Ukraine and to find a path to end the war there.
Putin in a press conference late Saturday following the Russia-Africa summit said Russia’s termination of the grain deal earlier this month caused a rise in grain prices that benefits Russian companies. He added that Moscow would share some of those revenues with the “poorest nations.”
That commitment, with no details, follows Putin’s promise to start shipping 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain for free to each of six African nations in the next three to four months — an amount dwarfed by the 725,000 tons shipped by the U.N. World Food Program to several hungry countries, African and otherwise, under the grain deal. Russia plans to send the free grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and Central African Republic.
Fewer than 20 of Africa’s 54 heads of state or government attended the Russia summit, while 43 attended the previous gathering in 2019, reflecting concerns over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine even as Moscow seeks more allies on the African continent of 1.3 billion people. Putin praised Africa as a rising center of power in the world, while the Kremlin blamed “outrageous” Western pressure for discouraging some African countries from showing up.
The presidents of Egypt and South Africa were among the most outspoken on the need to resume the grain deal.
“We would like the Black Sea initiative to be implemented and that the Black Sea should be open,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said. “We are not here to plead for donations for the African continent.”
African leaders also called clearly for peace.
“This war must end and it can only end on the basis of justice and reason,” said the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. “The disturbances that it causes in the supply of energy and grain must cease immediately” for the benefit of all, especially Africans.
Putin said Russia would analyze African leaders’ peace proposal for Ukraine, whose details have not been publicly shared. But the Russian leader asked: “Why do you ask us to pause fire? We can’t pause fire while we’re being attacked.”
The next significant step in peace efforts instead appears to be a Ukrainian-organized peace summit hosted by Saudi Arabia in August. Russia is not invited.
Africa’s nations make up the largest voting bloc at the United Nations and have been more divided than any other region on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Delegations at the summit in St. Petersburg roamed exhibits of weapons, a reminder of Russia’s role as the top arms supplier to the African continent.
But African nations need more concrete results from such meetings, the AU Commission head told the summit.
“The trade balance between Russia and Africa, very unbalanced in favor of the first party, must be improved,” Mahamat said. At the first Russia-Africa Summit in 2019, Putin vowed to double Russia’s trade with the continent within five years. Instead, it has stalled at around $18 billion a year.
In addition, “the strengthening of cooperation on peace and security and the fight against terrorism calls for more deeds and fewer declarations of intent,” Mahamat said, while he and other African leaders were rushing to respond to a coup in Niger that could upend the regional response to a growing threat from Islamic extremist groups.
Putin in his remarks on Saturday also downplayed his absence from the BRICS economic summit in South Africa next month amid a controversy over an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court. His presence there, Putin said, is not “more important than my presence here, in Russia.” | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-african-leaders-leave-russia-summit-without-grain-deal-or-a-path-to-end-the-war-in-ukraine/ | 2023-07-31T01:15:56 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-african-leaders-leave-russia-summit-without-grain-deal-or-a-path-to-end-the-war-in-ukraine/ |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Shawn Steik and his wife were forced from a long-term motel room onto the streets of Anchorage after their rent shot up to $800 a month. Now they live in a tent encampment by a train depot, and as an Alaska winter looms they are growing desperate and fearful of what lies ahead.
A proposal last week by Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson to buy one-way plane tickets out of Alaska’s biggest city for its homeless residents gave Steik a much-needed glimmer of hope. He would move to the relative warmth of Seattle.
“I heard it’s probably warmer than this place,” said Steik, who is Aleut.
But the mayor’s unfunded idea also came under immediate attack as a Band-Aid solution glossing over the tremendous, and still unaddressed, crisis facing Anchorage as a swelling homeless population struggles to survive in a unique and extreme environment. Frigid temperatures stalk the homeless in the winter and bears infiltrate homeless encampments in the summer.
A record eight people died of exposure while living outside last winter and this year promises to be worse after the city closed an arena that housed 500 people during the winter months. Bickering between the city’s liberal assembly and its conservative mayor about how to address the crisis, and a lack of state funding, have further stymied efforts to find a solution.
With winter fast approaching in Alaska, it’s “past time for state and local leaders to address the underlying causes of homelessness — airplane tickets are a distraction, not a solution,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said in a statement to The Associated Press.
About 43% of Anchorage’s more than 3,000 unsheltered residents are Alaska Natives, and Bronson’s proposal also drew harsh criticism from those who called it culturally insensitive.
“The reality is there is no place to send these people because this is their land. Any policy that we make has to pay credence to that simple fact. This is Dena’ina land, this is Native land,” said Christopher Constant, chair of the Anchorage Assembly. “And so we cannot be supporting policies that would take people and displace them from their home, even if their home is not what you or I would call home.”
Bronson’s airfare proposal caps a turbulent few years as Anchorage, like many cities in the U.S. West, struggles to deal with a burgeoning homeless population.
In May, the city shut down the 500-bed homeless shelter in the city’s arena so it could once more be used for concerts and hockey games after neighbors complained about open drug use, trespassing, violence and litter. A plan to build a large shelter and navigation center fell through when Bronson approved a contract without approval from the Anchorage Assembly.
That leaves a gaping hole in the city’s ability to house the thousands of homeless people who have to contend with temperatures well below zero for days at a time and unrelenting winds blasting off Cook Inlet. At the end of June, Anchorage was estimated to have a little more than 3,150 homeless people, according to the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Last week, there were only 614 beds at shelters citywide, with no vacancies.
New tent cities have sprung up across Anchorage this summer: on a slope facing the city’s historic railroad depot, on a busy road near the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson and near soup kitchens and shelters downtown.
Assembly members are slated to consider a winter stop-gap option in August falling far short of the need: a large, warmed, tent-like structure for 150 people.
Summer brings its own challenges: hungry bears last year roamed a city-owned campground where homeless people were resettled after the arena closed. Wildlife officials killed four bears after they broke into tents.
Bronson said he prefers to spend a few hundred dollars per person for a plane ticket rather than spending about $100 daily to shelter and feed them. He said he doesn’t care where they want to go; his job is to “make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.”
It’s not clear if his proposal will move forward. There is not yet a plan or a funding source.
Dr. Ted Mala, an Inupiaq who in 1990 became the first Alaska Native to serve as the state’s health commissioner, said Anchorage should be working with social workers and law enforcement to discover people’s individual reasons for homelessness and connect them with resources.
Buying the unsheltered a ticket to another city is a political game that’s been around for years. A number of U.S. cities struggling with homelessness, including San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have also offered bus or plane tickets to homeless residents.
“People are not pawns, they’re human beings,” Mala said.
The mayor’s proposal, while focused on warmer cities, also would fund tickets to other Alaska locations for those who want them.
Clarita Clark became homeless after her medical team wanted her to move from Point Hope to Anchorage for cancer treatment because Anchorage is warmer. The medical facility wouldn’t allow her husband to stay with her, so they pitched a tent in a sprawling camp to stay together.
Having recently found the body of a dead teenager who overdosed in a portable toilet, Clark yearns to return to the Chukchi Sea coastal village of Point Hope, where her three grandchildren live.
“I got a family that loves me,” she said, adding she would use the ticket and seek treatment closer to home.
Danny Parish also is leaving Alaska, but for another reason: He’s fed up.
Parish is selling his home of 29 years because it sits directly across the street from Sullivan Arena. Bad acts by some homeless people — including harassment, throwing vodka bottles in his yard, poisoning his dog and using his driveway as a toilet — made his life “a holy hell,” he said.
Parish is convinced the arena will be used again this winter since there isn’t another plan.
He, too, hopes to move to the contiguous U.S. — Oregon, for starters — but not before asking Anchorage leaders for his own plane ticket out.
“If they’re going to give them to everybody else,” Parish said, “then they need to give me one.” | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:00 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ |
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The discovery of four dead women in a drainage ditch just outside Atlantic City was shocking news in 2006.
International media flocked to the seaside gambling resort. More than 100 detectives and prosecutors were assigned to investigate. Casino guests worried about safety, and the victims’ fellow sex workers began carrying hidden knives.
But as the years passed, the public’s attention and fear faded, and the case of the “Eastbound Strangler” – so named for the direction the victims’ heads were facing – remained unsolved.
The arrest earlier this month of a man charged with killing three women whose remains were found on a Long Island beach in 2010 has breathed fresh life into another long-dormant case with obvious parallels; the Gilgo Beach serial killings involve a total of 11 victims, most of whom were young, female sex workers. Yet the recent breakthrough, and the rekindling of public interest, only highlights a painful truth: Many similar cases – like the one in Atlantic City — remain open.
The FBI would not say how many killings of sex workers in the U.S. remain unsolved. Media accounts and statements from local authorities show a long trail of open cases, from nine women whose bodies were found along highways in Massachusetts, to 11 found dead in New Mexico, and eight more found amid the crawfish farms and swamps of southern Louisiana. The killings of other sex workers in Chicago, New Haven, Connecticut and Ohio, among other places, also remain mysteries.
From the days of London’s Jack The Ripper in the 1880s, serial killers, particularly those preying on sex workers, have often gotten away with it, in part because their victims were easy targets living on the margins of society.
Gary Ridgway, the so-called Green River killer convicted of 49 killings in Washington state, said at during a 2003 court hearing in which he pleaded guilty that he chose sex workers as victims because he knew they would not be missed quickly, if at all.
“I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught,” he said.
Two women were out for an afternoon walk near Atlantic City in November 2006 when they found a body in a ditch. They called police, who quickly found three others nearby.
The $15-a-night motel in Egg Harbor Township behind which the four bodies were found is long gone. It was torn down in an attempt to clear a seedy area known for crime, drugs and disturbances – and the murders of Barbara Breidor, 42, Molly Jean Dilts, 20, Kim Raffo, 35, and Tracy Ann Roberts, 23.
Because it is near the ocean, like Gilgo Beach, the location has prompted much speculation by amateur detectives about a single killer, but some other online sleuths have pointed out that oceanside areas are often the remotest locations after hours on the densely packed East Coast. Gilgo Beach is about 3.5 hours drive from Atlantic City.
Gone in New Jersey are the four small wooden crosses someone erected on the site, along with the folded-up paper note bearing a Biblical quote promising justice that someone left there on one of the anniversaries of the discovery of the bodies.
For families left behind, each new day without word in the case of their loved one brings fresh pain.
“I kind of lost hope that anyone was even searching for the killer anymore,” said Joyce Roberts, whose daughter Tracy Ann was one of the four Atlantic City-area victims. “The first six months, the prosecutor did get on the phone with me and told me they were working on it.
“Then it just fell off the radar,” she said. “It was like nobody cared anymore.”
That is a sentiment echoed by Phoenix Calida, a former sex worker from Chicago who now advocates for them through the Sex Workers Outreach Project.
“Police departments often refer to it as an ‘NHI’ case: No humans involved,” she said. ”You feel like the only way you’ll be remembered is when they catch the serial killer who killed you, and then they’ll make five movies about him and no one will remember your name.”
Massachusetts State Police are investigating “nine unsolved homicides possibly committed by the same person,” said David Procopio, a spokesperson for the agency. He said two additional missing persons cases may be homicides related to the other nine.
Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said the New Mexico cases remain actively investigated, with “multiple detectives” working them. The 11 victims were all involved in drugs and prostitution, police said.
A reward of $100,000 has been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case, which involved two victims who were just 15 years old.
Despite the decade-long efforts of a local, state and federal task force, Louisiana has at least eight unsolved apparent homicide cases involving sex workers between the ages of 17 and 30. Their bodies were found in marshy areas in Jennings, a small town in the area known as Cajun Country, between 2005 and 2009.
Prosecutors in New York’s Suffolk County investigating the Gilgo Beach cases have been in touch with multiple law enforcement agencies, but District Attorney Ray Tierney would not say which ones.
“Everything is being examined and looked at, and this is an active investigation,” said Anthony Carter, Suffolk County’s deputy police commissioner. He would not say if his agency was investigating any connection between Heuermann and the Atlantic City murders.
Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds said the four cases from the drainage ditch outside Atlantic City remain active, with detectives assigned to them, but would not say how many. He declined comment on the Long Island case “as we are not involved.”
Joyce Roberts, the victim’s mother, said no one from law enforcement has called her since the arrest was made in the Long Island cases.
Police in Las Vegas, where Heuermann owns a time share, said they are investigating whether Heuermann may be involved in cases involving the killings of sex workers there.
In the months immediately after the bodies’ discovery near Atlantic City, the local prosecutor’s office and a dozen other law enforcement agencies had 140 people assigned to the cases, Ted Housel, who was prosecutor at the time, said in 2008. By the first anniversary, the total had fallen to 85, and those investigators were also working other cases.
Calida, the former sex worker from Chicago, said women involved the sex trade are frequently robbed by people who know they’re carrying cash, and are sometimes coerced into sexual activity by police in return for not being arrested.
She said an attacker “knows you can’t or won’t report it. You’re an easy target and they know it.”
Three of her friends who were also sex workers in Chicago also turned up dead.
“You see someone, you become friends with them and then one day they’re suddenly just not there,” she said. “We’d all go out asking around and looking for them, and then a few days later a body would be found. There’s always this specific fear that it’s a serial killer. Sometimes we never even get a body back to bury. And we wonder: Will law enforcement take it seriously because it’s ‘just another sex worker?’”
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AP writers Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque; Steve LeBlanc in Boston; Julie Walker and Robert Bumsted in Suffolk County, New York; Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this story.
Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-breakthrough-in-long-island-serial-killings-shines-light-on-the-many-unsolved-murders-of-sex-workers/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:06 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-breakthrough-in-long-island-serial-killings-shines-light-on-the-many-unsolved-murders-of-sex-workers/ |
BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — The Central African Republic went to the polls Sunday in a highly anticipated vote on a new constitution, which would remove presidential term limits.
President Faustin Archange Touadera wants to extend presidential terms from five to seven years and remove the previous two-term limit, enabling him to run again in 2025.
The new constitution would replace the one adopted at Touadera’s inauguration in 2016, when the country was in a civil war and 80% of it was not under state control. If the new constitution is passed, it could entrench the ruling party’s power indefinitely, analysts say.
“This referendum basically confirms the fears of authoritarian drift (in CAR),” said Enrica Picco, Central Africa project director with the International Crisis Group. The new constitution would weaken checks on the executive by opposition parties, closing the space for Central Africans to participate in democratic decision-making, she said.
The proposed changes also would lift requirements that executive decisions be debated by the legislative and permit Central Africans with dual nationalities to vote.
The mineral-rich but impoverished nation has faced intercommunal fighting since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and forced then-President Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian militias later fought back, also targeting civilians in the streets. The United Nations, which has a peacekeeping mission in the country, estimates the fighting had killed thousands and displaced over a million people, one fifth of the country’s population.
When Touadera won re-election in 2020, barely a third of Central Africans made it to the polls, largely due to threats of violence by rebel groups. Touadera’s government has relied on support from UN peacekeepers, soldiers from neighboring Rwanda and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to keep rebels out of the capital Bangui.
“Now that there is peace … the time has come for us to take action,” said Fidel Gouandjika, a presidential advisor.
Opposition groups accuse the ruling party of making a draft of the new constitution publicly available too late for people to make informed decisions, less than three weeks before the referendum, said Picco.
Together with opposition parties they are calling on Central Africans to vote against the proposed constitution, or abstain from the referendum.
“Touadera wants to see himself as an emperor, and he wants to make our country what he wants, not what Central Africans want,” said former Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-constitutional-referendum-to-remove-presidential-term-limits-divides-central-african-republic/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:12 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-constitutional-referendum-to-remove-presidential-term-limits-divides-central-african-republic/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Six straight days of 12-hour driving. Single digit paychecks. The complaints come from workers in vastly different industries: UPS delivery drivers and Hollywood actors and writers.
But they point to an underlying factor driving a surge of labor unrest: The cost to workers whose jobs have changed drastically as companies scramble to meet customer expectations for speed and convenience in industries transformed by technology.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated those changes, pushing retailers to shift online and intensifying the streaming competition among entertainment companies. Now, from the picket lines, workers are trying to give consumers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce a show that can be binged any time or get dog food delivered to their doorstep with a phone swipe.
Overworked and underpaid employees is an enduring complaint across industries — from delivery drivers to Starbucks baristas and airline pilots — where surges in consumer demand have collided with persistent labor shortages. Workers are pushing back against forced overtime, punishing schedules or company reliance on lower-paid, part-time or contract forces.
At issue for Hollywood screenwriters and actors staging their first simultaneous strikes in 40 years is the way streaming has upended entertainment economics, slashing pay and forcing showrunners to produce content faster with smaller teams.
“This seems to happen to many places when the tech companies come in. Who are we crushing? It doesn’t matter,” said Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, a screenwriter and showrunner on the negotiating team for the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike since May. Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the writers’ union on the picket line.
Actors and writers have long relied on residuals, or long-term payments, for reruns and other airings of films and televisions shows. But reruns aren’t a thing on streaming services, where series and films simply land and stay with no easy way, such as box office returns or ratings, to determine their popularity.
Consequently, whatever residuals streaming companies do pay often amount to a pittance, and screenwriters have been sharing tales of receiving single digit checks.
Adam Shapiro, an actor known for the Netflix hit “Never Have I Ever,” said many actors were initially content to accept lower pay for the plethora of roles that streaming suddenly offered. But the need for a more sustainable compensation model gained urgency when it became clear streaming is not a sideshow, but rather the future of the business, he said.
“Over the past 10 years, we realized: ‘Oh, that’s now how Hollywood works. Everything is streaming,’” Shapiro said during a recent union event.
Shapiro, who has been acting for 25 years, said he agreed to a contract offering 20% of his normal rate for “Never Have I Ever” because it seemed like “a great opportunity, and it’s going to be all over the world. And it was. It really was. Unfortunately, we’re all starting to realize that if we keep doing this we’re not going to be able to pay our bills.”
Then there’s the rising use of “mini rooms,” in which a handful of writers are hired to work only during pre-production, sometimes for a series that may take a year to be greenlit, or never get picked up at all.
Sanchez-Witzel, co-creator of the recently released Netflix series “Survival of the Thickest,” said television shows traditionally hire robust writing teams for the duration of production. But Netflix refused to allow her to keep her team of five writers past pre-production, forcing round-the-clock work on rewrites with just one other writer.
“It’s not sustainable and I’ll never do that again,” she said.
Sanchez-Witzel said she was struck by the similarities between her experience and those of UPS drivers, some of whom joined the WGA for protests as they threatened their own potentially crippling strike. UPS and the Teamsters last week reached a tentative contract staving off the strike.
Jeffrey Palmerino, a full-time UPS driver near Albany, New York, said forced overtime emerged as a top issue during the pandemic as drivers coped with a crush of orders on par with the holiday season. Drivers never knew what time they would get home or if they could count on two days off each week, while 14-hour days in trucks without air conditioning became the norm.
“It was basically like Christmas on steroids for two straight years. A lot of us were forced to work six days a week, and that is not any way to live your life,” said Palmerino, a Teamsters shop steward.
Along with pay raises and air conditioning, the Teamsters won concessions that Palmerino hopes will ease overwork. UPS agreed to end forced overtime on days off and eliminate a lower-paid category of drivers who work shifts that include weekends, converting them to full-time drivers. Union members have yet to ratify the deal.
The Teamsters and labor activists hailed the tentative deal as a game-changer that would pressure other companies facing labor unrest to raise their standards. But similar outcomes are far from certain in industries lacking the sheer economic indispensability of UPS or the clout of its 340,000-member union.
Efforts to organize at Starbucks and Amazon stalled as both companies aggressively fought against unionization.
Still, labor protests will likely gain momentum following the UPS contract, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which released a report this year that found the number of labor strikes rose 52% in 2022.
“The whole idea that consumer convenience is above everything broke down during the pandemic. We started to think, ‘I’m at home ordering, but there is actually a worker who has to go the grocery store, who has to cook this for me so that I can be comfortable,’” Campos-Medina said.
___
Associated Press video journalist Leslie Ambriz contributed from Los Angeles. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:18 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ |
MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE, Calif. (AP) — A massive wildfire burning out of control in California’s Mojave National Preserve was spreading rapidly amid erratic winds, while firefighters reported progress against another major blaze to the southwest that prompted evacuations.
The York Fire that erupted Friday near the remote Caruthers Canyon area of the vast wildland preserve crossed the state line into Nevada on Sunday and sent smoke further east into the Las Vegas Valley.
Wind-driven flames 20 feet (6 meters) high in some spots charred more than 110 square miles (284 square kilometers) of desert scrub, juniper and Joshua tree woodland, according to an incident update. There was zero containment.
“The dry fuel acts as a ready ignition source, and when paired with those weather conditions it resulted in long-distance fire run and high flames, leading to extreme fire behavior,” the update said. No structures were threatened.
To the southwest, the Bonny Fire was holding steady at about 3.4 square miles (8.8 square kilometers) in rugged hills of Riverside County. More than 1,300 people were ordered to evacuate their homes Saturday near the community of Aguanga that is home to horse ranches and wineries.
Gusty winds and the chance of thunderstorms into Monday will heighten the risk of renewed growth, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a statement.
One firefighter was injured in the blaze, which was 5% contained. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-erratic-winds-challenge-firefighters-battling-two-major-california-blazes/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:24 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-erratic-winds-challenge-firefighters-battling-two-major-california-blazes/ |
BEIJING (AP) — The French finance minister said Sunday he pressed Chinese leaders to open their markets wider to foreign companies and lobbied for investment in France’s electric car industry, as the European Union’s second-largest economy followed Washington in reviving post-COVID economic talks amid tension over Beijing’s surging trade surpluses.
Bruno Le Maire also defended Paris’s controls on foreign access to technology after authorities said two Chinese citizens are under investigation for what news reports say is possible smuggling of French-made processor chips with military uses to China and Russia.
Le Maire met Saturday with Vice Premier He Lifeng, Beijing’s top envoy on economic issues. He followed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who visited Beijing on July 9-10 as part of U.S. efforts to revive frosty relations with China.
Chinese officials gave Le Maire and Yellen a warm welcome as part of efforts to reverse an economic slump by reviving foreign investor interest. But Beijing has given no indication of possible changes in technology and other policies that its trading partners say violate Chinese market-opening commitments.
Officials of the 27-nation European Union are trying to narrow a trade deficit with China that swelled to 396 billion euros ($432 billion) last year. Le Maire cited cosmetics, aerospace and agriculture as possible areas for more French exports.
“There is a need to improve access to the Chinese market. I think that it was at the core of our discussions,” Le Maire said in an interview at the French Embassy. “We want to have a stronger economic relationship between Europe and China, between France and China, which means to get access for all European goods.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government has looked to Europe as an alternative market and source of technology since Washington tightened controls on access to U.S. processor chips and other high-tech goods and hiked tariffs on imports from China in a feud over its industry development ambitions.
Le Maire and Chinese officials pledged to cooperate on climate change, financing for developing countries and nuclear power. They announced plans to set up a group to settle a dispute over access to China’s market for cosmetics, a major French export.
Le Maire also lobbied for investment from China’s fast-growing electric car industry. He was due to fly to the southern city of Shenzhen to meet Wang Chuanfu, founder of BYD Auto, one of the world’s biggest electric vehicle producers. BYD Auto and other Chinese brands are starting to sell in developed markets including Europe and Japan. Chinese battery supplier CATL has set up a factory in Germany to supply automaker BMW.
“We want China to make investments in France in electric vehicles,” Le Maire said. “In the climate transition, there is a place for Chinese investment in France, which allows us to reinforce our economic relations and also speed up action against global warming.”
The talks were overshadowed by Russia’s war against Ukraine and complaints China might be helping Moscow evade Western sanctions, but Le Maire said he didn’t discuss the war with Chinese officials. However, he said it was in Beijing’s interest to end the 17-month-old war. President Emmanuel Macron’s security adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, said this month China was delivering “military equipment” to Russia but gave no details.
“I want to make very clear that we want this war to go to an end as soon as possible,” Le Maire said. “Indeed, (it is) in the interest of China, it is in the interests of the global growth to have peace as soon as possible.”
Le Maire also defended French controls on technology exports and foreign investment in high-tech industry. French authorities are investigating two Chinese citizens associated with chip producer Ommic who the newspaper Le Parisien said face possible charges of exporting chips to a Chinese armaments maker using forged documents.
French counter-espionage officials believe a Chinese investor who bought control of Ommic in 2018 was trying to transfer chip manufacturing technology to China, according to the newspaper. The ruling Communist Party is trying to develop its own chip industry, but Washington has blocked access to advanced manufacturing tools and persuaded allies Japan and the Netherlands to impose their own restrictions.
Chinese authorities complain their companies are unfairly targeted by restrictions on access to foreign technology. They have warned curbs on access to semiconductors will disrupt smartphone and other industries.
“Everybody can understand that France wants to protect its key technologies,” Le Maire said. “We don’t want any foreign country to get access to those French sovereign technologies.” | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-frances-le-maire-presses-china-on-market-access-and-lobbies-for-electric-car-investment/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:30 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-frances-le-maire-presses-china-on-market-access-and-lobbies-for-electric-car-investment/ |
SANTA MARIA DE JESUS, Guatemala (AP) — Presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo stood before a few hundred residents of this small Indigenous community on the slopes of the Agua Volcano and told them they could be the seeds of a brighter, more corruption-free spring in Guatemala.
The metaphor fits neatly with his political party, the Seed Movement, and allows the 64-year-old academic and former diplomat to riff on themes of renewal and growth.
But it also alludes to Guatemala’s “democratic spring,” considered a more inclusive period in the country’s history during the presidency in the 1940s and early 1950s of his late father, Juan José Arévalo.
Bernardo Arévalo won just 11% of the vote in the presidential election’s first round June 25, but it was enough to give him the surprise second slot in the Aug. 20 runoff ballot. He will face Sandra Torres, a conservative and former first lady who was the leading vote-getter in the first round and is making her third bid for the presidency.
Arévalo’s recent speech in Santa Maria de Jesus was similar to those he has given in Guatemala’s capital, but the imagery could be especially important in rural Indigenous communities as he seeks to rapidly expand his largely urban, youthful base before the runoff.
He won in Guatemala City and other important cities, including Sacatepequez and Quetzaltenango. It remains to be seen whether he can convince people in rural communities that he can address their daily problems.
The delayed certification of the first round results shortened the already small window that Arévalo has to reintroduce himself to much of the country as his opponents rush to paint their own negative picture.
“Do you feel what is happening?” Arévalo told the crowd in Santa Maria de Jesus. “The new spring is arriving, that’s what you feel, and you all are the seeds of that new spring.”
“A new spring that is going to bring us well-being, the water we lack, the education they owe us, the health that they have denied us thanks to those corrupt contracts that serve few,” Arévalo said, standing in front of an old, damaged Roman Catholic church, in a wide-brimmed hat and untucked shirt against the tropical heat.
Among those listening was Juana Orón, a 67-year-old homemaker of the Kaqchikel people. She is one of the older voters who remember hearing about Arévalo’s father, one of only two leftist presidents in Guatemala’s democratic era.
The elder Arévalo, who governed from 1945 to 1951, is credited with establishing key social programs that remain in place today, including Guatemala’s labor code and social security. Guatemala’s democratic spring was cut short in 1954 by the CIA-backed overthrow of his successor, President Jacobo Arbenz.
Under Juan José Arévalo, the state advocated for rights for Indigenous peoples and others beyond the country’s small elite.
“I remember I was little and (my parents) said he had done good things,” said Orón whose first language as a child was Kaqchikel. If his father was good, Arévalo could be a good president, too, she said.
Opponents have tried to frame Arévalo’s candidacy as a step toward some of the region’s more notorious leftist regimes, such as Cuba and Nicaragua. They warn that the progressive candidate will bring expropriations, abortion and same-sex marriage to the conservative country.
Arévalo has been the election’s surprise.
In the days before the June 25 vote, he was polling below 3% and trailing at least seven of the other 21 candidates. But his anti-corruption message resonated in the country where gains against corruption have been erased and the justice system reoriented to pursue the prosecutors and judges who formerly led that fight.
In the month since that initial result, the Attorney General’s Office announced an investigation into his party and had a judge suspend its legal status until the Constitutional Court stepped in to block that move.
In Santa Maria de Jesus, people wanted to compare Arévalo in person to what they were hearing about him. Some handed him flowers, posed for photos or reached out to touch him as he made his way through the throng.
Arévalo pushed back against attempts to frame him as a left-wing radical — he has said private property rights are not up for discussion — and pounded the issue of corruption.
“Let us work, let us get ahead on our own effort, let’s get rid of the corrupt once and for all,” he said.
For Francisco Jiménez, a political scientist at Rafael Landivar University, Arévalo will need concrete proposals to make inroads with the base of Torres, who has spent two decades assembling it.
“He will have to make governing proposals with a social agenda, where the people see that he is going to have an impact on their lives and communities,” Jiménez said. “The other part is continuing to present himself as the different model. That has been his success, someone totally different from the other candidates.”
Evangelical churches in Guatemala have painted Arévalo as an existential threat to the family.
Gladys Sunun, a 35-year-old Kaqchikel vendor from an evangelical family, said she came to hear Arévalo for herself. She said she had heard that Arévalo would convert Guatemala into another Cuba or Nicaragua, but left feeling that might not be true, though she wants to investigate more.
“He came to tell us not to worry,” she said. “It sounds real, but we don’t know.”
Her sister July Sunun said she wanted to hear more about Arévalo’s positions on gender ideology. “As a mother I’m afraid, because we’ve grown up with a Christian background. I don’t want to marry my daughter with another woman,” she said.
July Sunun acknowledged that Arévalo said he would respect the identities and decisions of the people, “but what he hasn’t said is that he won’t allow (same-sex marriage) to happen here.” | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-guatemala-presidential-candidate-rushes-to-expand-base-beyond-urban-youth/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:36 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-guatemala-presidential-candidate-rushes-to-expand-base-beyond-urban-youth/ |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Salvage crews started towing a burning cargo ship loaded with thousands of cars to a temporary anchorage location off the northern Dutch coast on Sunday after smoke pouring from the stricken vessel eased, authorities said.
On Saturday night, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management had said the Fremantle Highway was unlikely to be moved because of a southeasterly wind blowing smoke from the days-old fire over tugboats.
But that changed Sunday.
“The smoke from the cargo ship subsided considerably this afternoon and the salvage combination Multraship/Smit Salvage immediately made use of this,” the ministry said in a statement referring to two salvage companies involved in the operation.
The ship was being slowly towed by two tugs to a temporary anchor point about 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of the Dutch islands of Schiermonnikoog and Ameland.
Experts are continuously monitoring the ship’s stability and a specialized boat used to clean up oil is nearby in case there is a spill, the ministry added.
The salvage teams ultimately want to tow the stricken ship to a port but it is not yet clear where or when that will happen.
The crews on Saturday attached a second towing cable to the ship, which was transporting 3,783 new vehicles, including 498 electric vehicles, from the German port of Bremerhaven to Singapore.
The ship has been burning since Tuesday. Firefighters decided not to douse the flames with water for fear of making the nearly 200-meter (219-yard) ship unstable as it floats close to North Sea shipping lanes and a world-renowned migratory bird habitat.
One crew member died and others were injured after the fire broke out. The crew was evacuated in the early hours of Wednesday.
The cause of the fire has not been determined. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-high-winds-stall-efforts-to-tow-a-burning-cargo-ship-packed-with-cars-off-northern-dutch-coast/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:42 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-high-winds-stall-efforts-to-tow-a-burning-cargo-ship-packed-with-cars-off-northern-dutch-coast/ |
Jackson councilman calls for ‘safe zones’ around city’s hospitals
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - A recent shooting near St. Dominic’s and the University of Mississippi Medical Center has one Jackson Councilman calling for safe zones near the city’s hospitals.
Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes says the zones would ramp up police presence and mean harsher penalties for those who commit crimes within them.
He will be asking the city council to approve a measure backing the idea at Tuesday’s meeting.
“We will not tolerate violence of any kind, near or around a hospital or medical facility,” he said. “I believe it should be a five-mile radius at least. And if the legislature helps us with enhanced penalties, we can stop the madness that’s taking place near hospitals and medical facilities.”
Stokes announced the proposal at his Sunday afternoon press conference. The idea comes just days after a woman says a man fired multiple shots at her vehicle near the intersection of Meadowbrook Road and the southbound frontage road along I-55 North.
The intersection is about two miles away from St. Dominic and UMMC.
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Copyright 2023 WLBT. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/31/jackson-councilman-calls-safe-zones-around-citys-hospitals/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:42 | 1 | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/31/jackson-councilman-calls-safe-zones-around-citys-hospitals/ |
At 24, Alberto Rodriguez has grandparents younger than Joe Biden. But he’s more interested in the 80-year-old president’s accomplishments than his age.
“People as young as me, we’re all focusing on our day-to-day lives and he has done things to help us through that,” Rodriguez, a cook at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, said of Biden’s support among young voters. Rodriguez pointed specifically to federal COVID-19 relief payments and government spending increases on infrastructure and other social programs.
Voters like him were a key piece of Biden’s winning 2020 coalition, which included majorities of young people as well as college graduates, women, urban and suburban voters and Black Americans. Maintaining their support will be critical in closely contested states such as Nevada, where even small declines could prove consequential to Biden’s reelection bid.
His 2024 campaign plans to emphasize messages that could especially resonate with young people in the coming weeks as the anniversary of the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act approaches in mid-August. That legislation includes provisions that the White House will embrace to argue that Biden has done more than any other president to combat climate change.
Such efforts, however, could collide with Biden’s personal reality — like when he recalled that, while attending a St. Patrick’s Day parade at age 14, he appeared in a photo with President Harry S. Truman.
“Purely by accident — I assume it was an accident — the photographer from the newspaper got a picture of me making eye contact with Harry Truman,” Biden said to chuckles last week at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium in Washington.
In 2020, 61% of voters under age 30 — and 55% of those between 30 and 44 — supported Biden, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of the electorate.
It’s an age group with which Republicans hope to make inroads. Former President Donald Trump, who is the early front-runner in the GOP presidential primary and is only 3 1/2 years younger than Biden, said Friday, “We are hitting the young person’s market like nobody’s ever seen before.”
Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign, referred to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement in arguing that “young people are acutely impacted by the issues front and center in this election, driven by the extreme MAGA agenda.” He said that included inaction on climate change, gun violence and student debt.
“We will meet younger Americans where they are and turn their energy into action,” Munoz said in a statement.
That might not defuse questions about age, though, when it comes to Biden or Trump.
“There’s a frustration and exhaustion that they feel with the rematch,” Terrance Woodbury, co-founder & CEO of the Democratic polling firm HIT Strategies, said of young voters.
“That’s more of a problem than either of those two candidates individually, is that a system can just keep reproducing,” Woodbury added. “And I think a lot of people just find that untenable.”
An April poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 25% of Democrats under 45 said they would definitely support Biden in a general election, compared with 56% of older Democrats. A majority of Democrats across age groups said they would probably support him as the party’s nominee, however.
Biden’s campaign is relying heavily on the Democratic National Committee, which during last year’s midterms, hired campus organizers in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and other battleground states and offered weekly youth coordinating meetings to encourage in-class contacts and “dormstorms.” The DNC sees young people as some of the most critical voters it will need to reach in 2024 and promises “significant investments” to mobilize them. Plans are underway to expand on its work last cycle, including trainings it held on how best to turn out voters.
The Republican National Committee is trying to use Biden’s age against him, posting online videos of Biden seeming frail or making verbal gaffes, such as when he declared in June “God save the queen,” nearly nine months after the death of England’s Queen Elizabeth II.
Rodriguez shrugged off online attacks, “People can make all the hit pieces and memes and TikToks all they want.”
A starker contrast might be between the president and rising Democrats such as 46-year-old California Rep. Ro Khanna and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, 41, one of Biden’s primary rivals in 2020. Neither seriously entertained running for the White House in 2024 and have backed Biden’s reelection.
“The only thing that really matters is your ability to do the job,” Buttigieg, who was 37 when he launched his 2020 presidential bid, said recently on CNN. Khanna told Fox News Channel that age will “obviously” be a 2024 factor, but suggested that Biden’s staff “overprotects” him and “the more he’s out there, the better.”
Other top young Democrats have lined up to back Biden. Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost, who was elected to Congress last year at 26, is on the Biden campaign’s advisory board, as is Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, 44. New York Rep. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, 33, recently endorsed Biden.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a progressive who says strong turnout among young voters helped him win a runoff election this spring, said Biden’s policies transcend his age. Johnson noted that the president’s work “around climate justice speaks not just to this generation, but generations to come.”
“The excitement that I believe that we’re going to have is going to speak to the incredible work and organizing that we are committed to doing as a party,” said Johnson, 47. “And we’re looking forward to working with the president over the course of his next four years.”
Still, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, acknowledged that even the president’s supporters understand how demanding the White House can be.
“People worry about Joe Biden. They worry like you would worry about a beloved father or grandfather,” said Weingarten, 65. “What you normally hear from Democrats is this sense of, ‘OK, I just want him to be OK.’ And you’re hearing just the consternation of, ’This is a hard job.’”
Biden said he “took a hard look” at his age while deciding to seek a second term. But he’s also tried to suggest his age and experience are assets rather than liabilities by joking repeatedly about them. That’s a departure from 2020, when Biden called himself a “transition candidate” and pledged to be a “bridge” to younger Democrats.
Santiago Mayer, the founder of Voters of Tomorrow, which has 20-plus chapters nationwide and works to increase political engagement among young voters, argues that Biden is not defying his past promise by running for reelection, but keeping it.
“He just needs more time,” said Mayer, who graduated from California State University at Long Beach in May. “I think the second term is a very important part of that pledge. He’s building a progressive future for young people and he can’t actually pass the baton until that’s done.”
One key policy piece of Biden’s efforts to appeal to young voters, providing student debt relief, was recently struck down by the Supreme Court. The White House has launched a new effort, but it will take longer.
“Of course it’s going to dampen some of that because people are disappointed,” Weingarten said of the ruling’s effect on enthusiasm for Biden. But she said the decision could also motivate young Biden supporters anxious show their support for the president’s alternative plan.
“It is also about the fight,” Weingarten said “not just about the results.”
___
AP polling director Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-joe-biden-americas-oldest-sitting-president-needs-young-voters-to-win-again-will-his-age-matter/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:48 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-joe-biden-americas-oldest-sitting-president-needs-young-voters-to-win-again-will-his-age-matter/ |
Plan outlines how $118M in federal water allocations for Jackson could be spent
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - More details are coming to light about how hundreds of millions of dollars in federal allocations will be used to fix Jackson’s water system.
Last year, Congress passed an omnibus spending bill that included some $600 million in disaster relief funds to restore Jackson’s water system in the wake of its failure last August.
$450 million of that will be going into the state’s Drinking Water Revolving Fund Loan Program specifically to help Jackson with disaster recovery.
The intended use plan (IUP) for those funds was approved on June 30. The Intended Use Plan for the entire SRF fund was approved by the Local Governments and Rural Water Systems Improvements Board last week.
According to a copy of that plan, the first $118 million will go toward various projects, including repairing the intake structure at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant and replacing small-diameter water lines across the city.
Interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin is seeking $50 million for the small-diameter line replacements, which will improve water pressure, meet current fire protection standards, and improve the overall appearance, smell, and taste of the water coming into people’s homes, the IUP states.
Requests also include $32.5 million for distribution system optimization and $6 million for a distribution system analysis.
The analysis includes a hydraulic model of the city’s water system, which Henifin previously told a federal judge was already underway.
The $32.5 million for system optimization, meanwhile, would go toward needs identified during that analysis, documents included with the IUP indicate.
Other requests include $24.6 million to pay off about a fifth of Jackson’s State Revolving Fund loan debt. The city has approximately $114.5 million in existing SRF loans. Paying off that $114.5 million would free up about $2.1 million in water and sewer revenues a year, according to Henifin’s financial plan.
The remaining $5 million would go toward repairing the intake structure at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant, a priority project included in the federal court order that took over Jackson’s water system last year.
“The intake structure at the Ross Barnett Reservoir has fallen into a state of disrepair,” the documents state. “The building that houses needed chemical feed equipment and water quality monitoring sensors is in need of replacement to protect those systems from the weather.”
According to the IUP, the chemical feed at the intake facility is used to reduce marine growth in the intake pipes and buildup on the plant’s raw water screens. The sensors, meanwhile, allow operators to “see changing raw water conditions to prepare treatment processes for changing water chemistry.”
Disaster Relief by Anthony Warren on Scribd
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Copyright 2023 WLBT. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/31/plan-outlines-how-118m-federal-water-allocations-jackson-could-be-spent/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:48 | 0 | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/31/plan-outlines-how-118m-federal-water-allocations-jackson-could-be-spent/ |
MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — A “mass shooting” at a large party in Indiana early Sunday morning left one person dead, police said. A hospital said 19 people were being treated for injuries at its facility.
Muncie police responded to multiple reports of gunfire on the city’s east side just after 1 a.m., The Star Press reported. Police said in a news release that there was no active threat to the community and that “multiple” victims were injured, including some critically.
“Due to the number of victims and nature of the incident, multiple agencies were contacted to assist,” Muncie Deputy Police Chief Melissa Criswell said in a statement sent to The Star Press.
Many police officers from the nearby town of Eaton were among those who provided assistance, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page. Eaton Police Chief Jay Turner called the incident a “mass shooting.”
Police did not say how many people were injured, but officials at Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie told The Associated Press that 19 victims were treated in their emergency department for injuries related to the shooting, and 13 remained at the hospital in stabilized condition Sunday morning. Criswell said some victims sustained critical injuries and were transferred by medical helicopter to other facilities.
Delaware County Coroner Gavin Greene identified the man who died as 30-year-old Joseph E. Bonner III, The Star Press reported. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-one-person-is-dead-and-multiple-were-wounded-in-indiana-shooting-police-say/ | 2023-07-31T01:16:54 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-one-person-is-dead-and-multiple-were-wounded-in-indiana-shooting-police-say/ |
CAIRO (AP) — Palestinian factions met Sunday in Egypt to discuss reconciliation efforts as violence in the occupied West Bank surged between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The main groups, Hamas and Fatah, have been split since 2007 and repeated reconciliation attempts having failed, so expectations for the one-day meeting were low.
Participants at the closed-door meeting gave no indication of what was discussed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who initiated the session in the Egyptian city of el-Alamein on the Mediterranean Sea, said at its conclusion only that the meeting was a “first and significant step” in efforts to end the long-running division.
It came amid soaring violence in the West Bank, where Abbas and his Fatah group are based and exert limited self-rule. Israel has been staging near-nightly raids in Palestinian areas of the territory in what it says is an attempt to stamp out militancy, especially in areas where Abbas’ security forces have less of a foothold.
Those raids have led to some of the worst fighting in nearly two decades in the West Bank. Palestinians also say the Israeli raids undermine their own security forces and weaken their leadership.
The meeting in Egypt was chaired by Abbas, presenting the aging and longtime Palestinian leader with a chance to portray an image of control and statesmanship to both Palestinians and the international community at a time when he is deeply unpopular at home and his room for maneuver is constrained by the Israeli incursions.
The meeting was attended by other Palestinian leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip. Fatah and Hamas have been rivals since Hamas violently routed forces loyal to Abbas in Gaza in 2007, taking over the impoverished coastal enclave. Israel and Egypt have imposed a blockade on the territory.
For Hamas, joining the meeting was an opportunity to show Gazans that it is making an effort to mend the rift, even if nothing changes as a result.
Another key group playing a central role in the fighting with Israel, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, boycotted the gathering to protest the detentions by the Palestinian Authority of its members, said to the group’s leader, Ziyad al-Nakhala.
Egypt has for years acted as a mediator in trying to end the infighting between Palestinian factions. It also helped broker truces in multiple rounds of fighting between Israel and Hamas. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-palestinian-factions-meet-in-egypt-to-try-to-reconcile-as-violence-surges-in-the-west-bank/ | 2023-07-31T01:17:00 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-palestinian-factions-meet-in-egypt-to-try-to-reconcile-as-violence-surges-in-the-west-bank/ |
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-plaintiffs-in-voting-rights-case-urge-judges-to-toss-alabamas-new-congressional-map/ | 2023-07-31T01:17:06 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-plaintiffs-in-voting-rights-case-urge-judges-to-toss-alabamas-new-congressional-map/ |
Baltimore Orioles' Gunnar Henderson races to third on a double by Anthony Santander in the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Sunday, July 30, 2023, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Gail Burton) (Gail Burton/AP)
Baltimore Orioles' Adley Rutschman follows through on an RBI single against the New York Yankees in the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, July 30, 2023, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Gail Burton) (Gail Burton/AP)
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and son James spray fans with a hose in the bird bath during the third inning of a baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, Sunday, July 30, 2023, in Baltimore.(AP Photo/Gail Burton) (Gail Burton/AP)
Baltimore Orioles' Ryan O'Hearn follows through on a two-run double against the New York Yankees in the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, July 30, 2023, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Gail Burton) (Gail Burton/AP)
Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer throws to the New York Yankees in the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, July 30, 2023, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Gail Burton) (Gail Burton/AP) | https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bal-sp-orioles-yankees-07302023-vg-20230731-w26cvcbennabdeumotea7y3gaq-photogallery.html | 2023-07-31T01:17:10 | 1 | https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bal-sp-orioles-yankees-07302023-vg-20230731-w26cvcbennabdeumotea7y3gaq-photogallery.html |
DENVER (AP) — As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to 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. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-of-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-31T01:17:12 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-of-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
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 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-for-ukrainian-farmers-looking-to-export-grain/ | 2023-07-31T01:17:18 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-for-ukrainian-farmers-looking-to-export-grain/ |
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish government researchers said Sunday they had identified 357 foreign fighters who went missing during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the conflict that foreshadowed World War II.
Researchers confirmed the names of 212 fighters from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, according to a statement from the government Sunday. Some 102 are of German origin, 70 Austrian and 40 Dutch. It gave no information on how many people of other nationalities had been identified.
The identified combatants fought within the International Brigades, military units set up by the Communist International to fight against General Francisco Franco’s fascist forces. Some 40,000 foreign men and women joined up as volunteers, fighting alongside the forces of the democratic Second Spanish Republic and against the rise of fascism in Europe in late 1930s.
The findings are based on a year of research in records held in documentary archives in Spain and Russia. Researchers combed through the daily lists of casualties and missing soldiers compiled by officers in the International Brigades.
The names of private soldiers were frequently omitted from the lists, making the research process more difficult. These lists are held in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, in Moscow. Researchers also dipped into the main archives on the Spanish Civil War located in Spain.
By cross-referencing documents, researchers were also able to identify the likely area where the soldiers died or were badly wounded. It is an important step toward locating their remains inside mass graves scattered across the country.
This research provides “very valuable information that gives us the opportunity to contact the families of the missing combatants and, in the future, to intervene in the mass graves that have been located,” said Alfons Aragoneses, head of the project.
All those identified were part of the Thälmann Brigade, a Communist unit made up largely of anti-Nazi Germans. The battalion was active on the Ebro River front in northeastern Spain between March and September 1938, the site of the longest and deadliest battle of the war.
The research is ongoing and it is funded by Catalan regional government, with the aim of contributing to the country’s historical memory. The second phase of the project will try to identify missing militiamen from Great Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States. The final step would require opening the graves in search of bodies.
Historians estimate nearly 10,000 foreign volunteers died in combat on Spanish soil during the war. How many are still unidentified, buried inside graves, remains unknown.
The Spanish Civil War served as a testing ground for Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy prior to World War II. This triggered an international outcry to try to save the Republic’s democratic government, which eventually succumbed to Franco in 1939. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-spain-identifies-212-german-austrian-and-dutch-fighters-who-went-missing-during-spanish-civil-war/ | 2023-07-31T01:17:24 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-spain-identifies-212-german-austrian-and-dutch-fighters-who-went-missing-during-spanish-civil-war/ |
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.
___
Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-barbie-bonanza-continues-at-the-box-office-oppenheimer-holds-the-no-2-spot/ | 2023-07-31T01:17:30 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-barbie-bonanza-continues-at-the-box-office-oppenheimer-holds-the-no-2-spot/ |
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Several thousand people briefly took to the streets across the Gaza Strip on Sunday to protest chronic power outages and difficult living conditions, providing a rare public show of discontent with the territory’s Hamas government. Hamas security forces quickly dispersed the gatherings.
Marches took place in Gaza City, the southern town of Khan Younis and other locations, chanting “what a shame” and in one place burning Hamas flags, before police moved in and broke up the protests.
Police destroyed mobile phones of people who were filming in Khan Younis, and witnesses said there were several arrests. Dozens of young supporters and opponents of Hamas briefly faced off, throwing stones at one another.
The demonstrations were organized by a grassroots online movement called “alvirus alsakher,” or “the mocking virus.” It was not immediately known who is behind the movement.
Hamas rules Gaza with an iron fist, barring most demonstrations and quickly stamping out public displays of dissent.
The Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007 from the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, prompting Israel and Egypt to impose a crippling blockade on the territory. Israel says the closure is needed to prevent Hamas, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, from building up its military capabilities.
The closure has devastated Gaza’s economy, sent unemployment skyrocketing and led to frequent power outages. During the current heat wave, people have been receiving four to six hours of power a day due to heavy demand.
“Where is the electricity and where is the gas?” the crowds shouted in Khan Younis. “What a shame. What a shame.”
Protesters also criticized Hamas for deducting a roughly $15 fee from monthly $100 stipends given to Gaza’s poorest families by the wealthy Gulf state of Qatar.
There was no immediate comment from the Hamas authorities. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-thousands-take-to-streets-in-gaza-in-rare-public-display-of-discontent-with-hamas/ | 2023-07-31T01:17:36 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-thousands-take-to-streets-in-gaza-in-rare-public-display-of-discontent-with-hamas/ |
A woman from New Hampshire who works for a nonprofit organization in Haiti and her young daughter have been reported as kidnapped as the U.S. State Department issued a “do not travel advisory” in the country and ordered nonemergency personnel to leave there amid growing security concerns.
Alix Dorsainvil, a nurse for El Roi Haiti, and her daughter were kidnapped on Thursday, the organization said in a statement Saturday. El Roi, which runs a school and ministry in Port au Prince, said the two were taken from campus. Dorsainvil is the wife of the program’s director, Sandro Dorsainvil.
“Alix is a deeply compassionate and loving person who considers Haiti her home and the Haitian people her friends and family,” El Roi president and co-founder Jason Brown said in the statement. “Alix has worked tirelessly as our school and community nurse to bring relief to those who are suffering as she loves and serves the people of Haiti in the name of Jesus.”
A State Department spokesperson said in a statement Saturday is it “aware of reports of the kidnapping of two U.S. citizens in Haiti,” adding, “We are in regular contact with Haitian authorities and will continue to work with them and our U.S. government interagency partners.”
In its advisory Thursday, the department said that “kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens.”
It said kidnappings often involve ransom negotiations and U.S. citizen victims have been physically harmed.
Earlier this month, the National Human Rights Defense Network issued a report warning about an upsurge in killings and kidnappings and the U.N. Security Council met to discuss Haiti’s worsening situation.
WMUR-TV reported that Dorsainvil is from Middleton, New Hampshire, and went to Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, which has a program to support nursing education in Haiti.
“It doesn’t surprise me that Alex chose to get involved in this type of service work,” Regis College president Toni Hays told the station. “She was amazing. She was passionate, she was compassionate.” | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-us-mother-daughter-reported-kidnapped-in-haiti-people-warned-not-to-travel-there/ | 2023-07-31T01:17:42 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-us-mother-daughter-reported-kidnapped-in-haiti-people-warned-not-to-travel-there/ |
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — With less than a month to go until the first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 campaign, seven candidates say they have met qualifications for a spot on stage in Milwaukee.
But that also means that about half the broad GOP field is running short on time to make the cut.
To qualify for the Aug. 23 debate, candidates needed to satisfy polling and donor requirements set by the Republican National Committee: at least 1% in three high-quality national polls or a mix of national and early-state polls, between July 1 and Aug. 21, and a minimum of 40,000 donors, with 200 in 20 or more states.
A look at who’s in, who’s (maybe) out and who’s still working on making it:
DONALD TRUMP
The current front-runner long ago satisfied the polling and donor thresholds. But he is considering boycotting and holding a competing event.
Campaign advisers have said the former president has not made a final decision about the debate. One noted that “it’s pretty clear,” based on Trump’s public and private statements, that he is unlikely to appear with the other candidates.
“If you’re leading by a lot, what’s the purpose of doing it?” Trump asked on Newsmax.
In the meantime, aides have discussed potential alternative programming if Trump opts for a rival event. One option Trump has floated is an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who now has a program on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
RON DESANTIS
The Florida governor has long been seen as Trump’s top rival, finishing a distant second to him in a series of polls in early-voting states, as well as national polls, and raising an impressive amount of money.
But DeSantis’ campaign has struggled in recent weeks to live up to the sky-high expectations that awaited him when he entered the race. He let go of more than one-third of his staff as federal filings showed his campaign was burning through cash at an unsustainable rate.
If Trump is absent, DeSantis may be the top target on stage at the debate.
TIM SCOTT
The South Carolina senator has been looking for a breakout moment. The first debate could be his chance.
A prolific fundraiser, Scott enters the summer with $21 million cash on hand.
In one debate-approved poll in Iowa, Scott joined Trump and DeSantis in reaching double digits. The senator has focused much of his campaign resources on the leadoff GOP voting state, which is dominated by white evangelical voters.
NIKKI HALEY
She has blitzed early-voting states with campaign events, walking crowds through her electoral successes ousting a longtime incumbent South Carolina lawmaker, then becoming the state’s first woman and first minority governor. Also serving as Trump’s U.N. ambassador for about two years, Haley frequently cites her international experience, arguing about the threat China poses to the United States.
The only woman in the GOP race, Haley has said transgender students competing in sports is “the women’s issue of our time” and has drawn praise from a leading anti-abortion group, which called her “uniquely gifted at communicating from a pro-life woman’s perspective.”
Bringing in $15.6 million since the start of her campaign, Haley’s campaign says she has “well over 40,000 unique donors” and has satisfied the debate polling requirements.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY
The biotech entrepreneur and author of “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam” is an audience favorite at multicandidate events and has polled well despite not being nationally known when he entered the race.
Ramaswamy’s campaign says he met the donor threshold earlier this year. He recently rolled out “Vivek’s Kitchen Cabinet” to boost his donor numbers even more, by letting fundraisers keep 10% of what they bring in for his campaign.
CHRIS CHRISTIE
The former New Jersey governor opened his campaign by portraying himself as the only candidate ready to take on Trump. Christie called on the former president to “show up at the debates and defend his record.”
Christie will be on that stage, even if Trump isn’t, telling CNN this month that he surpassed “40,000 unique donors in just 35 days.” He also has met the polling requirements.
DOUG BURGUM
Burgum, a wealthy former software entrepreneur now in his second term as North Dakota’s governor, has been using his fortune to boost his campaign.
He announced a program this month to give away $20 gift cards — “Biden Relief Cards,” as a critique of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy — to as many as 50,000 people in exchange for $1 donations. Critics have questioned whether the offer violated campaign finance law.
Within about a week of launching that effort, Burgum announced he had surpassed the donor threshold. Ad blitzes in the early-voting states also helped him meet the polling requirements.
MIKE PENCE
Trump’s vice president has met the polling threshold but has yet to amass a sufficient number of donors, raising the possibility that he might not qualify for the party’s first debate.
Pence and his advisers have expressed confidence he will do so, noting that most other Republican hopefuls took a month or two of being active candidates to meet the mark. Pence entered the race on June 7, the same day as Burgum and one day after Christie.
“We’re making incredible progress toward that goal. We’re not there yet,” Pence told CNN in a recent interview. “We will make it. I will see you at that debate stage.”
ASA HUTCHINSON
According to his campaign, the former two-term Arkansas governor has met the polling requirements but is working on satisfying the donor threshold. As of Wednesday, Hutchinson marked more than 11,000 unique donors.
Hutchinson is running in the mold of an old-school Republican and has differentiated himself from many of his GOP rivals in his willingness to criticize Trump. He has posted pleas on Twitter for $1 donations to help secure his slot.
FRANCIS SUAREZ
The Miami mayor has been one of the more creative candidates in his efforts to boost his donor numbers. He offered up a chance to see Argentine soccer legend Lionel Messi’s debut as a player for Inter Miami, saying donors who gave $1 would be entered in a chance to get front-row tickets.
Still shy of the donor threshold, he took a page from Burgum’s playbook by offering a $20 “Bidenomics Relief Card” in return for $1 donations. A super political action committee supporting Suarez launched a sweepstakes for a chance at up to $15,000 in tuition, in exchange for a $1 donation to Suarez’s campaign.
Suarez’s campaign did not return a message seeking details on his number of donors or qualifying polls.
LARRY ELDER
The conservative radio host wrote in an op-ed that the RNC “has rigged the rules of the game by instituting a set of criteria that is so onerous and poorly designed that only establishment-backed and billionaire candidates are guaranteed to be on stage.”
His campaign last week declined to detail its number of donors, saying only that there had been “a strong increase the last few weeks.” He has not met the polling requirements.
PERRY JOHNSON
Johnson, a wealthy but largely unknown businessman from Michigan, said in a recent social media post that he had notched 23,000 donors and was “confident” he would make the debate stage. He added that all donors were “eligible to attend my free concert in Iowa featuring” country duo Big & Rich next month.
Johnson, who has reached 1% in one qualifying poll, has also offered to give copies of his book “Two Cents to Save America” to anyone who donated to his campaign.
WILL HURD
The former Texas congressman — the last candidate to enter the race, on June 22 — has said repeatedly that he would not pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee, a stance that would keep him off the stage even if he had the qualifying donor and polling numbers.
___
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-whos-in-whos-out-a-look-at-which-candidates-have-qualified-for-the-1st-gop-presidential-debate/ | 2023-07-31T01:17:48 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-whos-in-whos-out-a-look-at-which-candidates-have-qualified-for-the-1st-gop-presidential-debate/ |
Pakistan bombing kills at least 44 people and injures nearly 200
KHAR, Pakistan (AP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally in a former stronghold of militants in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 44 people and wounding nearly 200 in an attack that a senior leader said was meant to weaken Pakistani Islamists.
The Bajur district near the Afghan border was a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban — a close ally of Afghanistan’s Taliban government — before the Pakistani army drove the militants out of the area. Supporters of hardline Pakistani cleric and political party leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, whose Jamiat Ulema Islam generally supports regional Islamists, were meeting in Bajur in a hall close to a market outside the district capital. Party officials said Rehman was not at the rally but organizers added tents because so many supporters showed up, and party volunteers with batons were helping control the crowd.
Officials were announcing the arrival of Abdul Rasheed, a leader of the Jamiat Ulema Islam party, when the bomb went off in one of Pakistan’s bloodiest attacks in recent years.
Image depicts graphic content] Rescue team help wounded people at scene after a suicide bombing at a public rally in northwestern Pakistan, Bajaur, Khar on July 30, 2023. In an apparent suicide bombing, at least 40 people were killed and hundreds inj
Provincial police said in a statement that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives vest close to the stage where several senior leaders of the party were sitting. It said initial investigations suggested the Islamic State group — which operates in Afghanistan and is an enemy of the Afghan Taliban — could be behind the attack, and officers were still investigating.
RELATED: Ted Kaczynski, known as the "Unabomber," died of suicide, AP reports
"There was dust and smoke around, and I was under some injured people from where I could hardly stand up, only to see chaos and some scattered limbs," said Adam Khan, 45, who was knocked to the ground by the blast around 4 p.m. and hit by splinters in his leg and both hands.
The Pakistan Taliban, or TTP, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that the bombing was aimed at setting Islamists against each other. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that "such crimes cannot be justified in any way."
Image depicts graphic content] An ambulance after a suicide bombing at a public rally in northwestern Pakistan, Bajaur, Khar on July 30, 2023. In an apparent suicide bombing, at least 40 people were killed and hundreds injured ahead of a public rally
The Afghan Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 emboldened the TTP. They unilaterally ended a cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government in November, and have stepped up attacks across the country.
The bombing came hours before the arrival of Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Islamabad, where he was to participate in an event to mark a decade of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, a sprawling package under which Beijing has invested billions of dollars in Pakistan.
In recent months, China has helped Pakistan avoid a default on sovereign payments. However, some Chinese nationals have also been targeted by militants in northwestern Pakistan and elsewhere.
Feroz Jamal, the provincial information minister, told The Associated Press that so far 44 people had been "martyred" and nearly 200 wounded in the bombing.
The bombing was one of the four worst attacks in the northwest since 2014, when 147 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar. In January, 74 people were killed in a bombing at a mosque in Peshawar. n February, more than 100 people, mostly policemen, died in a bombing at a mosque inside a high-security compound housing Peshawar police headquarters.
RELATED: 10 years after the Boston Marathon bombings: A timeline of events
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Arif Alvi condemned the attack and asked officials to provide all possible assistance to the wounded and the bereaved families. Sharif later, in a phone call to Rehman, the head of the JUI, conveyed his condolences to him and assured him that those who orchestrated the attack would be punished.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad also condemned the attack. In a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, it expressed its condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims killed in the attack..
Maulana Ziaullah, the local chief of Rehman’s party, was among the dead. JUI leaders Rasheed and former lawmaker Maulana Jamaluddin were also on the stage but escaped unhurt.
Rasheed, the regional chief of the party, said the attack was an attempt to remove JUI from the field before parliamentary elections in November, but he said such tactics would not work. The bombing drew nationwide condemnation, with the ruling and opposition parties extending condolences to the families of those who died in the attack.
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Rehman is considered to be a pro-Taliban cleric and his political party is part of the coalition government in Islamabad. Meetings are being organized across the country to mobilize supporters for the upcoming elections.
"Many of our fellows lost their lives and many more wounded in this incident. I will ask the federal and provincial administrations to fully investigate this incident and provide due compensation and medical facilities to the affected ones," Rasheed said.
Mohammad Wali, another attendant at the rally, said he was listening to a speaker address the crowd when the huge explosion temporarily deafened him.
"I was near the water dispenser to fetch a glass of water when the bomb exploded, throwing me to the ground," he said. "We came to the meeting with enthusiasm but ended up at the hospital seeing crying, wounded people and sobbing relatives taking the bodies of their loved ones."
Riaz Khan reported from Peshawar. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmad contributed from Islamabad. | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/pakistan-bombing-kills-at-least-44-people-and-injures-nearly-200 | 2023-07-31T01:17:52 | 0 | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/pakistan-bombing-kills-at-least-44-people-and-injures-nearly-200 |
BRIGHTON, Iowa (AP) — You-pick farms are struggling through heat, drought and haze as customers cancel picking appointments and crops across Iowa refuse to grow.
These farms offer visitors the chance to harvest their own produce straight from the tree, bush or ground.
But this summer marks Iowa’s third year in a row of drought. And that is hurting farmers who grow water-intensive crops like blueberries and strawberries that are particularly sensitive to heat and drought, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.
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.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-you-pick-farms-lose-customers-and-crops-through-heat-drought-and-haze-in-iowa/ | 2023-07-31T01:17:54 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-you-pick-farms-lose-customers-and-crops-through-heat-drought-and-haze-in-iowa/ |
Police: Murder suspect lived with dead roommate for 'extended period of time'
LAS VEGAS - A Nevada man is accused of killing his roommate and living with her deceased body for an extended period of time.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said 31-year-old George Anthony Bone was arrested and booked on a murder charge.
Officers said on July 26, they responded to a home after getting a report that a deceased woman was inside.
Police said her death appeared to be suspicious and classified her death as a homicide but provided no other details about the circumstances.
According to FOX 5 Vegas, the victim has been identified as Beverly Ma. The outlet reported that the Ma's sister reached out to authorities to conduct a welfare check.
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She also told the outlet that her sister had been dead inside the master bedroom closet for two months.
The family also said Ma suffered trauma and was not close to the family. They last saw here in April and had supposedly received subsequent texts from Ma's phone saying she couldn't make a family trip. The family texted her again but didn't get a response.
FOX 5 also reported that recently, the family went to go check on Ma, but Bone had told them she was dead. Bone also told the family that he didn't call the police because he knew he would be arrested.
The outlet also reported that when one of Ma's relative went to go check on her, Bone reportedly said, "Why do you have to see? If you want to see, I can show her to you," then led her to the master bedroom.
This story was reported from Los Angeles. | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/police-murder-suspect-lived-with-dead-roommate-for-extended-period-of-time | 2023-07-31T01:17:58 | 0 | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/police-murder-suspect-lived-with-dead-roommate-for-extended-period-of-time |
Rare Beauty products by Selena Gomez are going viral
Since its debut in 2019, Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty company has taken the makeup industry by storm, mostly by dominating social media. The brand offers tinted moisturizer, bronzer, highlighter, setting powder, blush and other facial products; eye makeup such as eyeshadow, mascara and eyebrow pencils; products to enhance the lips, including lipstick, lip liner, lip oil and more. We researched the trendiest, most popular products from this celebrity-owned beauty brand worth adding to your makeup routine.
Shop this article: Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush, Rare Beauty Liquid Touch Brightening Concealer, and Rare Beauty Perfect Strokes Universal Volumizing Mascara
About Rare Beauty
Selena Gomez’s vision for Rare Beauty breaks down unrealistic standards of perfection in the makeup industry. The brand’s mission is to help wearers celebrate the rarity that is their individuality, the main objective being “to create a safe, welcoming space in beauty — and beyond — that supports mental well-being across age, gender identity, sexual orientation, rare, cultural background, physical or mental ability and perspective,” according to the Rare Beauty site.
Rare Beauty products are cruelty-free, meaning they were developed without experimentation on animals. Depending on the product type, they’re also ophthalmologist- and/or dermatologist-tested. Many of the products have noncomedogenic ingredients that won’t clog or block pores, and there are various options for sensitive skin. Rare Beauty has a selection of vegan products, as well. They’re a skin-friendly, self-aware brand that wants to make the world a better place.
Top Rare Beauty products, according to customers
Rare Beauty Kind Words Matte Lipstick
This buttery matte lipstick comes in 10 pigment-rich shades ranging from natural to bold. Suitable for sensitive skin, the creamy formula lasts all day while keeping lips soft and moisturized throughout wear.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Kind Words Matte Lip Liner
This creamy, waterproof lip liner defines and shapes the lips while staying put all day — it’s perfect for outlining the lips or coloring them in. The lightweight formula keeps the lips feeling soft and won’t smudge. It features a built-in sharpener and comes in the same 10 shades as the Kind Words Matte Lipstick for effortless color matching.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush
This lush liquid blush is Rare Beauty’s top-seller, having received Allure’s Best of Beauty award in 2022. The lightweight, buildable formula gives you a soft flush of color with long-lasting pigments for all-day wear. It’s suitable for sensitive skin and has 13 beautiful matte and dewy finishes.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Liquid Touch Brightening Concealer
This medium-coverage concealer hides blemishes, dark circles, redness and fine lines while evening out skin texture. It’s made with botanical ingredients that soothe and nourish the skin. The creamy formula is lightweight, buildable and sweat-resistant, with 48 shades to match virtually every skin tone.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Liquid Touch Weightless Foundation
This liquid foundation feels like a serum with a layerable, medium-coverage formula and a blend of botanical ingredients that soothe and nourish the skin. It’s best used with normal and combination skin types, available in 48 shades that accommodate nearly every skin tone.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Positive Light Liquid Luminizer
This silky liquid highlighter feels like a second skin, creating a dewy, healthy-looking glow with superfine, light-catching pearls. Botanical ingredients have a soothing and nourishing effect on the skin. It layers well over makeup and provides all-day coverage with seven luminous shades.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer Stick
This cream bronzer gives you a sun-kissed glow and adds gentle warmth to the skin with its natural finish. The formula is buildable, water-resistant and won’t clog your pores. It features Rare Beauty’s signature botanical ingredients for a calming and hydrating effect on the skin. The brand sells seven natural-looking shades, and the stick application makes it easy to use.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Always an Optimist Soft Radiance Setting Powder
This loose setting powder smooths skin texture, blurring the look of pores and controlling shine for a radiant yet natural finish. It helps makeup stay in place all day and is especially useful for those who struggle with oily skin. The container has a locking sifter for keeping the application process and storage mess-free. This setting powder comes in five sheer shades.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Perfect Strokes Universal Volumizing Mascara
This volumizing mascara was created for all lash types, featuring castor oil that conditions and nourishes your lashes. The unique curvy brush design combines long bristles that add length and short bristles for increasing volume. It’s an ultra-black, buildable, water-resistant formula that performs well all day. This mascara is safe for those with sensitive eyes and contact lenses.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Positive Light Under Eye Brightener
If you struggle with dark circles or discoloration under the eyes, this liquid brightener will visibly brighten and smooth out the under-eye area for a refreshed look. The lightweight formula is enriched by hydrating white peony and vitamin E extracts. It’s easy to blend and layer using your fingertip, with six shades covering various skin tones.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Positive Light Tinted Moisturizer
This tinted moisturizer blurs and evens skin tone while minimizing the look of pores and fine lines. It offers glowy, light to medium coverage, with a hydrating formula containing vitamin E and SPF 20 broad-spectrum sunscreen. The long-lasting moisturizer is nongreasy and comes in 24 flexible shades.
Sold by Sephora
Rare Beauty Always an Optimist 4-In-1 Mist
This unique facial mist contains a layer of water-based active ingredients and another with nourishing oils that work together to hydrate, prime and set the skin. The refreshing mist boosts the foundation’s performance, and the natural, radiant finish won’t feel greasy. Suitable for sensitive skin, this versatile product comes in 0.12- and 2.87-fluid-ounce bottles.
Sold by Sephora
Worth checking out
- With a glossy finish and gentle plumping effect on the lips, the Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil is a beauty-lover favorite.
- If you prefer using a powder highlighter, the Rare Beauty Positive Light Silky Touch Highlighter is an excellent option for a soft, natural-looking glow.
- The award-winning Rare Beauty Stay Vulnerable Melting Blush offers a natural satin finish with a subtle blurring effect.
- The Rare Beauty Perfect Strokes Longwear Gel Eyeliner is a waterproof product that will stay in place — even on the waterline — with a built-in sharpener for precise application.
- The waterproof Rare Beauty Brow Harmony Precision Pencil is another stellar pick among fans for fuller-looking, more defined brows.
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/beauty-personal-care-br/makeup-palettes-sets-br/these-are-the-most-popular-rare-beauty-products/ | 2023-07-31T01:18:00 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/beauty-personal-care-br/makeup-palettes-sets-br/these-are-the-most-popular-rare-beauty-products/ |
Bouldering equipment for beginners
Bouldering is gaining in popularity throughout the world. It’s an exciting and rewarding way to strengthen your muscles, increase flexibility and improve coordination. It lets you explore new locations and meet new people. Though it may seem intimidating when starting out, one of the best aspects of bouldering is the minimal equipment required. By investing in a few core pieces of climbing gear, you can tackle your next adventure and work your way up a challenging route.
Shop this article: La Sportiva Men’s TarantuLace Climbing Shoe, Black Diamond Circuit Crash Pad and Sukoa Chalk Bag
Bouldering vs. rope climbing: what’s the difference?
There are a few main differences between bouldering and traditional rock climbing. Most importantly, bouldering doesn’t require the use of any ropes since most routes are less than 15 feet in height. If you do happen to fall, you land on either a cushioned gym floor or a crash pad in outdoor situations. Traditional climbing requires the use of ropes, a harness, carabiners and often a partner to help belay while you make your ascent.
Bouldering also often uses different techniques and climbing moves compared to big wall climbs. It can be a great way for beginner climbers to build up their stamina and endurance before attempting longer routes or “boulder problems.”
Bouldering tips to get started
Here are five tips for bouldering.
- Know the scales: Most bouldering routes have a rating that corresponds to their difficulty. The two most common grading scales are V-scale and Font scale. V-scale is the system most commonly used in the United States and grades the difficulty on a scale of V0 to V16. While V0 is usually considered the easiest, you may sometimes encounter a route rated as VB, meaning it is for beginners.
- Start slow: As with most new sports or athletic activities, it’s always a good idea to start off slow and work your way up as you gain strength and experience. While it may seem tempting to tackle a hard boulder problem right out of the gate, overdoing it can lead to an increased risk of injury.
- It’s fine to fall: Always take all safety precautions seriously and always use proper safety gear, such as a crash pad when bouldering outdoors. However, the occasional fall while attempting a climb is only natural. As long as you have the proper safety equipment, each fall can be a learning experience, helping you improve your climbing abilities.
- Practice different moves: Don’t get stuck climbing in one style. Trying out different moves and varying your grip can help improve your skills. This is especially important for beginners starting out in a gym setting before transitioning to outdoor climbs.
- Legs are important: It may seem like bouldering is all about arm strength for beginners, but that isn’t the case. Your legs and core muscles are equally important. Your legs can help tightly grip footholds and push your body upwards without relying solely on arm strength.
Beginner bouldering gear
The three main pieces of gear you need to start bouldering are climbing shoes, a crash pad and a chalk bag to keep your hands dry. Besides the big three, there are several accessories that can improve your bouldering experience.
Best climbing shoes
La Sportiva Men’s TarantuLace Climbing Shoe
These bouldering shoes are perfect for both beginner and intermediate climbers. The high-traction Frixion sole means you can grip the rock face with confidence. The quick-lacing system provides a comfortable fit.
Sold by Amazon
Scarpa Origin Women’s Climbing Shoe
These women’s climbing shoes are a great beginner option. They use a flat last and heel system that reduces pressure and tension so they aren’t painful on your feet after a full day spent bouldering.
Sold by Backcountry
Best crash pads
Black Diamond Circuit Crash Pad
This crash pad is great for transporting to your favorite bouldering spot without being too heavy or bulky. The closed-cell PE foam is ideal for cushioning falls from various heights. It has backpack straps and easy-to-carry handles.
Sold by Amazon
This protective crash pad features 5 inches of padding and can even serve as a comfortable chair when not in use. You can choose between several fun colors.
Sold by Amazon
Best chalk bags and chalk
This budget-friendly chalk bag is great for beginners. It features two built-in pockets, letting you store important items while bouldering. The main compartment uses water-resistant materials. It’s spacious enough to accommodate larger hands.
Sold by Amazon
This simple chalk bag with a drawstring closure makes it easy to access your chalk with one hand. It is also available in several color options.
Sold by Amazon
This non-toxic chalk prevents any type of moisture from interfering with your climb, keeping your hands dry and your mind focused.
Sold by Amazon
Best climbing accessories
Using climbing tape can be helpful when getting your fingers and hands used to rough rock surfaces. This tape uses durable cotton and can prevent painful scrapes and scratches while building up callouses.
Sold by Amazon
Metolius Simulator 3D Training Board
An at-home training board can help you practice your grips on days when the weather isn’t cooperating, and you can’t make it to the gym. This Metolius model can be installed above your door frame and features a variety of holds in different sizes.
Sold by Amazon
PETZL Unisex Boreo Climbing Helmet
Not all people who boulder choose to wear a helmet, but they can help prevent a serious head injury in the event of an unexpected fall. This helmet has ventilation holes for breathability and sports a soft, comfortable headband.
Sold by Backcountry
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/camping-outdoors-br/gear-br/beginners-guide-to-bouldering-equipment-what-you-need-to-get-started/ | 2023-07-31T01:18:08 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/camping-outdoors-br/gear-br/beginners-guide-to-bouldering-equipment-what-you-need-to-get-started/ |
Which product helps prevent thigh chafing best?
Do you find your sense of style forever or athletic endeavors in conflict with the possibility of uncomfortable thigh chafing? You’re not alone. Sometimes a great outfit can be rendered completely unusable because you know your thighs will be left feeling red and raw after a little while. The same goes for people who do a lot of running or swimming. Fortunately, you no longer have to choose between what you want to do or wear and the toll it will take on your skin. There are creams, clothes and even creative accessories designed to soothe skin and prevent thigh chafing so you can live your life comfortably.
Shop this article: Monistat Care Chafing Relief Powder Gel, Body Glide Skin Glide Anti-Friction Cream and Undersummers by CarrieRae Women’s Shortlette
What causes thigh chafing?
The friction produced between the thighs when they rub together causes thigh chafing. It can make the skin red and cause irritation or even pain. Chafing, in general, is often considered an athlete concern, but it can be especially problematic for anyone during seasons when skirts and dresses are popular. Long pants usually lessen friction by providing a barrier of fabric between your thighs, which is why it’s often less of a problem when temperatures drop. Though inconvenient and uncomfortable, you can address thigh chafing and lessen or prevent it in a variety of ways.
What solutions are available?
These days, there are a few preventative measures you can take to avoid thigh chafing. There are rub-in creams or roll-on palms designed to do the trick, but if you’d prefer something wearable, there are shorts and bands that serve the same purpose.
Best rub-in thigh chafing preventatives
Monistat Care Chafing Relief Powder Gel
This is a non-greasy, fragrance-free formula that’s gentle on sensitive skin and combines the best of lotion and powder care. It protects skin, relieves irritation and is reliable for everyday use. It can be used for thigh chafing as well as underarm or breast chafing.
Sold by Amazon
Body Glide Skin Glide Anti-Friction Cream
This hypoallergenic hydrating cream doesn’t leave a greasy residue and creates a smooth barrier that protects sensitive skin. It won’t clog pores and washes off easily in the bath or shower. The cream prevents thigh chafing in both humid and dry climates.
Sold by Amazon
Though Aquaphor is mostly used for cracked skin, chapped lips and even tattoo care, it also makes for an excellent thigh chafing preventative. It’s incredibly nourishing for sensitive skin and it’s fragrance-free. A little goes a long way, and so a large jar like this one will last a while.
Sold by Amazon
Chamois Butt’r Original Anti-Chafe Cream
This anti-chafe cream is great for athletes or anyone experiencing uncomfortable thigh chafing. It’s gluten-free, paraben-free and has no artificial fragrances or colors in it. It also rubs into the skin smoothly and evenly.
Sold by Amazon
Blue Steel Sports Anti-Chafe Cream
This anti-chafing cream is called a “sports” cream but is made for anyone and includes natural tea tree oil. It’s water/sweat resistant, making it great for those planning on swimming or even just walking around on a hot day. It’s not greasy and won’t stain your clothes either.
Sold by Amazon
Best stick/roll-on thigh chafing preventatives
Vaseline All Over Body Balm Jelly Stick
This anti-friction jelly stick really nourishes dry skin. It can prevent chafing before it happens or soothes skin already sore from it. You can even use it on chapped lips or dry, cracked hands.
KT Tape KT Performance+ Anti-Chafing Stick
Here is a gel stick that is sweat-resistant, water-resistant and made to last up to 24 hours. It’s not sticky and holds up in both humid and dry climates. There are no sulfates, parabens, petroleum or dyes included in this formula.
Sold by Amazon
Zone Naturals Chub Rub All Natural Anti-Chafing Stick
This anti-chafing stick is made with all-natural ingredients that include coconut oil, Shea butter and aloe. It helps to protect and hydrate skin with the bonus of being paraben-free and fragrance-free.
Sold by Amazon
Squirrel’s Nut Butter All Natural Anti Chafe Salve Stick Applicator
Here is a salve popular with men and women for dry/sensitive skin. It’s in stick applicator form and great at preventing thigh chafing but can also be used for eczema, dry skin, diaper rash, razor burn and tattoo recovery.
Sold by Amazon
This anti-friction stick is designed specifically for thighs but you can use it anywhere to prevent chafing. It is made with aloe, pomegranate seed extract, Vitamin E and other natural ingredients. It’s sulfate, aluminum, paraben and phthalates-free.
Sold by Ulta Beauty
Best wearable thigh chafing preventatives
Hanes Men’s Comfort Flex Fit Total Support Pouch 3-Pack
Available in long leg or regular leg sizes, this package comes with three comfortable and breathable boxer briefs in assorted colors. They are made from a polyester/spandex blend and won’t ride up the thigh even after going through the washing machine.
Sold by Amazon
Wirarpa Women’s Anti Chafing Cotton Underwear
This set of three comes available in several color combinations and provides a comfortable fit for chafe-free thighs. The underwear is made from a cotton/spandex blend and it’s machine washable (though you should hang dry).
Sold by Amazon
Bandelettes Patented Trademarked Original Elastic Anti-Chafing Thigh Bands
Available in several colors and styles, this set of nylon/spandex blend bands is perfect for those who want their thighs protected but don’t want to wear long underwear or shorts beneath their clothes. They look delicate and flirty but are hand-wash only and line dry.
Sold by Amazon
Undersummers by CarrieRae Women’s Shortlette
This stretchy polyester/spandex shortlette protects thighs without causing extra friction that can be painful to the skin. It doesn’t ride up and comes in three colors (ecru, beige and black).
Sold by Amazon
Chicky Chaps Stretch-Mesh Breathable Thigh Bands
These mesh and lace thigh bands clip onto underwear to not fall and come in seven colors and styles. They aren’t the most durable chafe preventative, but if you’re looking for something sexier that looks like lingerie, these bands fit the bill. They are hand-wash only and line dry.
Sold by Amazon
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Emily Verona writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
BestReviews spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing and testing products to recommend the best picks for most consumers.
Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/health-wellness-br/medical-supplies-equipment-br/15-products-that-help-prevent-thigh-chafing/ | 2023-07-31T01:18:15 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/health-wellness-br/medical-supplies-equipment-br/15-products-that-help-prevent-thigh-chafing/ |
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.kswo.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-31T01:18:21 | 1 | https://www.kswo.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
Smart thermostats
Smart thermostats save you time, money and energy by creating heating and cooling schedules and monitoring your usage. You can even make adjustments from your phone. But these aren’t the only features of smart thermostats.
Shop this article: Honeywell Home Wi-Fi Thermostat, Ecobee SmartSensor Two-Pack and Nest Thermostat Wall Plate
How does a smart thermostat work?
Smart thermostats use Wi-Fi connectivity to connect to your smart home network. They can also connect to your smartphone, laptop, tablet or smartwatch. This lets you use those devices to monitor, make adjustments to and set schedules for the temperature in your home. This is usually through a smart thermostat’s companion app. They can also adjust temperatures with algorithms that track your routines, lifestyle and the weather.
For example, a smart thermostat can learn that you come home at 5 p.m. every day. It can then adjust your heating, ventilation and air conditioning system to ensure your home is at a comfortable temperature when you arrive. Some smart thermostats can also turn off your heat or AC when you depart each day.
How can a smart thermostat save me money?
Some manufacturers claim their smart thermostats can save you up to 25% on utility bills. This is partly accomplished by improving your heating, ventilation and AC system’s performance and reducing energy consumption. Another way is by letting you monitor and make adjustments to temperature settings remotely. If you forget to turn off your heat before leaving, for example, you could use your smart thermostat’s companion app to turn it off without returning. Being able to set schedules and take advantage of algorithmic learning also helps.
Many smart thermostats, such as the Nest Learning Thermostat or Honeywell Home Wi-Fi Thermostat, also generate reports on energy usage and heating and cooling patterns. By reviewing your usage data you can make informed decisions about how you consume energy.
What do I need to consider when choosing a smart thermostat?
Existing heating, ventilation and AC system
The smart thermostat you buy must be compatible with your home’s existing heating, ventilation and AC system. Many popular smart thermostat models include compatibility checkers on their websites. Smart thermostats also often require a C-wire, enabling the continuous flow of power to the thermostat. This is necessary for features like Wi-Fi connectivity and touch screens. Some thermostat ports aren’t equipped with C-wires because many older thermostats don’t need them.
If you don’t have a C-wire, you can hire an electrician to install one. You can also choose a smart thermostat designed to work without a C-wire, such as the Emerson Sensi. Alternatively, you can buy a C-wire adapter to install near your heating, ventilation and AC system’s control board.
Compatibility with your existing smart home system
If you already have smart home devices, select a smart thermostat that is compatible with your system. If you use Apple HomeKit, for example, select a model you can control from the platform such as the Carrier Cor or the Hive. For an IFTTT smart home system, consider the Google Nest Learning Thermostat.
What you need to buy to go with your smart thermostat
These sensors work with the Ecobee Smart Thermostat to detect motion to adjust the temperature in rooms that are in use.
Sold by Amazon
Match your Nest Thermostat to the other design elements of your living space. Wall plates come in a variety of colors including white, silver, black and bronze.
Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/home-br/heating-cooling-air-quality-br/how-do-smart-thermostats-work/ | 2023-07-31T01:18:22 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/home-br/heating-cooling-air-quality-br/how-do-smart-thermostats-work/ |
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.”
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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.kswo.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-31T01:18:28 | 0 | https://www.kswo.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
Make your own pasta at home
Making pasta by hand looks impressive, but the truth is, homemade pasta is surprisingly simple to create. You can get started with just three ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen. Even if the only tools you have are a rolling pin and a chef’s knife, you can feed your family and friends a satisfying and delicious meal made entirely from scratch. All you’ll need is a recipe, a couple of hours, and just a little bit of practice.
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Is homemade pasta better?
You won’t just get a sense of accomplishment from making your own pasta — it tastes better, too. Fresh pasta has a more tender texture and a more pronounced eggy flavor than commercial-dried pasta. The pasta’s springiness holds up equally well, whether it goes into lasagna or straight onto the plate with some butter. You can even try making pasta dough with unusual ingredients like spinach or saffron for an extra-special meal.
How to get started making pasta
Hamilton Beach Stack & Snap Food Processor
Making the pasta dough
There are as many fresh pasta recipes as there are people who make pasta, but to get started, it’s best to stick with a simple pasta dough that uses just a few ingredients: unbleached all-purpose flour, eggs, and a bit of salt.
If you want, you can use semolina durum flour, which is a more authentic pasta flour with a higher protein content and a coarser texture that helps sauces stick. However, if all-purpose flour is all you have in your pantry, it’ll turn into wonderful pasta.
Place 10 ounces of flour on a clean work surface and make a well. Add two eggs plus four egg yolks to the well and gently start incorporating the flour using a fork, gradually scraping in flour from the sides of the well. Switch to a bench scraper when it becomes too difficult to use a fork and mix until it’s fully combined by scraping and folding over the dough, turning it 45 degrees each time.
Kneading and rolling the pasta dough
You’ll know the dough is ready for kneading when it stops sticking to your hands and holds its shape when rolled into a ball. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it’s smooth and satiny, then shape it into a ball. Let it rest, wrapped in plastic wrap, for 30 to 60 minutes to let gluten develop.
Use the bench scraper to cut the ball into four equal portions and cover them with a towel to keep them from drying out. Working with one portion at a time, roll out the dough into an oblong shape between a quarter-inch and half-inch thick.
Making pasta by hand vs. using a stand mixer
If your arms aren’t up to the task of all that kneading, you can use a powerful food processor or a stand mixer. Simply place all the ingredients in the work bowl and run the machine (using a dough hook if you’re using a stand mixer) until a large, smooth ball forms.
How to shape homemade pasta
CucinaPro Pasta Maker Deluxe Set
Making pasta shapes with a pasta machine
Roll out your dough by hand or use a pasta maker. Some pasta machines can create extruded shapes like penne, while others deliver smooth sheets and strands of lasagna or fettuccine. Following the manufacturer’s instructions for the type of pasta you want to make, feed your rolled-out dough between the rollers until it reaches the right thickness.
At this point, you can trim it by hand to make filled pasta or lasagna or run it through the pasta machine to cut it into strands. As the cut pasta strands emerge from the machine, carefully catch them, dust them with flour, shape them into nests, and keep them covered until you’re ready to cook or dry them.
A stand mixer offers another advantage here: after you’ve whipped up a batch of pasta dough in the bowl, use the mixer’s pasta-making attachment to roll out, cut, or shape pasta.
How to make filled pasta
For filled pasta, make sure your filling is relatively dry so you can seal up your pasta and avoid leaking or soggy dough. Avoid the temptation to overload your pasta — follow your recipe’s guidance for the amount of filling to use in each pasta shape.
Depending on the type of stuffed pasta you’re making, you can use a pasta stamp, a pastry wheel, biscuit cutters, or even a chef’s knife to create rounds or squares. Seal the pasta by brushing the edges with a little water, then using gentle pressure to close the shapes. Make sure the filling is fully enclosed and that no air is trapped inside.
How to cook homemade pasta
Weston Bamboo Pasta Drying Rack
Cooking fresh pasta
Homemade pasta cooks very quickly — depending on the shape, it will need only two to four minutes in boiling water, and slightly longer for stuffed pasta. Salt your cooking water generously to amplify your pasta’s flavor, especially if your dough recipe doesn’t call for salt. Serve it immediately.
How to dry fresh pasta
Alternatively, you can dry your uncooked pasta to serve at a future date. Leaving egg-based food out in the open can feel counterintuitive, but when properly dried and stored, there should be no moisture remaining to encourage bacteria.
Toss the pasta shapes in flour, then lay the strands in a single layer on a drying rack or on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let the pasta dry uncovered and away from heat and sunlight, or use a food dehydrator for more consistency, especially if it’s a humid day. When the pasta snaps instead of bending, it’s ready for storage. Keep it in a dry, airtight container in your pantry or freezer.
FAQ
Q. How long does homemade pasta last?
A. Homemade pasta has a much shorter shelf life than commercially made pasta. Uncooked pasta can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for just one day. Properly dried homemade pasta can be stored in your pantry for up to six weeks. Alternatively, before you cut your pasta shapes, you can wrap the dough in plastic wrap and freeze it for up to one month.
Q. What sauces go with homemade pasta?
A. How you serve your pasta may come down to personal preference, but the shape of the pasta is a contributing factor. Pair fettuccine or tagliatelle with a homemade alfredo sauce or pesto. Wider pasta like pappardelle is great with slow-simmered meat sauces. You can also highlight the flavor of your fresh pasta (especially ravioli) by simply tossing it in browned butter and high-quality Parmesan.
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Can you fertilize a lawn in the summer?
Few things can add or detract as much from a home’s curb appeal as the landscaping, and your grass is a significant aspect of that. Healthy and well-manicured grass gives a home a welcoming feeling, while a dead or overgrown yard makes everything look unkempt.
Fertilizing is vital to keeping your lawn looking its best, but it must be done correctly and at the right time of the year. Many people often wonder if they can fertilize their yard in the summer. To clear up that confusion once and for all, we’ve put together this handy guide that covers everything you need to know.
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What is the best time to fertilize your lawn?
You should be fertilizing your lawn at least twice a year. However, if you pick the wrong season or the wrong fertilizer, you can cause excessive weed growth or even burn the grass. Part of knowing when to fertilize your yard is about knowing what type of grass you have. You should fertilize your lawn when it is actively growing. If you have cool-season grass, early spring, when the temperatures are between 60-75 degrees is the optimal time for the first feeding.
Warm-season grasses tend to start sending up green shoots a bit later in the spring when the temperatures reach 80 degrees or higher. When you see this start happening, it’s time to sprinkle your fertilizer.
You should also fertilize both cool- and warm-season grasses in the fall. This helps ensure healthy roots during the winter months, which results in healthier, greener grass the following spring.
How often should you fertilize your lawn in the summer?
While the most important times to fertilize your lawn are the spring and fall, these shouldn’t necessarily be the only times. For both types of grasses, a second feeding should follow about six weeks after the first. Depending on the date of your first round of fertilizing, this might be very late spring or early summer. However, make sure to read the manufacturer’s guidelines on the fertilizer you use, as the recommended interval between feedings may be longer or shorter.
It is usually best to avoid fertilizing during the hottest months, but if you have to do it, make sure to use the correct fertilizer type.
Choosing the right fertilizer
Synthetic fertilizers come in slow- and fast-release formulas. In addition to the essential nutrients of nitrogen, potassium and phosphate, they may also contain calcium, magnesium, sulfur and other ingredients.
While synthetic fertilizers are a good choice for spring and fall use, you should avoid them during the summer. This is because they typically have a very high nutrient content and are likely to burn the grass.
Organic fertilizers are made from fish meal, compost, manure and other natural ingredients. It has a lower nutrient content, which makes it gentler and ideal for summer use. Organic fertilizer tends to break down slowly too, so it will continue feeding the grass for months after application.
Fertilizing your lawn in the summer heat
Prepare your yard in advance
To get the best results, mow your lawn a day or two before you plan on applying the fertilizer. This helps ensure the fertilizer spreads evenly and falls to the soil, rather than sitting atop the blades of grass where it can potentially burn them. After the mowing, heavily water your lawn to saturate the soil thoroughly.
Do it at the right time of day
Later afternoon or early evening is the best time to apply fertilizer. Never do it in the middle of the day under direct sun, or you may burn the grass.
Use the right equipment
It is essential to spread fertilizer evenly across the yard. Too little in one place, and it won’t grow as well as the rest of the lawn. Too much in one spot, and it can harm or even kill the grass. The best way to ensure an even spread is by using a broadcast spreader.
Water after fertilizing
After applying fertilizer, lightly water your lawn. This is to wash any fertilizer that may have landed on the blades of grass down to the soil. Make sure not to overly saturate the soil, though, as you want to give it some time to absorb the nutrients. If you water it too heavily, you run the risk of washing the fertilizer away.
What you need to buy for fertilizing
This all-natural fertilizer is safe to use around kids and pets and is suitable for all grass types and seasons. A single bag covers a 4000-square-foot lawn.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Scotts EdgeGuard Mini Broadcast Spreader
A reliable and reasonably-priced model, this broadcaster spreader is a good choice for many homeowners. It offers easy-to-use rate control and doesn’t require any assembly.
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Scotts Wizz Hand-held Spreader
If your yard is too small for a wheeled broadcast spreader, or you simply find a handheld model to be more convenient, the Wizz is a suitable option. It is lightweight and features 23 flow-rate settings.
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The Flexzilla garden hose comes in several lengths ranging from 10-100 feet, so there is certainly one that will perfectly fit your needs. It retains its flexibility in all weather conditions and has a rugged build that should last through many seasons.
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Luster Leaf 1601 Rapitest Test Kit for Soil
Though unnecessary for fertilizing your lawn, having a soil test kit like this is a brilliant idea. It helps you identify what nutrients your soil is lacking, or has an excess of, so you can make sure to buy the right fertilizer.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Brett Dvoretz writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Become a lawn master
Knowing how to plant a new lawn is a useful skill to have, no matter if you’re moving into a new house, sprucing up your current one, or you just want to develop your green thumb. A lush green lawn is often the first thing people notice about your home, and well-manicured grass can greatly increase the value of your property. With a few personal touches, you can make it your own.
While it may seem like a daunting task at first, planting or renovating your lawn is relatively simple when broken down into a few easy-to-follow steps.
Shop this article: Tillers, Fertilizers and Lawn Rollers
Sod vs. seed
First, you must decide whether you want to use grass seed or sod on your lawn.
Let’s start with sod, as grass seed is relatively self-explanatory. Sod, also known as instant lawn or turf grass, is rolled grass that offers several benefits over grass seed. The most obvious is that it’s much faster to establish and gives the look of a finished lawn instantly. In addition, quality sod has few or no weed seeds present, which can save major headaches (and backaches) down the road. Also, because it’s heartier than young grass, sod can be installed nearly any time of year, so long as the ground isn’t frozen or exposed to extreme heat. However, it’s not without disadvantages.
Due to its convenience, sod is initially more expensive than grass seed and requires labor to install. Your grass choices are restricted as well, because most sod farmers grow their products in full sun. That means if your lawn is shaded by houses or large trees, sod may not thrive as well as seed designed for those environments. Shade blend sod is available in some areas, but it’s not always easy to find.
By contrast, grass seed is simpler, cheaper, less labor-intensive at the onset, and offers more choice when it comes to grass variety. It requires more consistent maintenance, though, and the chance for weed contamination is higher. Perhaps the most notable drawback is this method has a defined window for success, as extreme temperatures can lead to patchy results or complete seed failure.
How to prepare lawn for new grass
No matter which method you choose to grow your new lawn, the initial preparation is relatively consistent. Follow these steps:
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First, remove debris and any existing vegetation, i.e. weeds and grass. You can do this physically, with a flame torch, using a home remedy, or with a non-selective herbicide. If you use chemicals, remember to wait for the compounds to become inert before planting (check product labels for this info).
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Repeat the first step, till the soil, and check it again to make sure all remaining seeds are gone. Doing this will ensure a weed-free lawn in the long term.
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Once the area is free of vegetation, you are ready to plant.
How to plant a lawn with sod
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Till the first two inches of soil with a tiller or rake. If needed, add seeding soil to the top of your existing soil.
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Level soil. Any dips or bumps could stay there for years and can look unsightly.
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If you do not use seeding soil (these generally have starter fertilizer mixed in), apply a starter fertilizer, water, and till in.
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Roll out sod. Keep edges snug against each other but don’t overlap them.
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Use a lawn roller to smooth out and firm the sod, connecting it with the ground below and facilitating root contact. Keep sod moist for the first two weeks after application to further assist root growth.
How to plant a lawn with seed
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Till the first two inches of soil with a tiller or rake. If needed, add seeding soil to the top of your existing soil.
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Level soil. Any dips or bumps could stay there for years and can look unsightly.
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If you do not use seeding soil (these generally have starter fertilizer mixed in), apply a starter fertilizer, water, and till in.
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Divide your seed into two equal portions. Spread one half going one direction, with the other half going at a right angle in the other direction. This crisscross pattern guarantees even coverage across your lawn. For higher accuracy, use a drop spreader.
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Tamp seed down with a lawn roller. For added protection, cover the seeds with 1/4 inch of peat moss or compost. This prevents the seeds from washing away, stops birds from eating them, and also holds in moisture.
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Gently soak the soil about six inches deep after seeding, and keep the seeds moist until grass has germinated. This should take approximately two weeks. Continue to lightly water three to four times a day until the grass is about a half-inch high, then maintain as normal.
How to take care of new grass
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A watering rule of thumb: Once the grass is high enough to mow, water at approximately one inch per week.
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Water your lawn early in the morning. Doing it at night keeps the water stagnant, which raises the risk for mold and fungus, and watering midday increases evaporation risk. In addition, water deeply and infrequently as opposed to lightly and more often, as this improves root health.
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Keep your mower blades sharp, and don’t cut more than a third of the grass blade at a time to prevent shocking the grass.
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Fertilize every four to six weeks with lawn fertilizer.
Lawn care shopping list
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Planting a new lawn is incredibly rewarding, but it takes a toll on your hands. Invest in some high-quality gardening gloves to stay safe from thorns, sharp sticks, sunlight, and abrasions.
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A sturdy rake or cultivator will help you till your lawn before planting. This is a necessary step to remove unwanted vegetation, loosen up dirt, and aerate the soil.
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A lawn roller is the most efficient way to both tamp down new grass seeds and secure sod to the soil below. Fill your lawn roller with water if more weight is needed to finish the job. Choose between tow models that hook up to powered equipment or simple push/pull versions.
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Drop spreaders are extremely helpful in evenly distributing grass seed over an area. Available in rolling and handheld versions, these spreaders are adjustable for different drop rates. Great for grass seed or fertilizer!
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Fertilizer is necessary to keep a lawn healthy and full. Lawn fertilizers are typically rich in nitrogen, which is very water-soluble and promotes green, leafy growth.
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Your lawn won’t survive without water, and an adjustable rotating sprinkler helps it stay irrigated at the seedling stage as well as when it’s fully developed. Interested in even more control? Consider a multi-zone irrigation controller.
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Bob Beacham writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Tips and tricks for protecting your home from the elements
If you like learning new skills and having a to-do list that never ends, there’s no better investment than purchasing a home. But becoming a homeowner isn’t just the biggest financial commitment you’ll ever make, it’s also a pledge to take care of something, for better or worse, as long as you both shall live. Or at least until you decide it’s time to move.
Along with the bills, repairs, and perpetual upkeep, one of the biggest tasks you face as a homeowner is your never-ending battle with Mother Nature. Just when you think you’ve reshingled your last roof and can rest easy when it comes to leaks, you find a small pond in the basement after the latest storm. This list will walk you through everything you need to know in order to best protect your home from the elements.
But first, it’s important to review your insurance policy so you are aware of what is and isn’t covered. Your homeowner’s insurance policy might not cover floods and damage caused by the elements. Take a few minutes, read over your policy, call your agent and make the needed changes to get the peace of mind you deserve.
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What are the elements?
It’s not just water — which causes mold and rot — that you have to worry about. Wind, snow, hail, cold and heat can also do substantial damage to your home. Here are just a few examples of the havoc the elements can wreak on your home.
Wind
A gentle breeze is refreshing, but a gale-force wind? Anything over 50 or 60 mph can be devastating. From hurling projectiles and prying loose shingles to stripping away siding and shearing off the entire roof, strong winds can dismantle a house in a matter of minutes.
Snow
It’s pristine, and it twinkles as if infused by magic. Snow is beautiful. But it’s also heavy. On average, a square foot of snow weighs a little over 12 pounds. If you have a house that’s 2,000 square feet and it snows 12 inches, that’s roughly an extra 24,000 pounds — 12 tons — on your roof. See how this could cause a little trouble? Especially if the snow is resting on large tree branches or that evergreen that’s already leaning toward your house.
Hail
Hail is Mother Nature’s mischievous child. They enjoy causing trouble. Got cracked shingles? Divots in the lawn? Broken windows? Dents in your car? Damaged outdoor furniture? You’ve got hail!
Cold
Cold is the silent destroyer of homes. If you’ve ever had a pipe burst, you already know this. But beyond that, cold can create ice dams in your gutters that force water beneath your shingles, thereby ruining the items under your roof. And if water gets into any tiny crack, be it in your driveway or your foundation, it will expand when it freezes, turning that tiny crack into a crevasse.
Heat
Excessive moist heat can warp hardwood floors and accelerate deterioration in other areas, such as your attic and roof. Excessive dry heat can suck the moisture out of the ground, making it shrink and taking away some much-needed support from your home’s foundation.
Best strategies for keeping your home safe
Indeed, the elements can be devastating to your home. Thankfully, there are a number of quick and easy things you can do to protect it from the elements. Following is a list of the best (and most effortless) strategies.
Strategy 1: Bring items inside
Tempera 9′ Outdoor Market Patio Table Umbrella
Lawn chairs, watering cans, bicycles, scooters, patio umbrellas, and other loose items that you keep outside need to be brought inside before a storm. After all, the wind can turn anything that’s not fastened down into a destructive projectile.
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Strategy 2: Close the curtains
If anything flies into your window during a storm, having your blinds drawn and your drapes closed can help block some of the broken glass and other debris from entering your home.
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Strategy 3: Use your garage
If you don’t want dings in your car, put your vehicle in the garage before all hail breaks loose — along with anything else that could be damaged should the sky begin to pelt ice at your property. If your garage is full of clutter, however, this might not be as simple as it is supposed to be. Take time to organize and store your tools before the storm, and you could be thanking yourself later.
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Strategy 4: Rake the roof
When snow piles up on your house, it can get beneath your shingles as it melts, damaging your roof. When it’s safe to do so, grab a roof rake and clear your roof so melting snow can flow away without much damage. Note: always leave a thin layer of snow on your roof, because too much scraping could damage your shingles.
Strategy 5: Seal your driveway
Those tiny cracks in your driveway become bigger cracks when they fill with water which then freezes. Be proactive and seal your driveway — or at the very least, fill those cracks in with gravel — before winter arrives.
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Strategy 6: Run a dehumidifier
All that humidity in the summer can really mess with the wood in your house. It can also make everything feel quite sticky. To remedy the situation (and save your hardwood floors), turn on a dehumidifier and let it work its magic.
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Strategy 7: Use a sprinkler
During those hot, rainless periods of summer when the ground dries up and pulls away from your house, weakening its foundation, don’t fret. Instead, turn on your sprinkler and put some moisture back into the soil. Don’t add too much, though, because excess water near your home’s foundation has a way of seeping into your basement or crawlspace.
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Extra tips for protecting your home from weather damage
The following tips involve a little more than a quick fix, but they are much cheaper than full-blown repairs.
Anchor down your large items
If you have a storage shed, a grill, trash cans, or any large item that doesn’t have a permanent foundation or isn’t securely fastened, anchor it down. You can use straps, anchors, or bolts. In strong winds, this will help minimize dangerous projectiles. In a flood, it will help keep your valuables from drifting away.
Remove trees that pose a threat
Rain can make the ground soggy, allowing trees to lean. Once tilted, wet snow or strong winds can be all it takes to topple even the mightiest oak. Consider having any trees within striking distance of your home taken down before the next storm.
Bring in the reinforcements
A home is only as safe as its weakest spots. If you live in an area prone to severe weather, you need to do something about those spots. Get a professional out to reinforce your garage door, and consider installing storm shutters over your windows and glass doors.
The elements can be brutal on your home. From minor inconveniences to major repairs, Mother Nature really knows how to dish out the damage. But you aren’t helpless. Your best defense is a strong offense. Stay vigilant, smart, and proactive, and your home will be able to weather any storm.
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/lawn-garden-br/tools-br-lawn-garden-br/safety-equipment-br/how-to-protect-your-home-from-harsh-weather/ | 2023-07-31T01:18:51 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/reviews/br/lawn-garden-br/tools-br-lawn-garden-br/safety-equipment-br/how-to-protect-your-home-from-harsh-weather/ |
It looks like the end of the road for one of the nation's largest freight carriers.
Yellow, a trucking company that just three years ago took a $700 million federal pandemic loan, has reportedly shut down after laying off employees at all locations. The company is expected to file for bankruptcy as soon as Monday, according to industry experts, following a recent exodus of customers amid union strife and on top of years of financial troubles.
With 30,000 jobs at stake, it would be the largest trucking bankruptcy in the history of the U.S., experts said. The company, formerly known as YRC Worldwide, is the third largest less-than-truckload carrier by revenue, behind FedEx and Old Dominion. LTL companies move pallet-sized shipments — smaller than a container, but bigger than a parcel.
Yellow has not publicly announced any plans for bankruptcy or a potential shutdown.
Here's what we know.
Employees are told to prepare for a company shutdown
The Wall Street Journal reported that Yellow shut down on Sunday afternoon, citing internal notices sent to customers and employees.
According to the industry outlet FreightWaves, which also obtained internal documents, Yellow says it plans to issue a public statement on Monday about "the state of the company and the operation."
NPR has not independently confirmed the shutdown and Yellow has not responded to NPR's requests for comment.
Yellow laid off an unknown number of its employees on Friday, reported FreightWaves, citing a memo sent to staff informing them that the company is "shutting down its regular operations" and "laying off employees at all of its locations."
Meanwhile, Teamsters, who represent Yellow's 22,000 unionized workers, advised Yellow employees to "prepare for the worst."
"Yellow appears to be headed to a complete shutdown within the next few days," said Teamsters National Freight Director John Murphy in a Friday memo shared with NPR. He advised drivers to collect their belongings so that they don't get caught up in bankruptcy liquidation.
The Teamsters union declined to comment about a potential bankruptcy or shutdown.
A strike threat delivered a final blow to cash-poor Yellow
Reports of a shutdown come days after a Teamsters strike at the company was averted. A week ago, a pension fund agreed to extend health benefits for workers at two Yellow operating companies after the carrier missed its $50 million benefits payment to the fund on July 15, the union said.
While the extension held off a July 24 strike, the threat of a walkout that could disrupt operations prompted a wave of Yellow customers to bolt.
"The Teamsters actions induced a high level of variability and uncertainty in the market for Yellow's customers. The market abhors variability and uncertainty," wrote Mike Regan, co-founder of TranzAct Technologies, which manages transportation services for retailers. "Consequently, Yellow lost substantial and much needed volume."
After the strike threat, Yellow's freight volumes fell 80% within the span of a week, according to Jack Atkins, a managing director at the financial services firm Stephens who researches the transportation sector.
At the same time, he said, Yellow's cries that it was running out of cash during union negotiation attempts scared off customers. Since then, customers haven't returned.
"Both sides bear fault," Atkins said. "Once that freight left, there was nothing left to really restructure," he added. "It was really too late to save the company."
The company has been at risk of bankruptcy for years
Animus between Yellow and Teamsters has grown in recent months, after the trucking carrier tried to restructure its operations this spring as a cost-saving measure that would allow it to refinance its debt. In June, Yellow sued the union for blocking the restructuring plan it said was "essential to the company's survival." The Teamsters in turn called the lawsuit "baseless," instead blaming Yellow for "decades of gross mismanagement," that included its alleged exhaustion of the $700 million bailout loan.
The company reported a net income of $21.8 million last year. Yellow has $1.3 billion in loan debt due in fall 2024, $729 million of which is owed to the federal government, according to the company's latest quarterly report.
Yellow received a $700 million loan from the government in 2020 as part of a COVID-19 rescue package. In return, the Treasury Department took a 30% stake in the company's shares, which have since plummeted to less than a dollar apiece as of Friday.
In June, a congressional probe found that the Treasury Department's disbursement of the loan was a mistake; the freight company — whose customers included the Department of Defense — did not actually meet the standards to qualify for the business loan because its survival was not "critical to maintaining national security."
"Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Yellow was a financially struggling company that had a long-term non-investment grade (i.e., junk) rating and previous close calls with bankruptcy over the years. The pandemic did not cause Yellow's longstanding problems, nor is the Treasury's loan to the company likely to solve those problems," the Congressional Oversight Commission report read.
A world without Yellow
An end to the Nashville-based company would mean the loss of 30,000 jobs. And Atkins doesn't expect the federal government to come to the rescue this time.
While there may be some slight disruptions, the analyst anticipates other freight carriers will have some capacity to absorb Yellow's business because of the dent in freight volumes.
"This is not going to create a supply-chain crisis," he said.
Retailers and manufacturers are likely to see higher shipping rates if the company folds, he said. Yellow is known for its low shipping rates compared to its rivals.
Atkins visited the Yellow terminal in Little Rock, Ark., on Sunday to find all gates chained up, a sign of ceased operations.
"They've been in wind-down mode, clearing the network out of all the remaining freight," he said. "This is the end."
NPR's Camila Domonoske contributed to this story.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-30/the-yellow-trucking-company-meltdown-explained | 2023-07-31T01:18:57 | 1 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-07-30/the-yellow-trucking-company-meltdown-explained |
It looks like the end of the road for one of the nation's largest freight carriers.
Yellow, a trucking company that just three years ago took a $700 million federal pandemic loan, has reportedly shut down after laying off employees at all locations. The company is expected to file for bankruptcy as soon as Monday, according to industry experts, following a recent exodus of customers amid union strife and on top of years of financial troubles.
With 30,000 jobs at stake, it would be the largest trucking bankruptcy in the history of the U.S., experts said. The company, formerly known as YRC Worldwide, is the third largest less-than-truckload carrier by revenue, behind FedEx and Old Dominion. LTL companies move pallet-sized shipments — smaller than a container, but bigger than a parcel.
Yellow has not publicly announced any plans for bankruptcy or a potential shutdown.
Here's what we know.
Employees are told to prepare for a company shutdown
The Wall Street Journal reported that Yellow shut down on Sunday afternoon, citing internal notices sent to customers and employees.
According to the industry outlet FreightWaves, which also obtained internal documents, Yellow says it plans to issue a public statement on Monday about "the state of the company and the operation."
NPR has not independently confirmed the shutdown and Yellow has not responded to NPR's requests for comment.
Yellow laid off an unknown number of its employees on Friday, reported FreightWaves, citing a memo sent to staff informing them that the company is "shutting down its regular operations" and "laying off employees at all of its locations."
Meanwhile, Teamsters, who represent Yellow's 22,000 unionized workers, advised Yellow employees to "prepare for the worst."
"Yellow appears to be headed to a complete shutdown within the next few days," said Teamsters National Freight Director John Murphy in a Friday memo shared with NPR. He advised drivers to collect their belongings so that they don't get caught up in bankruptcy liquidation.
The Teamsters union declined to comment about a potential bankruptcy or shutdown.
A strike threat delivered a final blow to cash-poor Yellow
Reports of a shutdown come days after a Teamsters strike at the company was averted. A week ago, a pension fund agreed to extend health benefits for workers at two Yellow operating companies after the carrier missed its $50 million benefits payment to the fund on July 15, the union said.
While the extension held off a July 24 strike, the threat of a walkout that could disrupt operations prompted a wave of Yellow customers to bolt.
"The Teamsters actions induced a high level of variability and uncertainty in the market for Yellow's customers. The market abhors variability and uncertainty," wrote Mike Regan, co-founder of TranzAct Technologies, which manages transportation services for retailers. "Consequently, Yellow lost substantial and much needed volume."
After the strike threat, Yellow's freight volumes fell 80% within the span of a week, according to Jack Atkins, a managing director at the financial services firm Stephens who researches the transportation sector.
At the same time, he said, Yellow's cries that it was running out of cash during union negotiation attempts scared off customers. Since then, customers haven't returned.
"Both sides bear fault," Atkins said. "Once that freight left, there was nothing left to really restructure," he added. "It was really too late to save the company."
The company has been at risk of bankruptcy for years
Animus between Yellow and Teamsters has grown in recent months, after the trucking carrier tried to restructure its operations this spring as a cost-saving measure that would allow it to refinance its debt. In June, Yellow sued the union for blocking the restructuring plan it said was "essential to the company's survival." The Teamsters in turn called the lawsuit "baseless," instead blaming Yellow for "decades of gross mismanagement," that included its alleged exhaustion of the $700 million bailout loan.
The company reported a net income of $21.8 million last year. Yellow has $1.3 billion in loan debt due in fall 2024, $729 million of which is owed to the federal government, according to the company's latest quarterly report.
Yellow received a $700 million loan from the government in 2020 as part of a COVID-19 rescue package. In return, the Treasury Department took a 30% stake in the company's shares, which have since plummeted to less than a dollar apiece as of Friday.
In June, a congressional probe found that the Treasury Department's disbursement of the loan was a mistake; the freight company — whose customers included the Department of Defense — did not actually meet the standards to qualify for the business loan because its survival was not "critical to maintaining national security."
"Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Yellow was a financially struggling company that had a long-term non-investment grade (i.e., junk) rating and previous close calls with bankruptcy over the years. The pandemic did not cause Yellow's longstanding problems, nor is the Treasury's loan to the company likely to solve those problems," the Congressional Oversight Commission report read.
A world without Yellow
An end to the Nashville-based company would mean the loss of 30,000 jobs. And Atkins doesn't expect the federal government to come to the rescue this time.
While there may be some slight disruptions, the analyst anticipates other freight carriers will have some capacity to absorb Yellow's business because of the dent in freight volumes.
"This is not going to create a supply-chain crisis," he said.
Retailers and manufacturers are likely to see higher shipping rates if the company folds, he said. Yellow is known for its low shipping rates compared to its rivals.
Atkins visited the Yellow terminal in Little Rock, Ark., on Sunday to find all gates chained up, a sign of ceased operations.
"They've been in wind-down mode, clearing the network out of all the remaining freight," he said. "This is the end."
NPR's Camila Domonoske contributed to this story.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2023-07-30/the-yellow-trucking-company-meltdown-explained | 2023-07-31T01:18:57 | 1 | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2023-07-30/the-yellow-trucking-company-meltdown-explained |
TORONTO (AP) — Los Angeles Angels outfielder Taylor Ward was placed on the 10-day injured list with facial fractures on Sunday, a day after he was hit by a 91 mph pitch from Blue Jays right-hander Alek Manoah.
Ward was taken to a Toronto hospital after being struck in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 6-1 loss. He was released from hospital Saturday evening.
Before Sunday’s game, Angels manager Phil Nevin said Ward did not have vision damage. Surgery is an option for Ward, but no decision has been made. It was not clear when Ward would be able to return to California. The Angels play a three-game series at Atlanta this week before returning home Thursday to host Seattle.
To replace Ward, the Angels selected the contract of infielder Kevin Padlo from Triple-A Salt Lake.
Batting with the bases loaded, Ward was hit by a 2-0 pitch from Manoah. The ball appeared to strike Ward next to his next left eye, knocking off his batting helmet.
Plate umpire Andy Fletcher motioned to the Angels’ dugout for the trainer as Ward went down, blood running down his face. Angels staff rushed to the plate and held a towel to Ward’s face. After a couple of minutes, Ward got to his feet and left the field on a cart. His left eye appeared to be swollen shut.
A six-year veteran who has spent his entire career with the Angels, Ward is batting .253 with 14 home runs and 47 RBI in 97 games.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-angels-outfielder-taylor-ward-placed-on-il-with-facial-fractures-after-being-hit-in-head/ | 2023-07-31T01:18:58 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-angels-outfielder-taylor-ward-placed-on-il-with-facial-fractures-after-being-hit-in-head/ |
FUKUOKA, Japan (AP) — Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh should be a star at next year’s Paris Olympics, and she showed why Sunday on the closing day of the swimming world championships in Japan.
The 16-year-old McIntosh won her second gold of the event, taking the 400-meter individual medley after winning the 200 butterfly gold on Friday.
That made up for a slow start for the young Canadian, who finished fourth in the 400 free, where she held the world record until Australia’s Ariarne Titmus took it back. She also took bronze in the 200 free, at least getting a medal.
“Going into tonight I just wanted to see how hard I could push myself,” McIntosh said.
She did just that. Her time of 4 minutes, 27.11 seconds was the third fastest ever, not far off her world record of 4:25.87. She was also the defending world champion. American Katie Grimes took the silver in 4:31.41, with Jenna Forrester of Australia picking up the bronze in 4:32.30.
“It was definitely motivating,” McIntosh said of her first few days. “I try to turn everything that goes wrong into motivation somehow.”
Asked about Paris, she replied: “Right now I’m just thinking about a little break.”
McIntosh should be joined by other young stars in Paris like 21-year-old Frenchman Leon Marchand and Australia’s 22-year-old Kaylee McKeown. Marchand and McKeown each won three individual golds.
The Americans also closed fast.
After winning only four gold medals during the first seven days, they picked up three on the eighth and final day for a total of seven golds and 38 overall. The gold total is still their lowest in a worlds going back for around 20 years. They won only eight in the 2015 worlds.
Australia finished with 13 gold and 20 overall, and China had five gold and 16 overall.
“This is the cherry on top,” said American Regan Smith, part of the winning 4×100 women’s medley relay. “I love racing with these girls and I love relays so much and brining home a gold in the last event for Team USA means so much to me and all of us.”
The Americans finished in 3:52.08, followed by Australia (3:53.37) and Canada (3:54.12).
The United States also won the men’s 4×100 medley in 3:27.20, ahead of China (3:29.00) and Australia (3:29.62), and added another gold with Hunter Armstrong in the 50-meter backstroke (24.05).
Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden made history with her victory in the women’s 50-meter freestyle. The gold gave Sjostrom 21 medals in individual races in the world championships, surpassing Michael Phelps who had 20.
Sjostrom, who set the world record in the semifinals on Saturday, powered home in the final 25 meters for the win, clocking 23.62. Shayna Jack of Australia picked up the silver in 24.10, while Zhang Yufei of China earned the bronze in 24.15.
Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania set a world record on the way to winning gold in the women’s 50-meter breaststroke in 29.16. She equaled the old world mark of 29.30 the night before in the semifinals.
Meilutyte grabbed the early lead and was never challenged. American Lilly King claimed the silver in 29.94, while Benedetta Pilato of Italy picked up the bronze in 30.04. She shared the old record of 29.30 with Meilutyte.
Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia added the men’s 1,500-meter free gold to the 800 free he won earlier in the worlds, prevailing in an epic battle with American Bobby Finke that went down to the wire.
The 20-year-old Hafnaoui, the defending 400 free Olympic champion, captured the gold in 14:31.54, with Finke clocking 14:31.59 for silver. Sam Short of Australia rounded out the podium with the bronze in 14:37.28.
The mark was just off the world record by Sun Yang of China, 14:31.02, set in 2012. Sun has been suspended for a doping violation.
“Bobby (Finke) is so fast at the end of the race. he pushed us to do the 14.31,” Hafnaoui said. “It was so close to the world record. I mean I enjoyed the race and thanks Bobby for pushing me.”
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-canadian-summer-mcintosh-16-gets-second-gold-medal-at-swimming-worlds-in-japan/ | 2023-07-31T01:19:05 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-canadian-summer-mcintosh-16-gets-second-gold-medal-at-swimming-worlds-in-japan/ |
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Chris Buescher pulled away on a restart with three laps to go to win at Richmond Raceway on Sunday and snag one of the final spots in NASCAR’s playoff field.
Buescher led 88 laps and was ahead by nearly six seconds when a caution came out with under 10 laps to go. That erased his lead over Virginia native Denny Hamlin, who was booed by his hometown crowd in pre-race.
But Hamlin got a poor final restart and Buescher easily pulled away for his first Cup Series win of the season, third of his career.
“I knew that last restart was going to be tough, but I knew we had the speed in this thing,” Buescher said.
He and RFK Racing teammate Brad Keselowski led a combined 190 of the 400 laps in their Fords. Keselowski, now a part owner of the team, led 102 laps on the 0.75-mile oval.
Buescher started 26th and had to drive the field for the win that locked him into the 16-driver playoff field with four races remaining in the regular season. Buescher became the 13th race winner this year and there are three playoff spots up for grabs over the next month.
It was the 139th Cup win for primary team owner Jack Roush, second since Keselowski joined the ownership group.
Ford now has 723rd wins in NASCAR’s top Cup Series.
“Everybody at RFK Racing who has worked so hard to get us to this point,” said Buescher.
Hamlin, winner last week at Pocono, finished second in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Kyle Busch was third in a Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, followed by the Fords of Joey Logano from Team Penske and Ryan Preece of Stewart-Haas Racing.
“One win is good, but you get three or four or five and then you feel a lot better,” said Keselowski. “It sure beats not having any at all, but we want to keep going. It’s nice to have one car locked in the playoffs. We need to get both cars locked in the playoffs. We have a good points gap, but we want wins and this is where we need to be.”
Keselowski, despite being winless this season, is still mathematically in contention for the playoffs.
The race was slowed just three times by caution flags, with the final yellow sending the leaders to pit road for four tires with eight laps to go. When the green flag was shown again, Buescher used the inside line to pull away for his third career victory.
Hamlin’s bid for the victory ended on the second lap of the final sprint when he drove in too deep in the first turn and slid up the track. He finished 0.549-seconds behind Buescher.
“I got a bad restart,” Hamlin said. “I had to recover too much ground from what I lost on the frontstretch. Almost got to the outside, and then in turn four, almost got to the outside again, and then in turn one, I was like ‘I’m just going to ship it in there and try to get to the outside one more time’ and I just carried way too much speed and locked up the left front tires.”
LARSON-HAMLIN
Kyle Larson, angered last week when Hamlin caused him to hit the wall while leading while Hamlin went on to win, was running a few laps down when he nudged Hamlin out of the way with 70 laps to go during Sunday’s race.
Larson, who won at Richmond in April, finished 19th.
“I think he was having a frustrating day,” Hamlin said. “It’s all good.”
SCORCHER
With temperatures in the mid-80s, it was about 15 degrees cooler than Saturday, when the temperature approached 100 and the heat index was at least 105.
Nevertheless, points leader Martin Truex Jr. still struggled.
“It was definitely really, really hot,” he said. “It felt longer than 400 laps. I’ll be honest, when we got to the end of stage two —– I thought there was no way. I thought that was the checkered flag. It just felt really, really long.”
Truex finished seventh.
CLEAN RACE
All 36 cars that started the race were still running at the end.
UP NEXT
The series moves to Michigan where Kevin Harvick, winless so far in this his final season, is the defending champion.
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-chris-buescher-wins-at-richmond-and-secures-spot-in-nascar-playoffs/ | 2023-07-31T01:19:12 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-chris-buescher-wins-at-richmond-and-secures-spot-in-nascar-playoffs/ |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The fight itself didn’t match the hype, but Terence Crawford’s performance exceeded it.
He knocked down Errol Spence Jr. three times Saturday night before finally ending the fight at 2:32 of the ninth round on a technical knockout to cement himself as one of the greatest welterweights in history.
The fight, the most-anticipated boxing match in several years, made Crawford the first undisputed champion in the 147-pound division in the four-belt era that began in 2004.
Crawford (40-0, 31 knockouts) already owned the WBO belt, and took the WBC, WBA and IBF titles from Spence (28-1). Crawford also ran his KO streak to 11 matches, the second-longest active stretch.
Crawford, 35, has won titles at super lightweight and lightweight in addition to welterweight, capturing the latter after moving up in 2018. The Omaha, Nebraska, fighter became the first male boxer to become the undisputed champion in two divisions in the four-belt era.
“I only dreamed of being a world champion,” Crawford said. “I’m an over-achiever. Nobody believed in me when I was coming up, but I made everybody a believer. I want to thank Spence and his team because without him none of this would have been possible.”
A big fight night on the Strip still brings out the stars, with recording artist Andre 3000 of Outkast, NBA star Damian Lillard and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at T-Mobile Arena. They were among the celebrities that also included former boxing champions such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
Eminem introduced Crawford and his song “Lose Yourself” played as he walked into the ring before a sellout crowd of 19,990 at T-Mobile Arena.
Spence was the aggressor early on, but Crawford sent him to the floor with a right hand with 20 seconds left in the second round. Then Crawford went after Spence, but time ran out before he could finish him off.
Crawford, a minus-154 favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, then took control of the fight, landing several major blows, often on counters. But Crawford also picked his spots to go after Spence, his punching power taking a heavy toll.
“He was just better tonight,” Spence said. “I make no excuses. He was throwing a harder jab. He was timing with his jab, and he had his timing down on point.”
In the seventh round, Crawford knocked down Spence twice — with a short right at 1:02 and with another right with just a second left.
The fight was essentially over at that point, though Crawford backed off in the eighth round. He came roaring back in the ninth to end it for sure.
Crawford didn’t waste the chance to gloat afterward, directly responding to his critics.
“They said I wasn’t good enough and I couldn’t beat these welterweights,” Crawford said. “I just kept my head to the sky and kept praying to God that I would get the opportunity to show the world how great Terence Crawford is. Tonight, I believe I showed how great I am.”
Spence, however, said he would be up for a rematch, but wants to move up to the 154-pound division.
“We’ve got to do it again,” Spence said. “I would be a lot better.”
Crawford said he would have no problem moving up a weight class.
“I’m in the hurt business,” Crawford said. “Forty-seven is kind of hard for me, too. I was already talking about moving up in weight and challenging (champion Jermell) Charlo.”
The 33-year-old Spence, who lives in DeSoto, Texas, won the IBF title in 2017, claimed the WBC championship in 2019 and took the WBA championship last year.
In the co-main event, Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (25-2-1) of Mexico beat Chicago resident Giovanni Cabrera (21-1) by split decision in a WBC and WBA lightweight match. Judges Benoit Roussel (114-113) and Don Trella (115-112) scored the fight in favor of Cruz, and Glenn Feldman gave Cabrera the fight by a 114-113 score. Cruz had a point deducted because of a head butt.
Also, Alexandro Santiago (28-3-5) of Mexico won the vacant WBC bantamweight title with a 115-113, 116-112, 116-12 decision over Nonito Donaire (42-8), who lives in Las Vegas.
___
AP boxing: https://apnews.com/hub/boxing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-crawford-unifies-welterweight-division-with-9th-round-tko-in-dominant-performance-over-spence/ | 2023-07-31T01:19:18 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-crawford-unifies-welterweight-division-with-9th-round-tko-in-dominant-performance-over-spence/ |
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Dalvin Cook got an up-close view of Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets while watching practice from the sideline Sunday.
The free agent running back has to see if he’ll spend the rest of training camp in their backfield — or elsewhere.
Cook spent Sunday meeting with the Jets as he ponders the next stop of his playing career. The four-time Pro Bowl selection was released by the Vikings on June 8 for salary cap savings, according to a person familiar with Minnesota’s decision.
The Jets are the first team Cook has officially visited as a free agent, with his hometown Miami Dolphins also among possible suitors. New York also must consider whether to make him an offer before he leaves the team’s practice facility.
Cook, who turns 28 on Aug. 10, was greeted by chants of “Dal-vin Cooook! Sign that contract!” from fans in the stands as he walked onto the field. He later responded to the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a green heart emoji.
Several Jets players, including Rodgers, greeted Cook and he spent a few moments chatting with owner Woody Johnson.
“He’s a good young man, a very good young man,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “We didn’t interact too much. There’s a lot of stuff going on, especially when it’s open to the public. But it was good to say hello.”
Cook has talked up the Jets in TV interviews in recent days, telling NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” on Friday they “are right at the top of the list” and the odds of him signing with them were “pretty high.”
“It’s a unique situation because I think they’re building something special over there,” Cook told “Good Morning Football” during the interview. “When you look at it, you always want to be around a great QB, you always want to be around somebody you can pick his brain and just learn from. A-Rod is a four-time MVP. So, just being around a guy like that you can learn a lot more and just develop as a player.
“That’s what I’m looking to do.”
He reiterated those comments Saturday during an interview with ESPN, saying he thinks “the coaching staff, I think everything about what they got going on, just says winning.”
But Cook, a former Florida State star, also said in the interview he was interested in the Dolphins and it would be “a Cinderella story” to play for his hometown team.
He was the guest of the Jets on Sunday, though. And now they have to wait to see if they offer Cook a deal and he accepts — or explores his options.
Both sides have expressed interest, and the Jets wanted Cook to take a physical to be sure his surgically repaired shoulder is healthy.
“That’s pretty much it,” Saleh said. “Call it a meet and greet.”
Cook, who has run for at least 1,000 yards in each of the past four seasons, was scheduled to count more than $14.1 million against the Vikings’ salary cap before he was released. He’s third on Minnesota’s career rushing list with 5,993 yards in six seasons.
With the Jets, Cook could give New York some insurance in the backfield with Breece Hall working his way back from a knee injury that cut short a promising rookie season. New York also has Michael Carter, Zonovan Knight, Damarea Crockett, fifth-round draft pick Israel Abanikanda and undrafted free agent Travis Dye at the position.
NOTES: Saleh said WR Garrett Wilson has a lower right ankle injury and the Jets are being cautious by holding him out of practice. Wilson appeared to have a slight limp and his right ankle was wrapped. … WR Corey Davis remains out with an illness, but Saleh said he could return to practice Monday. … WR Randall Cobb was activated from the physically unable to perform list and participated in practice. … Saleh said the starters aren’t expected to play Thursday night in the Hall of Fame game against Cleveland in Canton, Ohio. Among those players who will play include QB Zach Wilson and OT Mekhi Becton.
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AP Pro Football Writers Dave Campbell and Rob Maaddi contributed.
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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Frank Clark has reunited with Russell Wilson in Denver and now the outside linebacker has former teammate Patrick Mahomes in his sights instead.
The 30-year-old outside linebacker signed with Denver after being jettisoned by the Kansas City Chiefs in a cost-cutting move this offseason and the Broncos are counting on him to add some oomph to their pass rush.
Still in the AFC West, Clark gets two opportunities at beating his former team this season, something the Broncos haven’t done since 2015. Their 15-game skid against the Chiefs is the fourth longest by one team to a single opponent in NFL history.
Unlike his reunion with Wilson, revenge and rivalry aren’t top of mind for Clark as he embraces his fresh start in the Rocky Mountains.
“I wouldn’t call it a rivalry. A rivalry is competitive,” Clark interjected in his first public comments since signing a one-year, $5.5 million deal with Denver last month. “I’m (with) the Broncos now. I’ve been on the other side. We didn’t call it a rivalry then.”
And before anyone around Denver can call it that the Broncos will have to beat Mahomes, something they have a better shot at doing with Clark on their side.
The Chiefs parted ways with Clark just a year after signing him to a two-year, $30 million extension. The Broncos haven’t had a fearsome pass rush since trading Von Miller two years ago. And with Baron Browning sidelined by a knee injury and Randy Gregory coming off an injury-filled debut season in Denver, first-year head coach Sean Payton eagerly welcomed the veteran with 58 1/2 sacks.
Clark had 23 1/2 sacks in four seasons in Kansas City and another 10 1/2 in the playoffs, helping the Chiefs go 10-2 in the postseason and make three trips to the Super Bowl.
“What we did in Kansas City was special,” Clark said. “Four-year run, two Super Bowl (rings), three AFC titles. It was fun, but at the end of the day all good things come to an end.”
Bad things, too, he hopes. Such as Denver’s 15-game skid to the Chiefs.
One thing Clark insists isn’t nearing the finish line in his proclivity for getting after the passer even though his five sacks in 2022 and two-game suspension for gun possession incidents a year earlier meant an end to his three-year run as a Pro Bowler.
“I wouldn’t say it was the end” in Kansas City last season, Clark said. “It’s never the end when you get the job finished.”
Now he aims to help the Broncos and Wilson bounce back in 2023.
“He’s still dangerous. Don’t get it twisted,” Clark said of Wilson, whom he played with in Seattle from 2015-18. “Russ is a veteran. He’s a guy that’s won on multiple levels. … I was a part of Seahawks teams that were successful; I was a part of teams where we didn’t make the playoffs. But it was the same Russ.
“So don’t think a bad season’s going to shake a guy like Russ,” Clark added. “Naw, bro, we start fresh every year. Every summer’s a fresh start.”
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The Shapiro Administration is reminding Pennsylvanians to take summer heat seriously, with forecasts calling for heat and humidity that will make temperatures feel like the upper 90’s to low 100’s this week.
“According to the National Weather Service, heat is the most prevalent weather-related cause of death in the United States,” said Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) Director Randy Padfield. “It’s especially dangerous for children and older adults, those working outdoors, and urban areas where heat can build up due to asphalt and concrete and nighttime cooling is minimal. In particular, it is never safe to leave people or pets inside cars even if windows are cracked open. Temperatures can quickly rise to dangerous levels, leading to dozens of avoidable deaths each year. Keep cars locked even when parked in a driveway to keep children from unknowingly climbing inside.”
Acting Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen added, “We ask all Pennsylvanians to be a good neighbor and check on people who may have limited mobility or may not have a way to escape the heat,” said “Remember to wear appropriate clothing, stay hydrated, exercise safely, and look out for children, older adults and pets.”
It is important to understand the spectrum of heat-related illnesses, including heat cramps (mildest), heat exhaustion and heat stroke (most severe).
Awareness allows you to prevent heat related illness and recognize early stages, intervene as early in the course as possible, and help in an emergency.
Heat cramps are painful muscle cramps and spasms that occur during or after exercise and sweating in high heat.
Treatment at this stage includes: moving to a cool place and rest; removing excess clothing; placing cool clothes on skin; fanning the skin; drinking cool sports drinks with sugar and salt; stretching cramped muscles slowly and gently.
Symptoms of heat exhaustion include: heavy sweating, paleness, muscle cramps, tiredness, weakness, dizziness, headache, fainting, and nausea or vomiting.
Help the person cool off as with heat cramps and seek medical attention if symptoms are severe, or if symptoms last more than one hour, or the person has heart problems or high blood pressure.
Symptoms of heat stroke include a high body temperature (above 103°F); red, hot and dry skin, but no sweating; a rapid pulse; throbbing headache; dizziness; nausea; confusion; and unconsciousness.
If you think someone is having a heat stroke, it is important to first call 9-1-1. After calling for help, get the person to a shady area and quickly cool them down by putting them in a tub of cool water or spraying them with a garden hose. Provide fluids in the form of cold sports drink only if the person is alert and can drink.
“Older adults are at higher risk for heat-related illness or worse. They also may not have access to fans, air conditioners, or may have limited mobility to escape extreme heat. So it’s important that all of us check on our older family members, neighbors, and friends to make sure they stay cool and hydrated,” said Secretary of Aging Jason Kavulich. “Pennsylvania’s Area Agencies on Aging are a great resource for older adults to learn about senior community centers acting as cooling stations in their neighborhood and other supports that may be available. Seniors can also check with their local municipality to find out if there are libraries, churches or other facilities that may be offering opportunities to keep cool.”
Older adults can visit the Department of Aging’s website to find their local Area Agency on Aging.
“Heat stress is a real threat for pets and livestock,” Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said. “Since the temperature in a hot car can become suffocating within a matter of minutes, never leave your pets in the car, and make sure all animals have access to shade and plenty of clean, cool water.”
State DHS announces plan to replace
electronically stolen SNAP benefits
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) this week announced that recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) who have had their benefits electronically stolen are now able to have those benefits replaced.
Eligible SNAP recipients who have had their benefits electronically stolen on or after Oct. 1, 2022, will be able to replace their stolen SNAP benefits through federal funds, provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023.
“SNAP is the nation’s most important food security program, helping more than 1.9 million Pennsylvanians put food on their tables to help them stay safe, healthy, and fed,” said DHS Secretary Dr. Val Arkoosh.
SNAP recipients who have had their benefits electronically stolen can fill out a Benefit Theft Claim Form and submit it online or provide it to DHS through COMPASS, by calling the Customer Service Center at — 1-877-395-8930 or at 215-560-7226 for Philadelphia clients — or by visiting a County Assistance Office (CAO).
SNAP benefits are eligible for replacement if they were stolen due to electronic fraudulent activity, such as:
Skimming: The use of electronic equipment to take someone’s information without their knowledge.
Card Cloning: Copying stolen electronic benefits transfer (EBT) information to a new card.
Phishing scams: When scammers use fraudulent text messages or phone calls to obtain EBT card numbers and PINs to steal SNAP benefits.
Scamming: Falsely convincing a SNAP recipient to give their EBT and/or personal information to someone else.
DHS cannot replace benefits if the client gave their physical EBT card and PIN to someone who then stole the benefits, or if a physical EBT card was lost or stolen.
26,000 pandemic-era unemployment
compensation fraud reports resolved
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) this week announced that it has resolved more than 26,000 pandemic-era Unemployment Compensation (UC) fraud reports in the first six months of the Shapiro Administration.
In addition to the record-breaking spike in UC claims over the past three years, L&I also received an unprecedented number of fraud reports.
Since the start of the Shapiro Administration in January, L&I has resolved more than three-quarters of the roughly 34,000 fraud reports that remained. At the end of June, the number of outstanding fraud reports totaled 7,863.
“When fraudsters targeted UC systems nationwide, they may have expected easy money. But this Department fought back by implementing new security measures and working with our partners in law enforcement to hold fraudsters accountable,” said L&I Secretary Nancy A. Walker.
Meuser votes to support veterans
and active-duty service members
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, this week voted in favor of legislation that provides support to America’s veterans and approves new military construction to ensure the United States is best equipped to defend against foreign adversaries.
The Fiscal Year 2024 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill fully funds veterans’ health care and benefits programs, as well as seeks to improve the quality of life for active-duty service members by funding the construction of new family housing units and childcare facilities.
Additionally, the legislation strives to keep ideology out of veterans’ care by prohibiting funds from being used to advance critical race theory and disallows the implementation, administration, or enforcement of the Biden Administration’s executive orders on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
“House Republicans have always and will continue to support our military and those who risked their lives serving within it,” Meuser said. “I was happy to support this important legislation to ensure veterans are receiving the best possible care, which they have earned and deserve. This appropriations bill is a big step forward in improving the lives of active-duty service members and their families, as well as making certain we keep politics out of our military and out of the VA.”
Meuser said he “will always stand with our brave men and women in uniform, both past and present, which is why earlier this month I was also pleased to support the largest pay raise for our troops in more than 20 years.”
Pa. offers veterans & service members
presentation on ‘Occupational Crosswalk’
The Department of State (DOS) continued expanding awareness of its innovative ‘Occupational Crosswalk’ tool that helps veterans and service members translate their military experience into civilian career opportunities by giving a presentation on the tool yesterday to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Veterans’ Services.
The presentation by DOS Deputy Policy Director Andrew LaFratte was the latest in a series of efforts to inform veterans, service members, and their families about the Department’s military occupational crosswalk, which launched in February.
The crosswalk is a series of charts for each occupation licensed by the Department that compare licensing requirements with typical duties, training, qualifications, and related credentials associated with military occupations.
The crosswalk was created under Act 35 of 2022.
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Justin Gaethje knocked out Dustin Poirier with a head kick one minute into the second round to win the main event lightweight bout at UFC 291 on Saturday night.
The third-ranked Gaethje (26-4) celebrated his victory by climbing to the top of the Octagon fence and doing a backflip off it. His perfectly timed headshot helped him avenge a loss to Poirier in 2018 when he suffered a fourth-round technical knockout via strikes.
“This chance at redemption was amazing,” Gaethje said. “It drove me to work harder to be ready.”
It was Gaethje’s 20th win by knockout or TKO and his seventh victory in his last nine fights. He also scored his first knockout win since UFC 249 in 2020.
“I was surprised by myself and how good I fought,” Gaethje said.
Second-ranked Poirier (29-8) entered the rematch between the two former interim lightweight champions as a minus-152 favorite according to FanDuel. He matched Gaethje blow for blow in the first round – earning a 10-9 advantage on two of three scorecards – before being quickly dispatched in the second.
The decisive high kick from one former champ caught the other by surprise because it wasn’t a move that he expected to see from Gaethje.
“I thought I had four more rounds,” Poirier said. “I didn’t know I had two more minutes.”
With the victory, Gaethje earned a BMF belt – the second UFC fighter to be awarded that belt.
Beating Poirier opens the door for Gaethje to have a potential title bout against the winner of Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira, who are set to square off at UFC 294 in October.
Gaethje’s BMF win over Poirier headlined five main card bouts.
Alex Pereira defeated Jan Blachowicz by split decision in a light heavyweight bout billed as the co-main event for his eighth win in his last nine fights.
Pereira (8-2), ranked second as a middleweight, made his debut in the light heavyweight division at UFC 291 after losing the middleweight title belt via knockout to Israel Adesanya at UFC 287 in April. Blachowicz (29-10-1) did not make the transition in weight class a smooth one for the former champion.
He weathered early takedowns in the first two rounds and rallied in the third round.
Derrick Lewis earned a record 14th knockout win over Marcos Rogerio de Lima just 33 seconds into the first round of the heavyweight bout. The No.10-ranked Lewis (27-11) scored an immediate takedown with a flying knee and pummeled 15th-ranked Rogerio de Lima (21-10-1) with repeated punches to score the early finish. He celebrated snapping a three-fight slide by stripping off his shorts and dancing around the Octagon.
“The win means a lot to me,” Lewis said. “I had a lot of pressure on me coming into this fight and I just wanted to prove to everyone I’m still one of the best fighters in the world.”
Bobby Green beat Tony Ferguson by submission via choke with six seconds left in the third round of the lightweight bout. Green (30-14-1) dominated the final two rounds to earn his second career submission, scoring takedowns in both rounds while raining repeated blows that left his opponent battered. He denied Ferguson (26-9) a shot at earning his first UFC victory since 2019, sending the 39-year-old fighter home with his sixth straight loss.
Kevin Holland made quick work of Michael Chiesa to win the welterweight bout. Holland (25-9) beat the 12th-ranked Chiesa — fighting for the first time following a two-year hiatus — by submission at 2:39 in the first round. He used his length and striking abilities to trap Chiesa (18-7) in a D’arce choke, forcing a quick tap out.
Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, Jazz coach Will Hardy, and former Jazz stars Deron Williams and Karl Malone were among those in attendance at the second UFC pay-per-view event in 11 months in the Beehive State.
UFC reported a live gate of $6.5 million, breaking the previous venue record set at UFC 278 in August 2022. A sellout crowd of 18,467 was in attendance.
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NEW YORK — Justin Verlander earned his 250th career victory in what could be his final start for the New York Mets, who beat the Washington Nationals 5-2 on Sunday after trading Max Scherzer to Texas.
Francisco Lindor homered and had three hits for the fourth-place Mets (50-55), who took three of four from last-place Washington. Pete Alonso drove in two runs.
After news of the agreement broke Saturday evening, the Mets and Rangers announced their deal involving Scherzer about 35 minutes before the first pitch Sunday at Citi Field.
New York also sent cash to Texas and received one of the Rangers’ top prospects in infielder Luisangel Acuña, the younger brother of Atlanta star Ronald Acuña Jr. New York said he will be optioned to Double-A Binghamton.
With Scherzer and closer David Robertson traded away in the past few days, it’s possible Verlander could be next as the disappointing Mets look to get younger and improve their farm system. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is signed through next season with a potential option for 2025. He also has a no-trade clause.
Verlander said he intended to speak with general manager Billy Eppler after being surprised by the Scherzer trade.
“I think it largely depends on how the organization views next year. I think Max is a tough sign for trying to go back at it,” Verlander said. “So I’m committed to trying to win a championship here, but if the organization decides that that’s not exactly the direction that they think is a best fit for next year and go for it again next year then yeah, I would be more open to it.”
Verlander (6-5) allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings to become the 49th major leaguer to reach 250 wins.
“It’s pretty special,” he said. “You don’t play the game for accomplishments. You don’t play it for big, flashy numbers or whatever. But as this game has a way of doing, sometimes you get a little kick in the butt.
“It’s a moment that you kind of have to take a step back and appreciate, and this is one of those for me. It’s pretty cool. A pretty cool accomplishment and a lot of blood, sweat and tears and sacrifice has gone into it to get here.”
Verlander is 4-1 with a 1.69 ERA in six starts this month. He became the first pitcher to reach 250 wins since CC Sabathia for the New York Yankees on June 19, 2019.
“That might be the new 300 as we go forward,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “It’s an honor to be a part of just watching.”
Alonso had an RBI single in the first and one of New York’s two sacrifice flies in a three-run third against former teammate Trevor Williams (5-6), who will be placed on the bereavement list.
Lindor homered in consecutive games for the fifth time this year. He reached base four times. Jeff McNeil hit a go-ahead triple and Omar Narváez also had a sacrifice fly in the third.
Making his 498th career start, Verlander gave up five hits in his third straight win. He walked off the mound to a warm hand and tipped his cap to the crowd of 33,861 before accepting handshakes from teammates in the dugout.
“That was a nice ovation,” Verlander said. “I don’t know what’s to come. That I’ll always remember and appreciate.”
The Mets signed Verlander to an $86.7 million, two-year contract in December shortly after Jacob deGrom signed a $185 million, five-year deal with Texas. That reunited Verlander and Scherzer, a pair of three-time Cy Young Award winners who were teammates in Detroit from 2010-14.
David Peterson, a candidate to fill Scherzer’s rotation spot, allowed an unearned run in 1 1/3 innings of relief. Adam Ottavino got the final two outs in the eighth and Brooks Raley struck out three for his third save.
The Mets finished 14-8 in July after going 7-19 in June.
Washington opened the game with singles by CJ Abrams and Jeimer Candelario. The Nationals scored when Abrams stole home as the Mets threw to second.
“We had opportunities to score again,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “When you’re facing guys like that and you have those opportunities, you’ve got to cash in. We just didn’t do that today.”
Alonso’s RBI single tied it in the first, and Lindor scored on McNeil’s triple into the right-field corner to put New York ahead in the third. Lindor hit a solo homer to right for a 5-1 lead in the fourth after ending his 15-game homerless drought Saturday.
Williams allowed five runs and seven hits in four innings.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Nationals: RHP Rico Garcia (right biceps tendinitis) was placed on the injured list and RHP Amos Willingham was recalled from Triple-A Rochester.
Mets: RF Starling Marte (migraines) took batting practice. He is feeling better and is expected to join the team on its upcoming road trip.
UP NEXT
Nationals: RHP Jake Irvin (3-5, 4.96 ERA) opens a three-game series Monday in Washington against Milwaukee RHP Corbin Burnes (9-6, 3.46).
Mets: LHP José Quintana (0-2, 3.27 ERA) opposes RHP Zack Greinke (1-11, 5.49) in the opener of a three-game series Tuesday at Kansas City.
* * *
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PITTSBURGH — Josh Palacios hit a two-run home run in the 10th inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied twice from two runs down to beat the Phillies 6-4 on Sunday and clinch the three-game series.
With Jared Triolo on as the automatic runner, Palacios led off the 10th by driving a slider from Andrew Vasquez (2-1) 367 feet to right. He celebrated his 28th birthday with his second homer of the season as the Pirates (47-58) took two of three from the Phillies (56-49), who fell a half-game behind in the hunt for the third NL wild card.
Palacios, who went 3 for 5, is the first Pirates player to hit a walkoff home run on his birthday, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
“After I hit that ball, I think I blacked out,” Palacios said. “I don’t know. I still might be blacked out right now. … Best birthday I can ask for, aside for probably my first birthday, coming into this Earth.”
Alec Bohm singled to start the 10th for Philadelphia and went to second on a throwing error by Triolo, putting automatic runner Bryce Harper on third. Harper hesitated to run when Trea Turner flew out to right, ultimately charging home when catcher Endy Rodriguez threw to second with Bohm scrambling back to the base. Nick Gonzales’ throw back to Rodriguez beat Harper for the second out. Angel Perdomo (2-1) struck out Edmundo Sosa to end the threat.
“I’ve seen us play better, that’s for sure,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “We have to clean it up. We made some fundamental mistakes. … We have to clean it all up and we will.”
With two outs in the seventh, Harper bounced a 2-2 pitch down the first-base line that kicked off the glove of Connor Joe, who attempted a diving stop at first. Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs scored to break a 2-2 tie before Bohm tacked on another run with an RBI single.
“When talent doesn’t play well or play smart, you get beat,” Harper said. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, it’s still professional baseball.”
Bryan Reynolds cut the deficit to 4-3 on a single in the seventh, with Joe scoring on an error by rookie Johan Rojas in center. Triolo singled off Yunior Marte to start the eighth before advancing to third on Palacios’ double and scoring the tying run on a sacrifice to right from Nick Gonzales.
Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez did not allow a hit in five innings, lowering his ERA to 2.66 this season. The 26-year-old left-hander struck out three, walked two and hit three others before being pulled after 73 pitches (46 strikes) with an upset stomach.
“I had a little stomachache going on. I didn’t feel like I had much energy today,” Sánchez said. “I think I did a good job. Even if I don’t feel well because I have something going on, I’m going to go out and compete.”
After Sánchez exited, Joe sent a leadoff single trickling through the right side of the infield off Seranthony Domínguez. Reynolds followed with his 12th home run of the season, belting a fastball 418 feet to right-center field to tie it 2-all.
“Our guys kept going,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We were getting no-hit through five. We get the base hit, Bryan gets the homer. We just continued to play and made good plays.”
Bohm had three RBIs, giving the Phillies a 2-0 lead with a two-run homer in the fourth that went 396 feet to right-center field off a first-pitch changeup from Rich Hill, who gave up five hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in five innings.
UP NEXT
Phillies: RHP Taijuan Walker (11-4, 4.06) will be called upon Monday to start a four-game road series against the Marlins. Walker is 0-1 in his past two starts since winning seven straight.
Pirates: RHP Johan Oviedo (4-11, 4.60) will take the mound Tuesday in the first of a two-game series against the Tigers. Oviedo has allowed one run in two of his past three starts after surrendering 13 combined his previous two outings.
* * *
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SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Defending Formula One champion Max Verstappen enters the mid-season break in unstoppable form, after emphatically winning the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday for an eighth straight win and 10th overall of a crushingly dominant season.
Despite starting from sixth place he finished 22.3 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez to give Red Bull an easy 1-2. It moved Verstappen ominously closer to a third straight world title and his own F1 record of 15 wins from last year.
Verstappen is 125 points ahead of Perez after just 12 races, and his next target is matching Sebastian Vettel’s F1 record of nine straight wins with a victory at the Dutch GP when the lopsided season resumes on Aug. 27.
“I just want to have a nice time now, have a bit of time with family and friends,” Verstappen said.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished in third spot for a third podium of the season, with Lewis Hamilton in fourth for Mercedes ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
George Russell was sixth for Mercedes, with Lando Norris (McLaren), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) completing the top 10.
Leclerc started on pole ahead of Perez, with Hamilton and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. behind them. McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri was on the next row alongside Verstappen — who was fastest in Friday’s qualifying but took a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change and had to avoid early traffic.
“It was just about surviving turn one. I could see it was all getting really tight,” Verstappen said. “I’ve been in that position before myself so I am just going to stay out of that and it worked out. From there onwards I made the right overtakes.”
Last year Verstappen won from 14th, and once he overtook Perez on Lap 17 of 44 his 45th career win was seemingly inevitable.
“Really enjoyable to drive once I got in the lead,” Verstappen said. “It was again a great race.“
Red Bull extended its record to 13 straight wins, including the final race of last season.
Hamilton came in on the penultimate lap for a tire change and the move paid off as he took the bonus point for fastest lap from Verstappen — a very minor blip for the dominant Dutchman.
It was yet another stellar weekend for Verstappen, who also won Saturday’s sprint race. The only issue was some more bickering with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over radio, as they continued their spat from Friday’s qualifying.
“Don’t forget Max, use your head, please,” Lambiase told Verstappen when he questioned why Perez was making his first tire change on Lap 14.
Verstappen defused any talk of tension with Lambiase.
“It’s fine. We know each other very well and we have a very good relationship,” he said. “I think it’s really important.”
With some rain forecast, Verstappen boxed on the next lap and came out about 2 seconds behind Perez. Just minutes later he cruised past Perez and, as so often this season, the rest was just about control.
Perez, meanwhile, pledged to stay on the podium for the rest of the season.
“It’s been a bit of a rough patch,” the 33-year-old Mexican said. “I really need this summer break, it’s been really intense. I’ll come back really strong for Zandvoort.”
Conditions were dry for the race start, in stark contrast to the two previous days, which were impacted by heavy rain at the 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Leclerc, who won his first F1 race here in 2019, made a solid start but Perez’s extra pace soon put him in front.
“I knew it was quite crucial for my race to get Charles on Lap 1,” Perez said.
Verstappen rose two places to fourth after Sainz bumped into Piastri on the first corner.
Piastri had to retire, while Verstappen overtook Hamilton on Lap 6, Leclerc three laps later and made short work of Perez just before some rain fell briefly.
Some good overtaking from Ocon moved the Frenchman up from 10th to eighth in the closing stages.
It was an early end for Piastri, who had impressed with a second place in Saturday’s sprint race.
A bad day for Sainz saw him retiring on Lap 25 and Leclerc moving above him in the standings.
“Of course the race was good on my side, a shame for Carlos as we had good pace,” Leclerc said. “When you look at the Red Bulls we still have a lot of work to do … This was the best we could achieve today, no doubt.”
After the F1 break there will be 10 races left, but most of the competition for places will be behind Verstappen.
Alonso is one point ahead of Hamilton in third overall, with Leclerc and Russell level and Sainz seven points behind them.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Aaron Rodgers is sticking by his offensive coordinator and firing his hardest throw of the summer at Sean Payton.
The Jets quarterback was bothered by critical comments Payton, the Denver Broncos’ head coach, recently made about offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. Payton told USA Today for a story published Thursday that Hackett’s 15-game stint with the Broncos last season ”was one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL.″
Payton also said there were “20 dirty hands” around Russell Wilson’s career-worst season, and took some shots at the Jets — Hackett’s new team where he and Rodgers are reunited after enjoying success together in Green Bay.
“It made me feel bad that someone who has accomplished a lot in the league is that insecure that they have to take another man down to set themselves up for some sort of easy fall if it doesn’t go well for that team this year,” Rodgers told NFL Network on Sunday. “I think it was way out of line, inappropriate, and I think he needs to keep my coaches’ names out of his mouth.”
Rodgers, acquired by New York in April from Green Bay, said Hackett is “arguably my favorite coach I’ve ever had in the NFL.” The pair was together for two of Rodgers’ four NFL MVP awards in 2020 and 2021 with the Packers.
During the interview with USA Today’s Jarrett Bell, Payton also criticized the Jets being the latest NFL team “trying to win the offseason” — something he said the Broncos under Hackett tried to do and were “embarrassed.”
Jets coach Robert Saleh said Thursday “Hackett’s doing a phenomenal job here” when asked about Payton’s comments. He also said the Jets are just focused on themselves, but recognizes “there’s a lot of people that are hatin’ on us and a lot of people looking for us to fail.”
Payton on Friday said he regretted his comments in which he disparaged Hackett, and said he would reach out to Hackett and Saleh “at the right time” to do so.
“Listen, I had one of those moments where I still had my Fox hat on and not my coaching hat,” said Payton, who’s returning to the sideline this season after a year’s sabbatical during which he worked as a studio football analyst for Fox Sports following a 15-year stint with the New Orleans Saints.
Rodgers told NFL Network he thought Payton’s initial comments “were very surprising, for a coach to do that to another coach.”
Meanwhile, the back-and-forth made the Jets’ matchup in Denver in Week 5 on Oct. 8 a bit juicier. Payton acknowledged Friday his comments “certainly will bring more interest to the game when we play them, but that seems like years from now.”
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AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Stapleton in Englewood, Colorado, contributed.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-jets-aaron-rodgers-defends-nathaniel-hackett-and-fires-back-at-the-broncos-sean-payton/ | 2023-07-31T01:19:47 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-jets-aaron-rodgers-defends-nathaniel-hackett-and-fires-back-at-the-broncos-sean-payton/ |
Crash shuts down I-90 West past Eddy Road in Bratenahl
Published: Jul. 30, 2023 at 8:04 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
BRATENAHL, Ohio (WOIO) - A crash Sunday evening shut down I-90 West past Eddy Road, Bratenahl police said.
Drivers are asked to avoid the area at this time, with no estimated time of reopening.
The crash took place around 6:30 p.m., according to Bratenahl police.
The cause of the crash or injuries to those involved have not been released at this time.
Copyright 2023 WOIO. All rights reserved. | https://www.cleveland19.com/2023/07/31/crash-shuts-down-i-90-west-past-eddy-road-bratenahl/ | 2023-07-31T01:19:54 | 0 | https://www.cleveland19.com/2023/07/31/crash-shuts-down-i-90-west-past-eddy-road-bratenahl/ |
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AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Megan Rapinoe is adjusting to her new role at the Women’s World Cup, even if it means she’s not on the field as much as she’d like to be.
The outspoken 38-year-old known for her eclectic hair colors and the iconic victory pose she struck at the 2019 World Cup is the oldest player on the team. She already announced that her fourth World Cup would be her last.
“Ultimately, we’re at the World Cup. This is where everybody wants to be, whether you’re playing 90 minutes, whether you’re a game changer, whatever,” she said Sunday. “I think it’s a lot similar to what I thought it would be — bringing all the experience that I can, all the experience that I have, and ultimately being ready whenever my number is called up.”
Rapinoe has played limited minutes so far, coming in as a substitute in the 3-0 victory over Vietnam in the tournament opener, which was her 200th career appearance for the team.
She was available but didn’t play in the disappointing 1-1 draw with the Netherlands on Thursday in Wellington. U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski made just one substitution in the match, bringing in midfielder Rose Lavelle after the first half.
“I think all of us on the bench, it’s like we think we should be on the field as much as the players on the field believe that they should be on the field,” Rapinoe said. “Every player on the field that starts the game thinks that they should play 90 minutes, and every player who doesn’t, who is a sub, thinks that they should be on at some point.”
The United States has won the last two World Cups, but the players find themselves in a more precarious position as they chase an unprecedented third consecutive title. The Americans need at least a draw going into the final group match against Portugal on Tuesday at Eden Park in Auckland.
The Americans top Group E, even on points with the Netherlands, but hold the edge because of goal difference. Portugal, which beat Vietnam, could send the United States home early with a win over the Americans.
“We’re unsatisfied with the way we played, but we know there are areas that we can be better and I think there’s some really simple fixes we can do to put ourselves in a better position to have more joy on the ball, especially in the final third,” Rapinoe said. “I think everybody’s looking at this like `Let’s go.’”
At the 2019 World Cup in France, Rapinoe scored six goals over the course of the tournament, including a penalty in a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands in the final. She also finished with three assists and claimed both the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball for the best overall player.
Rapinoe, who is engaged to former WNBA star Sue Bird, has been a leader on and off the field.
She made headlines during the 2019 tournament when she said she wouldn’t visit the White House if the United States won. Her decision was based on her disdain for then-President Donald Trump, and the team did not go to the White House after winning its second World Cup.
And in the midst of a dispute with U.S. Soccer over equal pay with the men’s national team, Rapinoe helped the women hold firm on their position.
“I just think back to 2019 in particular. We didn’t really talk about it a lot as a group but we were like, `Well, we have to win. This is kind of like a must-win World Cup for us.’ And I think it did give us confidence,” she said. “It pressured us, but I think we also knew that we could handle it and it was almost a mandatory upping of our level to be able to match everything that we were saying off the field. I think in so many ways we were betting on ourselves.”
Rapinoe has won two Women’s World Cup titles and an Olympic gold medal with the United States. She also took home the Ballon d’Or and the Best FIFA Women’s Player awards — the game’s top individual honors — for her play in 2019.
As a fierce advocate for social justice issues, including gender equity and LGBTQ rights, she was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Joe Biden last year.
The team also won a new contract that pays the players the same as their male counterparts.
“I’ve always tried to use whatever platform we have, and this platform was built long before I got here. We just continue to add to to it, to grow the game, to make the world a better place, to use our voices, to advocate for more,” she said.
At this World Cup, she’s passing that legacy on to younger generation. Fourteen of the U.S. players are playing in their first World Cup. In 2019, Carli Lloyd was in a similar role of a player who was also something of a coach who led by example.
Rapinoe is doing that now.
“Still every day in training I’m like, `I’m gonna try to bust your ass,’ and that makes them better, that makes me better,” she said. “That makes the whole team better. So I think it’s been really rewarding. And I think ultimately, and I think that this gets lost, but I get to play in another World Cup.”
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FUKUOKA, Japan (AP) — The American swim team has had a so-so meet at the world championships in Japan. Meanwhile, Australia and China have been pouring it on.
The American gold-medal count at the worlds is the lowest in at least two decades, although the overall medal count of gold, silver and bronze, is similar to most years.
After winning only four gold medals during the first seven days, they picked up three on Sunday — the eighth and final day — for a total of seven golds and 38 overall. The gold total is still their lowest in a worlds going back as least 20 years. They won only eight in the 2015 worlds.
Australia finished with 13 gold and 20 overall, and China had five gold and 16 overall.
“Obviously, we’d like to win more gold medals and I think we will,” American coach Bob Bowman said going into Sunday’s final day.
The slight predicament for Bowman is that two of the swimmers he coaches at Arizona State University, Leon Marchand of France and Hungary’s Hubert Kos, have won four gold medals. Marchand has three, and he’s sure to be a star at next year’s Paris Olympics, and Kos has one.
That’s the same gold-medal total for the entire American team through seven of eight days — four gold. The average for the Americans over the last nine championships has been about 15 golds.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, two of the first three questions Bowman fielded were about Marchand and Kos, from French and Hungarian news outlets.
“If you look at swimming, every coach on the U.S. team is coaching a foreign swimmer, an international swimmer. There’s always that dynamic,” said Bowman, who has legendary status for helping Michael Phelps win 23 Olympic gold medals.”
Bowman was cautious about taking credit for Kos, who came to Arizona State late last year. He went from being a good individual medley swimmer to a world champion a few days ago in the 200-meter backstroke.
“I think it’s just the Bob Bowman effect,” said Kos, son of an American father and Hungarian mother. ”That’s as simple as it is.”
He said Bowman had a “magic” touch.
Bowman played down his role.
“He (Kos) had an excellent coach at home for 10 years before me,” Bowman said. “He deserved the credit for this. I just helped a little bit at the end.”
Bowman compared Marchand to Phelps. But can he produce and endure the pressure, particularly with the Olympics in his home country?
“It remains to be seen what he can do next year. It’s going to be a lot of expectations,” Bowman said. “But I feel like he’s done a very good rehearsal this year and last year. They’ve been good preparations for what will happen next year and we’ll try to carry that over to Paris.”
Swimming is an individual sport, separate from team sports like soccer. It would be unthinkable for the coach of Real Madrid to be also coaching Barcelona players on the side. But it’s normal in swimming, and Bowman said he was “ethically” comfortable with it.
“I mean, the bottom line is I get paid to coach these guys at ASU,” he said. “I’m representing my country for the love of my country and happy to do that. I don’t think there’s an ethical question. It’s not a zero-sum. I’m not taking away from the U.S. guys.”
He said he was interested in coaching the Americans at next year’s Olympics, but suggested any decision was still pending.
“I don’t think we know yet,” he said. “I have to go through this week, get home, think about what the scenarios look (like) and then we’ll decide. I always want to do. But we’ll see how it goes.”
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-legendary-coach-bob-bowman-keeps-turning-out-winning-swimmers-and-not-just-americans/ | 2023-07-31T01:19:53 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-legendary-coach-bob-bowman-keeps-turning-out-winning-swimmers-and-not-just-americans/ |