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A brand-new Easter special — including words of worship and songs of faith — will be available on April 17th through Securus tablets so incarcerated individuals can celebrate the holiday with original religious content
DALLAS, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Securus Technologies, a company that offers connectivity and rehabilitative resources to incarcerated individuals nationwide, today announced its expanded collaboration with God Behind Bars and their digital platform Pando, a first-of-its-kind app that provides faith-based content to incarcerated individuals for free. Securus, in conjunction with Pando, will offer a special one-hour Easter Sunday program to incarcerated individuals in more than 150,000 facilities across 29 states, featuring:
- Motivational words from a surprise celebrity guest
- An inspirational sermon delivered by Transformation Church
- Guidance from Hosanna Wong, a spiritual word artist
- Moving music from Maverick City
The brand-new Easter Sunday special will be available beginning just after midnight EST on Sunday, April 17th.
"Our vision is to create and provide the greatest faith-based content available, and one of our most important partnerships is with Securus so we can reach some of the most vulnerable men and women within our corrections system," said Isaac Holt, Director of Innovation for God Behind Bars. "The power of technology has amplified the voice of God through the cement walls of prisons, and we could not be more thrilled and grateful to provide a new Easter Sunday program to the incarcerated so all those who choose to can pray and celebrate the holiday together."
The Pando app is available for free through the Securus tablets, providing the incarcerated with access to faith-based content from 50 churches and ministries across the country to help transform their lives through physical, spiritual, and relational needs. More than 318,000 accounts belong to the incarcerated who enjoy Christian resources such as movies, music, sermons, life stories, spiritual guidance, and prayers and devotions.
"We are proud to be deepening our relationship with God Behind Bars because of the organization's compassionate commitment to supporting the unique emotional and spiritual needs of incarcerated individuals, particularly during a holiday dedicated to renewal," said Dave Abel, President and CEO of Aventiv, Parent Company of Securus Technologies. "Our tablet technology serves many purposes, which is why our vision is to have a device in the hands of every incarcerated individual. And one of the most powerful purposes of our tablets is to provide free access to religious content for those who want to worship and access faith-based content whenever they want or need it."
About God Behind Bars and the PANDO App
Pando is a unique app that delivers quality, faith-based content into the hands of incarcerated individuals all across the country. God Behind Bars partners with local and national churches and organizations to stream their sermons, worship music, podcasts, and devotionals directly onto inmate's tablets through our revolutionary, free app. In addition to video content, the app also provides the first-ever digital Bible available to our nation's inmates, and an interactive prayer request wall. Pando launched January 1, 2021, and as of today, has seen 327,283 inmate accounts created, 56,126 marked decisions for Jesus, and 12.8 million video views within the app. It is our goal to reach every inmate in the country with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
About Aventiv Technologies
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, an Aventiv Technologies company, serving more than 3,450 public safety, law enforcement and corrections agencies and over 1,200,000 incarcerated individuals across North America, Securus Technologies is committed to serve and connect by providing emergency response, incident management, public information, investigation, biometric analysis, communication, information management, incarcerated individual self-service, and monitoring products and services in order to make our world a safer place to live. Securus Technologies connecting what matters®. For more information, please visit SecurusTechnologies.tech.
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SOURCE Aventiv | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/securus-technologies-partners-with-god-behind-bars-deliver-new-easter-special-incarcerated-individuals-through-pando-app/ | 2022-04-13T17:57:44 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/securus-technologies-partners-with-god-behind-bars-deliver-new-easter-special-incarcerated-individuals-through-pando-app/ |
Tampa-based Capital Tacos is bringing its fried queso bites, Mexican street corn, and “Big Kahuna” fried fish tacos to Orlando, starting with delivery and pickup only.
The chain, with locations in the Tampa Bay area, will set up in the ghost kitchen food hall at 18 N. Dollins Ave. beginning in late May or early June, said co-owner and operating partner Josh Luger.
The menu will be available through Capital Tacos’ website and app as well as delivery apps such as Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub.
“This is really about planting the flag,” Luger said.
He said he expects Orlando will see a more physical presence of the brand within a year, including brick-and-mortar and food truck locations.
“Orlando has been and is No. 1 for us [for expansion],” Luger said. “We really view it as a sister market.”
The Orlando area is already home to popular taco options such as Tin & Taco, Gringos Locos, and MX Taco. Luger acknowledges there are many taco options in Orlando and Tampa, but he believes his chain’s food quality and customer experience will stand out.
“I’ll put our food up against anybody’s,” Luger said.
The Dollins Avenue hall is home to several restaurants without dining rooms, including a White Castle that only does pickup and delivery. The Orlando Sentinel reported in 2020 it was linked to Uber founder Travis Kalanick’s ghost kitchen business CloudKitchens.
Capital Tacos, which started in 2013, is partnering with CloudKitchens to expand in Orlando, Atlanta, Miami, Nashville and Charlotte.
Luger said his chain gets the majority of its revenue from online.
“We know we’re a digitally strong brand,” Luger said.
afuller@orlandosentinel.com | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-bz-capital-tacos-delivery-only-orlando-20220413-fxcgegecbrbalk7b3732zys42m-story.html | 2022-04-13T17:57:48 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-bz-capital-tacos-delivery-only-orlando-20220413-fxcgegecbrbalk7b3732zys42m-story.html |
NEW YORK, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Soundcore Capital Partners, LP (Soundcore) a New York-based private equity firm, is pleased to announce the expansion of its senior leadership team with the addition of three new veteran private equity industry Partners, who will help lead all new platform investments and their respective operations.
"We are thrilled to have such an impressive team of accomplished private equity executives join us. We look forward to accelerating our platform creation investment mandate. Collectively, the Soundcore senior team now has over 135 years of combined industry experience, including collaborative roles working together at predecessor companies," said Jarrett Turner, Founder and Managing Partner of Soundcore. "Eric Korsten joins us from Branford Castle Partners, where he was a member of the Investment Team for over 10 years. Most recently, Eric was a Senior Managing Director and Member of the Investment Committee at Branford." Alex Bues built and led the business development effort at multiple private equity firms, including Wellspring Capital Management. Jeff Long graduated at the top of his class at West Point, was a former Army Ranger, a Partner at McKinsey & Co. for over a decade, led operating teams at Vestar Capital Partners and Centerbridge Partners, where he sat on more than a dozen boards, including PF Chang's and Boart Longyear. He has also been the CEO of various notable companies including Culligan, Tervita and Penhall."
"After over a decade in private equity, I am very excited to officially announce that I have joined a growing, world-class team at Soundcore Capital Partners," said Eric Korsten, Partner at Soundcore.
"I am delighted to be joining Soundcore Capital Partners, a best-in-class private equity firm known for its thorough and thoughtful approach to investing," said Alex Bues, Partner at Soundcore. "I look forward to working closely with the excellent team at Soundcore to find high-quality businesses and grow them into market leaders".
"Soundcore Capital Partners is an exciting opportunity to work with lower middle-market companies where a little coaching and capital can help them really bend the growth curve," said Jeff Long, Partner at Soundcore. "I am honored to join this talented team. We have deep, complementary experiences that will fuel the continued success of Soundcore's thesis-driven, buy and build investment strategy."
About Soundcore Capital Partners, LP (www.soundcorecap.com/1/)
Soundcore Capital Partners was founded in 2015 by Jarrett Turner and is based in New York, NY. Soundcore is a thesis driven private equity firm that specializes in buy-and-build investments in the lower middle-market that are headquartered in the United States and Canada. Soundcore has completed 69 acquisitions across 9 platforms and focuses primarily on industrial services, business services, distribution and value-add manufacturing sectors.
Related Links
www.soundcorecap.com/1/
MEDIA CONTACT: Eric Korsten, +19173598887
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SOURCE Soundcore Capital Partners | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/senior-industry-veterans-join-growing-soundcore/ | 2022-04-13T17:57:50 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/senior-industry-veterans-join-growing-soundcore/ |
A Central Florida man was arrested for pretending to be an undercover DEA agent so that he could receive a discount at Wendy’s.
Bunnell Police Department officers arrested Jesse David Stover for trying to impersonate a law enforcement officer on Monday, according to a press release from the City of Bunnell in Flagler County.
The release said officers responded to a call about suspicious activity at Wendy’s after Stover asked for the law enforcement discount at the restaurant.
When employees asked Stover to show a valid ID, he flashed a gold-colored badge, according to the release. Staff denied his request, and an argument ensued. Stover then said he wasn’t a police officer but worked for the DEA as an undercover agent. The release stated Stover’s been demanding the discount for more than two years.
Officers found the fake officer badge and a concealed weapon permit badge that looked very similar. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/os-ne-central-florida-man-pretended-to-be-dea-agent-for-wendys-discount-20220413-g5creojvjjdhhiqhufgxevydim-story.html | 2022-04-13T17:57:54 | 0 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/os-ne-central-florida-man-pretended-to-be-dea-agent-for-wendys-discount-20220413-g5creojvjjdhhiqhufgxevydim-story.html |
Officials found and identified the body of a missing kayaker.
Florida Fish and Wildlife responded to a call around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday regarding a boating accident, WINK News reported.
One person swam to shore but the other person, Jonathan Pierre-Francois, 19, didn’t resurface.
He was dead when first responders found him, WINK News reported.
Read the full report on winknews.com. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/florida/os-ne-florida-missing-kayaker-body-found-20220413-sak3t6ficzcgra3c35evmze6xi-story.html | 2022-04-13T17:58:01 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/florida/os-ne-florida-missing-kayaker-body-found-20220413-sak3t6ficzcgra3c35evmze6xi-story.html |
SHENZHEN, China, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 12, 2022, digital manufacturer Snapmaker won the iF Design Award 2022 for its flagship product Snapmaker 3-in-1 all-metal 3D Printer.
Founded in 1953, the iF Design Award has become one of the most prestigious design awards worldwide to award projects within nine disciplines: product, packaging, communication, interior architecture, professional concept, service design, UX, and architecture. This year, a panel of 75 renowned design experts gathers together to find the best designs. Among a record number of over 10, 000 entries from 49 countries, the Snapmaker 2.0 stands out in differentiation, function, and idea for its sleek all-metal modular design and was selected as one of the 2,074 winners in the product category.
Snapmaker 2.0 3-in-1 3D Printer
Snapmaker 2.0 is a modular desktop 3D printer integrating 3D printing, laser engraving, and CNC carving. Empowered with a Rotary Module, Snapmaker 2.0 takes a big leap from flat surfaces to curved surfaces, achieving high-precision four-axis machining. Its open-source firmware and CAM software Snapmaker Luban also meet users' high standard and personalized needs.
Since launching in 2019 on Kickstarter, Snapmaker has kept the record as the most funded 3D printing project and has presented capabilities for its Snapmaker 2.0 lineups and their application in DIY enthusiasts, small businesses, maker spaces, and STEAM education.
About Snapmaker
Founded in 2016, Snapmaker is a tech company that develops, manufactures, and sells desktop 3-in-1 3D printers that integrate 3D printing, laser engraving & cutting, and CNC carving. Our flagship product Snapmaker 2.0 3-in-1 3D printer made a record in 2019 as the most crowdfunded 3D printer on Kickstarter and won the 2020 CES Innovation Award.
For more information about Snapmaker, please visit: https://snapmaker.com/
For press inquiries, please contact press@snapmaker.com
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SOURCE Shenzhen Snapmaker Technologies Co., Ltd. | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/snapmaker-20-3-in-1-3d-printer-wins-international-if-design-award-2022/ | 2022-04-13T17:57:56 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/snapmaker-20-3-in-1-3d-printer-wins-international-if-design-award-2022/ |
Nice to hear Disney has announced some affordable housing while the governor tries to shut off some of the many Disney perks. 1,300 units for an employment of 77,000 (many more being added soon) is not enough while corporate has to use big steam shovels to rake in all the loot! And they continue to fight the tax collector for every penny, squeezing till Lincoln cries!
I too am ticked off at the scam roofing companies and the consumers who used the system to get new roofs causing the rates to rise. Not all people who are getting new roofs fall into this category. We had to replace ours or lose our insurance coverage. Our roof was fine, but over 10-years-old, so we had no choice. People should be careful about judging those now replacing their roofs.
To the restaurant near Lake Ivanhoe - If the oil in your fryer needs changing, do it before the restaurant opens so I don’t to wait an additional 15 minutes for my fries.
I’m ticked off that John Young “Speedway” is now so dangerous even the police don’t patrol it.
One of the worst commercials shows a baby in diapers pulling on a drawer while jumping up and down, no parent watching the child. A leading cause of baby deaths at home is when a child pulls over a TV or table or bookcase on themselves.
It ticks me off that this newspaper wrote a article on the Masters golf tournament more than a half a page and only mentioned one player. The tournament I watched had many more players. It’s like like they disrespected all the other players. I know it’s a comeback but to not acknowledge the others is just wrong!
The flip side
A big thank you to the two police officers who “herded” a five foot long alligator out of our front yard in Winter Garden and across the busy street to a safer environment. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-op-ticked-off-041422-20220413-c55loitgvfaftak25yvekcbzke-story.html | 2022-04-13T17:58:08 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-op-ticked-off-041422-20220413-c55loitgvfaftak25yvekcbzke-story.html |
Sacramento, Calif., April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As their WeFunder campaign comes to a close on April 15, the Sircles team is working harder than ever to ensure every small business has a fighting chance against the negativity and misinformation that pervades existing review sites.
A social recommendations app built entirely around the premise of bringing positivity back to the social media landscape, Sircles aims to provide a transparent and positive way for consumers to find services and businesses based on recommendations from friends, rather than reviews from strangers. The app was constructed with painstaking detail to be nearly impossible to use in a negative way, and to encourage positive behavior with a gamified, rewards-based UX.
For those owners just beginning to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, having an alternative method of showcasing their businesses and reaching their customer base could not have come at a better time.
"COVID hit everyone hard, but it was really difficult for us 'Mom & Pops,'" said Joe Ferrie, Sircles investor and owner of the Silver Dollar Saloon in Marysville, CA. "On top of everything else, having to deal with negative reviews from people who weren't customers, who'd never even been to our town¸ was frustrating, to say the least. An app that could help us tell our story our way, and that was specifically designed to bring more love and light in to the world? That was something my fellow business owners and I could really get behind."
Since the initial launch, Sircles has obtained over 25,000 users and 3.8 MILLION app opens. With more than 500 reviews averaging 4.7 stars, Sircles is primed to come onto the world stage in a big way. To discover why more than 2,400 people have invested over $2.4M into the Sircles mission, visit Sircles.com or wefunder.com/Sircles today.
About Sircles
Sacramento founders of Tech2U, John Worthington and Todd Fiore, partnered again to create Sircles, a social recommendations app where you can discover places and things from the people you trust. No reviews means no negativity – just love. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play with reviews averaging 4.7 stars, the app will roll out an update to improve the user experience and increase engagement between businesses and customers later this year.
CONTACT:
Stacy Robinson
Public Relations Strategist
(916) 607-4701
stacy@sircles.com
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SOURCE Sircles | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/social-recommendations-app-sircles-highlights-power-positivity/ | 2022-04-13T17:58:08 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/social-recommendations-app-sircles-highlights-power-positivity/ |
Both of Aidan Mizell’s parents were University of Florida track and field athletes, but the Boone High football standout ran only a few races in his youth track days while he dabbled in a number of sports growing up.
That left Mizell wondering how fast he really was.
Now he knows. And so do college football and track coaches across the nation.
The 6-2, 180-pound junior receiver, who rocketed up football recruiting charts after scoring 18 touchdowns on 47 catches last fall, confirmed his elite speed when he ran a school record time of 46.99 seconds at the Florida Relays two weekends ago on the University of Florida campus.
That ranks No. 7 nationally according to MileSplit.com. It came on a fabulous Friday in Gainesville for Mizell’s family. After the race he quickly showered and took a UF football recruiting tour. Aidan and his parents, Wil and Ebony Robinson-Mizell, met with new Gators coach Billy Napier.
“It was an amazing day,” said Mizell who turned 17 on Monday. “I got to talk to most of the coaches and a lot of the players.”
Two weeks earlier, shortly after Mizell clocked a 47.92 time in the Dr. Phillips Invitational, the Gators offered a football scholarship. He is scheduled to make another visit to UF for its spring game this Thursday.
The family ties with Florida figure to be tough to beat but Mizell’s recruitment race has a stack of competitors. He has 34 scholarship offers on a list that stretches from USC to Penn State and includes most of the SEC and Big 10. National champ Georgia and runner-up Alabama both offered in January.
“There’s a lot of college coaches that think he’s the best receiver in the country,” Boone football coach Andy Johnson said Tuesday. “Alabama told us that. Oklahoma said that.”
Mizell took unofficial visits to 2021 NCAA champ Georgia and Clemson on a Spring Break trip, and then to national runner-up Alabama on the Crimson Tide’s Junior Day recruiting weekend in January. He is also very familiar with hometown UCF. Knights coach Gus Malzahn made him a prime target early on and Aidan has made visits.
In the Florida Relays 400 Mizell finished second to Montverde Academy junior Zyaire Nurriddin, who ran a national best time of 45.78.
“When you go against great competition you play better,” Mizell said between his events at last week’s Boone Invitational. “Everyone at Florida Relays was fast. I was running right next to (Nurriddin) and I tried my best to stay right with him. I was close until the last 100 meters. It was a great race to be able to run.”
There is no stopwatch in football, but those who watched Mizell burn defenses as a wideout for Boone’s 8-4 district championship football team last fall — including recruiters — were already aware of his speed. Against Class 8A competition, he had 1,003 receiving yards (21.3 ypc) and scored one touchdown for every 2.7 catches, a stunning stat.
“He’s long. His top-end speed is elite. His ability to run after the catch and accelerate. He really gives you everything you want to in a receiver,” Johnson said. “And he’s a a good student and a really good kid. He wants his teammates to do well. That’s one of the things you value most as a coach.”
Mizell took some time to gain stardom, in part because of nagging hip and hamstring issues that slowed his progress.
He played JV football as a ninth grader and ran only race before the 2020 season was cut short by the COVID outbreak.
As a sophomore he made varsity but had just 13 catches for 173 yards and 2 TDs, plus a 45-yard run from scrimmage that foretold what might come next. Mizell gained more confidence, and some notoriety, in his 2021 track season. He started late after playing basketball for Boone, opening with a 50.82 time to place second in the Metro Conference East Division championship meet. Two months later he dropped that all the way to 48.55 to place fifth behind four seniors in the FHSAA Class 4A state meet.
Mizell made the decision to drop basketball and focus on football and track this school year.
“This is his first full track season and for us, it’s been about preventative care while competing and training,” said Ebony, who herself was a blue-chip high school recruit out of Eleanor Roosevelt High School in suburban Washington, D.C. “I do think not playing basketball made it less stressful. Aidan’s doing physical therapy twice a week and I absolutely believe that’s made a huge difference. He’s been able to compete at full speed.”
Ebony signed with UF and was a multi-time All-American quarter miler while earning a bachelor’s degree in 1996 and law degree in 1999. She and Wil, a St. Cloud High School graduate who signed as a decathlete, met in their college days. In addition to Aidan they have a son, Isaiah, a freshman who played soccer and track for Boone, and a 10-year old daughter, Charlie.
“It’s a great family,” said Jerry Williams, Boone’s head track coach. “Sky is the limit for Aidan. He’s having a great season.”
This year’s FHSAA 4A state meet will be held at UF’s Percy Beard Track, Saturday, March 14.
“Football season was amazing. I proved myself and got all the (scholarship) offers I really wanted,” Aidan said. “Track season’s not over but I’m where I want to be. I want to be a state champion.”
This report was first published at Orlandosentinel.com. Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/football/os-sp-hs-aidan-mizell-feature-0414-20220413-dhczejgojbdh3dc2zorncpw2uu-story.html | 2022-04-13T17:58:14 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/football/os-sp-hs-aidan-mizell-feature-0414-20220413-dhczejgojbdh3dc2zorncpw2uu-story.html |
Leaders in food and agriculture form joint effort to further evidence-based solutions to climate change
EMERYVILLE, Calif., April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sound Agriculture, an industry-leader developing science-based solutions to improve how and what we farm, has joined the Decade of Ag movement, an industry-wide effort led by US Farmers and Ranchers in Action (USFRA) to achieve a shared mission for a resilient, economically-viable, and climate-smart agricultural system that produces sustainable food, fiber, and energy.
Sound Agriculture is working with other leading companies to tackle the existential need to improve the way our food and agriculture system works. By leveraging biology above and below ground, the company is unleashing the natural power that exists in plants to solve the need for more reliable, nutritious, and delicious food grown in a way that can be sustained into the future.
"The increase in weather events and worldwide supply chain disruptions have sent shocks through our food system," said Adam Litle, CEO, Sound Agriculture. "It is time for us to join together and we are committed to working with others in the food and agriculture sector to find creative and scalable solutions that can be implemented quickly and cost effectively for farmers."
The company developed SOURCE® to support continual improvements in farming by enhancing nutrient efficiency. SOURCE reduces the need for synthetic fertilizer without impacting production by activating soil microbes to provide more essential nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, to crops. The company's goal is to reduce global synthetic fertilizer use by 30%, which equates to removing more than 200 million cars from the road.
"As the secretariat for the Decade of Ag movement, we thank Sound Agriculture for its leadership, sharing a 2030 vision of success for the food and ag sector," said Erin Fitzgerald, CEO of USFRA. "This moment requires unprecedented collaboration across the value chain, and we are proud and excited to work alongside Sound Agriculture and dozens of other leaders committed to lifting up farmers and ranchers throughout the United States."
Sound Agriculture joins more than 160 agriculture leaders who have signed on to this sustainability vision.
About Sound Agriculture
Sound Agriculture unlocks the natural power of plants to meet the demands for more diverse and nutritious food. Innovative, on-demand crop solutions allow agriculture to adapt faster to climate change and evolving consumer preferences, creating healthier food that is better for the planet. Products are designed to improve on-farm efficiency and create healthier, tastier, more sustainable food. SOURCE activates the microbiome to give crops access to more of the nitrogen and phosphorus that exists in the field, improving yield and reducing synthetic fertilizer by up to 50 lbs per acre. Learn more at www.sound.ag and follow @sound_ag on Twitter.
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SOURCE Sound Agriculture | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/sound-agriculture-joins-usfra-decade-ag-advance-industry-led-sustainability-efforts/ | 2022-04-13T17:58:14 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/sound-agriculture-joins-usfra-decade-ag-advance-industry-led-sustainability-efforts/ |
MIAMI GARDENS — How do you salvage the career of a former first-round pick whose first two seasons were plagued by inconsistency and filled with struggles?
That’s the riddle new Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel and his offensive staff are trying to solve when it comes to Austin Jackson considering the 18th pick in the 2020 NFL draft struggled mightily in his second season.
While respected for his work ethic and his commitment to his craft, none of those traits prevented Jackson from being a liability for a handful of plays in just about every game during the 2021 season.
He got moved from left tackle to left guard early in the season because his inconsistent hand placement and lackluster footwork allowed defenders to cross his face with ease, contributing to the routine collapse of the quarterback’s pocket.
And even at left guard the struggles continued. As a byproduct, Miami’s offensive line led the NFL in pressures allowed in 2021.
In fairness to Jackson, everyone on last year’s offensive line was a problem at times. But he’s the only lineman Miami used a first-round pick to select, so the standards for the former USC standout are higher and he didn’t live up to them.
As a result, the Dolphins’ decision-makers made it a priority to beef up the left side of the offensive line this offseason.
Terron Armstead, a three-time Pro Bowler, was signed to a five-year, $75 million contract to play left tackle, and Miami added Connor Williams, a 51-game starter for the Cowboys, was signed to a two-year, $14 million deal.
Considering Williams has spent all of his NFL career at left guard, there’s a strong chance that’s where he’ll settle into on the starting lineup once the Dolphins begin their on-field work. If that’s the case, then Jackson’s likely on the move again.
However, Williams did play left tackle at the University of Texas, and the Dolphins’ new focus is to fortify the right side of the offensive line, which is critical because it protects left-handed quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s blindside.
“I played right tackle. This isn’t the first time playing a new role for me. Played it in high school and college. It’s not completely new for me,” Jackson said Wednesday, making it clear he feels he’s an offensive tackle. “At end of the day I have to make sure I get the technique and fundamentals right.”
As the roster stands now the Dolphins have half a dozen players vying for two starting spots on the right side, and Jackson’s draft status will likely have him viewed as a front-runner.
Maybe a shift to the right side, where he might compete with Liam Eichenberg, Robert Hunt, Solomon Kindley, Robert Jones and Greg Little, for the starting guard and right tackle spot in what’s supposed to be a wide-zone running scheme, provides a resurgence.
Maybe Jackson improves with better coaching or because Miami’s running a different scheme, one his athleticism seemingly should fit.
“What I like about this scheme is it’s very detailed,” Jackson said. “At the end of the day we have to rely on the concepts we know, study and train for.”
Maybe Jackson improves with a better diet and alterations he’s made to his workout program, some of which he said Armstead has inspired.
Maybe age and experience helps him take that next step, becoming more reliable.
His nimble feet give him a chance to thrive in this new scheme if Jackson can get to the second level as a blocker and wreak havoc on linebackers.
Or maybe none of that matters and Miami learns Jackson isn’t starter material, and he gets chalked up as a first-round bust.
For two and a half decades the Dolphins have had a solid run of offensive linemen selected in the first round turning into respectable NFL starters.
Billy Milner, who was taken 25th in the 1995 draft, was the last first-round bust as an offensive lineman. He only started nine of the 20 games he played in Miami, and played in a total of 30 NFL games because of a career-ending neck injury he suffered in St. Louis after the Dolphins traded him to the Rams for tight end Troy Drayton.
At this point it’s too early to tell what direction Jackson’s career heads in because the Dolphins won’t put pads on for months, and that’s the appropriate time to evaluate offensive linemen.
So until then all Jackson can do is work to ensure he doesn’t become an afterthought for the 2022 team. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-sp-dolphins-austin-jackson-kelly-column-20220413-2si7utadsnbptpspl326d4upku-story.html | 2022-04-13T17:58:20 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-sp-dolphins-austin-jackson-kelly-column-20220413-2si7utadsnbptpspl326d4upku-story.html |
BENSALEM, Pa., April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces that investors with substantial losses have opportunity to lead the securities fraud class action lawsuit against SunPower Corporation ("SunPower" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: SPWR).
Class Period: August 3, 2021 – January 20, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: April 18, 2022
Investors suffering losses on their SunPower investments are encouraged to contact the Law Offices of Howard G. Smith to discuss their legal rights in this class action at 888-638-4847 or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com.
The complaint filed alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that certain connectors used by SunPower suffered from cracking issues; (2) that, as a result, the Company was reasonably likely to incur costs to remediate the faulty connectors; (3) that, as a result of the foregoing, SunPower's financial results would be adversely impacted; and (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
To be a member of the class action you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the class action. If you wish to learn more about this class action, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to the pending class action lawsuit, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020, by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com, or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
Contacts
Law Offices of Howard G. Smith
Howard G. Smith, Esquire
215-638-4847
888-638-4847
howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com
www.howardsmithlaw.com
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SOURCE Law Offices of Howard G. Smith | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/spwr-investors-have-opportunity-lead-sunpower-corporation-securities-fraud-lawsuit/ | 2022-04-13T17:58:21 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/spwr-investors-have-opportunity-lead-sunpower-corporation-securities-fraud-lawsuit/ |
Growing up in Australia, Frankie Tinilau could have easily been drawn to rugby or Australian-rules football. Both sports are more popular there than American football.
But unlike many kids growing up around him, Tinilau had a family connection to America’s most popular sport. His father played football in New Zealand.
“I grew up hearing stories of my dad playing American football and watching it on TV,” Tinilau told the Sun Sentinel. “So when I was growing up playing rugby, I felt I was always bigger than everyone on the field. It had got to the point where my heart wasn’t in the game no more. So that’s when I went down to a local club and signed up for American football. I had all odds against me but here I am today, and hopefully, I can make that pipeline easier for the boys and girls behind me with that same dream.”
Tinilau, an offensive lineman, took the next step in achieving his dream on Monday, announcing his commitment to the Miami Hurricanes, who currently have two players on the roster from Australia: punters Lou Hedley and Nelson Foley.
The newest member of Miami’s 2023 recruiting class saw his recruitment pick up in a hurry. He received a Hurricanes offer on March 1 and visited campus for UM’s first spring practice on March 7.
“From the first visit I took, walking through the facility and campus, seeing that U-Miami culture really stood out,” Tinilau said. “You could see everyone one of those students and athletes wore the U with pride.”
Tinilau, who stands in at 6-5 and 315 pounds, said Miami’s coaches view him as an offensive tackle, but a lot of his conversations with the staff have not been about football.
“My conversations with the coaches have really been about personal life,” Tinilau said. “We became family since I walked through the campus, so they keep in touch. They let me know how practice goes and make sure I’m also getting better on and off the field.”
Tinilau, who is Miami’s second offensive line commit in the 2023 class (along with Maryland lineman Antonio Tripp Jr.) will be close to UM’s campus soon enough. He plans to come to South Florida and play for Miami La Salle for his first season of American high school football.
“This upcoming season will prove a kid from the other side of the world can not only learn the game but succeed and dominate in the game of football,” Tinilau said. “Will definitely open the eyes of the international players and shine light for the athletes back in Australia.”
Being close to his future school will give Tinilau a good chance to check out his future team and coaching staff.
“I’m excited to see how this season goes with the new and great coaching staff,” Tinilau said. “Huge season for the guys out there. I will be watching and I’m ready to make history!” | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/miami-hurricanes/fl-sp-um-tinilau-feat-20220413-7nkpysm23bfsfekxvfejl4sijm-story.html | 2022-04-13T17:58:27 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/miami-hurricanes/fl-sp-um-tinilau-feat-20220413-7nkpysm23bfsfekxvfejl4sijm-story.html |
The new mixing portfolio better serves new and existing customers across an array of industries
CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SPX FLOW, Inc., a leading provider of process solutions for the Industrial, and Nutrition & Health markets, has fully integrated the additions to its mixing solutions portfolio, creating a bigger, more technologically advanced offering for customers. By combining these legacy companies and brands — Lightnin, Plenty, Stelzer, Uutechnic, and Philadelphia Mixing Solutions — both new and existing customers now have access to the best solution across all brands.
In essence, the combination of these brands, which are already trusted names in their field, builds a powerhouse mixing solutions portfolio. Each brand has its own expertise, and customers who were established with only one of the companies now have access to all. Together they bring industry-leading technical know-how to deliver solutions in a wide variety of industries, including specialty chemicals, mining and minerals, food and beverage, personal care, pharmaceuticals, environmental and wastewater, green technologies end markets.
With every mixing solution integrated into the same portfolio, there is better collaboration among teams and ability to leverage combined strengths to serve global customers in a cohesive and consistent approach.
"SPX FLOW has taken the best of already trusted brands to build something truly unique for our customers," said Ankur Jain, SPX FLOW's director of product management of Mixing Solutions. "It's an example where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Alone these brands were already top-notch trusted brands. Together, they are now truly the best of the best."
Some of the greatest benefits for customers include:
- Easy access to the best process know-how: Combining industry-leading brands ensures a wide variety of specialized mixing expertise to solve complex problems. Globally connected teams of industry experts offer a truly unique service to customers at their doorsteps. SPX FLOW's thought leadership in the field of mixing technology brings outstanding process results with an understanding that is robust and reliable for maximum uptime.
- Offering a greater array of solutions: Customers no longer need to search out multiple companies to solve their mixing needs. Customers have the options to choose from different solutions to satisfy their specific needs. SPX FLOW's combined engineering capabilities best positions the company to work with customers, institutions and academics to develop new products and spearhead the field of mixing science.
- More locations worldwide, including manufacturing, service centers and Innovation labs: A broader geographic base gives SPX FLOW a unique ability to support customers locally, quickly start up new projects and provide faster, quicker turnaround for service and repairs. Local Innovation and Design Centers in the region provide a convenient avenue for the customer to develop solutions faster — increasing speed to market, reducing cost on trials, while being more sustainable by reducing travel.
- Dedicated aftermarket & service organization to enhance end-user operations: The new mixing group provides a wider array of aftermarket programs and capabilities. It brings a dedicated aftermarket organization and an expanded footprint that is available to assist with enhancing revenue generation potential and return on investment, improving maintenance lifetime cycles with increased uptime, decreasing maintenance costs and emergency work and providing mechanical equipment assessments and identifying at-risk equipment.
"Not only are we able to offer better services and opportunities to our existing customers, but we can reach more customers and end-users and support them with our services," Jain said. "By combining forces, we can offer our solutions and expertise in new markets and geographies, meaning a customer now has access to SPX FLOW Mixing Solutions and our expertise, trusted quality and aftermarket support at their doorstep."
A look at the combined mixing solutions suite, by the numbers:
- A rich history and legacy with more than 1,000,000 mixers installed worldwide
- More than 675 dedicated solution makers are serving more than 10,000 customers worldwide
- A dedicated footprint of more than 1 million sq. ft. (92,000 m2) consisting of state-of-the-art production facilities, and service centers
- Four Innovation and Design Centers spread across the world to run customer trials, innovate new solutions and develop technical advancements (2 in the U.S., 1 in Germany, 1 in China)
To learn more about these brands, visit their pages on the SPX FLOW website: Lightnin, Plenty, Stelzer, Uutechnic, and Philadelphia Mixing Solutions.
Based in Charlotte, N.C., SPX FLOW, Inc. improves the world through innovative and sustainable solutions. The company's product offering is concentrated in process technologies that perform mixing, blending, fluid handling, separation, thermal heat transfer and other activities that are integral to processes performed across a wide variety of nutrition, health and industrial markets.
SPX FLOW had approximately $1.5 billion in 2021 annual revenues and has operations in more than 30 countries and sales in more than 140 countries. To learn more about SPX FLOW, please visit www.spxflow.com.
Media Contact:
Melissa Buscher, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer
Melissa.Buscher@spxflow.com
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SOURCE SPX FLOW, Inc. | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/spx-flows-suite-mixer-brands-expands-capability-products-locations/ | 2022-04-13T17:58:28 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/spx-flows-suite-mixer-brands-expands-capability-products-locations/ |
Wolfgang, Observatory, GALE and Allison+Partners Collaborating to Reposition and Drive Awareness of New Offerings across Halo Top and Blue Bunny Brands
NEW YORK, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, today announced several new campaigns for Wells Enterprises, Inc., the largest privately held, family-owned ice cream manufacturer in the United States. Stagwell agencies Wolfgang, Observatory, GALE and Allison+Partners began work on the account in January, collaborating to develop an integrated strategy to drive awareness and commerce to Wells Enterprises. Campaigns from Wolfgang and Observatory for Halo Top and Blue Bunny, respectively, will launch in April.
Halo Top is relaunching its brand with Fruit Pops, supported by creative agency of record Wolfgang. The campaign evolves the Halo Top brand from its origins in diet ice cream into the modern "better for you" category. Advancing beyond saccharine "wellness" stereotypes, the work is based on a refreshingly subversive POV that "it's healthy to be a little bit selfish," and will include OLV, social, digital, and OOH assets.
This spring, Observatory, creative AOR for Blue Bunny, will launch an omnichannel effort including TV, digital, social, radio, and more to support the brand as it launches a new product: Twist Cones, the first-ever soft serve twist cone you can get straight from your home freezer. The campaign invites dessert lovers into the partially-fictionalized world of Blue Bunny HQ where CEO Blu inspires and leads a company staffed by actual bunnies.
In addition to developing new creative work, Stagwell global communications firm Allison+Partners is providing ongoing public relations support to Blue Bunny. The team will lead an integrated communications program and earned media strategy designed to help drive awareness, brand preference, and ultimately sales of new products.
"At Wells, we've consistently delivered our love of ice cream to consumers nationwide through our iconic brands. And while we've had success, we also recognized the opportunity to take our iconic brands to the next level with an integrated agency approach unlike any other. Now, we're excited to launch refreshing new takes on our leading Blue Bunny and Halo Top brands, sure to inspire and delight a new wave of consumers looking for delicious and healthy treats," said Wells Enterprises VP of Demand Operations, Adam Baumgartner. "Through this process, Stagwell has been an invaluable partner in helping steer that transformation, behind a refined strategic framework and integrated creative campaigns that strike to the heart of Wells' brands."
"Our team is at our best when we're solving complex problems in partnership with clients. In this case, connecting and audience-first media approach to creativity and commerce meant aiding in the transformation of how Wells 'has worked' to 'can work'" added Julia Hammond, President, Global Solutions. "Together, our diverse network of agencies will make big waves for Wells; we are so excited for the new campaigns to hit the market."
About Wells Enterprises
Wells Enterprises, Inc. is the largest privately held, family-owned ice cream manufacturer in the United States. Founded in 1913 by Fred H. Wells, the company is still proudly owned by the Wells family today. Wells produces more than 200 million gallons of ice cream per year and distributes products in all 50 states. Wells manufactures its signature brand Blue Bunny®, lower-calorie Halo Top®, the iconic Bomb Pop®, and Blue Ribbon Classics®. Wells employs more than 4,000 ice cream aficionados across the country. The company is headquartered in Iowa and operates two manufacturing plants in Le Mars, Iowa, a manufacturing plant in Dunkirk, New York and a manufacturing facility in Henderson, Nevada. As the world's largest manufacturer of ice cream in one location, Wells has made Le Mars the "Ice Cream Capital of the World."
About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world's most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 10,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.
About Wolfgang
Wolfgang is a consultancy and creative agency that bridges the gap between consulting and advertising. They combine the rigor of data with innovative creativity to help brands define themselves – and redefine the marketplace. Over the past five years, Wolfgang has helped Panda Express climb from the 25th to the17th biggest restaurant chain, launched Adidas' first women's basketball collection, created the first of its kind "Wake Up" book for children with soccer star Trinity Rodman, and introduced a new IP division. For Halo Top, Wolfgang is creating a campaign that will redefine "wellness" with a refreshingly subversive and witty POV.
About Observatory
Observatory is a 4x Emmy, 4x Cannes Lions Grand Prix, and Sundance-winning agency for the content era, building brands and driving business results through campaigns that attract and engage audiences rather than interrupt and annoy them. Honored as a Fast Company 2020, 2021, & 2022 World's Most Innovative Company, Observatory is a global full-service creative ad agency with deep roots in entertainment. Starting in 2006 as CAA Marketing (a division of Creative Artists Agency), the agency became independent in late 2017 with backing from Stagwell Inc. Observatory does not publish its client list. A range of work is available at www.observatoryagency.com.
About Allison+Partners
Allison+Partners is a global marketing and communications agency driven by a collaborative approach to innovation and creativity. The firm was named by PRovoke Media as one of its Global Agencies of the Decade, North American Agencies of the Year and Best Agencies to Work For. The agency was also named by PRWeek as a Best Places to Work for four consecutive years and recognized as one of UK's Fastest Growing Agencies. Allison+Partners operates in 34 markets worldwide and is organized around five practices: Consumer Brands, Corporate, Reputation Risk + Public Affairs, Health and Technology. The agency's Marketing Innovation Team, which combines brand strategy, integrated marketing, creative, research and measurement expertise into one offering, works across these practices to deliver integrated storytelling for clients. Allison+Partners is owned by Stagwell, one of the fastest-growing and most influential marketing and communications networks in the world. Agency partners leverage Stagwell's technology, data analytics, insights and strategic consulting solutions to drive measurable results and optimize return on marketing investment for more than 1,700 clients worldwide. For more information, visit www.allisonpr.com.
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SOURCE Stagwell Inc. | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/stagwell-stgw-partners-with-wells-enterprises-launch-new-product-offerings/ | 2022-04-13T17:58:35 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/stagwell-stgw-partners-with-wells-enterprises-launch-new-product-offerings/ |
Total annualized ticket fares of $123m in March, up 31% from end of fourth quarter 2021; M&A pipeline provides further upside opportunities
Total Q1 ticket fares of $27m; an increase of 27% quarter-over-quarter and 4.0x year-over-year, beating the Company's estimates by 17%
Beats Q1 total bookings estimates by 15%; growing 25% quarter-over-quarter and 3.9x year-over-year; aggregate bookings since start of operations cross 90m
Raising total ticket fare guidance for full year 2022, for the second time, to $160M
NEW YORK, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Swvl Holdings Corp ("Swvl" or the "Company"), a global provider of transformative tech-enabled mass transit solutions, today announced key business measures for the first quarter of 2022.
Highlights include:
- Exceeded expectations across key business measures and increased 2022 total ticket fare projections $160M; 13% higher than original estimate of $141M
- Achieved 4.0x total ticket fares growth YoY; 2.7x from pre-Covid levels and approximately 27% from the prior quarter, driven by the Company's user-centric ecosystem, robust geographic expansions and a swift turnaround from the impact of Covid
- Increased bookings 3.9x YoY; 2.3x from 2021 levels before the onset of the pandemic, and 25% since the prior quarter
- 25% increase in total available seats coupled with total bookings growth of also 25% in last quarter showcases ability to add capacity to meet higher demand
- Maintained high fleet utilization levels at 82%
- Average ticket fare of $1.71 for Q1; 1% higher than estimates
- $1.28 cost per available seat for Q1, which is equal to 74% of average ticket fare
- Capitalizing on value-additive acquisitions, including Shotl, an on-demand bus platform with more than 10% market share in Europe, and Viapool, a mass transit platform operating in Argentina and Chile with over 80 institutional clients; also announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire door2door, a European high-growth mobility platform with 24% market share in Germany
- Continues to expand user base – driven by application of algorithm-based user acquisition strategy and higher customer retention
- Announced noteworthy hires including Kevin Foreman as Global Head of B2G (business-to-government) offerings and appointed technology leaders with deep experience across cyber risk management, software development and product engineering and management
- Quadrupled product and engineering team, advancing the capabilities of Swvl's proprietary tech-enabled platform
- Added distinguished leader Gbenga Oyebode to best-in-class and truly diverse Board of Directors
- Advanced commitment to sustainable mass mobility with ~310m pounds of CO2 emissions saved since 2017
- Announced completion of business combination with Queen's Gambit Growth Capital, the first special purpose acquisition company founded and led entirely by women.
Mostafa Kandil, Swvl Founder and CEO, said, "We entered 2022 with confidence, underpinned by a track record of strong growth, and are pleased to have exceeded our expectations. Now, having completed the business combination with Queen's Gambit Growth Capital, Swvl is poised to execute its vision of being the largest tech-enabled mass transit provider in the world, with an emphasis on sustainable, convenient, affordable and safe solutions for commuters across the socioeconomic spectrum. I am deeply proud of the work our team has done. Every day, we are leveraging our cutting-edge proprietary technology and capitalizing on strategic investments across new geographies, all with an eye toward driving exponential growth and compelling value for our stakeholders."
Youssef Salem, Swvl CFO, said, "As our results demonstrate, Swvl is performing above expectations across each of our key operational metrics, including total ticket fares, total bookings, utilization, total available seats, average ticket fare and cost per available seat. With tremendous growth momentum and rapid expansion within core and new geographies, we are pleased to once again increase our yearly guidance forecast for total ticket fares. In the second quarter of 2022, we will seek to continue to execute on a host of compelling opportunities both organically and through acquisitions. We believe the market opportunity for Swvl is only becoming more attractive and we have merely scratched the surface in terms of the value that we plan to create for investors and all stakeholders alike."
Supplemental Information In addition to the business information included in this release, presentation slides have been made available on Swvl's website at https://investors.swvl.com/financial-information/quarterly-results.
About Swvl
Swvl is a global provider of transformative tech-enabled mass transit solutions, offering intercity, intracity, B2B and B2G transportation across 115 cities in 18 countries. The Company's platform provides complimentary semi-private alternatives to public transportation for individuals who cannot access or afford private options. Every day, Swvl's parallel mass transit systems are empowering individuals to go where they want, when they want – making mobility safer, more efficient, accessible, and environmentally friendly. Customers can book their rides on an easy-to-use proprietary app with varied payment options and 24 / 7 access to high-quality private buses and vans.
Swvl was co-founded by Mostafa Kandil, who began his career at Rocket Internet, where he launched the car sales platform Carmudi in the Philippines, which became the largest car classifieds company in the country in just six months. He then served as Rocket Internet's Head of Operations. In 2016, Kandil joined Careem, a ride-sharing company and the first unicorn in the Middle East. He supported the platform's expansion into multiple new markets.
For additional information about Swvl, please visit www.swvl.com.
Key Business Measures
Set forth above are certain key business measures for the quarter ended March 31, 2022. These measures are based on the information available to us at this time and are subject to change as we finalize our reporting for such quarter. Further, these key business measures should not be viewed as a substitute for our interim or annual financial statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on this data.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements made herein are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," "plan," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "outlook" and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future events, the business combination with Queen's Gambit Growth Capital, the estimated or anticipated future results and benefits of the combined company following the business combination, future opportunities for the combined company and other statements that are not historical facts.
These statements are based on the current expectations of Swvl's management and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on, by any investor as a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Swvl. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties regarding Swvl's business, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: general economic, political and business conditions, including but not limited to the economic and operational disruptions and other effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against the parties following the consummation of the business combination; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the business combination; the risk that the business combination disrupts current plans and operations as a result of the consummation of the business combination; the ability of the combined company to execute its growth strategy, manage growth profitably and retain its key employees; competition with other companies in the mobility industry; Swvl's limited operating history and lack of experience as a public company; recent implementation of certain policies and procedures to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including with respect to anti-bribery, anti-corruption, and cyber protection; the risk that Swvl is not able to execute its growth plan, which depends on rapid, international expansion; the risk that Swvl is unable to attract and retain consumers and qualified drivers and other high quality personnel; the risk that Swvl is unable to protect and enforce its intellectual property rights; the risk that Swvl is unable to determine rider demand to develop new offerings on its platform; the difficulty of obtaining required registrations, licenses, permits or approvals in jurisdictions in which Swvl currently operates or may in the future operate; the fact that Swvl currently operates in and intends to expand into jurisdictions that are, or have been, characterized by political instability, may have inadequate or limited regulatory and legal frameworks and may have limited, if any, treaties or other arrangements in place to protect foreign investment or involvement; the risk that Swvl's drivers could be classified as employees, workers or quasi-employees in the jurisdictions they operate; the fact that Swvl has operations in countries known to experience high levels of corruption and is subject to territorial anti-corruption laws in these jurisdictions; the ability of Swvl to maintain the listing of its securities on Nasdaq; costs related to the business combination; Swvl's acquisitions of controlling interests in Shotl Transportation, S.L., Viapool Inc. and door2doorGmbH may not be beneficial to Swvl as a result of the cost of integrating geographically disparate operations and the diversion of management's attention from its existing business, among other things; and other risks that will be detailed from time to time in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive. There may be additional risks that Swvl presently does not know or that Swvl currently believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements provide Swvl's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Swvl anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Swvl's assessments and projections to change. However, while Swvl may elect to update these forward-looking statements in the future, Swvl specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Swvl's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.
Media Contact
Daniel Yunger
Kekst CNC
kekst-swvl@kekstcnc.com
917-574-8582
Investor Contact
Youssef Salem
Swvl CFO
Investor.relations@swvl.com
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SOURCE Swvl Holdings Corp | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/swvl-grows-total-ticket-fares-4x-year-year-q1-2022-beating-estimates-by-17-raises-2022-guidance-second-time/ | 2022-04-13T17:58:42 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/swvl-grows-total-ticket-fares-4x-year-year-q1-2022-beating-estimates-by-17-raises-2022-guidance-second-time/ |
Personal injury verdict reported as largest in Grayson County history
SHERMAN, Texas, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Accomplished Texas personal injury attorney Jason B. Stephens of Fort Worth-based Stephens Law won a $15.6 million wrongful death verdict for the family of a plumber who was killed when a metal flagpole he was attempting to move touched an overhead electric line.
Mr. Stephens represented the family of Kiley Russell in the three-day trial heard in the 59th District Court in Sherman, Texas. Jurors deliberated for one day before returning the verdict against Dallas-based Monticello Asset Management Inc., which operates the River Ranch Apartments in Sherman.
The award included $10.5 million for Mr. Russell's widow and two minor sons based solely on their past and future loss of companionship and mental anguish. The jury also awarded approximately $5.1 million to two of Mr. Russell's coworkers who were severely injured in the same incident. They were represented by attorneys Bill Kennedy and Joan Ballard of Bill Kennedy Law in Denison, Texas. According to VerdictSearch, the jury's verdict is the largest ever for a personal injury case in Grayson County.
During the trial, Mr. Stephens presented evidence that Mr. Russell and the other two workers were replacing a water main at the River Ranch apartment complex when a flagpole they were attempting to move touched an overhead power line. The resulting blast killed Mr. Russell and severely injured the other two workers.
Even though the apartment complex owners had directed the flagpole to be installed next to the overhead power lines and next to the water main, they claimed that the three workers and their employer were responsible for what happened. After Mr. Stephens presented evidence that the owners had previously moved the same flagpole and another one nearby, the jury instead assessed 50 percent responsibility against Monticello Asset Management.
"Juries don't like it when companies take shortcuts and put profits over safety, which is exactly what we saw in this case," says Mr. Stephens. "As a result, two little boys lost their daddy, and their mom lost the love of her life. Hopefully, this verdict will help ensure that Kiley is remembered in the hearts of all those who knew him and whose lives he touched."
The case is Jackson Wells, et al. v. Monticello Asset Management Inc., No. CV-18-0027, 59th District Court, Grayson County, Texas.
For more than two decades, experienced Fort Worth attorney Jason Stephens and Stephens Law have represented people from all walks of life in serious personal injury cases, wrongful death claims, and truck accidents involving significant injuries. Mr. Stephens is known as a caring, compassionate and relentless advocate for his clients in every case he handles. To learn more about the firm and how they may be able to help you, visit www.stephenslaw.com.
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SOURCE Stephens Law | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/texas-attorney-jason-stephens-stephens-law-wins-156-million-verdict-family-electrocuted-plumber/ | 2022-04-13T17:58:49 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/texas-attorney-jason-stephens-stephens-law-wins-156-million-verdict-family-electrocuted-plumber/ |
EdTech Digest Recognizes TutorMe as 'Best Tutoring Solution'
LOS ANGELES, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TutorMe, the online tutoring solution of the future, has won EdTech Digest's 2022 EdTech Award for Best Tutoring Solution. The company was also recognized as a finalist in the Personalized Learning Solution award category. Both honors reflect TutorMe's partnerships with school districts, higher education institutions, corporations, and nonprofits nationwide to provide students with free access to TutorMe's online 24/7 tutoring services.
The EdTech Awards recognize people for outstanding contributions to transforming education through technology to enrich the lives of learners everywhere. The annual program shines a spotlight on edtech's cool tools, inspiring leaders, and innovative trendsetters across the K-12, Higher Education, and Skills and Workforce sectors. The EdTech Awards recognize people—and the products they produce and lives they shape.
"We're honored to be recognized by EdTech Digest for this award," said Myles Hunter, TutorMe CEO. "We've worked tirelessly to create an accessible tutoring solution for students of all ages, abilities, and socioeconomic backgrounds that provides on-demand 24/7 access to thousands of verified expert tutors in hundreds of subjects. We look forward to expanding our network of partners and empowering more students with personalized learning support exactly where and when they need it most."
With thousands of tutors available anytime to help with more than 300 subjects, TutorMe provides immediate expertise whenever and wherever students need it. Whether it's homework help or a study session, students pair up with their live tutor for personalized one-on-one sessions in the award-winning Lesson Space.
TutorMe's Lesson Space offers powerful learning tools, including two-way live audio/video chat, a text editor, code editor, screen sharing, and virtual whiteboards to create an engaging and enriching learning experience for students. Each tutoring session is archived, so students can conveniently access past sessions to help them with coursework and studying.
Beyond live tutoring, students can also submit written assignments to the industry-leading Writing Lab and receive detailed feedback from academic writing experts within hours.
"I'm extremely pleased to see our TutorMe team be recognized for providing innovative solutions to support students in achieving their academic goals—well done," said Randy Hendricks, Zovio CEO.
For more information about TutorMe, please visit www.tutorme.com.
About TutorMe
TutorMe, a subsidiary of Zovio, is an on-demand online education platform that empowers students of all ages, backgrounds, and learning styles to get the personalized live support they need to achieve their academic goals. Trusted by thousands of schools nationwide, over 1.5 million students have free access to expert 1-on-1 guidance 24/7 in more than 300 subjects, as well as a Writing Lab for quick, detailed feedback on papers. Since 2013, TutorMe has been an invaluable resource for K-12 school districts, higher education institutions, employers, and nonprofits, bridging learning gaps, increasing educational equity, and improving student outcomes. To learn more, visit www.tutorme.com.
About Zovio
Zovio (Nasdaq: ZVO) is an education technology services company that partners with higher education institutions and employers to deliver innovative, personalized solutions to help learners and leaders achieve their aspirations. The Zovio network, including Fullstack Academy and TutorMe, leverages its core strengths to solve priority market needs through education technology services. Using proprietary, advanced data analytics, Zovio identifies the most meaningful ways to enhance the learner experience and deliver strong outcomes for higher education institutions, employers, and learners. Zovio's purpose is to help everyone be in a class of their own. For more information, visit Zovio.com.
About EdTech Digest and the EdTech Awards
EdTech Digest, a leading source of cool tools, interviews, and trends showcasing the future of learning—annually honors the best and brightest people, products, and groups working in edtech with The EdTech Awards. Cool Tool, Leadership, and Trendsetter honorees span the K-12, Higher Ed, and Skills & Workforce sectors.
Media Contact:
Kayla Fargo
kayla@tutorme.com
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SOURCE TutorMe | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/tutorme-earns-2022-edtech-award/ | 2022-04-13T17:58:56 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/tutorme-earns-2022-edtech-award/ |
SAN DIEGO, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Sony Electronics Inc. and the University of Southern California (USC) School of Cinematic Arts announced a new partnership to help create the future of entertainment together by enhancing cinematic education.
Beginning immediately, the USC School of Cinematic Arts will be adding a variety of the latest Sony Imaging equipment to their renowned course curriculum ranging from the Sony Cinema Line of cameras including VENICE 2, FX9 and FX6 models as well as the versatile lineup of Alpha™ mirrorless cameras. Further creative tools such as Pro Audio, high resolution displays and access to cloud services will be made available as well. Sony will also utilize this partnership to help develop and improve their products and services based on customer feedback from students and faculty at the school.
Additionally, this summer the School of Cinematic Arts will be adding a Sony Virtual Production studio featuring Sony's latest Crystal LED B series. Beginning in Fall 2022, a best-in-class education experience for students around the virtual production landscape will be offered at the school. In addition to the collaboration on products, facilities and education, Sony has donated two million dollars (USD) to support the efforts of this new partnership.
"Sony's products are the leading-edge technologies that drive ideas, inspire creativity, and inform the future of cinematic education. Our students are the future creative leaders of our industry, and this partnership will help give them the tools they need to fully realize their education goals and creative ideas," said Elizabeth M. Daley, Dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. "We are so excited for the partnership with Sony to invest together in our students' talent and in supporting the innovative cinematic creations of the future."
"We're thrilled to establish this strong partnership with the USC School of Cinematic Arts, one of the best film schools in the world with a long legacy of producing some of the top talent in the filmmaking industry," said Theresa Alesso, President, Imaging Products and Solutions Americas, Sony Electronics Inc. "Our community is at the center of everything we do. Through this collaboration, we look forward to fueling creativity for the next generation of filmmakers and seeing the ways in which their art shapes the cinema industry for years to come."
Sony Electronics is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America and an affiliate of Sony Group Corporation (Japan), one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world, with a portfolio that encompasses electronics, music, motion pictures, mobile, gaming, robotics and financial services. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Sony Electronics is a leader in electronics for the consumer and professional markets. Operations include research and development, engineering, sales, marketing, distribution and customer service. Sony Electronics creates products that innovate and inspire generations, such as the award-winning Alpha Interchangeable Lens Cameras and revolutionary high-resolution audio products. Sony is also a leading manufacturer of end-to-end solutions from 4K professional broadcast and A/V equipment to industry leading 4K and 8K Ultra HD TVs. Visit http://www.sony.com/news for more information.
The University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts is one of the leading media schools in the world. Founded in collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1929, the USC School of Cinematic Arts has fueled and mirrored the growth of entertainment as an industry and an art form. The School offers comprehensive programs in directing, producing, writing, cinema and media studies, animation and digital arts, production, interactive media and games, all backed by a broad liberal arts education and taught by leading practitioners in each field. Its more than 17,000 alumni are among the world's most distinguished animators, scholars, teachers, writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, sound experts, video game designers and industry executives. Since 1973 not a year has passed without an alumnus or alumna being nominated for an Academy Award or an Emmy. https://cinema.usc.edu/
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SOURCE Sony Electronics, Inc. | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/usc-school-cinematic-arts-sony-electronics-partner-support-next-generation-filmmakers/ | 2022-04-13T17:59:03 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/usc-school-cinematic-arts-sony-electronics-partner-support-next-generation-filmmakers/ |
Attorneys Johnny Ward, Wes Hill and Andrea Fair among trial team
MARSHALL, Texas, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A federal jury has awarded biotechnology company Seagen Inc. $41.8 million in a patent infringement lawsuit against Daiichi Sankyo Co. LTD, for infringing a cancer treatment pharmaceutical patent developed by Seagen.
The four-day trial took place in U.S. Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap's courtroom in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall. As part of the verdict, the jury rejected claims by Daiichi Sankyo and co-defendant AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals challenging the validity of Seagen's patent at the heart of the dispute.
Seagen filed the lawsuit in October 2020 for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 10,808,039, which relates to a type of cancer therapy that links chemotherapeutic drugs to antibodies using cleavable amino acid units.
According to the lawsuit, Daiichi used Seagen's patent in its Enhertu medication, earning more than $522 million in sales through the date of trial.
"We worked with an incredible team to show how Seagen's drug technology was willfully infringed and used by the defendant to make millions," said Johnny Ward, co-founder of the firm. "We are proud the jury agreed with our side."
Ward, Smith & Hill attorneys Wes Hill and Andrea Fair completed the local counsel team working with trial attorneys Michael Jacobs, Matthew Chivvis, Bryan Wilson and Matthew Kreeger of Morrison & Foerster, LLP.
To learn more about Ward Smith & Hill's patent litigation practice, visit: http://wsfirm.com/practice-areas/patent-litigation/.
The case is Seagen Inc. vs. Daiichi Sankyo Co., LTD, case number 2:20-cv-00337-JRG, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall.
Longview, Texas-based Ward, Smith & Hill, PLLC, has tried more than 350 cases to verdict, earning a national reputation in high-stakes claims involving complex commercial litigation, intellectual property law, oil and gas matters, bad faith insurance claims, and serious personal injury claims. The firm frequently assists lawyers nationwide in complex cases before Texas juries. To learn more about the firm, visit http://www.wsfirm.com.
Media Contact:
Sophia Reza
214-559-4630
sophia@androvett.com
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SOURCE Ward, Smith & Hill, PLLC | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/ward-smith-amp-hill-helps-secure-418m-patent-infringement-victory-biotech-company-seagen-inc/ | 2022-04-13T17:59:10 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/ward-smith-amp-hill-helps-secure-418m-patent-infringement-victory-biotech-company-seagen-inc/ |
The leading beauty and wellness platform hosted five brands, over 900 attendees and Shark Tank star Lori Greiner
DENVER, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WellBiz Brands Inc., the pre-eminent beauty and wellness franchise platform, with nearly 900 franchised locations globally, recently hosted over 900 attendees at its 2022 conference in Las Vegas at The Mirage®. The WellBiz Brands portfolio features category leaders including Drybar®, Amazing Lash Studio®, Radiant Waxing™, Elements Massage® and Fitness Together®.
2021 marked a year of tremendous growth for the company, including adding two new brands to its portfolio and signing more than 100 franchise agreements. The theme for the conference was "UNITED," celebrating the success of the portfolio while highlighting 2022 growth initiatives. Jeremy Morgan, WellBiz Brands chief executive officer, provided a look at what's ahead for the portfolio, including new eyelash extension innovations, WellBiz One technology to enhance studio operations for franchisees and the new Support Center structure focused on revenue drivers like membership and people.
"Coming together at the UNITED Conference to celebrate the best in beauty and wellness franchising was inspiring. At WellBiz Brands, we're focused on creating world-class experiences for consumers and providing the best-in-class support franchise owners need for sustainable growth," said Morgan. "Beauty and wellness are high-growth industries. We have the best brands in our categories and consumers love the services we provide. Most importantly, we're surrounded by amazing franchisees and a WellBiz Brands support team who have common goals. There are so many opportunities in front of us."
The UNITED Conference also focused on helping franchisees grow their business portfolios. One of the advantages of being a franchisee within the WellBiz Brands platform is the ability to own multiple brands within the portfolio, and during the conference over 20 franchise groups committed to expanding across two or more concepts. The portfolio is off to a fast start in 2022, with 35 franchise groups signing deals to build nearly 100 new units.
WellBiz Brands also recognized franchisees earning special recognition for Franchisee and Service Provider of the Year:
Franchisees of the Year
- Drybar, Amy Ross, Scottsdale, Arizona: Ross truly embodies the Heart & Soul values of the Drybar brand. As one of Drybar's first franchisees, she has been a leader since the beginning. She is generous with her time, whether testing new systems or collecting franchisee feedback and sharing it with the Support Center. Over the past 10 years, she and her husband have opened six locations, with plans to grow to 10.
- Amazing Lash Studio, Juan Cristerna, McAllen, Texas: Cristerna owns two locations in Brownsville and McAllen, which are both in the top 10 across all metrics. With 32,000 visits last year, and 62% of those services pre-booked, Cristerna's business results are impressive. Cristerna also supports the growth of the brand by testing new products and programs.
- Radiant Waxing, Gerri Jones, Lubbock, Texas: Jones' Lubbock salon finished 2021 as a top performing location, ending the year with a 91% increase in sales versus 2020. A creative marketer with meaningful relationships in her community, she stands out as a leader who empowers her team.
- Elements Massage, Matt Perry and Tracy Gilligan, Nashua, Portsmouth, Salem, New Hampshire, and Newburyport, Massachusetts: With four studios, Perry and Gilligan make time to support their studio teams through mentoring and career development. Known for their contagious energy, they are ambitious in business pursuits and always open to providing larger brand support, such as serving on the New England gala and co-op.
- Fitness Together, Clark Sharp, Silver Spring, Maryland: In 2014, Sharp joined the brand as a personal trainer and in two years became a studio owner. When the pandemic hit, Sharp took a full-time job to help support the studio and his employees. The trust in himself and his team paid off, and revenues increased by over 50% from 2020 to 2021. Sharp is a leader within the brand, offering expertise in every capacity.
Service Providers of the Year
- Drybar: Shop Educator of the Year, Kirsten Welch, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Amazing Lash Studio: Lash Stylist of the Year, Liz Gearheart, Suntree, Florida
- Elements Massage: Massage Therapist of the Year, Tyson Johnston, College Station, Texas
- Fitness Together: Personal Trainer of the Year, Maria Cardozo, Burlington, Massachusetts
- Radiant Waxing: Waxologist of the Year, Savanha Nunez, Lubbock, Texas
With a portfolio of beauty and wellness brands and nearly $500 million in systemwide sales, WellBiz Brands offers experienced and prospective entrepreneurs opportunities that fit their passions and goals. For more information, please visit: WellBizbrands.com.
About WellBiz Brands Inc.
WellBiz Brands Inc. is the pre-eminent beauty and wellness franchise platform catering to the needs of the affluent female consumer. The WellBiz Brands' portfolio includes Drybar®, Amazing Lash Studio®, Radiant Waxing™, Elements Massage®, and Fitness Together®. The company's cross-brand digital marketing program drives effective member acquisition strategies, creating a world-class membership ecosystem. WellBiz One, a proprietary technology platform, enhances studio operations for franchisees, fueling member engagement and retention. With expertise in supply chain management, e-commerce and product innovation, WellBiz provides franchisees with a leading edge. The company has earned national recognition on lists such as the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies, Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 and others. For more information, visit WellBiz Brands Inc.
Media Contact:
Jody Ryan
Jryan@wellbizbrands.com
Senior Director of Communications
602.614.0744
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SOURCE WellBiz Brands | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/wellbiz-brands-inc-celebrates-franchisees-service-providers-united-conference-las-vegas/ | 2022-04-13T17:59:17 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/wellbiz-brands-inc-celebrates-franchisees-service-providers-united-conference-las-vegas/ |
New Jellystone Park Chincoteague Island to open April 1
CHINCOTEAGUE, Va., April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The third Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp-Resort location in Virginia will open on Friday, April 1. Jellystone Park Chincoteague Island is opening where Chincoteague Island KOA was previously located.
"We look forward to providing guests with the Jellystone Park family vacation experience with themed events, activities, and character interactions while immersed in the natural beauty of Chincoteague Island at this waterfront resort," said Todd Burbage, CEO of Blue Water, the outdoor hospitality company operating the location.
The Chincoteague Island location is the fifth Jellystone Park location in Blue Water's portfolio, complementing its Jellystone Park locations in Natural Bridge Station, Va.; Cave City, Ky.; Lincoln, Del.; and Greenfield Park, N.Y.
Blue Water plans to enhance the new 200-acre Chincoteague Island location with new playground equipment, basketball and pickleball courts, new enclosures for the park's pavilion, as well as new landscaping, road improvements and fresh paint on park buildings. The company also plans to add new rental accommodations to the park's existing mix of rental cabins, furnished glamping tents and RV rentals, which complement its RV and tent sites.
Jellystone Park locations are famous for their family attractions, activities, Yogi Bear character interactions and on-site amenities. The Chincoteague Island location features a swimming pool, jump pillow, playground, and activities center. The location is only a mile from the sandy beaches and wild ponies of Assateague Island National Seashore.
Jellystone Park Chincoteague Island is the third Yogi Bear-themed park in Virginia, with others located in Luray and Natural Bridge Station. For more information on the Chincoteague Island location, please visit their website.
Founded in 2002, Blue Water specializes in investing, developing, and managing RV resorts, campgrounds, hotels, and attractions. Blue Water's integrated approach to marketing, revenue management, and operations has quickly established itself as a hospitality industry leader. With dozens of resort-area properties in East Coast states from Maine to Florida, and new additions out west in Texas, Montana, and Oregon, the Blue Water family is committed to creating elite assets, delivering exceptional guest experiences, and enhancing the communities we serve. To learn more, visit BWDC.com.
With 75 locations across the United States and Canada, Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resorts feature fun attractions such as pools and water slides, non-stop family activities, up-close fun with Yogi Bear characters, and glamping-style accommodations. For more information about Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resorts, please visit www.jellystonepark.com. For more information on franchising opportunities, please visit www.jellystonefranchise.com. Camp Jellystone is part of Sun Outdoors' family of brands.
Sun Outdoors is a leader in outdoor hospitality and is committed to its mission of offering guests exceptional and transformative outdoor experiences. With over 150 locations across the U.S. and Ontario, Canada, Sun Outdoors offers guest several ways to stay: from RV sites to vacation rentals, from tent camping to glamping, whether they stay for a weekend, season, or longer. Visit www.sunoutdoors.com to learn more.
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SOURCE Blue Water Development | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/yogi-bear-comes-chincoteague-island/ | 2022-04-13T17:59:23 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/13/yogi-bear-comes-chincoteague-island/ |
INDIANAPOLIS – An estimated 4.3 million Hoosiers will get something extra in their bank accounts this summer.
Gov. Eric Holcomb said Hoosiers should start receiving their $125 Automatic Taxpayer Refund “in the coming weeks.”
The governor said the money is effectively a 12% cut in the average Hoosier’s annual income tax liability. Approximately $545 million will be returned to taxpayers after the state ended its fiscal year with a surplus, triggering the automatic refund.
Married couples who filed jointly are expected to receive a one-time $250 refund.
“I’m beyond thrilled that this spring and summer we are returning money back into the hands of Hoosier taxpayers, where it belongs,” Holcomb said in a statement. “Our conservative fiscal leadership and pro-growth policies makes this tax refund possible for all Hoosier households.”
The state revealed back in December that Indiana taxpayers would get the refund after filing their 2021 taxes. The Department of Revenue and Auditor of State’s Office will work together to distribute the money.
Most of the payments are expected to come via direct deposit. Some taxpayers will get a check mailed to them instead.
Direct deposits will start hitting bank accounts at the beginning of May and continue through July, Holcomb said. The state expects to mail checks starting in late July. The checks will continue through August, with the goal of having all payments distributed by Sept. 1.
The refund is separate from any money Hoosiers may have received after filing their individual state income tax return.
Holcomb said no additional action is required for Hoosiers to receive their money. | https://www.wane.com/news/indiana/holcomb-gives-timeline-of-125-indiana-tax-refund-payments/ | 2022-04-13T17:59:53 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/indiana/holcomb-gives-timeline-of-125-indiana-tax-refund-payments/ |
Louisiana hospital named one of Newsweek's 'World's Best'
Willis-Knighton Medical Center has been named one of the "World's Best Hospitals" by Newsweek Magazine.
It is the only North Louisiana hospital to make the Newsweek list.
“I am proud of the outstanding efforts of our staff, both on the front lines and behind the scenes, who provide quality compassionate care to our community,” Jaf Fielder, Willis-Knighton president and CEO said. “We are proud that an independent organization like Newsweek has ranked us so highly on their Worlds’ Best Hospitals list for the fourth consecutive year.”
More:'I have big shoes to fill', new Willis-Knighton CEO talks hospital's future
Hospitals were selected for the list based on recommendations from physicians and health care professionals; patient survey results; and key medical performance indicators, including data on quality of care, hygiene measures and patient safety.
While the report cites Willis-Knighton Medical Center, the award covers all Willis-Knighton hospitals since they are operated as a single entity with multiple locations, and statistical data for all is reported under that name.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com. | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/money/2022/04/13/louisiana-hospital-named-one-newsweeks-worlds-best/7303630001/ | 2022-04-13T18:00:14 | 0 | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/money/2022/04/13/louisiana-hospital-named-one-newsweeks-worlds-best/7303630001/ |
LSU President made a visit to Shreveport and you can intern for the city : Business in the 318
Business in the Shreveport-Bossier area has been wild this past week from schools asking for more money to local chambers working to help the veteran workforce. If you missed any of this news Business in the 318 has you covered.
Want to intern for the city of Shreveport this summer?
The Future Leaders of Shreveport Summer Internship Program opened its application process April 8.
This program was launched three years ago by Mayor Adrian Perkins and is an internship program that gives high school and college students from Shreveport the opportunity to work in city government.
Students can apply online at www.shreveportla.gov from April 8-22. All candidates must go through the City’s application process, including those who wish to work with our local business partners.
Click here to learn more.
LSU President made a visit to northwest Louisiana
"I believe Shreveport and northwest Louisiana has to be a priority for our state," Shreveport Representative Thomas Pressly said.
The Louisiana State University President William Tate visited LSU Health Shreveport and LSUS, on April 4.
During his visit members of the state legislature and local citizens spoke and advocated more funding and attention in the northwest region.
The call to action comes in response to a recent floor speech in Baton Rouge.
New millage renewal for Caddo School District
On April 30, Caddo Parish Schools will be asking Caddo Parish taxpayers to vote for a millage which will renew three property tax millages.
Operations and Maintenance
Operations and Maintenance
Building and Equipment
These three millages will help keep the second largest industry in Caddo Parish going strong.
To learn more about these millage renewals click here.
Northwest Louisiana students recognized for STEM accomplishments
BRF STEM education program participants recently received recognition for their achievements.
This year's Bobbie Cates Hicks Science and Medicine Academic Research Training (SMART) and Biotechnology Magnet Academy participants competed and placed in the Louisiana Region 1 Science and Engineering Fair.
Both programs are part of BRF’s EdVentures education initiative to build the region’s science and technology workforce.
Click here to learn more about the SMART student winners.
Area chambers are teaming up to help vets find jobs
The Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce and local chambers are teaming up to host a job fair.
This is considered a premier veteran and spouse hiring event in the region, and will be hosted Tuesday, April 12, at the Bossier Civic Center.
The job fair will be open to the public from noon to 2 p.m. On-the-spot interviews and hiring is permitted and encouraged.
Prom season is here. Where do you need to go shopping?
It's Prom season and you know what that means: teens all over the Shreveport-Bossier area are gearing up for the big night.
If you still don't have a dress, flowers, or a hair and make-up appointment, check out this list of locally owned places to help you get ready.
Click here to learn more.
Be on the lookout for Thursday and Sunday for Life in the 318 and The 318 to catch up on all the best stories you might have missed.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com. | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/money/2022/04/13/lsu-president-made-visit-shreveport-business-318/7286155001/ | 2022-04-13T18:00:20 | 0 | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/money/2022/04/13/lsu-president-made-visit-shreveport-business-318/7286155001/ |
NWS confirms Tuesday EF0 tornado in Shreveport, says weather radio down due to outages
Misty Castile
Shreveport Times
The National Weather Service has confirmed an EF0 tornado touched down in Shreveport Tuesday night.
It is believed to have touched down near Youree Drive and the LSUS campus.
Currently, more than 34,000 SWEPCO customers remain without power, as crews work to restore service ahead of another night of potentially severe weather.
The NWS also says that SHV LA NOAA Weather Radio (WXJ97, 162.400 MHz) channel is currently down to power outages occurring during the storms last night.
The service is encouraging people to have multiple methods of receiving warnings including text alerts, app alerts as well as radio and television stations. | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2022/04/13/ef-0-tornado-confirmed-shreveport-tuesday-night/7307032001/ | 2022-04-13T18:00:26 | 0 | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2022/04/13/ef-0-tornado-confirmed-shreveport-tuesday-night/7307032001/ |
A record $8.3 billion education budget approved by lawmakers means potentially big raises for teachers — up to 21 percent — and more money to use for classroom supplies, typically an out-of-pocket expense for teachers who want to make sure students have the supplies they need.
Education budget bills are still awaiting Gov. Kay Ivey’s signature.
Teacher pay raises
Public school teachers whose salaries are based on the state minimum salary schedule will see more money in their paychecks. Teachers with one to nine years’ experience will get a pay raise of at least 4 percent, possibly more if they’re jumping up a step on the salary schedule. Those with nine years’ or more will get a higher percentage raise.
Public school employees received a 2 percent raise for the current school year.
Retirement benefits improved
Teachers with fewer than nine years’ experience and all newly-hired teachers will now be able to retire after 30 years of teaching and be able to draw retirement pay. That puts them on par, but not entirely equal, with teachers hired before 2013 (who can retire after 25 years).
These two moves were deemed great news by those worried about an increasingly smaller pool of teacher candidates. Math, science, and special education teachers are getting harder and harder to find, particularly in rural and urban school districts, and some of those same areas are even having trouble finding elementary school teachers.
Lawmakers hope to keep teachers who may be considering retiring on board, which also should ease pressure on schools to hire new teachers.
Lawmakers put more money into the TEAMS program, which pays qualified math and science teachers on a higher pay scale. About 1,400 TEAMS contracts have been signed and another 1,000 are in the process, state education officials said.
More money for classroom teachers to buy student materials and supplies
Every classroom teacher will receive $900, up from $700, to spend on student supplies. That number has steadily increased from $300 per teacher in the 2013-14 school year to $422 per teacher in the 2018-19 school year to $700 per teacher during the current school year.
Funding for other classroom support remains the same as last year:
— Technology — $500
— Professional development — $100, and
— Library enhancement — $157.52
The per student textbook allowance stayed the same at $75 per student.
Substitute teacher pay went up
The state-funded daily pay for substitute teachers increased from $95 to $120, a move lawmakers said they hope will alleviate the problems schools have had getting substitute teachers to fill in during the past two years of the pandemic.
Schools can set their own pay level, and earlier this year several increased rates.
Huntsville City topped the list for daily substitute pay at $142.
New alternate route to become a teacher
State education officials and lawmakers have made multiple changes to the teacher certification process over the past few years, easing barriers, streamlining the process and extending emergency certification to bring more teachers into Alabama’s classrooms.
This newest law makes it possible for for-profit teacher preparation programs to operate in Alabama. For-profit teacher preparation programs operate in nine states and enroll larger and larger portions of the non-college-based teacher prep programs where they operate. And for-profit teacher prep programs typically cost less than traditional college-based programs.
Another change means those who want to teach but didn’t study the field in college who have completed all coursework and taught for a year can receive a professional teaching certificate.
Finally, the law extends the grade levels where teaching with an alternate certificate is allowed to all grades, kindergarten through 12th grade. Currently, alternate certificates are allowed only in grades six through 12.
Elementary teachers need to be careful about what they talk about with students
Lawmakers passed a law prohibiting kindergarten through fifth grade teachers from instructing or discussing gender identity or sexual orientation with their students if it is not age- or developmentally-appropriate. Alabama Superintendent Eric Mackey told Alabama Media Group that means teachers need to know how to put a quick end to any questions or topics that are taboo.
Teachers likely already have experience redirecting students’ attention or ending discussion on inappropriate topics, but Mackey said the state will develop some guidelines and training for teachers to better understand where that line is.
Teachers need to know when to disclose conversations about a child’s gender identity
A law that prohibits gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors has implications for teachers, counselors and other school personnel.
The law contains a provision that prohibits teachers, principals, counselors, and nurses from encouraging or coercing students to withhold from their parent or legal guardian if the student perceives his or her gender as different from their biological sex.
An additional requirement states school personnel cannot withhold information from parents or guardians if their child questions their gender identity.
State Superintendent Eric Mackey told state board members in late March that teachers do not have to tell parents or guardians immediately if a student shares questions about gender identity or sexuality — but if a teacher is asked, they cannot withhold that information.
Students cannot use a bathroom or locker room if it does not correspond to the sex assigned on their birth certificate.
Students in K-12 schools are prohibited from using a school bathroom or locker room that does not correspond to the sex assigned on their birth certificate. It will be up to teachers and other school staff to enforce the provision, and it’s unclear what disciplinary actions could be taken against students violating the provision.
Sponsors of the bill said they heard of students in schools using a bathroom that didn’t correspond with the gender assigned on their birth certificate. AMG has been unable to confirm those allegations.
What didn’t pass:
— Auxiliary teachers in K-3 classrooms
A bill to put an auxiliary teacher who would work under the direction of the classroom teacher in all kindergarten through third grade classrooms didn’t make it to the finish line. There’s $5.4 million in the education budget that lawmakers passed that would have begun by employing 150 auxiliary teachers in schools where 75 percent or more of students were at level 1 proficiency on the ACAP. When fully staffed by the 2030-31 school year, the cost was estimated at $531 million. | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/alabama-lawmakers-passed-teacher-substitute-pay-raises-certification-updates/article_8674a612-bb43-11ec-b32d-7360e453cbd3.html | 2022-04-13T18:01:30 | 1 | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/alabama-lawmakers-passed-teacher-substitute-pay-raises-certification-updates/article_8674a612-bb43-11ec-b32d-7360e453cbd3.html |
Alabama is expected to get about $1 billion dollars in federal money to repair the state’s aging water and sewer infrastructure, a gigantic investment in the state’s infrastructure, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in decades.
And it won’t nearly be enough to drag the state’s drinking water and wastewater systems into the 21st century.
Documents from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management show ADEM has already received more than $3 billion in applications from water systems around the state looking to deal with problems such as leaking collection lines, lead pipe replacements and upgrades to drinking water and wastewater treatment, collection and distribution systems.
“This is going to make a difference,” ADEM Director Lance LeFleur said in an interview. “It will make a difference to perhaps a million or more individuals in the state.”
The funding for the grants will come from two federal laws passed last year, the American Rescue Plan Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
However, LeFleur said the number of applications already received shows that not every system will be able to get what it wants.
“We’ve got about a billion dollars available over the next five years or so,” LeFleur said. “But our estimate as to how much is going to be requested will be $4 to $6 billion.”
“I don’t want to disappoint anybody, but some of those [projects] will go into the ‘needs’ category, and some will go into the ‘wants’ category.”
American Rescue Plan Act funds
The department already has $225 million in hand from the Rescue Plan, last year’s COVID-19 stimulus bill, and LeFleur said the Department is working now to begin funding projects that were applied for earlier this year.
“We’re hoping to have some announcements going out in April,” LeFleur said. “And if not April, then May.”
The Rescue Plan money is divided into three categories:
— $120 million will be awarded as grants to water and sewer systems for “emergency or high-needs projects,” ADEM said. Special consideration will be given to projects that improve access to water and sewer services in communities that lack funding to complete the projects on their own. Systems receiving these grants will not be required to provide local matching funds.
— Up to $100 million will be awarded to systems that may be required to provide local matching funds based on their ability to pay.
— Up to $5 million will go to fund demonstration sewer projects in the Black Belt, where local soil conditions and low population density make septic tanks and centralized sewer lines challenging.
The Black Belt is one of the poorest regions in the state, and many common septic systems don’t work there because the water does not seep into the ground quickly enough through the dense clay soil.
LeFleur said the Black Belt demonstration funding could go toward pilot, proof-of-concept projects for decentralized septic systems that are being developed and implemented by engineers from the University of South Alabama and others through the Consortium for Alabama Rural Water and Wastewater Management, a group of universities, government agencies and elected officials who are working on finding solutions for the Black Belt’s sewage issues.
Those systems link clusters of homes to a community treatment system that works as a hybrid between septic systems and a traditional, but much more expensive, wastewater treatment plant.
LeFleur said that the $5 million earmarked for the demonstration project will not be the only funding going toward addressing the Black Belt’s widespread sewage treatment issues.
“For many years, that problem has been there, the lack of a solution is primarily a lack of funding, not a lack of desire,” LeFleur said. “This $5 million that’s earmarked in the ARPA bill is by no means all the money that’s going to the Black Belt. That’s only to test out a couple of projects.”
LeFleur said ADEM is looking to build a “three-legged stool” approach to addressing sewage problems in the Black Belt.
First, the department can award grants to extend the existing centralized sewer lines to additional areas where that is cost-effective. Second, it can provide funding to build more of the smaller, hybrid systems if those prove effective. And third, ADEM can work with the Alabama Department of Public Health to find remedies for homes where the first two options are not feasible.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds
In addition to the ARPA funds, LeFleur said the state expects to receive about $765 million in funding over the next five years through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to be set aside for drinking water and sewer improvements.
Those funds will also be allocated by ADEM through the existing state revolving fund, and LeFleur said ADEM expects the funds to be available by September or October.
LeFleur said that the money can help local utilities dealing with aging infrastructure and systems that were installed decades ago that need updates.
“A lot of the infrastructure that’s out there, not just in Alabama but throughout the nation, is getting to be 40, 50, 60 years old,” LeFleur said. “Back in the 1970s, when the Clean Water Act was passed, there was a big investment in infrastructure, both drinking water and clean water or sewer infrastructure.
“Over a period of 50 years, these systems are reaching their natural lifespan, and may need to be upgraded or replaced.”
LeFleur said one of the department’s primary goals is to select projects that will deliver returns for years to come.
“One of the big factors in all of this is to make sure that when this money is expended, that it improves sustainability, that we’re not going to be in the same position five years from now,” he said. “These are upgrades that are going to stand the test of time.”
Projects applied for
ADEM records show that as of April 2, it had received 538 project applications for federal funding across the state totaling $3.1 billion.
So far, the largest asks have come from the embattled Prichard Water and Sewer Board, which applied for a total of $333 million for four projects just weeks before the FBI raided the home of a Water Works Board manager Nia Bradley as part of an “all-encompassing probe” into the Water Works and the alleged mishandling of funds in amounts potentially reaching millions of dollars.
The Prichard Water Works Board did not respond to requests for an interview to discuss the request.
Aside from the Prichard projects, the largest applications were:
— Decatur Utilities applied for $62 million for wastewater system improvements
— The city of Selma and Selma Water Works Board applied for $47.8 million for its sewer system and wastewater treatment plants
— The city of Clanton requested $46.2 million for three sewer projects
— The city of Dothan requested $41.3 million for “Trunk Line and Sewer basin rehab”
In the Birmingham area, the Birmingham Water Works Board so far has applied for $4 million in funding for lead service line repair, while the Jefferson County Commission has applied for a total of $36.3 million for 10 different sewer projects throughout the county.
In coastal Alabama, the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System applied for a total of $80.5 million for sewer projects, and $47.2 million for Master Plan projects and to identify lead and copper service lines.
The city of Mobile applied for $25 million in funding for “Rebuilding the Western Waterfront.”
Daphne Utilities applied for $23 million for “Various WRF and SS improvements,” while the Baldwin County Commission sought a total of $14.8 million for six different stormwater, drainage and streambank stabilization projects.
In north-central Alabama, Huntsville Utilities is seeking $5.6 million for drinking water system improvements.
The Madison Water and Wastewater Board is seeking $23.6 million for wastewater system improvements and $26.7 million for drinking water system improvements. | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/alabama-set-to-receive-1-billion-from-feds-to-fix-water-systems-it-won-t/article_b141e088-bb40-11ec-a778-ebd1c3455e5a.html | 2022-04-13T18:01:31 | 1 | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/alabama-set-to-receive-1-billion-from-feds-to-fix-water-systems-it-won-t/article_b141e088-bb40-11ec-a778-ebd1c3455e5a.html |
A Birmingham Starbucks closed three hours early on Tuesday, a day after workers there announced plans to unionize.
A worker at Store No. 23642, at Third Avenue South and 20th Street South, told a reporter at 5 p.m. that the Starbucks location was closed — three hours earlier than its usual 8 p.m. closing time.
While the worker did not give a reason for the early closing, and Starbucks could not immediately be reached for comment, the Birmingham chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America said the store was closing “for a union-busting meeting.”
A longtime Southside Birmingham Starbucks customer who only wanted to be identified as Laura said she requested that “Union Strong” be written on her cup in solidarity with the workers but one of the employees told her their boss would not allow it.
“I’m sorry, but if I want to be that kind of customer, if I say, ‘write a name on my product,’ you write it,” said Laura. “I’m like the nicest customer ever, and I’ll be a bitchy customer if it’s gonna be me saying, ‘you write “union strong” on my product,’ so I can show you people that we support unions in this community.”
Laura, who said she goes to the Starbucks location once or twice a week for lunch, instead wrote “unionize Starbucks” on her food wrapper and held it up against the store’s glass window.
“As supporting customers of the people that work here, we want to support their rights, and I want them to have a good life as much as we have a good life,” she said.
In their letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz notifying them of their attempt to unionize, employees of Store No. 23642 cited “daily discrimination, short staffing, and hard labor conditions.”
A striking miner at Warrior Met Coal who only wanted to be identified as Dedrick showed up with co-workers to show their support for the downtown Birmingham Starbucks employees.
“Just standing in solidarity,” he said. “I support all efforts to unionize.”
Since December, workers at more than 175 Starbucks locations in 25 states have filed for union elections, according to The New York Times. Another six stores last week voted to unionize. Starbucks has roughly 9,000 corporate-owned stores in the U.S.
Schultz, who served as CEO two times previously, was named interim CEO last month, replacing Kevin Johnson, who had served as chief executive since 2017. The move was seen by some as a response to the sharp uptick in unionization. | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/birmingham-starbucks-closes-early-day-after-workers-announce-union-plans/article_f22e304c-bb45-11ec-ad96-8faceff3253c.html | 2022-04-13T18:01:33 | 0 | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/birmingham-starbucks-closes-early-day-after-workers-announce-union-plans/article_f22e304c-bb45-11ec-ad96-8faceff3253c.html |
A Central Alabama man died Monday afternoon, a day after he was found shot in the face in Chilton County, police said Tuesday.
Dante Gervaise Millner. 38, of Clanton, was airlifted to UAB Hospital in Birmingham in critical condition after he was found lying in the street Sunday in the 1200 block of 1st Avenue in Clanton suffering from a gunshot wound to the face.
Milliner died of his injuries around 2:30 p.m. Monday, Clanton police said.
Police believe the shooting happened during an argument.
A suspect in the case has been identified and is being pursued by multiple law enforcement agencies.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family,” police said. | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/central-alabama-man-dies-day-after-being-shot-in-the-face-police-say/article_8e677438-bb45-11ec-a95c-9f3a8a20d161.html | 2022-04-13T18:01:35 | 0 | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/central-alabama-man-dies-day-after-being-shot-in-the-face-police-say/article_8e677438-bb45-11ec-a95c-9f3a8a20d161.html |
Admiral D’s Waterfront Tavern in White Bear Lake is under new management.
Morrissey Hospitality (St. Paul Grill, Momento, Stockyards Tavern and many more) will take over operations, but the menu and staff will remain largely the same — focusing on appetizer baskets, craft burgers and sandwiches, tacos and shrimp ceviche.
The Admiral, the restaurant’s 65-foot yacht, has been thoroughly refurbished for the 2022 season and will likely take its maiden voyage on Memorial Day weekend. The yacht has space for up to 60 guests for seated events with full food and beverage services available.
The restaurant itself will open Friday through Sunday starting May 6 and will expand hours Memorial Day weekend.
Admiral D’s Waterfront Tavern: 4424 Lake Ave., White Bear Lake, 651-330-3101; admiraldswbl.com | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/admiral-ds-tavern-white-bear-lake-new-management-yacht-renovated/ | 2022-04-13T18:01:40 | 0 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/admiral-ds-tavern-white-bear-lake-new-management-yacht-renovated/ |
BY DREW COSTLEY
Polly Glover realized her son had asthma when he was nine months old. Now 26, he carries an inhaler in his pocket whenever he’s out and about in Prairieville, Louisiana, part of Ascension Parish.
“He probably needs to leave Ascension quite frankly,” Glover says, but he hasn’t because “this is his home and this is our family and this is our community.”
The parish is part of the 85-mile span between New Orleans and Baton Rouge officially called the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor, more commonly known as Cancer Alley. The region’s air quality is some of the worst in the United States, and in several places along the corridor, cancer risks are much higher than levels considered acceptable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Glover says the air is “terrible” where she lives, but there’s also great biodiversity — osprey, eagles, migratory birds, deer, rabbits, fish and alligators — among the region’s lakes, rivers and wetlands. The environmental advocate has been working for 30 years to preserve the place she’s loved since childhood.
That’s why she is wary of anything that might make air quality worse or threaten wildlife — and her biggest fear now is that a $4.5 billion plant designed to capture climate-changing carbon and make clean-burning hydrogen fuel will actually do more harm to the Lake Maurepas basin.
The blue hydrogen energy plant is slated to be built and operated by Air Products and Chemicals, a multinational petrochemical company. The company says the plant will capture airborne carbon emissions created during production and put them safely underground — a process called carbon capture and storage.
“Sometimes I think people think you’re kind of bubbling this in at the bottom of the lake,” said Simon Moore, vice president of investor relations, corporate relations and sustainability at Air Products. “You know, this is a mile below the Earth’s surface, where the geological formation of the rock has this porous space, which simply absorbs the CO2.”
Still, Glover is worried. “I’m not a scientist. I’m a mom who cares,” she said. “We have got to be better stewards of the environment and while reducing carbon emissions is necessary, injecting them into the basin is not the answer.”
There are several other carbon capture and storage projects proposed or in the works throughout the U.S., including in Louisiana, Texas, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa and California. Companies behind them maintain they can successfully remove carbon from the air to reduce pollution, then safely transport and store the carbon underground — or do both.
In some cases, oil and gas companies are banking on this new technology to either help build new profit centers, such as plants that make hydrogen, or extend the lifespan of their fossil fuel facilities.
Carbon capture and storage projects are gaining traction since Congress approved $3.5 billion for them last year. The Global CCS Institute, a think tank seeking to advance these projects globally, called it the “single largest appropriation of money for CCS in the history of the technology.”
In the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s top scientists said carbon capture and storage technology has to be part of the range of solutions to decarbonize and mitigate climate change. But they said solar and wind energy and electricity storage are improving faster than carbon capture and storage.
Opponents of carbon capture and storage maintain the technology is unproven and has been less effective than alternatives such as solar and wind at decarbonizing the energy sector.
“Carbon capture is neither workable nor feasible,” said Basav Sen, climate justice policy director for the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C. “It’s merely an excuse for the fossil fuel industry to keep operating the way it does.”
A study in late 2020 by researchers from the University of California, San Diego, found over 80% of 39 projects that have sought to commercialize carbon capture and storage ended in failure. The study cited lack of technological readiness as a top factor
But even if the technology was deployed successfully, several critics say the projects would pose threats to the public health of communities long plagued by air and water pollution.
First, they said any project that prolongs the lifespan of an existing industrial facility presents additional environmental harm by extending the amount of time it pollutes a community, which the IPCC report confirms.
Second, they noted that since carbon capture would require more energy to power the equipment, it would result in more air pollution because the technology can only catch a portion of the carbon emitted by a facility.
Howard Herzog, a senior research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and pioneer of carbon capture and storage technology, disputed this in an interview with the Associated Press. But he acknowledged there is a risk in transporting and storing carbon.
In 2020, a pipeline carrying compressed carbon dioxide ruptured in the town of Satartia, Mississippi, which caused over 40 people to get hospital treatment and more than 300 to evacuate. The incident is cited by experts, advocates and residents who live near proposed carbon capture and storage projects to illustrate potential dangers of transporting carbon long distances.
Injecting carbon underground for storage could end up contaminating aquifers, according to Nikki Reisch, director of the climate and energy program for the Center for International Environmental Law.
Over 500 environmental organizations, including the law center, signed an open letter published in the Washington Post in July 2021, calling carbon capture and storage a “false solution.”
In response, the Carbon Capture Coalition, which advocates the technology, released its own letter in August with over 100 signatories. They pressed Congress to include investment in carbon capture and storage in any upcoming legislation.
Matt Fry, a state and regional policy manager with the Great Plains Institute, a Minneapolis-based climate and energy think tank, told AP the technology is essential to meeting mid-century climate goals.
“The potential for a completely decarbonized, electrified world is a reality,” Fry said. “But we’re going to need to transition to get there. And it’s going to require carbon capture to address those emissions.”
At the point of capture, Herzog said, the technology poses a “very low” threat to public health. “There’s always a chance of some mishaps,” he added, “but on the overall scale of chemical plants, (the technology) is fairly benign.”
Still, residents near proposed projects worry.
In California’s Central Valley agricultural region, Chevron, Microsoft and Schlumberger New Energy are collaborating to build a facility in the town of Mendota that will create energy by converting agricultural waste into carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas, then mixing it with oxygen to generate electricity with the promise of capturing 99% of the carbon from the process.
Chevron said it plans to inject the carbon “underground into nearby deep geologic formations.”
That’s concerning for Nayamin Martinez, who lives in the valley and is director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network. “That worries us a lot,” she said. “What does that mean in terms of risk for contamination of drinking water?”
Creighton Welch, a spokesperson for Chevron, said the process they plan to use is safe. “CO2 capture, injection, and storage are not new technologies and have been conducted safely for decades,” Welch said.
Back in Louisiana, Glover and other residents also fear carbon capture technology will affect the water. The carbon dioxide captured at the Air Products and Chemicals facility will be stored in sites such as under Lake Maurepas, an important wetland.
Kim Coates, who lives on the lake’s northeast side, said it’s a buffer between the Gulf of Mexico and residents. But she said she’s witnessed generations of destruction to that ecosystem through industrial development and, more recently, hurricanes and tropical storms.
Now Coates fears more of the same if carbon is stored under the lake. “We’ve seen the destruction over time with no one looking forward to what was going to happen in the future,” she said. | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/battle-over-carbon-capture-as-tool-to-fight-climate-change/ | 2022-04-13T18:01:40 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/battle-over-carbon-capture-as-tool-to-fight-climate-change/ |
The first full moon of spring will light up the night sky this weekend.
The April “Pink Moon” will peak at 1:55 p.m. CDT on Saturday, April 16th.
The moon will appear full for three days in total, however, from the morning of Friday, April 15 through early Monday on April 18th. And despite its name, the full moon won’t appear pink. Instead, it gets its name from the flower herb moss pink, also known as creeping phlox, that blooms each spring, LiveScience reported. The moon has other names as well, including the Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon and Fish Moon.
Saturday’s moon is also a Pesach or Passover Moon. Pesach or Passover begins sundown on Friday, April 15th and ends on nightfall Saturday, April 23rd.
The last full moon was a “Worm Moon” on March 18. The next full moon will be the “May Flower Moon,” and will be the first lunar eclipse since November. The eclipse will reach its peak a little after 11 p.m. on May 16, giving the moon a red hue and the ominous-sounding nickname “Blood Moon.”
Meteor shower
The Lyrid meteor shower will peak on the night of Thursday, April 21 into the early hours of Friday, April 22. You can expect to see up to 15 Lyrids per hour and some could have impressive trains that are visible a few seconds after the meteors pass.
The best viewing time is between midnight and dawn. | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/how-to-see-the-pink-moon-saturday-and-lyrid-meteor-shower-next-week/article_7804bede-bb41-11ec-be77-e7aefee2d7f3.html | 2022-04-13T18:01:41 | 1 | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/how-to-see-the-pink-moon-saturday-and-lyrid-meteor-shower-next-week/article_7804bede-bb41-11ec-be77-e7aefee2d7f3.html |
By WILL WEISSERT and ZEKE MILLER
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden now says Russia’s war in Ukraine amounts to genocide, accusing President Vladimir Putin of trying to “wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.”
“Yes, I called it genocide,” he told reporters in Iowa on Tuesday shortly before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. “It’s become clearer and clearer.”
Last week, Biden stopped short of saying Russia’s actions amounted to genocide.
At an earlier event Tuesday in Menlo, Iowa, addressing spiking energy prices caused by the war, Biden had implied that he thought Putin was carrying out genocide against Ukraine, but offered no details. Neither he nor his administration announced new consequences because of the contention.
Biden’s comments drew immediate praise from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had encouraged Western leaders to use the term to describe Russia’s invasion of his country. But French President Emmanuel Macron declined to take his rhetoric that far in comments Wednesday.
“I am prudent with terms today,” Macron said. “Genocide has a meaning. The Ukrainian people and Russian people are brotherly people. … I’m not sure if the escalation of words serves our cause.”
Macron said it’s been established that the Russian army has committed war crimes in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy applauded Biden’s assessment.
“True words of a true leader @POTUS,” he tweeted Tuesday. “Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil. We are grateful for US assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities.”
The White House subsequently announced that Biden called Zelenskyy on Wednesday and that they spoke for nearly an hour, with the U.S. president updating his Ukranian counterpart “on ongoing U.S. support for Ukraine.”
A United Nations treaty, to which the U.S. is a party, defines genocide as actions taken with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted that “there are official processes around determinations of genocide” but added of Biden’s using the term, “I think it’s absolutely right that more people … (are) talking and using the word genocide in terms of what Russia is doing and Vladimir Putin has done.”
“The way they are targeting Ukrainian identity and culture, these are all things that are war crimes that Putin that is responsible for,” Trudeau said.
Past American leaders often have dodged formally declaring bloody campaigns such as Russia’s in Ukraine to be genocide, hesitating to trigger an obligation that under international convention requires signing countries to intervene. That obligation was seen as blocking President Bill Clinton from declaring Rwandan Hutus’ killing of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis in 1994 as genocide, for example.
Biden said it would be up to lawyers to decide if Russia’s conduct met the international standard, but “it sure seems that way to me.”
“More evidence is coming out literally of the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine, and we’re only going to learn more and more about the devastation and let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies,” he said.
During a trip to Europe last month, Biden faced controversy for a nine-word statement seemingly supporting the overthrow of Putin, which would have represented a dramatic shift toward direct confrontation with another nuclear-armed country. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said of Putin.
He clarified the comments days later, saying: “I was expressing the moral outrage that I felt toward this man. I wasn’t articulating a policy change.”
___
Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this report. | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/biden-russia-war-is-genocide-trying-to-wipe-out-ukraine/ | 2022-04-13T18:01:41 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/biden-russia-war-is-genocide-trying-to-wipe-out-ukraine/ |
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A possible tornado tore up a small Minnesota town and a blizzard forced the closure of the North Dakota Capitol, schools and roads, as spring storms wreaked havoc across the Upper Midwest.
The National Weather Service said the unconfirmed tornado took the roofs off houses, destroyed grain bins, snapped power lines and lifted a house off its foundation in Taopi, Minnesota, late Tuesday.
Mower County Sheriff Steve Sandvik said dispatchers began getting calls from residents trapped in their damaged homes not long after a tornado warning siren sounded at 10:30 p.m. There were no reports of serious injuries. Weather service crews were assessing damage in Taopi Wednesday.
The North Dakota Capitol in Bismarck, along with scores of schools, government offices and roads, remained closed Wednesday as a blizzard continued to bear down on the state.
A blizzard warning remained in effect through Thursday. Up to 2 feet of snow was forecast for western and central North Dakota. The blizzard warning extended into eastern Montana and the northwestern corner of South Dakota.
“This is nutso,” Karley Gosch said as she braved the strong winds and pelting snow in Mandan, North Dakota.
Interstate 94 from the Montana border to Jamestown, a distance of about 260 miles, remained closed because of treacherous conditions.
Bismarck and Mandan public schools were closed Wednesday, along with numerous colleges and universities. | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/blizzard-in-north-dakota-possible-tornado-in-se-minnesota/ | 2022-04-13T18:01:42 | 0 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/blizzard-in-north-dakota-possible-tornado-in-se-minnesota/ |
Justin Jefferson went down to Miami this offseason to train at House of Athlete like he always does. He followed from afar as the Vikings revamped their leadership, hiring Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as general manager, then Kevin O’Connell as head coach.
As things slowly started to fall into place, Jefferson couldn’t wait to get back to Minnesota.
“I didn’t want to stay on vacation for too long,” Jefferson said on Tuesday afternoon at TCO Performance Center in Eagan. “It was really just about getting back into that grind mode. I was so anxious to get back knowing that Coach KO was coming into the building.”
As if getting to play for an offensive mastermind like O’Connell wasn’t motivation enough, Jefferson also watched some of his peers get massive pay days.
Davante Adams signed a 5-year, $141.25 million contract ($28.25 million average annual value) with the Las Vegas Raiders. Tyreek Hill signed a 4-year, $120 million contract ($30 million average annual value) with the Miami Dolphins. Stefon Diggs signed a a 4 year, $96 million contract ($24 million average annual value) with the Buffalo Bills. Heck, even a middle-tier 96 like Christian Kirk signed a 4-year, $72 million contract ($18 million average annual value) with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Naturally, the market is going to continue to move in the coming years, meaning Jefferson could be in line for an unprecedented deal once his rookie contract expires.
Not that Jefferson is too concerned with that right now. He knows if he continues to ball, everything else will take care of itself.
“That comes with the process,” Jefferson said. “I’m really just focused on what I can do right now leading the team, being a captain of the team, and going out there and performing the best I can. That’s all I can do at this point.”
That hasn’t been an issue for Jefferson to this point in his NFL career. He had 88 catches for 1,400 yards in Year 1 with the Vikings and followed it up with 108 catches for 1,616 yards in Year 2. Those are video games numbers the Vikings haven’t seen since the days of Randy Moss.
What are his goals for Year 3?
“I don’t really want to say my personal goals right now,” Jefferson said while putting his previous successes in the rearview mirror. “There’s a target on my back at this point. I’m planning on keeping on going up. There’s always going to be players in the league that are going to try and stop me and what we’ve got going on.”
That could be easier said than done for opposing teams with O’Connell orchestrating the offense. He helped Cooper Kupp shatter NFL records last season with the Los Angeles Rams. He plans to do the same thing for Jefferson this season with the Vikings.
That level of production is what Jefferson is focused on right now. Not that massive pay day that’s likely coming at some point.
“It is what it is at this point,” Jefferson said. “It’s just part of it. You’ve just got to do your own thing and follow your own path.” | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/vikings-star-justin-jefferson-is-going-to-get-paid-hes-fine-waiting-his-turn/ | 2022-04-13T18:01:43 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/vikings-star-justin-jefferson-is-going-to-get-paid-hes-fine-waiting-his-turn/ |
Ashley Nicole Haydt, 36, of Taylor, near Dothan, on Tuesday was sentenced to more than 18 years in federal prison for her role in a Dothan truck bombing that targeted a former boyfriend and father to one of her children, announced U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Stewart.
Haydt will serve three years of supervised release after her prison term is complete.
According to a statement from prosecutors, Haydt in 2017 worked at Wiregrass Rehabilitation Center in Dothan with Sylvio Joseph King.
Haydt told King about the “troubled relationship she was having with her long-time boyfriend and father of her unborn child. Haydt was distraught because her boyfriend would not agree to marry her and that he ultimately ended their relationship,” the statement read.
In June 2017, their child was born, and the ex-boyfriend filed for custody.
In a series of texts, Haydt told King that her life would be better if the ex-boyfriend were out of the picture.
“With Haydt’s ongoing encouragement to eliminate her ex-boyfriend, King began to purchase materials needed to construct a pipe bomb,” the statement read.
“Haydt provided King with her ex-boyfriend’s address and, in the early morning hours of October 23, 2017, King placed the explosive device in the ex-boyfriend’s work truck that was parked at his home. King detonated the bomb while the ex-boyfriend was driving to work.
“Shrapnel from the device was blasted into the ex-boyfriend’s back and hip area, but thanks to the actions of a passing motorist and first responders, he survived. After the explosion, King sent Haydt a message that read, “boom, I felt that from 120 feet away.”
King also testified during the trial that Haydt was involved.
After the four-day trial, the jury found Haydt guilty of conspiracy, malicious use of an explosive, and concealing the commission of a felony. King was sentenced on November 4, 2021, to 108 months in prison for his role in the bombing. | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/south-alabama-woman-who-arranged-bombing-of-ex-boyfriend-s-truck-gets-18-years-in/article_f9b9830c-bb45-11ec-976f-7790d523aedc.html | 2022-04-13T18:01:50 | 1 | https://www.annistonstar.com/news/south-alabama-woman-who-arranged-bombing-of-ex-boyfriend-s-truck-gets-18-years-in/article_f9b9830c-bb45-11ec-976f-7790d523aedc.html |
Things are mostly going according to plan for the Mets through the first six games of the season.
Both Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt picked up wins in their first starts with the team. Starling Marte is driving in runs. Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha, in an obviously minuscule sample size, are getting on base. The team is hitting .333 with runners in scoring position and two outs entering their Wednesday rubber match against the Phillies, a welcome sight for a team that was putrid in the same situation a year ago.
Apart from the Nationals’ pitching staff using Mets’ hitters as target practice in the opening series, and Jacob deGrom’s glaring absence, there is one other nagging, way-too-early-to-panic-about annoyance in the team’s early going.
Adam Ottavino is, for some reason, not being used.
The Mets signed Ottavino in mid-March as one of the final pieces of their relief corps, which was an underrated strength of last year’s team. With the 36-year-old Ottavino returning to his native New York City, the bullpen got a veteran with 11 years of MLB service time who’d pitched over 550 innings (19th-most among active relievers at the time of his acquisition), nearly 75% of which came in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
So with a trusted back-end guy like Ottavino — who’s totally healthy — at his disposal, why has Mets’ manager Buck Showalter been so reluctant to use him thus far? On Tuesday night in Philadelphia, with the Mets nursing a one-run lead in the bottom of the seventh, Showalter called upon Drew Smith to face Nick Castellanos and Rhys Hoskins. The plan worked out, although Castellanos doubled on the third pitch Smith threw, but many were wondering why a spot seemingly tailor-made for Ottavino went to someone with a fraction of his experience.
After Smith got out of the seventh by striking out Hoskins and Didi Gregorius, he came out again for the eighth, robbing Ottavino of another logical chance to pitch. This caused Mets’ play-by-plan Gary Cohen to openly wonder where Ottavino was, as Smith had just wiggled out of a stressful situation and Ottavino hadn’t pitched since Saturday. Entering Wednesday’s series finale in Philadelphia, Ottavino has only pitched twice in the Mets’ six games, totaling less than two complete innings.
One could make the argument that Ottavino is new to the National League East and thus still unfamiliar with the hitters in the division, while Smith has been with the Mets since 2018 and has faced Hoskins more than any other hitter in his career. But you make a deal with a guy like Ottavino particularly for those high-leverage situations, where Smith has a career 13.01 ERA with much fewer appearances than Ottavino.
After the game, Showalter explained that Ottavino was indeed available, but he didn’t want to use both him and Smith if he didn’t have to, especially knowing that an off day awaited the Mets on Thursday.
“I don’t want to, if I can help it, burn Drew and him, before [Wednesday],” Showalter said after Tuesday’s game, which, luckily for him, ended in a 2-0 Mets win. “Now [Wednesday] we can be a little more liberal with the day off the next day.”
At some point, Ottavino needs to get into his first high-leverage spot of the year. As of Wednesday morning, his usage has been limited to an inning against the bottom of Washington’s lineup with the Mets up by four, and mop-up duty in the ninth inning two days later with the Mets leading by five.
Ottavino is going to be a big part of the Mets’ season whether Showalter likes it or not. It’s still ridiculously early in the season, but managers’ usage tactics can often be indicative of what they plan to do all season. Fellow reliever Trevor May has already strained his triceps, an injury that he’s not stressed about, but that could portend some high-leverage opportunities for Ottavino in the short term.
If May is unavailable in the next few days and Showalter still passes over Ottavino, it continues to raise the question of why the Mets are using a roster spot on the Brooklyn native — who’s been one of the most effective setup men of his generation — at all.
() | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/where-is-adam-ottavino/ | 2022-04-13T18:02:00 | 0 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/13/where-is-adam-ottavino/ |
New Life Covenant Center on Alabama 77 in Talladega is reaching out to those who may be struggling during the Easter season.
“If you are trapped…and looking for a way out…Jesus is the answer,” according to a flyer. “New Life Covenant Center invites you to our Easter Resurrection Sunday Service. Come visit us and partake of salvation, grace and mercy and be made whole.”
The church caters to those “looking for a way out of the drug life (whether meth, cocaine, heroin or Oxy), caught up in a gang, fighting depression, caught in a sinful lifestyle, suffering the pain of abuse, dealing with a sickness or confused about your sexuality.”
Easter services are April 17 at 11 a.m. 68515 Alabama 77. The theme of the service is John 8:36, “If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free.”
John Elston is pastor. For more information, please visit www.newlifecovantchurch.net. | https://www.annistonstar.com/the_daily_home/new-life-covenant-center-welcomes-visitors-this-easter/article_061dc5c0-bb4d-11ec-83d9-3b27ef96671e.html | 2022-04-13T18:02:03 | 0 | https://www.annistonstar.com/the_daily_home/new-life-covenant-center-welcomes-visitors-this-easter/article_061dc5c0-bb4d-11ec-83d9-3b27ef96671e.html |
BIRMINGHAM -- The Presbyterian Home for Children hosted its Sweet Home Soirée on April 2 at The Club in Birmingham and has two more Soiree galas set for Huntsville and Mobile.
Several hundred supporters gathered for PHFC’s signature Soirée in Birmingham, which featured a plated dinner, live jazz music and silent and live auctions. The Birmingham Soirée marked the first the Home hosted the gala since the pandemic started two years ago. During the Birmingham festivities, the Home honored Tom and Patti Winter for their life affirming ministries and unrelenting support of at-risk children and youth.
“Each Soirée gives the Home the opportunity to recognize and honor those individuals who have been faithful and impactful ministry partners enabling the continuing care of the precious children and youth entrusted to us,” said Doug Marshall, president and CEO of the Home.
The legacy of Tom and Patti Winter’s dedication to at-risk children and youth continues with the creation of the Tom & Patti Winter Education Fund for Ascension Leadership Academy. Every donation to this fund recognizes the importance of education as a requirement to thrive in today’s world. To learn more visit: secure.swell.gives/SHSBirmingham/donations#/amount
Anyone interested in attending or serving as a table host can visit the event’s web page for more information at shshuntsville.swell.gives/ or shsmobile.swell.gives/
Presbyterian Home for Children in Talladega, Alabama, is one of few organizations in the state caring for Alabama’s homeless boys and girls, along with their female caregivers in its Secure Dwellings Program. In its Residential Moderate Care Therapeutic Program, the Home also serves teenage girls who have previously experienced extreme trauma and or neglect. In addition, the Home serves young female adults in crisis through its Transition to Adult Living Program and families in crisis over seven counties through its In-Home Intensive Services, Family Bridges. Our Ascension Leadership Academy features a fully Cognia-accredited academic curriculum focusing on academics and leadership for our residential children and youth in addition to children and youth from the community. | https://www.annistonstar.com/the_daily_home/presbyterian-home-for-children-hosts-first-gala-since-start-of-pandemic/article_df4a4a4a-bb47-11ec-a968-57a76b14e4f1.html | 2022-04-13T18:02:09 | 0 | https://www.annistonstar.com/the_daily_home/presbyterian-home-for-children-hosts-first-gala-since-start-of-pandemic/article_df4a4a4a-bb47-11ec-a968-57a76b14e4f1.html |
WASHINGTON - The White House, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and trucking groups said Wednesday that a new policy by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R, was creating a multi-mile backup of commercial vehicles carrying perishable fruits, vegetables and other products.
The policy forces trucks to submit to a state inspection after a federal inspection once they cross the border.
The delays have raised concerns that a U.S. economy already experiencing inflation and supply shortages could face an entirely new set of problems, potentially driving up prices on certain products and making other items even more scare.
Freight operators are panicking about the ramifications of the delays, as much of the United States' produce this time of year is imported from Mexico. Abbott said last week that the "enhanced safety inspections" of all commercial vehicles were necessary because federal officials were not stopping drugs and criminals from entering the United States. Now, trucking officials say, little is entering the country at all.
"This isn't a regional issue, or that the city of Laredo is not getting their produce at grocery stores," said John Esparza, president of the Texas Trucking Association. "We are seeing delays that will be felt across the country. There are a half a dozen divisions of trucking [affected]. There's the refrigerated segment of trucking, there's household goods, forestry, fuel tankers, commodities for trade goods - this is about General Motors, Ford and everything coming out of Mexico, our trade partner."
Strawberries, asparagus, avocados, tomatoes and other spring favorites are sitting in lines of refrigerated trucks many miles long as growers and shippers scramble to reroute and grocers hustle to find products from elsewhere to avoid empty shelves in the run-up to the Easter and Passover holidays.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that Abbott's "unnecessary and redundant" inspections of trucks at ports of entry between Texas and Mexico have disrupted food and automobile supply chains, delayed manufacturing, affected jobs and further raised prices for American families. She said that trucks are facing delays exceeding five hours at some border crossings and that commercial traffic has dropped by as much as 60 percent.
"The continuous flow of legitimate trade and travel and Customs and Border Protection's ability to do its job should not be obstructed," Psaki said. "Governor Abbott's actions are impacting people's jobs and the livelihoods of hard-working American families."
CBP issued its own statement, saying that delays have become extreme. It said the commercial wait time at the Pharr port of entry had grown from 63 minutes to 320 minutes, with a 35 percent drop in traffic. The Laredo-Colombia Solidarity International Bridge, which typically averages a 26-minute wait, had "reached a peak wait of 300 minutes and has seen over a 60% drop in commercial traffic."
Abbott is expected to hold a news conference on the matter later on Wednesday. He moved last week to impose the new restrictions, alleging that the Biden administration had "open-border policies" that "paved the way for dangerous cartels and deadly drugs to pour into the United States."
He said Texas "will immediately begin taking unprecedented action to do what no state has done in American history to secure our border," which means each truck will be inspected by the Texas Department of Public Safety for human trafficking, weapons, drugs and other contraband.
The governor's plan to have state officials scrutinize each truck means that up to 80% of perishable fruits and vegetables have been unable to cross since Friday, said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas.
This is causing losses of millions of dollars a day for employers and employees, who have been idled, he said, with customers unable to load product from their Texas suppliers. It also means transportation shortages are increasing as available trucks are stuck waiting in line to cross the border, all of which will continue to drive up the price of produce at American grocery stores.
"These trucks are already inspected by Customs and Border Protection - scanned and X-rayed and drug-dog sniffed," Jungmeyer said. "These new inspections are redundant. At numerous ports of entry - Laredo, Pharr, Eagle Pass and others - Mexican drivers are starting to protest."
Abbott's office did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
The line for trucks to cross at the Pharr bridge has been reported at up to seven or eight miles long, said Rod Sbragia, vice chair of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas and director of sales and marketing for Tricar Sales, a grower and shipper of Mexican produce. He said between 2,000 and 3,000 trucks stand nose to tail waiting for entry. Refrigerated trucks, he said, have about six or seven days of fuel to run their refrigeration units. After that, spoilage is certain.
Sbragia said that nothing has crossed the border into Texas for three days and that trucks are packed so tight there's no way of getting out of line so they can reroute. He says many workers in Texas are not being paid right now because there is no product to work with and no trucks to load and unload.
"We have about $200,000 to $300,000 of produce waiting in line right now," he said. "And we're just one shipper. There are hundreds like me. Millions of dollars' worth of product sitting on trucks that may end up being spoiled."
The situation is fluid, said Laura Garza, a logistics specialist for K & K International Logistics, customs brokers in charge of traffic operations for Texas. But for now, she said, Mexican truckers have, in protest, blocked traffic going northbound or southbound on the Pharr bridge, the No. 1 bridge for imports of produce in the United States, leading to and from Reynosa, Mexico, which usually sees around 2,000 truck crossings per day. Nor is traffic moving in the northbound direction of the Free Trade Bridge at Los Indios, an international border crossing located eight miles south of Harlingen and San Benito.
"The transport companies are saying, 'If this lasts 30 days, we can last 30 days in protest, as well.' You're going to lose contracts and crops. Why affect trade this way? It doesn't make any sense. Border communities depend on trade," she said.
Beto O'Rourke, who is running against Abbott for governor of Texas, said in a video tweet Monday showing a long line of trucks in Laredo, "What you see behind me is inflation," describing what he called the "true cost to Texans and all Americans" of "Greg Abbott's political stunt along the border."
Matt Mandel is the vice president of finance for his family's company, which grows and ships Mexican fruits and vegetables. He heard about the new inspections on Friday. Heading out of town, he hoped it would blow over by the end of the weekend.
"But the issues have gotten worse, and the consequences have compounded," Mandel said. "And I don't see an easy solution to alleviate the logjam we find ourselves in."
His company sells 60 percent of its produce in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere in the Northeast. The rest goes to Canada. He had three trucks that were supposed to go out Friday, he said, and it is unclear when they might reach their final destination.
"We won't know if we have losses until this product makes it all the way through the supply chain. When I have my name on an eggplant and it ends up looking and tasting like crap, that's what people remember," he said. "Ultimately, there will be spoilage and higher costs for everyone involved. It's literally just partisan politics." | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/transportation/white-house-truckers-blast-texas-governor-as-new-inspection-policy-snarls-traffic-from-mexico/article_e217fca1-5cd2-5a8b-8d3f-5323dcabddbb.html | 2022-04-13T18:05:02 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/transportation/white-house-truckers-blast-texas-governor-as-new-inspection-policy-snarls-traffic-from-mexico/article_e217fca1-5cd2-5a8b-8d3f-5323dcabddbb.html |
CONCORD — A participant in the alleged Free Keene Bitcoin conspiracy case pleaded guilty to a single charge of wire fraud in exchange for a sentence of probation in the federal system, according to an agreement filed in U.S. District Court.
The agreement makes no demand that Andrew Spinella, who was arrested in March 2021 along with five other Free Keene activists, testify in any future trials. But such requirements are not usually spelled out in federal court documents.
The agreement reads that prosecutors could oppose any downward adjustment in the case if Spinella fails to admit responsibility at the time of his plea “or at any other time.” It was filed Tuesday and signed by both Spinella and lead prosecutor Georgiana MacDonald.
Judge Joseph Laplante scheduled a sentencing hearing for July 26, which would likely take place before any trial associated with the case.
Meanwhile, a change of plea hearing for his wife, Renee Spinella, did not take place as scheduled Tuesday. She is scheduled for a Change of Plea hearing Thursday afternoon, and prosecutors filed a document that supersedes the three charges she faces with a single charge — wire fraud against Service Credit Union.
Both Spinellas live in Derry but were arrested with Free Keene activists. Authorities allege that Free Keene activist Ian Freeman, the Spinellas and three others operated a wide-ranging, no-questions-asked cryptocurrency exchange, at times using churches they established.
They are accused of charging high dollar-to-cryptocurrency exchange rates to scammers and others engaged in criminal activities.
According to the filing signed by Andrew Spinella, he admitted opening a Wells Fargo bank accounts in November 2017. Starting the following January, the account was “used almost exclusively to support Freeman’s virtual currency exchange business,” reads the filing.
It received electronic fund transfers of $601 from Kerrville, Texas; $2,500 from Doral, Fla.; $1,301 from Decatur, Ala.
The account closed in May 2018, and the FBI interviewed Andrew Spinella a month later. He admitted opening the account so Freeman could use it to sell Bitcoin. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/free-keene-bitcoin-case-participant-pleads-guilty/article_5513d2ab-735a-5af8-9fb0-12f99b3bd2bf.html | 2022-04-13T18:05:08 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/free-keene-bitcoin-case-participant-pleads-guilty/article_5513d2ab-735a-5af8-9fb0-12f99b3bd2bf.html |
When Sherri Papini was found alone on an interstate highway nearly 150 miles from her home on Thanksgiving Day in 2016, the Northern California mother told police she had been abducted while jogging by two Hispanic women at gunpoint and was branded with a heated tool. Papini, whose husband said she weighed less than 90 pounds when she was discovered, recounted to authorities about how the masked kidnappers kept her chained in a closet for three weeks in a case that set off a nationwide search.
But in reality, Papini was never kidnapped, according to the Justice Department. Instead, authorities found last month that Papini had been staying with an ex-boyfriend and received more than $30,000 in victim assistance money from the state as a result of what turned out to be an elaborate hoax, according to court documents. Authorities say the bruises and burns she suffered from her "abductors" are thought to be self-inflicted.
Now, the self-described "super mom" from Redding, Calif., is admitting to her big lie more than five years later.
The Justice Department announced Tuesday that Papini, 39, had signed a plea agreement "admitting that she planned and participated in her own hoax kidnapping." Papini, who was arrested March 3, agreed to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer. She had initially faced 34 counts of mail fraud.
Her attorney, William Portanova, confirmed that Papini had signed the plea agreement to the Sacramento Bee, the first to report the story.
"I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so sorry for the pain I've caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needlessly suffered because of my story and those who worked so hard to try to help me," Papini said in a statement released through Portanova. "I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done."
Neither Portanova, a former federal prosecutor, nor Keith Papini, Sherri Papini's husband, immediately responded to requests for comment early Wednesday. Portanova told the Bee on Tuesday that her legal team was "taking this case in an entirely new direction."
"Everything that has happened before today stops today," he said.
If convicted of mail fraud, Papini faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of California. She faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if she's convicted on the charge of making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer.
Papini will pay more than $300,000 in restitution to local, state and federal agencies, according to the plea agreement. Prosecutors have indicated that they would recommend reduced sentences. A court date has yet to be scheduled for Papini to enter her guilty pleas, but Portanova told the Associated Press that she will probably enter them next week.
On Nov. 2, 2016, Papini went for a late-morning jog while her husband was at work, Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told reporters at the time. Her husband began to worry when she did not pick up their children from day care or return home that evening. After he found her cellphone and ear buds about a mile away from their home, the Shasta County Sheriff's Office listed her as a missing person who was at risk.
As search-and-rescue teams conducted ground and aerial searches across California and several nearby states for three weeks, Papini's family members and friends were pleading for her safe return. A GoFundMe page created to help with search-and-rescue efforts raised more than $49,000. Her case made national headlines, including in The Washington Post.
Then, at 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 24, 2016, the sheriff's office learned that Papini had been found safe near Interstate 5 in Yolo County - 146 miles south of her home - in what authorities described at the time as "an absolute miracle" on Thanksgiving Day. Keith Papini said in a statement released to ABC's "Good Morning America" that his wife weighed 87 pounds and "was covered in multicolored bruises, severe burns, red rashes and chain markings." Her hair was chopped off, and she had been branded on her right shoulder, her husband said in November 2016.
"My reaction was one of extreme happiness and overwhelming nausea as my eyes and hands scanned her body. I was filled with so much relief and revulsion at once," Keith Papini said in the statement. "My Sherri suffered tremendously, and all the visions swirling in your heads of her appearance, I assure you, are not as graphic and gruesome as the reality."
The sheriff's office released few details at the time Sherri Papini was found, but vowed to "not rest until Sherri's captor or captors are identified and brought to justice."
But years after the alleged kidnapping, authorities concluded that Sherri Papini had made the whole thing up.
"The investigation eventually showed . . . that this was a false narrative Papini fabricated," Phillip A. Talbert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in a statement last month. "In truth, Papini had been voluntarily staying with a former boyfriend in Costa Mesa and had harmed herself to support her false statements."
In August 2020, Papini was interviewed by a federal agent and a Shasta County Sheriff's Office detective. She was warned at the time that it was a crime to lie to a federal agent, according to the Justice Department.
Investigators told her that they found how she had been staying with an ex-boyfriend nearly 600 miles away at his apartment in Costa Mesa, Calif., and that she had injured herself. FBI agents found that items in the ex-boyfriend's garage had DNA matching some collected from Papini's clothing, court documents show. The man later told authorities that he helped Papini "run away" when she claimed her husband was abusing her, according to court documents. No police reports alleging abuse had been filed, the Bee reported.
Yet when Papini was presented with evidence that showed she had not been abducted, she did not retract her story. Instead, she doubled down and "continued to make false statements about her purported abductors," the Justice Department said last month.
Authorities noted that the California Victim's Compensation Board made 35 payments to Papini between 2017 and 2021 totaling more than $30,000 in victim assistance.
"Ultimately, the investigation revealed that there was no kidnapping and that time and resources that could have been used to investigate actual crime, protect the community, and provide resources to victims were wasted based on the defendant's conduct," Tolbert said.
Portanova described his client's case to the AP as "a very complicated mental health situation, but one that has to be confronted and dealt with - and that includes admission and acceptance and punishment." The attorney admitted he still has a difficult time figuring out why Papini faked her own kidnapping.
"Honestly, I don't know if anybody does," he said. "I don't know if she knows."
- - -
The Washington Post's Lindsey Bever and Sarah Larimer contributed to this report. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/a-mother-said-she-was-kidnapped-now-she-admits-it-was-all-a-hoax/article_972de618-7e24-5c9c-a5ac-540f85f88528.html | 2022-04-13T18:05:14 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/a-mother-said-she-was-kidnapped-now-she-admits-it-was-all-a-hoax/article_972de618-7e24-5c9c-a5ac-540f85f88528.html |
The doctor told Christine Allison he was going to give her husband something to make him comfortable, and a nurse pulled shut the curtain around his bed in the intensive care unit.
When it opened again, Troy Allison, 44, was lifeless.
His wife was stunned, she later recalled in court testimony. In the hours since an ambulance had carried him to Mount Carmel West, a Catholic hospital near their home in the Columbus, Ohio, area, Troy Allison had gone into cardiac arrest and been revived four times. But he seemed to be comfortable and resting. Results from a CT scan hadn't come back yet.
"I'm literally standing at the foot of his bed," Christine Allison testified last month. "I just took one step, and I kind of screamed, 'Is he dead?'"
The night-shift ICU doctor who presided over her husband's care that night in July 2018 is now on trial for allegedly causing his death, with jurors deliberating Tuesday after closing statements concluded a day earlier. In one of the largest murder cases in Ohio history, William Husel is accused of killing 14 critically ill patients over three and a half years by prescribing them what prosecutors described as "wildly excessive" doses of fentanyl.
The synthetic opioid is significantly more powerful than morphine and has wreaked havoc on American streets. But in medical settings, it can provide pain relief crucial to end-of-life care, allowing patients to die without gasping for air. The alleged victims in the Ohio case suffered critical medical conditions including overdoses, cancer, strokes and internal bleeding; prosecutors acknowledge all were being kept alive on ventilators and many were dying.
But Husel, a onetime doctor of the year trained at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, is charged with causing or hastening their deaths amid Mount Carmel West's then-lax oversight of the potent drug. In the fallout over the allegations, the hospital fired 23 employees. Its CEO, chief clinical officer and chief pharmacy officer left their jobs, and its Medicare and Medicaid funding was put in jeopardy. State health department investigators reportedly found the hospital lacked adequate safeguards to prevent excessive dosing.
Christine Allison, whose account of her husband's death came under sharp questioning from defense attorneys, filed one of more than 20 wrongful death lawsuits against Husel and the hospital system. Already, millions have been paid out in settlements.
From the start, Husel, 46, has maintained his innocence. His defense team argued that the patients' conditions caused their deaths and that the large doses were necessary to allow them to die in comfort and dignity after being taken off ventilators. They pointed out that the doctor's actions did not occur in secret - nurses were the ones to administer the doses - and alleged that hospital officials made Husel the villain after realizing the systemic failures at play.
"Why would this man risk his family, his career, 17 years of trying to be a doctor, every single thing he has worked for, to hasten someone's death or to kill them?" defense attorney Jose Baez asked during closing arguments.
The case came to light in the fall of 2018, when Mount Carmel West has said pharmacists voiced concerns about doses ordered by Husel, an anesthesiologist who had been employed at the hospital about five years and worked on the skeleton crew of overnight intensive care. He was well liked in the ICU and known for his willingness to teach those who worked alongside him.
Almost a month passed between the first report about Husel and his removal from patient care. By then, Mount Carmel West has acknowledged, three more patients had died.
In total, at least 35 people may have been given excessive doses, the hospital said after a review. All of them died; the hospital said five might have had a chance to get better. Officials alerted police and Husel was charged in June 2019 with 25 counts of murder, before prosecutors dropped 11 of the charges.
There is disagreement among even the medical community over the amount of painkillers needed in palliative care. Husel's attorneys argued in court that dosages are subjective and a patient's tolerance, weight and pain level can contribute to the variation. It should be up to the doctor at a patient's bedside to determine the amount needed, they insisted.
Prosecutors say Husel's practices went far beyond the norm. He ordered 1,000 micrograms of fentanyl for multiple patients - about 10 times the recommended dosage, they said. Talon Schroyer, a pharmacist who questioned the orders, testified that he initially wondered whether someone was stealing the medication.
One of the patients, 82-year-old Melissa Penix, was given 2,000 micrograms of fentanyl - 20 vials of it, all at once. The dosage given to her, Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor David Zeyen told jurors, depleted the entire supply of the medication available in the ICU that night.
Troy Allison got 1,000 micrograms, according to court testimony. He had come to the hospital struggling for breath and had multiple health issues, including a wound on his leg that had become infected repeatedly over the past year. He was not in documented pain, Zeyen said, and the fentanyl was given without waiting for the CT scan that would come back a minute after he was pronounced dead.
"If you're asking yourself, 'Why are we here talking for weeks and weeks and weeks and hours and hours and hours about sick, dying people - what is the point of all of this?' Troy Allison, along with all of the other ones, could have lived," Zeyen said during closing arguments. "That's the point."
Husel's prescriptions were documented in medical records, and the health department investigators found doses were given to patients by nurses who sometimes used overrides to get the medication out of dispensing machines ahead of pharmacy approval. That his actions took place in the open "is one of the head-scratchers in this case," Zeyen acknowledged.
He and other prosecutors characterized the nurses as so "enthralled" with Husel that they became unwittingly complicit in what he was doing. Twenty-five faced disciplinary actions from the state nursing board; 10 filed a lawsuit saying that they had provided compassionate care and accusing the hospital and its parent company, Trinity Health, of creating a false narrative in an image-saving campaign.
Baez, of the defense team, presented jurors with documents he said showed Mount Carmel West officials planning a media playbook for responding to the scandal. One of the documents, which was shared during opening statements, asked "Who is the villain" and noted, "The less focus on Husel, the more focucs on MCHS and system-wide deficiency."
The defense attorney blasted the case as "absurd," saying the police investigation relied too heavily on information from hospital authorities, who spoke to major witnesses ahead of law enforcement. He rejected prosecutors' claims that some patients could have survived and noted many had been revived repeatedly, including Troy Allison, whom he described as "a very sick man" and a "walking miracle."
There was no evidence, Baez said, to suggest anything except that the patients died because life support was removed. The fentanyl was given to help patients die without pain, he said, and Husel had "dedicated his life to taking care of the ill, to taking care of patients. To saving lives - not to taking them."
"It's just an unfortunate fact of life that death will come to us all," he added.
But prosecutors argued that Husel's intent to end lives was clear, citing the amount of medication given and lining up the 20 vials given to Penix along a dais.
Even if the patients were dying and he thought he was acting in their best interests, Zeyen said, killing them still constitutes a crime: "That is what you do to sick animals. That's fine in veterinary science. That is not fine in the ICU at Mount Carmel."
Christine Allison called for the hospital to be shut down and Husel to be sent to prison. Near the end of her testimony, she recounted getting a call from hospital officials months after her husband's death and learning of the allegations against the doctor who treated him.
"The light went on," she said. "It all made sense then. It all made sense." | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/ex-doctor-accused-of-killing-14-patients-with-excessive-fentanyl-doses/article_bb1506eb-a4c8-58c3-a9f5-7d60887b22f7.html | 2022-04-13T18:05:20 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/ex-doctor-accused-of-killing-14-patients-with-excessive-fentanyl-doses/article_bb1506eb-a4c8-58c3-a9f5-7d60887b22f7.html |
NEW YORK — Police are searching for a shooter after 13 people were injured in a shooting that erupted on a New York subway platform during Tuesday’s morning rush. At least eight of the victims sustained wounds from gunfire, a fire department spokesperson said.
Officers received a 911 call to the 36th Street subway station near 4th Avenue in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood just before 8:30 a.m., a police spokeswoman said.
Fire officials, responding to reports of smoke, arrived on the scene to find multiple injured victims as well as several undetonated devices in the area, according to a New York Fire Department spokesperson.
While information was still fluid on Tuesday morning, an NYPD official said a potential suspect was believed to possibly be wearing a construction vest.
Sunset Park, the site of the shooting, has long been a hub for working-class immigrant communities and is considered one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods. The 4th Avenue subway station is at the core of the neighborhood’s Latin American community, made up largely of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Central Americans and Ecuadorans. It is also a major transfer station for commuters across Brooklyn.
Prima Ruiz, a long time resident of Sunset Park who lives just a block from the station, said she first noticed what was happening when she saw masses of people running northward away from the station and toward Manhattan.
“Nothing shocks me in New York City anymore,” she told The Washington Post Tuesday as four helicopters circled the neighborhood overhead. “But this is something that I’ve never seen before. They were ambulances rushing people out and they had to lock down the school right here.”
Police cars raced up and down nearby 3rd Avenue while residents gathered a block away, musing about whether the suspect was still at large.
A witness who was inside the station when shots rang out described confusion and panic. Juliana Fonda was riding on the N express train as it approached the 36th Street station in Sunset Park when she heard gunshots in the car directly behind her.
“You couldn’t really tell what was happening,” said Fonda, a broadcast engineer at WNYC who recounted her experience on the station’s “Brian Lehrer Show” Tuesday morning. “You just heard pops . . . and there was smoke in the other car.”
Fonda said passengers in that car began pounding on the locked door of her carriage “trying to get away from something that was happening.”
“None of us in the front of the train knew what was going on, but people were pounding and looking behind them running and trying to get on the train.”
When the train arrived at 36th Street, the doors opened and there was smoke throughout the platform, Fonda said. She told WNYC that she saw people on the ground who had “obviously been shot.”
“It was terrifying,” Fonda said.
Commuter Yav Montero told CNN he was heading to work from his home in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, when he heard what sounded like “a bunch of scattered popping” inside the N train car he was riding while it was briefly stopped due to rail traffic as it approached the 36th Street station.
“It sounded loose like fireworks on the floor,” Montero said. “I didn’t think it was gunshots.”
Montero said thick smoke quickly engulfed the train, and passengers pushed to the front of the car trying to escape the apparent shooter. As he crouched on the floor of the car, an elderly woman reached into her purse and handed him a small can of pepper spray and told him to “use it just in case.”
“That’s how desperate people were,” Montero said.
Fire and police officials did not elaborate on the injuries to the victims but said they were transported to NYU Langone and Methodist hospitals.
A spokesman for New York Mayor Eric Adams, D, said that the mayor continues to be briefed on the situation and asked New Yorkers to stay away from the area for their safety. Adams tested positive for coronavirus over the weekend and is isolating at home.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, D, said that she had been briefed on the incident and first responders were on the scene. She said further updates would be provided as the investigation continues.
Multiple federal agencies were monitoring the situation by midmorning, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Attorney General Merrick Garland received a preliminary briefing and the Department of Homeland Security, a spokeswoman said.
The FBI is responding to the incident, a federal law enforcement official said, adding that it was too early to determine if there was any federal crime involved.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting and White House senior staff were in touch with Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Swell, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/multiple-people-shot-at-least-13-injured-in-brooklyn-subway-station-undetonated-devices-found-fdny/article_15099748-8925-5ea3-af1e-de97d7b0f1d2.html | 2022-04-13T18:05:27 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/multiple-people-shot-at-least-13-injured-in-brooklyn-subway-station-undetonated-devices-found-fdny/article_15099748-8925-5ea3-af1e-de97d7b0f1d2.html |
The victim of a shooting in downtown Manchester last May said he has offered to testify on behalf of the alleged shooter and will tell a jury that he baited the man into shooting him.
Sean Brown, 45, who faces felony witness tampering charges in an unrelated case, called a reporter from the Valley Street jail and said he has told friends to reach out to the lawyer representing Zabayullah Qahir and encourage his investigator to speak to Brown.
Qahir, 30, faces charges of felony assault and attempted murder for allegedly shooting Brown three times outside USA Chicken and Biscuit, which is owned by Qahir's father.
Brown said he used psychological warfare against Qahir, and Brown intended to force Qahir's hand.
"I baited him like a Louisiana catfish," Brown said.
Qahir's lawyer, veteran defense attorney Mark Sisti, said he looks forward to hearing more details.
"It's very important to our case," Sisti said when told by a reporter about Brown's statements.
Prosecutors with the Hillsborough County Attorney John Coughline said they cannot comment on Brown's statement with the trial pending.
Trial is currently scheduled for next month.
According to past articles, Brown had worked at the restaurant briefly and visited on May 10 to pick up his paycheck when the two started arguing. Qahir allegedly entered the restaurant, retrieved a handgun and walked outside and shot Brown.
His lawyers have said may claim self-defense.
Brown, who has a felony record involving drug dealing and is now a paralegal, said he gave thought to the case after he was ordered held at Valley Street jail without bail last week.
Qahir has a young child and was living the American dream, and Brown said he does not want any more harm to come to Qahir. One year at Valley Street jail, where Qahir is also being held, is as bad as five years in a prison, Brown said.
Shortly after the shooting, Brown, a native of South Brooklyn, told a reporter that Qahir fired a shot after Brown banished him from hip-hop. He portrayed Qahir as one who tried to appropriate the hip-hop culture of urban Blacks but could not live up to it, in part because he cooked and sold chicken for a living.
This week, Brown said "we may have to work on" the hip-hop banishment. It could fall to five years if Qahir takes a course on Black culture, Brown said.
Although both Brown and Qahir are incarcerated in the same jail, Brown said he remains in the classification unit and has not seen Qahir.
Meanwhile, Brown faces felony charges that he tried to discourage Bow resident Zoe Murphy from testifying in a drug trafficking trial.
In a lengthy court affidavit, police detail recorded telephone conversations between Brown and Marcus Cherry, the Manchester man at the center of the alleged drug trafficking enterprise.
Brown said he is being jailed solely on the word of the Manchester detective, and police are doing so because his work on behalf of Murphy has jeopardized the Cherry case.
"It's all about handicapping me," he said. "I'm a problem if I get my internet connection, a laptop and a printer." | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/victim-in-manchester-attempted-murder-said-he-will-testify-on-behalf-of-shooter/article_f8538cf3-a60b-54ac-b0ac-7c7186513099.html | 2022-04-13T18:05:33 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/victim-in-manchester-attempted-murder-said-he-will-testify-on-behalf-of-shooter/article_f8538cf3-a60b-54ac-b0ac-7c7186513099.html |
NEW YORK — Police are searching for the shooter who opened fire Tuesday in a New York subway station, leaving at least 29 people injured and turning the morning commuter rush into a scene of horror.
None of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries, and the incident is not being investigated as an act of terrorism, New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said during an afternoon briefing. Sewell said the shooter put on a gas mask and apparently opened a canister on the train, filling the subway car with smoke and then shooting multiple people on the train and the platform in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.
Potentially complicating the ongoing manhunt: At least one security camera did not capture the attack because of a malfunction that authorities are still investigating, according to New York Mayor Eric Adams, D.
Officers were called to the 36th Street subway station near Fourth Avenue just before 8:30 a.m., a police spokeswoman said. Fire officials arrived on the scene to find several undetonated devices in the area, they said. Sewell said there were “no known explosive devices on our subway trains.”
Investigators on the scene recovered a handgun, ammunition, smoke grenades — at least some of which had been expended — and a backpack which they believe belonged to the gunman, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the case.
One of the officials said investigators also found fireworks. That official said investigators also recovered some type of evidence that helped them link the suspect to a rented U-Haul van, and on Tuesday evening, investigators were responding to a van that appeared to match the description.
Konrad Aderer, 53, said he was texting his wife on the subway stairs when a man with bloody legs appeared, his pants down. He warned Aderer and others about danger below.
“He said people were injured and bleeding,” Aderer said in an interview with The Washington Post. The documentary filmmaker and producer said he thought about taking out his phone to record what was going on but decided against it, thinking there was not much he could do to help and certain aid would arrive.
Sirens began to blare as he texted his wife and workplace about the shooting and walked away. Later that day, he picked up his two children, ages 5 and 11, from school.
“Just seeing my kids right now made me feel grateful I escaped it,” Aderer said. “It’s just disturbing until the person is caught.”
U-Haul confirmed that law enforcement officers were searching for a rental van in connection with the subway shooting after reports that the gunman had driven a vehicle with Arizona plates.
The rental truck, a white cargo van with U-Haul branding on its sides, was later located on King’s Highway in Brooklyn, WCBS Newsradio 880 reported. The city’s police officers had been told earlier to look for the van and detain the occupants immediately, the Associated Press reported.
An NYPD official said a potential suspect was believed to possibly be wearing a construction vest.
Sunset Park, the site of the shooting, has long been a hub for working-class immigrant communities and is considered one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods. The 4th Avenue subway station is at the core of the neighborhood’s Latin American community, made up largely of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Central Americans and Ecuadorans. It is also a major transfer station for commuters across Brooklyn.
Prima Ruiz, a longtime resident of Sunset Park who lives just a block from the station, said she first noticed what was happening when she saw masses of people running northward away from the station and toward Manhattan.
“Nothing shocks me in New York City anymore,” she told The Washington Post as four helicopters circled the neighborhood overhead. “But this is something that I’ve never seen before. They were ambulances rushing people out and they had to lock down the school right here.”
Police cars raced up and down nearby 3rd Avenue while residents gathered a block away, musing about whether the suspect was still at large.
A witness who was inside the station when shots rang out described confusion and panic. Juliana Fonda was riding on the N express train as it approached the 36th Street station in Sunset Park when she heard gunshots in the car directly behind her.
“You couldn’t really tell what was happening,” said Fonda, a broadcast engineer at WNYC who recounted her experience on the station’s “Brian Lehrer Show” Tuesday morning. “You just heard pops . . . and there was smoke in the other car.”
Fonda said passengers in that car began pounding on the locked door of her carriage “trying to get away from something that was happening.”
“None of us in the front of the train knew what was going on, but people were pounding and looking behind them running and trying to get on the train.”
When the train arrived at 36th Street, the doors opened and there was smoke throughout the platform, Fonda said. She told WNYC that she saw people on the ground who had “obviously been shot.”
“It was terrifying,” Fonda said.
Commuter Yav Montero told CNN he was heading to work from his home in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, when he heard what sounded like “a bunch of scattered popping” inside the N train car he was riding while it was briefly stopped due to rail traffic as it approached the 36th Street station.
“It sounded loose like fireworks on the floor,” Montero said. “I didn’t think it was gunshots.”
Montero said thick smoke quickly engulfed the train, and passengers pushed to the front of the car trying to escape the apparent shooter. As he crouched on the floor of the car, an elderly woman reached into her purse and handed him a small can of pepper spray and told him to “use it just in case.”
“That’s how desperate people were,” Montero said.
Fire and police officials did not elaborate on the injuries to the victims but said they were transported to NYU Langone and Methodist hospitals.
A spokesman for Adams said that the mayor continues to be briefed on the situation and asked New Yorkers to stay away from the area for their safety. Adams tested positive for coronavirus over the weekend and is isolating at home.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, D, said that she had been briefed on the incident and first responders were on the scene. She said further updates would be provided as the investigation continues.
Multiple federal agencies were monitoring the situation by midmorning, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Attorney General Merrick Garland received a preliminary briefing and the Department of Homeland, a spokeswoman said.
The FBI is responding to the incident, a federal law enforcement official said, adding that it was too early to determine if there was any federal crime involved.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting and White House senior staff were in touch with Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Swell, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/white-van-said-to-be-connected-to-shooter/article_ca5bb095-788c-5ef6-8138-5a18f9acf148.html | 2022-04-13T18:05:39 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/white-van-said-to-be-connected-to-shooter/article_ca5bb095-788c-5ef6-8138-5a18f9acf148.html |
Masks will continue to be required until at least May 3 when flying commercially and in other transportation settings, including on buses, ferries and subways, while health officials monitor an uptick in coronavirus cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.
"In order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity, the CDC Order will remain in place at this time," the agency said in a statement.
The decision comes at a time when case counts have begun to rise in the Northeast as the BA.2 subvariant of omicron takes hold and local mask mandates have been rolled back.
But the administration is also facing growing pressure to lift the mask requirement.
Last week, Republican leaders on the House and Senate transportation committees reiterated their call for the president to "rescind or decline to extend the mask mandate."
"We believe the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA's) extension of the transportation mask mandate last month ran counter to your public health agency's announcement that most Americans could forego wearing a mask indoors," they wrote in the letter to President Joe Biden. "It is our belief that these inconsistent decisions further erode public trust in the Federal government, especially when transportation operators have taken significant steps to keep passengers safe."
In late March, 21 mostly Republican-led states sued the government seeking to immediately end the mask requirement.
However, in a letter to the CDC and TSA sent last month, Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said he thought the mandate should be kept.
"Although cases of COVID-19 in the United States have declined from this winter's peak, the virus continues to pose a threat to the public, particularly for seniors, the immunocompromised, and individuals with disabilities. The emergence of a new and even more transmissible variant only confirms that COVID remains a serious, ongoing danger," Markey wrote.
"For that reason, I urge CDC to consider extending its mask order and continue requiring masks on public and commercial transportation. In any modifications to these requirements, both CDC and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) must center efforts to protect the elderly, the immunocompromised, and individuals with disabilities."
But some groups that had previously supported the masking requirement have urged the administration to consider dropping it.
Last month, executives from 10 airlines, including American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, sent a letter to Biden urging him to end pandemic-related travel policies, including the mask mandate.
In making their case, many groups cited updated guidance issued by the CDC in February that laid out a new framework for determining when masking should be necessary. The new calculations, which were based on the level of disease in the community, meant that large swaths of the country no longer needed to wear masks. Groups also argued that keeping the requirement in place for transportation seemed contradictory since states had largely stopped requiring people to wear masks in public settings.
However, that may be changing in some communities with the arrival of the BA.2 variant. This week, Philadelphia became the first major U.S. city to reinstate the requirement in indoor public spaces.
The announcement also comes as airlines are seeing a surge in spring travel - one the industry anticipates will extend through the summer and beyond. TSA officials have reported an increase in the number of people screened at airport checkpoints, with many days routinely topping the 2 million mark as they before the pandemic.
The mask mandate for transportation originally was took effect in February 2021, shortly after Biden took office, when federal officials had only just begun the vaccine rollout. Since then, it has been extended several times. In making the announcement that the ban would be extended through April 18, federal health officials said the additional time would be used to develop a revised framework that would guide the policy going forward.
Even so the public had mixed views on whether masks should continued to be required in transportation setting. A poll of 1,000 adults conducted by NBC News in mid-March, found 51 percent of those surveyed supported continuing the mandate, while 46 percent thought the requirement should be ended. Three percent of those who responded said they were not sure.
Airlines began requiring customers to wear masks in mid-2020 as part of the effort to contain the spread of the virus. The Trump administration declined to put a mask mandate in place, but shortly after taking office, Biden issued an order that required mask-wearing in all transportation settings.
While studies show mask-wearing can reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the mandate has caused conflict on airplanes and in airports. In their letter to Biden, airline executives cited that as a reason for ending the mandate.
The Federal Aviation Administration last year received nearly 6,000 reports of unruly passenger behavior and more than 70 percent of cases were mask-related. The agency has proposed more than $1 million in fines related to disruptions that have included assaults on crew members, other passengers and violations of airline alcohol policies.
The TSA - charged with enforcing the mask mandate in airports, on trains and in other transportation settings - last year doubled fines for violations to as much as $1,000 for first offenders and up to $3,000 for second offenders. The agency said in February it has imposed nearly $400,000 in civil penalties against more than 600 mask violators. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/coronavirus/mask-mandate-extended-for-air-travel-and-public-transit-through-may-3/article_227bf0d4-d1d4-5105-b69c-193e5555282d.html | 2022-04-13T18:05:45 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/coronavirus/mask-mandate-extended-for-air-travel-and-public-transit-through-may-3/article_227bf0d4-d1d4-5105-b69c-193e5555282d.html |
RIGA, Latvia - After a month of fighting, the architects of Moscow's war against Ukraine had to explain to Russians why Kyiv had not fallen. That's when the most menacing rhetoric began.
On state television, a military analyst doubled down on Russia's need to win and called for concentration camps for Ukrainians opposed to the invasion.
Two days later, the head of the defense committee in the lower house of parliament said it would take 30 to 40 years to "reeducate" Ukrainians.
And on a talk show, the editor in chief of the English-language television news network RT described Ukrainians' determination to defend their country as "collective insanity."
"It's no accident we call them Nazis," said Margarita Simonyan, who also heads the Kremlin-backed news agency that operates Sputnik and RIA Novosti. "What makes you a Nazi is your bestial nature, your bestial hatred and your bestial willingness to tear out the eyes of children on the basis of nationality."
Russia's astonishing shift toward genocidal speech has been swift and seamless. Moscow officials stepped up warnings that Russia was fighting for its survival. Pundits condemned peace talks and scorned troops' withdrawal from Kyiv and surrounding areas.
The change of gears, signaling a brutal occupation, appeared deliberate and coordinated in a nation where detailed Kremlin orders on messaging are handed down regularly to state media.
Eugene Finkel, an expert on genocide at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy, said the rhetoric isn't just "a few crazy hard-liners" spouting off. It's coming from prominent government officials, showing up in the press, being heard on state television - and is "clearly genocidal."
"They're talking about destroying Ukrainians as a group, Ukraine as a state and as an identity community," Finkel said. "The argument is we are going to destroy this national community as it exists and create something new that we like instead, no matter how many people we kill in the process."
In late March, the head of Russia's Investigative Committee launched a probe into whether Ukrainian students' textbooks "target children with hatred of Russia and the Russian language" or "distort history." There already is evidence, Finkel noted, of Russian soldiers in Ukraine going through libraries and schools and destroying books in Ukrainian or those about the country's history and struggle for independence.
"I think there is a clear indication that [the Russians] are targeting quite deliberately everything and everyone that is associated with Ukrainians as a national identity," he said.
The chances that Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man with no history of reversing course when cornered, might back down as his military's effort faltered were never very great, and U.S. officials have questioned Russia's seriousness about peace talks. Yet after Moscow's failure to take Kyiv, the shift to a harder line in state media suggests that the Kremlin is girding the population for a tough and potentially long fight in Ukraine's east, one that could see even greater destruction and casualties.
It also hints at a punitive path should Russia win: potentially partitioning Ukraine, crushing its military and civil society, and occupying it for years.
A former Kremlin adviser, Sergei Karaganov, has said that the country would be left as a rump state - or perhaps as nothing at all - after Moscow is done. Russia, he made clear in an interview with the New Statesman, "cannot afford to lose."
The threat of Nazism is one of the Kremlin's most brazen themes. Last week, RIA Novosti ran a prominent opinion piece by pundit Timofei Sergeitsev, an outspoken supporter of Putin, that urged the liquidation of the entire Ukrainian elite, the division of the country, destruction of its sovereignty and even the abolition of its name.
"Denazification will inevitably be de-Ukrainization," Sergeitsev wrote, requiring years of ideological repression and severe censorship in political, cultural and educational fields. Ordinary Ukrainians were complicit and must suffer the "inevitable hardships of a just war" before total submission to Russian power "as a historical lesson and atonement for their guilt."
Others quickly piled on. Former president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, wrote on Telegram that "Ukrainianism, fueled by anti-Russian poison and all-consuming lies about its identity, is one big fake."
Ruth Deyermond, a Russia expert in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, said such arguments are "hard to read in any other way than a justification for mass killing. "It's extremely disturbing language and clearly has genocidal overtones. It's not that they, Ukrainians, have a Führer or a political ideology or a Nazi system. They're just Nazi."
In a provincial city in central Russia, a young woman named Valeriya talked recently about how isolated she felt as the calls to "fight Nazis" increased. Valeriya, who declined to give her full name or where she lives because of safety concerns, said co-workers viewed her with suspicion because she has a Ukrainian boyfriend and opposes the invasion. They demanded she say whose side she was on.
"They tell me, 'You don't know the reality. There are fascists, and we need to get rid of them,' " she said.
She has begun seeing social media posts in support of genocide and fears that the sentiment might intensify.
"In our country, we were brought up with the idea that we should fight Nazis," Valeriya said. "If state television keeps calling for the continuation of war and to kill the last Ukrainian, then maybe ordinary people will start believing it and lots and lots of people will think that that's what we should do."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Russia was carrying out mass deportations. "Hundreds of thousands of people have already been deported," he told Lithuania's Parliament during a virtual address. "They are placed in special filtration camps. Their documents are taken away from them. They are interrogated and humiliated. How many are killed is unknown."
The Tass news agency reported last week that Russian officials said 674,000 Ukrainians had been moved to Russia - voluntarily, they claimed. Ukrainian officials' accusations about their treatment have been difficult to verify.
With the redeployment of Russian forces to eastern Ukraine, the rhetoric is likely to ratchet up further.
Less than two weeks before the invasion, Putin used a crude reference to express his determination to force Kyiv to accept Russia's terms for peaceful coexistence: "Like it or not, put up with it, my beauty," a term associated with rape for many Russians. Ukraine's resistance has only hardened the Kremlin's mood.
Yet Finkel fears that a Russian victory would not only destroy Ukraine but upend the post-World War II global order.
"That's something I have been thinking about a lot. I think it will be a pretty scary world," he said. "For Russia, it's a test of the idea that might makes right - and we have the power, so we can do whatever we want." | https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/as-russias-war-in-ukraine-founders-ominous-rhetoric-gains-ground/article_0d6cbcfa-3b40-5cfc-8c26-405eeae9b9d3.html | 2022-04-13T18:05:51 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/as-russias-war-in-ukraine-founders-ominous-rhetoric-gains-ground/article_0d6cbcfa-3b40-5cfc-8c26-405eeae9b9d3.html |
The debut of train sets intended to replace Amtrak's Acela fleet will be delayed another 18 months, according to the passenger rail service, citing "rigorous" testing requirements to operate the high-speed technology for the first time in the United States.
The 28 Avelia Liberty high-speed trains, from the French manufacturer Alstom, are now slated to enter service in fall 2023, 2 1/2 years behind schedule. The new train cars, modeled after trains that are in operation across Europe, are being assembled in a facility in Hornell, N.Y.
"We want our customers to experience the new train sets as soon as possible," said Laura Mason, Amtrak's executive vice president overseeing major capital projects. "But obviously, we need to do that when it's fully tested and certified and proven safe."
Mason described the testing required by federal regulations as "very rigorous" and said it would take Alstom longer than it anticipated to work through the requirements to satisfy U.S. safety standards, as well as compatibility with the rail infrastructure in the Northeast Corridor.
The $2.5 billion investment is expected to improve reliability, quality of service, safety and capacity in the Northeast, the busiest rail corridor in the United States. The trains will accommodate up to 386 passengers - an increase of 25%, according to Amtrak - and replace an existing fleet of 20, which entered service when Acela launched in 2000.
The first two train sets had been expected to enter Acela, Amtrak's premier service, in spring 2021, but Amtrak said last year that delivery would be a year behind schedule because of delays caused by production and training interruptions during the coronavirus pandemic. The railroad also said early testing led to the discovery of compatibility problems with the Northeast Corridor tracks that prompted modifications to the train design.
Now Amtrak says Alstom needs to complete extensive computer modeling and simulation tests and "ensure they meet [Federal Railroad Administration] safety requirements with this latest generation of high speed technology." A prototype began testing on the route between Washington and Boston in 2020.
The new train set is articulated, with adjoining coaches sharing a wheel truck, a structure that officials said will minimize bouncing felt by passengers and improve the quality of the ride, stability and safety. But that has also proved to be more challenging from a modeling perspective, Mason said, noting that testing will require proving the cars' safety both for one train set by itself and for the whole model.
Completing the computer modeling and simulation runs to meet FRA guidelines remain the major hurdle, said Mason, who added that the Alstom warehouse is fully staffed and supply chain issues are cleared up. Design changes in the past year helped address the incompatibility with the corridor's track and its catenary system - the overhead wires that supply the train with electricity. The train had to be modified to work harmoniously with the infrastructure, according to Amtrak officials.
"Once we have this modeling complete, we will submit a testing plan. We will then be able to run at speed, end-to-end in the corridor," Mason said.
Testing of the prototype in the Northeast is expected to continue this year. A second prototype, tested at a federal facility in Pueblo, Colo., exceeded performance expectations, traveling at 165 mph, higher than the 160 mph limit on the trains traveling between Washington and Boston. Current Acela trains travel up to 150 mph.
The FRA, which provides oversight, said in a statement that it will continue to provide technical assistance to Amtrak and Alstom "to ensure compliance with federal regulations."
Amtrak unveiled the interiors of the fleet at a press event in Philadelphia late last month, showing more modern and comfortable spaces. The trains are being built with a number of features that Amtrak says should make train travel more appealing in the post-pandemic era, including reserved seating, touchless features in restrooms and HVAC modifications to increase the air-exchange rate inside cabins.
"Between the sleek design of their interiors, state-of-the-art technology, and sustainable amenities, and innovative safety features, our new Acela trains will help revolutionize American train travel," Stephen Gardner, Amtrak's president and chief executive, said in a statement March 31, showing images of the train interiors.
Seats are equipped with personal outlets, USB ports and adjustable reading lights. They will recline in a way that officials said will not encroach on other passengers' space. Handholds are built in for people walking down the aisle.
The cafe car will have a self-select and checkout option, standing room for passengers, electrical outlets for charging and digital screens that display trip information.
According to Alstom, the company relies on about 250 domestic suppliers in 27 states. The contract for the 28 trains, which was awarded in 2016, supports about 1,300 jobs, officials said, including 400 at Alstom's facilities.
The first train was to have been delivered in January 2021, and the entire fleet was to have been in operation in 2022. Amtrak officials declined to discuss whether Alstom faces penalties, which they said are built into the contract.
Alstom, in a statement, cited challenges caused by the pandemic, including supply chain issues, as contributors to the delays and noted that these are the first train sets built under an FRA rule that establishes new safety standards for high-speed trains, with new design specifications to allow for operation at the highest speeds on shared tracks.
The company said it is focused on delivery of the train sets and obtaining the FRA approval to bring "these first of its kind, American built, high-speed trains" into revenue service.
Delays in the delivery of the new trains will force the railroad to make the Acela legacy fleet last longer, prompting extra mechanical investments to reduce train malfunctioning that often leads to delays. The hiccups in delivery are also likely to hurt Amtrak's plans to sell more seats on its premier service and eventually yield losses in revenue.
Ridership in March rose to 71% of pre-pandemic levels, and bookings are inching closer to normal, reaching about 80% this week, according to Amtrak. Officials said business travel, the customer base for Acela, also appears to be on a rebound.
The Acela has been one of Amtrak's strongest lines. Before the pandemic, the service's ridership grew by 4.3% in fiscal year 2019 compared with the previous year, markedly higher than the 2.9% growth on the Northeast Corridor and 2.4% growth on the company's state-funded routes. | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/travel/amtraks-faster-higher-tech-acela-trains-are-delayed-again/article_d286dcdf-d7b5-593e-ae1c-59c77848c6cf.html | 2022-04-13T18:05:57 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/travel/amtraks-faster-higher-tech-acela-trains-are-delayed-again/article_d286dcdf-d7b5-593e-ae1c-59c77848c6cf.html |
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Evan Beyer has been promoted to staff engineer by Cornforth Consultants. He has three years of geological engineering experience with a focus on dam safety and transportation-related projects. In addition to technical engineering work, Beyer assists the development of plan-sets using AutoCAD. He has a bachelor’s degree in geological and Earth sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Please send your announcements for DJC People to djcpeople@djcOregon.com. | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/cornforth-consultants-beyer-now-a-staff-engineer/ | 2022-04-13T18:06:07 | 0 | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/cornforth-consultants-beyer-now-a-staff-engineer/ |
ENGINEERING
Andy Kost of Cornforth Consultants has been promoted to associate engineer. He has 10 years of geotechnical engineering experience in the Northwest. He holds a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from Virginia Tech. Kost’s areas of expertise include landslide mitigation design, slope stability modeling, seismic studies, embankment dams, and construction observation services.
Please send your announcements for DJC People to djcpeople@djcOregon.com. | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/cornforth-consultants-kost-now-an-associate-engineer/ | 2022-04-13T18:06:13 | 0 | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/cornforth-consultants-kost-now-an-associate-engineer/ |
ENGINEERING
Michael Bunn has been promoted to staff engineer by Cornforth Consultants. Bunn has three years of geotechnical engineering experience in the Pacific Northwest. He has a master’s degree in civil engineering from Oregon State University. Bunn’s technical strengths include reinforced soil slopes, mechanically stabilized earth walls, and landslide studies driven by lidar topography and other geospatial data sets.
Please send your announcements for DJC People to djcpeople@djcOregon.com. | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/cornforth-consultants-promotes-bunn-to-staff-engineer/ | 2022-04-13T18:06:19 | 0 | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/cornforth-consultants-promotes-bunn-to-staff-engineer/ |
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If you feel your login credentials are being used by a second party, contact customer service at 877-615-9536 for assistance in changing your password.Already a paid subscriber but not registered for online access yet? For instructions on how to get premium web access, click here. | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/data-center-growth-explodes-in-hillsboro/ | 2022-04-13T18:06:26 | 1 | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/data-center-growth-explodes-in-hillsboro/ |
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If you feel your login credentials are being used by a second party, contact customer service at 877-615-9536 for assistance in changing your password.Already a paid subscriber but not registered for online access yet? For instructions on how to get premium web access, click here. | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/land-use-review-intakes-for-april-11-2022/ | 2022-04-13T18:06:32 | 0 | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/land-use-review-intakes-for-april-11-2022/ |
ENGINEERING
Cornforth Consultants has promoted Aleyna Link to staff engineer. She holds a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from Oregon State University. Link has three years of geotechnical work experience that includes investigation, design and monitoring of dams, landslides and foundations. Her experience includes evaluations of seismic hazards, development of instrumentation programs, installation and monitoring of instrumentation, slope stability and seepage analysis, and construction monitoring.
Please send your announcements for DJC People to djcpeople@djcOregon.com. | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/link-named-staff-engineer-by-cornforth-consultants/ | 2022-04-13T18:06:38 | 0 | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/link-named-staff-engineer-by-cornforth-consultants/ |
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If you feel your login credentials are being used by a second party, contact customer service at 877-615-9536 for assistance in changing your password.Already a paid subscriber but not registered for online access yet? For instructions on how to get premium web access, click here. | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/portland-firm-chosen-to-design-psu-building/ | 2022-04-13T18:06:45 | 0 | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/portland-firm-chosen-to-design-psu-building/ |
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Cornforth Consultants has promoted Tom Westover to chief financial officer. He is a senior associate engineer with 15 years of experience with the firm. His responsibilities now include financial planning and market performance tracking as well as stewardship of accounting, tax and treasury, regulatory and legal environments. Westover holds a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Willamette University.
Please send your announcements for DJC People to djcpeople@djcOregon.com. | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/westover-named-cornforth-consultants-chief-financial-officer/ | 2022-04-13T18:06:51 | 1 | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/12/westover-named-cornforth-consultants-chief-financial-officer/ |
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If you feel your login credentials are being used by a second party, contact customer service at 877-615-9536 for assistance in changing your password.Already a paid subscriber but not registered for online access yet? For instructions on how to get premium web access, click here. | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/13/april-13-2022/ | 2022-04-13T18:06:58 | 1 | https://djcoregon.com/news/2022/04/13/april-13-2022/ |
Montgomery’s City Federal Bank Building will be the home of Ravello Ristorante, an Italian-inspired restaurant scheduled to open in May.
Ravello, located at 36 Commerce St., will offer authentic Italian dishes inspired by the Amalfi Coast. The restaurant’s bar menu includes a mix of classic and original craft cocktails inspired by Italian traditions and an extensive, handpicked wine list.
The 140-seat, multi-level restaurant will be open Monday through Saturday from 4:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Vintage Hospitality Group and partners restored downtown Montgomery’s vacant, circa-1920s City Federal Bank building, with a large-scale Amalfi coast vignette painted by muralist David Braley and interiors designed by Laura Dockery. The building also offers event space, including two mezzanines, one that overlooks the restaurant, as well as a courtyard, cellar and ballroom. A forthcoming rooftop bar will offer guests views of downtown Montgomery and the Alabama River.
The rotating selection of house-made pasta dishes will range from squid ink spaghetti with tomato-uni ragu to rich gnudi with house ricotta and brown butter. Menu highlights will feature seasonal entrées such as Maine sea scallops and wood-roasted branzino. After dinner, Italian-inspired desserts like chocolate torta al tartufo will be available.
Ravello’s Executive Chef Eric Rivera began as sous chef at Marlowe’s Restaurant in Denver, opened the Todd English P.U.B. in Birmingham as the executive sous chef, and later reopened the Historic Redmont Hotel. He joined Vintage Hospitality Group in Montgomery as Executive Chef at Vintage Year and opened its sister restaurant, Vintage Café. In 2021 Eric was a finalist for the Alabama Restaurant and Hospitality Association’s Best Chef Awards. | https://www.al.com/business/2022/04/ravello-italian-restaurant-opening-in-montgomery.html | 2022-04-13T18:11:56 | 0 | https://www.al.com/business/2022/04/ravello-italian-restaurant-opening-in-montgomery.html |
The spread of COVID-19 is nowhere near what it was during the peak of the omicron variant over the winter, but the highly transmissible BA.2 subvariant of the omicron variant is here and cases are rising.
BA.2, also referred to as the stealth omicron subvariant, is now the dominant strain in the U.S.
There are some symptoms of the BA.2 variant of COVID-19 that differ from past variants of COVID-19, including its parent strain.
Here is what you need to know.
What are the COVID symptoms of BA.2?
The main symptoms of the original omicron variant — including a cough and runny nose — still persist in the BA.2 subvariant.
These are the symptoms of BA.2 that healthcare providers are reporting, according to the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, UC Davis Health and Yale Medicine:
- Headache
- Sore throat
- Body aches
- Severe fatigue
What are symptoms not commonly seen in BA.2 cases of COVID?
The following symptoms of previous COVID-19 strains are not seen in BA.2 cases:
- Loss of taste
- Loss of smell
- Shortness of breath
How do I protect myself from the BA.2 subvariant?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), get vaccinated if you are 5 years of age or older and have not gotten your primary series of vaccinations.
If you are 12 years of age or older, the CDC recommends a booster shot if eligible.
Those 50 years or older and those with compromised immune systems can get a second booster shot, too. | https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/ba2-covid-variant-symptoms-to-look-out-for.html | 2022-04-13T18:12:02 | 0 | https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/ba2-covid-variant-symptoms-to-look-out-for.html |
A charter bus carrying migrants from Texas under Gov. Greg Abbott’s recently announced plan arrived in Washington on Wednesday morning.
The bus pulled up to an intersection a few blocks from the Capitol, close to Union Station, shortly after 7 a.m. Central.
That location also happens to be next to a building that houses the operations of several television outlets, including Fox News.
The network aired footage showing migrants leaving the bus one at a time, clutching manila envelopes and wearing hospital-style bracelets on their wrists.
Abbott signed a letter last week directing the Texas Division of Emergency Management to provide the bus rides to migrants who are released from federal custody in cities along the border with Mexico — if the migrants volunteer.
Despite assurances from Texas officials that the program is completely voluntary, some civil rights groups have raised legal questions about the plan, largely centered around whether the migrants could feel coerced to board the buses.
Defenders of the busing have characterized it as a desperate attempt by Texas to deal with broken federal immigration policy generally and the surge of migrants expected when pandemic-related border restrictions are lifted next month.
Critics, however, see a governor leaning heavily on a hot button issue to boost his re-election campaign. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki last week dismissed the busing plan as a “publicity stunt.”
The move comes as one of the busiest trade ports on the U.S.-Mexico border remained effectively closed Wednesday as frustration and traffic snarls mounted over new orders by Abbott requiring extra inspections of commercial trucks as part of the Republican’s sprawling border security operation.
Since Monday, Mexican truckers have blocked the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in protest after Abbott last week directed state troopers to stop and inspect trucks coming into Texas. Unusually long backups — some lasting 12 hours or longer — have stacked up elsewhere along Texas’ roughly 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border.
Not even a week into the inspections, the Mexican government said that Abbott’s order was causing “serious damage” to trade, and that cross-border traffic had plummeted to a third of normal levels. On Wednesday, Psaki called Abbott’s order “unnecessary and redundant.”
Psaki said the move was “causing significant disruptions to the food and automobile supply chains, delaying manufacturing, impacting jobs and raising prices.”
The gridlock is the fallout of an initiative that Abbott says is needed to curb human trafficking and the flow of drugs. But critics question how the inspections are meeting that objective, while business owners and experts complain of financial losses and warn U.S. grocery shoppers could notice shortages as soon as this week.
Frustration is also spreading within members of Abbott’s own party: Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican, called the inspections a “catastrophic policy” that is forcing some trucks to reroute hundreds of miles to Arizona.
“I do describe it as a crisis, because this is not the normal way of doing business,” said Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, whose county includes the bridge in Pharr. “You’re talking about billions of dollars. When you stop that process, I mean, there are many, many, many, many people that are affected.”
The shutdowns and slowdowns have set off some of widest backlash to date of Abbott’s multibillion-dollar border operation, which the two-term governor has made the cornerstone of his administration. Texas already has thousands of state troopers and National Guard members on the border and has converted prisons into jails for migrants arrested on state trespassing charges.
Abbott warned last week that inspections would “dramatically slow” border traffic, but he hasn’t addressed the backups or port shutdowns since then. His office didn’t reply to a message seeking comment left Tuesday, but the governor planned a press conference for Wednesday afternoon in Laredo.
The additional inspections are conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which said that as of Monday, it had inspected more than 3,400 commercial vehicles and placed more than 800 “out of service” for violations that included defective brakes, tires and lighting. It made no mention of whether the truck inspections had turned up migrants or drugs. | https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/texas-buses-migrants-to-washington-as-white-house-says-border-inspections-disrupt-supply-chain.html | 2022-04-13T18:12:08 | 1 | https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/texas-buses-migrants-to-washington-as-white-house-says-border-inspections-disrupt-supply-chain.html |
Linebacker Josh Bynes signed with the Baltimore Ravens again on Wednesday, starting the former Auburn standout on his way to a 12th NFL season.
Bynes became an unrestricted free agent on March 16 after starting 12 games for the Ravens last season.
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In 2021, Bynes made 76 tackles, six tackles for loss and two sacks while playing 539 defensive snaps (61 percent of Baltimore’s total) in 14 games after starting the season on the practice squad.
Although Bynes led Auburn’s 2010 undefeated BCS national championship team in tackles, NFL teams passed on him in the 2011 draft. After signing with the Ravens as a rookie free agent, he was cut at the end of the preseason before being brought back in November by the Ravens for the practice squad and making it to the active roster for one game in 2011.
Bynes made the final tackle in Baltimore’s 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII even though he suffered cracked vertebrae in training camp followed by his release before the 2012 season began. He ended up starting the final three regular-season contests with Baltimore star Ray Lewis sidelined by an injury.
When the Ravens added Alabama All-American C.J. Mosley as a first-round draft choice in 2014, Bynes was back on the practice squad after starting six games in 2013.
The Detroit Lions signed Bynes during the 2014 season, and in 2015, he finished second on the team in tackles. A knee injury led to his release in 2016, but Bynes returned to start for the second half of that season in Detroit.
That didn’t get him re-signed, though, and it wasn’t until Aug. 5, 2017, that the Arizona Cardinals signed Bynes. After playing in 14 games in 2017, Bynes became a starter for the Cardinals in 2018 before suffering a season-ending injury in the 11th game.
When Arizona released Bynes with two years left on his contract, he had to wait until Oct. 2, 2019, for his next NFL opportunity, back with the Ravens, who had just yielded 1,033 yards in back-to-back losses.
After starting seven of 12 games in his return to Baltimore in 2019, Bynes signed a one-year contract with the Cincinnati Bengals soon after free agency opened in 2020. He started every game for Cincinnati and reached a career high with 99 tackles in his 10th NFL campaign.
Bynes signed as a free agent with the Carolina Panthers on Aug. 11, but he didn’t make the team’s regular-season roster. After the Panthers released Bynes, he spent the first three weeks of the 2021 season on Baltimore’s practice squad.
In his NFL career, Bynes has 553 tackles, 37 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, four interceptions, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. In 2018, he returned one of the fumble recoveries 23 yards for his only NFL touchdown.
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1. | https://www.al.com/sports/2022/04/former-auburn-linebacker-signs-with-ravens.html | 2022-04-13T18:12:14 | 1 | https://www.al.com/sports/2022/04/former-auburn-linebacker-signs-with-ravens.html |
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A video shows the terrifying moment a dolphin went rogue and attacked a trainer in front of an audience full of families at the Miami Seaquarium, WPLG reported.
Kentucky-based photographer Shannon Carpenter was there with his family on Saturday and captured video of the attack, which he posted on TikTok.
In the video, the trainer, 28-year-old Alexandria Barry, is seen splashing in the pool as the dolphin, Sundance, either hits or pulls her down.
“The kids were cheering and thinking this was neat. You could tell the adults knew something was wrong,” Carpenter told WPLG.
Barry was eventually able to swim to the dock and was checked out by first responders.
“You could tell that she was in some type of pain,” Carpenter said.
The oceanarium addressed the incident in a statement provided to WPLG.
“A dolphin and trainer accidentally collided in the water on Saturday while performing a routine behavior as part of the Flipper Show. This was an uncomfortable interaction for both of them and the dolphin reacted by breaking away from the routine and striking the trainer,” the statement read. “As a precaution, Miami-Dade County safety authorities were contacted. Our family extends to include the animals in our care, our team members and our guests. While there is no apparent serious injury, a careful watch and follow-up evaluations will ensure the best care for all.”
“There’s no accidental collision,” Dr. Jenna Wallace, a former veterinarian at the Seaquarium told the news station. “This is aggression.”
“She’s like launched out of the water and most likely she was rammed with the rostrum of the animal,” Wallace said. “I have been told by previous veterinarians and staff that this animal had rammed another trainer in the abdomen.”
Wallace believes animals at the oceanarium are being poorly managed, which may have led to the attack.
“I’ve heard that the diets were significantly lowered, and the amount of interactions were increased,” she said. “If that is the case, then that’s pretty concerning.
The attack is the latest in a string of incidents that have blighted the Miami Seaquarium. The oceanarium is currently being investigated by the USDA for animal welfare violations, but is under new ownership (the Mexican-based The Dolphin Company). However, many of the same staff and trainers are still there, according to WPLG. | https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/dolphin-attacks-trainer-during-show-at-miami-seaquarium/ | 2022-04-13T18:14:04 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/dolphin-attacks-trainer-during-show-at-miami-seaquarium/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — A man wanted in an attack on a subway train in Brooklyn that left 10 people wounded by gunfire was arrested Wednesday afternoon, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
Frank R. James, 62, was taken into custody in Manhattan, the official said. Further details, including the arresting agency, weren’t immediately available.
Investigators had announced Tuesday afternoon that they were searching for James, who was believed to have rented a van possibly connected to the violence. By Wednesday morning, New York authorities said he was a suspect in the shooting itself.
Authorities were examining social media videos in which the 62-year-old decried the U.S. as a racist place awash in violence and railed against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — A man who posted numerous social media videos decrying the U.S. as a racist place awash in violence and recounting his struggle with mental illness remained at large Wednesday, a day after an attack on a subway train in Brooklyn left 10 people wounded by gunfire.
Mayor Eric Adams said in a series of media interviews that investigators now consider Frank R. James a suspect in the shooting. Police had initially said the 62-year-old was being sought for questioning because he had rented a van possibly connected to the attack, but weren’t sure whether he was responsible for the shooting.
Adams, speaking to NPR on Wednesday morning, did not offer details on why officials were now seeking James as a suspect beyond citing “new information that became available to the team.”
“We are going to continue to close the loop around him and bring him in, and continue the investigation into this horrific act against innocent New Yorkers,” the Democrat said on MSNBC.
The gunman sent off smoke grenades in a crowded subway car and then fired at least 33 shots with a 9 mm handgun, police said. Five gunshot victims were in critical condition but all 10 wounded in the shooting were expected to survive. At least a dozen others who escaped gunshot wounds were treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries.
The shooter escaped in the chaos, but left behind numerous clues, including the gun, ammunition magazines, a hatchet, smoke grenades, gasoline and the key to a U-Haul van.
That key led investigators to James, a New York City-area native who had more recent addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin.
Federal investigators determined the gun used in the shooting was purchased by James at a pawn shop — a licensed firearms dealer — in the Columbus, Ohio, area in 2011, said a law enforcement official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The van was found, unoccupied, near a station where investigators determined the gunman had entered the subway system. No explosives or firearms were found in the van, a law enforcement official said. Police did find other items, including pillows, suggesting he may have been sleeping or planned to sleep in the van, the official said.
Investigators believe James drove up from Philadelphia on Monday and have reviewed surveillance video showing a man matching his physical description coming out of the van early Tuesday morning, the official said. Other video shows James entering a subway station in Brooklyn with a large bag, the official said.
In addition to analyzing financial and telephone records connected to James, investigators have also been reviewing hours of rambling, profanity-filled videos James posted on YouTube and other social media platforms — replete with violent language and bigoted comments, some against other Black people — as they try to discern a motive.
In one video, posted a day before the attack, James criticizes crime against Black people and says drastic action is needed.
“You got kids going in here now taking machine guns and mowing down innocent people,” James says. “It’s not going to get better until we make it better,” he said, adding that he thought things would only change if certain people were “stomped, kicked and tortured” out of their “comfort zone.”
In another video he says, “this nation was born in violence, it’s kept alive by violence or the threat thereof and it’s going to die a violent death. There’s nothing going to stop that.”
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell called the posts “concerning” and officials tightened security for Adams, who was already isolating following a positive COVID-19 test Sunday.
Several videos mention New York’s subways. A Feb. 20 video says the mayor and governor’s plan to address homelessness and safety in the subway system “is doomed for failure” and refers to himself as a “victim” of the city’s mental health programs. A Jan. 25 video criticizes Adams’ plan to end gun violence.
The Brooklyn subway station where passengers fled the smoke-filled train in the attack was open as usual Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after the violence.
Commuter Jude Jacques, who takes the D train to his job as a fire safety director some two blocks from the shooting scene, said he prays every morning but had a special request on Wednesday.
“I said, ‘God, everything is in your hands,’” Jacques said. “I was antsy, and you can imagine why. Everybody is scared because it just happened.” | https://www.wfla.com/news/national/man-wanted-in-brooklyn-subway-attack-arrested-official-says/ | 2022-04-13T18:14:10 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/news/national/man-wanted-in-brooklyn-subway-attack-arrested-official-says/ |
BREAKING UPDATE:
NEW YORK (AP) — The man wanted in Tuesday’s Brooklyn subway attack that left 10 people shot has been arrested in Manhattan, a law enforcement official tells the Associated Press. FULL STORY.
Previous story:
NEW YORK (AP) — A man sought in connection with an attack on a subway train in Brooklyn that left 10 people shot — and once again interrupted New York City’s long journey to post-pandemic normalcy — is now considered a suspect, Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday.
Investigators had initially been searching for Frank R. James as a person of interest. Police said Tuesday that James rented a van possibly connected to Tuesday’s violence, but that they weren’t sure whether he was responsible for the shooting itself. Adams, speaking to NPR on Wednesday morning, did not offer details on why officials were now seeking James as a suspect beyond citing “new information that became available to the team.”
In a tweet, the NYPD stated that James has ties to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio, as well as New York. NBC News reports a gun found at the scene has been traced to James and was purchased at a pawn shop in Columbus in 2011.
Authorities were examining social media videos in which the 62-year-old decried the United States as a racist place awash in violence and sometimes railed against Adams.
“This nation was born in violence, it’s kept alive by violence or the threat thereof and it’s going to die a violent death. There’s nothing going to stop that,” James said in one video.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell called the posts “concerning” and officials tightened security for Adams, who was already isolating following a positive COVID-19 test Sunday.
Adams said Wednesday that investigators were zeroed in on finding James.
“We are going to continue to close the loop around him and bring him in, and continue the investigation into this horrific act against innocent New Yorkers,” the Democrat said on MSNBC.
The gunman sent off smoke grenades in a crowded subway car and then fired at least 33 shots with a 9 mm handgun, police said. Five gunshot victims were in critical condition but all 10 wounded in the shooting were expected to survive. At least a dozen others who escaped gunshot wounds were treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries.
One passenger, Jordan Javier, thought the first popping sound he heard was a book dropping. Then there was another pop. People started moving toward the front of the car, he said, and he realized there was smoke.
When the train pulled into the 36th Street station in the Sunset Park neighborhood, people ran out and were directed to another train across the platform. Passengers wept and prayed as they rode away from the scene, Javier said.
“I’m just grateful to be alive,” he said.
The station was open as usual Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after the violence. Commuter Jude Jacques, who takes the D train to his job as a fire safety director some two blocks from the shooting scene, said he prays every morning but had a special request on Wednesday.
“I said, ‘God, everything is in your hands,’” Jacques said. “I was antsy, and you can imagine why. Everybody is scared because it just happened.”
The subway system as a whole was operating normally on Wednesday, with police checking backpacks at some stations, including the Atlantic Avenue/Barclay’s Center hub.
Tuesday’s shooter fled in the chaos, leaving behind the gun, extended magazines, a hatchet, detonated and undetonated smoke grenades, a black garbage can, a rolling cart, gasoline and the key to a U-Haul van.
That key led investigators to James, who has addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said. The van was later found, unoccupied, near a station where investigators determined the gunman had entered the subway system, Essig said.
Rambling, profanity-filled YouTube videos apparently posted by James, who is Black, are replete with violent language and bigoted comments, some against other Black people.
In one video, posted a day before the attack, he criticizes crime against Black people and says drastic action is needed.
“You got kids going in here now taking machine guns and mowing down innocent people,” James says. “It’s not going to get better until we make it better,” he said, adding that he thought things would only change if certain people were “stomped, kicked and tortured” out of their “comfort zone.”
Several videos mention New York’s subways.
A Feb. 20 video says the mayor and governor’s plan to address homelessness and safety in the subway system “is doomed for failure” and refers to himself as a “victim” of the city’s mental health programs. A Jan. 25 video criticizes Adams’ plan to end gun violence.
Adams said in a video statement that the city “will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorized, even by a single individual.” | https://www.wfla.com/news/national/police-nyc-subway-shooting-suspect-has-ties-to-several-other-states/ | 2022-04-13T18:14:16 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/news/national/police-nyc-subway-shooting-suspect-has-ties-to-several-other-states/ |
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — While at Miami-Dade College to sign Senate Bill 7034 into law on Tuesday, Governor Ron DeSantis continued his stance of strong opposition to COVID-19 mandates and lockdowns, and criticized political opponents who pushed for mandates while “escaping” to Florida’s freedom on vacation.
He reiterated a now oft-repeated promise that Florida would never again lockdown over a virus, a position that has fueled his rhetoric and policy agenda since at least September 2020.
“So just let me say very clearly to all Floridians, you just saw Philadelphia impose an indoor mandate. You’re going to have potentially some of these other deep blue jurisdictions go back to restrictions and mandates. You look what’s happening in Shanghai, they have everybody under a brutal lockdown,” DeSantis said. “So I just want to be very clear. As long as I sit in the chair in which I sit, no Floridian will be restricted, mandated, or locked down in any possible way.”
Continuing with the commentary on lockdowns, DeSantis repeated comments he’d made several times before, targeted at who he calls “lockdown politicians” and their “COVID theater,” and criticizing them for visiting Florida as their own constituents deal with the lockdowns and mandates they promote at home.
“And so when you see some of these folks who want to impose that, and let’s just be clear, you look over the last two years, there’s a cottage industry that was developed of lockdown politicians and media personalities, who would either impose or support lockdown policies in their jurisdictions, or advocate it on their TV shows, criticize Florida mercilessly, and then the first chance they get to get out from under the yolk of those bad policies, you see them in Miami, or Palm Beach, or all of these other places,” DeSantis said. “If I had a dollar for every lockdown politician that escaped their own policies to come to our free state, I would be set for life, that’s just a fact.”
It’s unclear exactly how many dollars to visitors DeSantis is referring to, or if it includes multiple visits or multiple days. The governor kept speaking, taking issue with the usefulness of the policies promoted for lockdowns to fight off COVID-19, and questioning exactly what their purpose was. DeSantis said the mandates were more about control than mitigation.
“The issue is, if they thought their policies really were necessary, and these mitigations really were effective, they would be abiding by it. They’re not abiding by it because they know it’s all about politics and control. So that’s why they don’t wear the mask, that’s why they don’t do this stuff, because they know it is COVID theater,” DeSantis said. “So we don’t have any tolerance for COVID theater in the state of Florida. I can tell you, this state would not be booming the way it is if we had had COVID theater. People know that this is the free state, they know that they can come here and make their own decisions, they know they’re not going to be harassed to show medical papers to go have a hamburger somewhere.”
He continued, describing Florida as a place where people can live free, and that the state would not change that for its residents, touching on educational policies and more general COVID-19 stances Florida has taken under his leadership.
“They know they’re going to be able to enjoy life, so we are never going to waver from that. I will say that if it weren’t for our leadership, we would’ve had kids locked out of school for a year, throughout this state, we would have had hundreds of thousands of people tossed out of work,” DeSantis said. “We would have had small businesses and family-owned businesses that would have collapsed. Instead of that, we weren’t locking those people down, we were lifting them up. That was the right thing to do.” | https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/no-floridian-will-be-restricted-desantis-promises-in-miami/ | 2022-04-13T18:14:22 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/no-floridian-will-be-restricted-desantis-promises-in-miami/ |
POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A Polk County man claimed his $1 million prize after playing the new “500X THE CASH” scratch-off game from the Florida Lottery.
Jose Vences Maldonado, 43, of Lake Alfred, chose to receive his winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $820,000.
According to the Florida Lottery, Vences Maldonado bought his winning ticket from the Wawa located at 334 Havendale Boulevard in Auburndale. The store will also receive a $2,000 bonus commission for selling the winning ticket.
The new $50 game features a top prize of $25 million— that’s the largest ever offered on a Florida Scratch-Off game, according to the lottery. The game’s overall odds of winning are 1-in-4.50. | https://www.wfla.com/news/polk-county/polk-man-wins-1-million-from-florida-lottery-scratch-off-game/ | 2022-04-13T18:14:28 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/news/polk-county/polk-man-wins-1-million-from-florida-lottery-scratch-off-game/ |
SUNSET PARK, Brooklyn (PIX11) — Frank R. James was upgraded from “person of interest” to “suspect” Wednesday morning in connection with a subway attack in Brooklyn, Mayor Eric Adams said.
Police identified James, 62, hours after 10 people were shot and another 13 were injured on an N train in Sunset Park on Tuesday morning.
James’ name was linked to a U-Haul van sought in connection with the attack, officials said. A key was left behind at the scene of the shooting.
Police connected that to a U-Haul with Arizona plates, which they later located in Brooklyn. James had rented the U-Haul, police said. New surveillance video obtained by PIX11 News on Wednesday shows James after he allegedly parked the U-Haul van near Kings Highway in Brooklyn before the shooting occurred.
“We’re looking to determine if he has any connection to the train,” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said on Tuesday.
Speaking on WNYC Wednesday morning, Adams said James was now considered a suspect “based on new information that has become available to the team.” Earlier, Adams told the PIX11 Morning News that investigators believe James acted alone. The mayor urged anyone who may come into contact with James to call the police but added that no one should engage or interact with him.
There were some “concerning” social media posts police believe may be connected to James, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said on Tuesday. They mentioned homelessness and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Security for the mayor, who was already isolating following a positive COVID-19 test on Sunday, was increased because of the posts.
“This nation was born in violence, it’s kept alive by violence or the threat thereof and it’s going to die a violent death. There’s nothing going to stop that,” James said in one video.
Rambling, profanity-filled YouTube videos apparently posted by James, who is Black, are replete with violent language and bigoted comments, some against other Black people.
In one video, posted a day before the attack, he criticizes crime against Black people and says drastic action is needed.
“You got kids going in here now taking machine guns and mowing down innocent people,” James says. “It’s not going to get better until we make it better,” he said, adding that he thought things would only change if certain people were “stomped, kicked and tortured” out of their “comfort zone.”
Several videos mention New York’s subways.
A Feb. 20 video says the mayor and governor’s plan to address homelessness and safety in the subway system “is doomed for failure” and refers to himself as a “victim” of the city’s mental health programs. A Jan. 25 video criticizes Adams’ plan to end gun violence.
James has addresses in Wisconsin and Philadelphia. The U-Haul was rented in Philadelphia.
At the scene of the attack, officers also recovered a 9mm semi-automatic weapon and a hatchet. They found a liquid believed to be gasoline and a bag with commercial-grade fireworks inside.
No arrests have been made. Police described the suspected gunman as being around 5 feet, 5 inches tall. The man weighs around 175-200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gas mask and a construction vest. Police initially said the vest was green, but later officials said it was orange. The man also had on a gray, hooded sweatshirt.
Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). | https://www.wfla.com/top-stories-2/who-is-frank-r-james-person-of-interest-in-brooklyn-subway-attack/ | 2022-04-13T18:14:34 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/top-stories-2/who-is-frank-r-james-person-of-interest-in-brooklyn-subway-attack/ |
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico is asking a state District Court to reverse a ruling that revoked the parole of a man who had already served 40 years in prison.
The ACLU argued in a petition filed last week the decision to end Shane Lasiter’s parole hinged on an alleged minor technical violation and “not based on substantial evidence.”
Lasiter, 57, was sentenced to life in prison in 1981 after he was convicted of fatally shooting a shopkeeper during an armed robbery of a Dairy Queen in Lordsburg, according to the nonprofit’s petition.
He was 16 at the time, but was tried and sentenced as an adult.
Denied parole four times by the state Adult Parole Board, he was eventually granted parole in April 2021, according to the petition, which said Lasiter demonstrated “immense growth” and increased maturity and rehabilitation during the 40 years he spent in prison.
He availed himself of education, ministry, music and a dog-training program, and he was even paid by the state to provide personal care for a disabled co-defendant who was his cellmate, according to the petition.
In August, the petition added, Lasiter left the halfway house where he’d been living and rented his own apartment.
But his freedom was short-lived.
In November, he struck up a casual acquaintance with a young woman to whom he occasionally gave rides and helped with errands.
Unbeknownst to him, a warrant was issued for the woman’s arrest Jan. 21 in connection with her alleged role in what the board said was a homicide case. Court records show she has been charged, but not convicted, with armed robbery.
Lasiter was with the woman when police served her with the warrant five days later, according to the complaint. He was arrested on a parole violation for having been found in her company, the petition says.
The Adult Parole Board subsequently revoked his probation — incarcerating him for at least 18 more months and possibly up to five more years — based on allegations he violated two conditions of his parole.
One of the provisions requires him to “maintain acceptable behavior and conduct” and another bars him from knowingly associating with anyone detrimental to his parole.
The ACLU argues Lasiter had no way of knowing the woman had been accused of a crime less than a week before, or of determining she would be considered “detrimental” to his parole.
“Fundamental to our criminal legal system is the principal that we differentiate between inadvertent acts and those committed with a guilty mind,” ACLU attorney Denali Wilson wrote in the petition.
“[Lasiter’s] case departed starkly from this foundation principle of criminal law,” Wilson wrote. “His parole was revoked under a charge of ‘knowingly associating’ with someone who was detrimental to his parole, absent a shred of evidence that he possessed this required knowledge. [Lasiter’s] parole revocation cannot stand without this evidence and must be reversed.”
The New Mexico Adult Parole Board did not respond to a message seeking comment Monday.
The ACLU argues the rule is unconstitutionally vague was inconsistently enforced.
State District Judge Maria Sanchez-Gagne has been assigned to review Lasiter’s appeal, but the court has not yet set a hearing in the case. | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/aclu-fights-revocation-of-man-s-parole/article_4cd5534c-b784-11ec-b946-d7e5d1b55345.html | 2022-04-13T18:21:12 | 1 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/aclu-fights-revocation-of-man-s-parole/article_4cd5534c-b784-11ec-b946-d7e5d1b55345.html |
Santa Fe County Manager Katherine Miller announced at a County Commission meeting Tuesday she was retiring from the position she held for nearly a dozen years.
The commission selected County Attorney Greg Shaffer to replace her.
Before stepping into the position, Miller served as Cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration, executive director of the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority and deputy chief of staff of policy for former Gov. Bill Richardson, the county said in a news release. She also worked as the county’s finance director and procurement manager.
Under Miller’s leadership, the news release said, the county has achieved financial stability with healthy reserves and a AAA bond rating. She also led the county through the coronavirus pandemic, including managing $14 million in federal CARES Act funding, and distributing $4 million in small-business grants and $2 million in housing assistance.
In a statement, Miller lauded the county leadership and staff. “I have been so very fortunate to be able to call myself their manager, their leader,” she said.
Shaffer, who previously was the county’s risk management director and interim deputy county manager, said in a statement, “I’m truly honored and humbled to be entrusted with this position.”
He said he hopes to build on the foundation Miller built and work with staff and elected officials “to achieve the County’s objectives and meet whatever challenges come our way.”
Shaffer was appointed by former Gov. Susana Martinez in October 2017 as a judge in the First Judicial District Court following the retirement of Judge Sarah Singleton. He served until the end of 2018 after he lost a primary race for the position that year against Maria Sanchez-Gagne.
Shaffer also served as general counsel of the state Department of Finance and Administration and deputy chief counsel for the state Taxation and Revenue Department.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University and his Juris Doctorate at New York University School of Law, the county said in the news release.
I have always thought Katherine Miller did a goo job. But successor is rapidly selected without even a pretense of a search. IMO, this does not pass the smell test.
And I wonder how they did this without violation the Open Meeting Law. Plus it was not listed under action items. It seems to have been snuck into the amended agenda under "Matters from the County Attorney" described as a potential action. It seems like Greg's first order of business is to convince us that his appointment is legal. Legal or not -- it smells bad.
I would disagree with your first statement, but fully agree with your second. The county is far from any role model for efficiency or unbiased, fair, nonpartisan governance. Cronyism and nepotism rules, as in most NM government appointed positions, the succession here is thus along the same lines. This is not transparency nor open government at all, but what do you expect from these kind of people?
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Actress Camryn Manheim’s very first acting job was a guest appearance on NBC’s “Law & Order”. Now, she’s back in a lead role, starring as Lt. Kate Dixon in the reboot of the original series that spawned so many spin-offs. During our interview, Manheim takes us back to her early days in acting, describes her “full circle moment” and reflects on why this role is so perfect for her.. and so important.
Actress Camryn Manheim’s career comes full circle with her starring role in NBC’s ‘Law & Order’
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You have been added to Breaking News Newsletter | https://www.wfla.com/daytime/actress-camryn-manheims-career-comes-full-circle-with-her-starring-role-in-nbcs-law-order/ | 2022-04-13T18:22:06 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/daytime/actress-camryn-manheims-career-comes-full-circle-with-her-starring-role-in-nbcs-law-order/ |
We kick off the show with a sigh of relief as Maggie finds her missing glasses… in the freezer! Plus, how many pets is too many? Farron shares the story of the friend whose house is referred to as “the farm”. And we discover the “Airbnb for pools”, a service that now allows people to rent other people’s backyard swimming pools by the hour. Would you do it?
Maggie and Farron talk frozen glasses, too many pets, and ‘would you rent a stranger’s swimming pool?’
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You have been added to Breaking News Newsletter | https://www.wfla.com/daytime/maggie-and-farron-talk-frozen-glasses-too-many-pets-and-would-you-rent-a-strangers-swimming-pool/ | 2022-04-13T18:22:12 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/daytime/maggie-and-farron-talk-frozen-glasses-too-many-pets-and-would-you-rent-a-strangers-swimming-pool/ |
Corporate sites across the U.S are releasing toxins into the surrounding land, air, and water on a regular basis—and often unbeknownst to surrounding communities.
After an accidental release from a chemical plant in West Virginia in 1985, Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. The act established the EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), which provides citizens with crucial information on the toxins being emitted locally and the names of companies doing the emitting. The TRI has allowed certain states to put emission-curbing legislation in place to safeguard public health, as was the case when Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker in 2019 passed legislation allocating $2.4 billion to climate change resilience.
Stacker analyzed data from the EPA TRI and the U.S. Census Bureau’s five-year American Community Survey to identify the percentage of each state’s population living in census tracts with toxic release sites, as well as the corporations and facilities responsible for emitting the highest amounts of toxins annually. These results, released in October 2021, reflect the last full year of data, 2020, from the 2020 National Analysis Dataset.
Keep reading to discover where the most toxins are being released in your state, what part of your environment they may be polluting, and who is being affected. You can also read the national story here.
Indiana by the numbers
– Population living near toxic release sites: 28.8%
— 28.7% of state’s white population
— 29.6% of state’s Hispanic population
— 19.1% of state’s Black population
— 27.4% of state’s Native American population
— 19.2% of state’s Asian population
— 33.6% of state’s Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander population
– Total number of sites: 881
Indiana ranks third out of all 56 states/territories that released the most toxins in 2020. A total of 104.9 million pounds of toxins were released both on- and off-site. The USS Gary Works was the worst offender, contributing 19.5 million pounds alone; a close contender was Cleveland-Cliffs’ Rockport Works, which approached 13 million pounds of toxic release.
The EPA’s TRI program recognizes 770 chemicals, with any site that manufactures or uses these chemicals at above-average levels qualifying for listing in the TRI. Chemicals described by the TRI as “toxic” are known to cause cancer or other negative health issues, as well as adverse effects on the environment. Facilities report the amounts of chemicals they release annually to the TRI, with the “release” of a chemical meaning that it is “emitted to the air or water, or placed in some type of land disposal.”
The facilities in the TRI are usually quite large and deal in electricity, metals, mining, chemicals, or hazardous waste. However, not all toxic chemicals used by corporations are listed in the TRI, meaning that its inventory of toxin-emitting sites is not exhaustive.
Keep reading to learn which states have the most and least people living near toxic release sites.
States with the most people living near toxic release sites
#1. Wisconsin: 37.3% of population living near toxic release sites
#2. Iowa: 33.5% of population living near toxic release sites
#3. Wyoming: 32.5% of population living near toxic release sites
States with the fewest people living near toxic release sites
#1. Hawaii: 6.5% of population living near toxic release sites
#2. New York: 8.3% of population living near toxic release sites
#3. California: 8.4% of population living near toxic release sites
This article has been re-published pursuant to a CC BY-NC 4.0 License | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/indiana-is-the-no-5-state-with-the-most-people-living-near-toxic-release-facilities/ | 2022-04-13T18:28:34 | 1 | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/indiana-is-the-no-5-state-with-the-most-people-living-near-toxic-release-facilities/ |
INDIANAPOLIS — Style expert Nicole Rene brought us Easter basket ideas for the whole family that include a whole lot more than candy, from coloring books to cosmetics and cologne.
For kids, she suggests adding in coloring books, educational books, trendy toys like Frozen nails and outdoor chalk. Beauty products are a hit for teen girls, and cologne for teen boys.
Rene also suggests fragrances that mom and dad will love.
Let’s get social: follow your friends at Indy Now
Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes fun, the latest on what’s happening in central Indiana, information about the local businesses featured on the show, and much more. | https://fox59.com/indy-now/easter-gifts-whole-family/ | 2022-04-13T18:28:40 | 1 | https://fox59.com/indy-now/easter-gifts-whole-family/ |
Kirsten Weaver with the Indianapolis Public Library stops by with dystopian fiction recommendations to read during this rainy spring.
Whether you’re looking for a spring break read or something to pass these rainy days, check out these exciting book recommendations including some by local authors. | https://fox59.com/indy-now/indy-now-book-club-spring-reads/ | 2022-04-13T18:28:47 | 0 | https://fox59.com/indy-now/indy-now-book-club-spring-reads/ |
April showers bring May flowers! Leah Flanagan, owner of The Forest Flower, is here to tell us just how easy it can be to take care of your plants this spring season.
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NEW KENT COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — New Kent Sheriff’s Office is investigating a breaking and entering incident that occurred in Quinton.
Police said the crime took place in the 2700 block of Patriots Landing Drive on April 13 shortly before 11 a.m.
The suspect is described as a man with dark colored hair. He was wearing a dark hoodie, white Under Armour brand shorts with a black Under Armour logo on the right leg and dark tennis shoes.
The suspect was also wearing a black face mask.
The unidentified man was last seen heading toward East West Lane and may have been picked up by a white SUV, according to police. It was an unknown make or model and left the area.
Anyone with information regarding this crime is asked to contact Det. Sgt. Thomas with New Kent Sheriff’s Office at 804-966-9500 or via email at brthomas@newkent-va.us. | https://www.wric.com/news/crime/man-wearing-black-ski-mask-wanted-for-breaking-entering-in-quinton/ | 2022-04-13T18:28:58 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/crime/man-wearing-black-ski-mask-wanted-for-breaking-entering-in-quinton/ |
Easter is this weekend and if you’re still shopping for your family’s Easter brunch or dinner, Needler’s has got you covered.
Needler’s has a smokehouse ham that you can pre-order.
If you’re doing Easter brunch, try their salads, fruit trays and fresh-squeezed orange juice that’s perfect for mimosas.
Passover is also this weekend and Needler’s has Passover-style options for your family.
To learn more you can visit Needler’s at any of their locations or at www.needlersfreshmarket.com | https://fox59.com/indy-now/theres-still-time-to-order-your-easter-ham-and-other-tasty-items/ | 2022-04-13T18:29:00 | 0 | https://fox59.com/indy-now/theres-still-time-to-order-your-easter-ham-and-other-tasty-items/ |
NEW YORK (PIX11) — Police took the suspected Brooklyn subway shooter into custody Wednesday, the day after he allegedly opened fire on a train, shooting 10, two law enforcement sources told PIX11 News.
Frank R. James, 62, had been identified as a person of interest on Tuesday and then upgraded to a suspect in the case. He was apparently captured in Manhattan. The NYPD was set to share new details on the shooting Wednesday afternoon. It will be streamed live above.
Police had zeroed in on James because of a U-Haul key left at the scene of the shooting. James had rented the U-Haul, which was found in Brooklyn hours after the attack.
The 62-year-old man allegedly put on a gas mask on a northbound N train just before 8:25 a.m. Tuesday, then pulled out two canisters and opened fire as smoke filled the train, police said. Seven men and three women were shot. James allegedly fired 33 times.
Here are five things we know about James:
- James posted social media videos decrying the U.S. as a racist place awash in violence and recounting his struggle with mental illness. His profanity-laden videos are replete with violent language and bigoted comments, some against other Black people
- The gun James allegedly used was purchased at a pawn shop — a licensed firearms dealer — in the Columbus, Ohio, area in 2011, a law enforcement official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the investigation said on condition of anonymity
- James has ties to Philadelphia and Wisconsin
- Investigators believe James drove up from Philadelphia on Monday and have reviewed surveillance video showing a man matching his physical description coming out of the van early Tuesday morning
- Police described the suspected gunman as being around 5 feet, 5 inches tall. The man weighs around 175-200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gas mask and a construction vest. Police initially said the vest was green, but later officials said it was orange. The man also had on a gray, hooded sweatshirt.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/suspected-brooklyn-subway-shooter-in-nypd-custody-sources/ | 2022-04-13T18:29:04 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/suspected-brooklyn-subway-shooter-in-nypd-custody-sources/ |
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A man was flown to a hospital in Indianapolis after he was shot during an apparent road-rage incident in Bloomington on Tuesday.
Shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday, police were called to the 1400 block of N. Woodburn Avenue in regard to a person shot.
Officers arrived to find a 39-year-old man sitting on the tailgate of a truck with a gunshot wound to his lower leg. He was taken to IU Health Bloomington Hospital and later flown to an Indianapolis hospital for further treatment, the Bloomington Police Department said.
The man told officers he was driving the truck south on Woodburn Avenue when a dark-colored car came up behind him very quickly. He said when he stopped the truck in the roadway and exited the driver’s seat, the car passed him and stopped in front of the truck. He claimed that after briefly exchanging words with a male in the car’s passenger seat, the male pointed a handgun at him and fired once, striking him in the leg, per BPD. The car then fled westbound on 17th Street, the man told police.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing. Anyone with information should call detective Jeff Rodgers at 812-349-3318. | https://fox59.com/news/indycrime/man-flown-to-hospital-after-road-rage-shooting-in-bloomington/ | 2022-04-13T18:29:06 | 1 | https://fox59.com/news/indycrime/man-flown-to-hospital-after-road-rage-shooting-in-bloomington/ |
WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Hill) — A bus carrying migrants from Texas arrived in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) last week announced plans to send them from his state’s southern border to the nation’s capital.
Fox News anchor John Roberts tweeted a picture of the bus parked outside the building that houses the network’s bureau on Capitol Hill and that of several other news outlets on Wednesday morning.
Abbott said during a press conference last week the migrants would be voluntarily sent to Washington so that President Biden could “immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border.”
Abbott also ordered the state to charter flights to transport migrants to the nation’s capital after they have been processed by the Department of Homeland Security, The Texas Tribune reported.
The Biden administration earlier this month rescinded Title 42, a Trump-era immigration rule that prevented people seeking asylum from getting an immediate hearing if they were coming from a country with a communicable disease, such as the coronavirus. Title 42’s recension is effective May 23.
The White House last week dismissed Abbott’s plans to send migrants to Washington as a “publicity stunt.”
“I’m not aware of what authority the governor would be doing that under,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. “I think it’s pretty clear this is a publicity stunt. His own office admits that a migrant would need to voluntarily be transported, and he can’t compel them to because, again, enforcement of our country’s immigration laws lies with the federal government, not a state.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Psaki slammed Abbott’s immigration policies, saying his “unnecessary and redundant inspections of trucks transiting ports of entry between Texas and Mexico are causing significant disruptions to the food and automobile supply chains, delaying manufacturing, impacting jobs, and raising prices for families in Texas and across the country.”
“Local businesses and trade associations are calling on Governor Abbott to reverse this decision because trucks are facing lengthy delays exceeding 5 hours at some border crossings and commercial traffic has dropped by as much as 60%,” Psaki said. “The continuous flow of legitimate trade and travel and CBP’s [Customs and Border Protection] ability to do its job should not be obstructed. Governor Abbott’s actions are impacting people’s jobs, and the livelihoods of hardworking American families.”
Abbott is facing reelection in a solid red state and is likely to face Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke in the fall election for governor.
“If Abbott focused on solutions instead of stunts, then Texas could have made some real progress on the issue over the last seven years,” O’Rourke said last week. | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/bus-with-migrants-sent-by-texas-governor-arrives-in-dc/ | 2022-04-13T18:29:13 | 1 | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/bus-with-migrants-sent-by-texas-governor-arrives-in-dc/ |
BONN, Germany (StudyFinds.org) – Apparently, one plus one equals tu-na. A new study reveals that fish are capable of doing simple math problems, just like people!
Researchers in Germany have found that cichlids and stingrays are both able to recognize and calculate small quantities without really having to count them — just like a person looking at their change on a table.
“We trained the animals to perform simple additions and subtractions,” explains Dr. Vera Schluessel from the Institute of Zoology at the University of Bonn in a release. “In doing so, they had to increase or decrease an initial value by one.”
Although some call fish the “dunces of the animal kingdom” because of their memory span — which can last just three seconds — the new study revealed their capacity for complex sums, adding and subtracting from one to five.
Their numerical skills were on a par with other invertebrate and vertebrate species and experts are beginning to suspect they are as intelligent as birds and mammals.
“Successful fish showed abilities far above chance level, specifically in the stingrays. Again, this raises the question of what abilities fish may be capable of if being asked the ‘right’ question,” the researchers write in the journal Scientific Reports.
Color-coded math problems
In experiments, the team trained the animals to recognize the colors blue and yellow as symbols for adding or subtracting by a factor of one. Eight of the fish were freshwater stingrays and the others were a species of cichlid known as zebra mbuna. During the experiments, blue meant “add one” and yellow meant “subtract one.”
Study authors showed each fish cards with shapes displaying either color in their tank and then presented them with two gates. They contained signs with different numbers of shapes — one of which was the correct mathematical answer. For example, if a fish saw three blue shapes, they would add one to three and swim through a gate displaying four shapes — gaining a food reward for answering correctly.
Six zebra mbuna and three stingrays learned to consistently associate blue with addition and yellow with subtraction. On average, it took the zebra mbuna 28 sessions to figure out the math problems and 68 sessions for the stingrays. In general, they performed well although addition was easier to learn.
Overall, success among the zebra mbuna varied, with the fish correctly answering 296 out of 381 (78%) tests. Meanwhile, stingrays answered 169 out of 180 (94%). For the subtraction test, zebra mbuna answered 264 out of 381 (69%) correctly, while stingrays got 161 out of 180 (89%) right.
“Overall, it seems likely that fish, independent of whether there is a direct biological need or not, can solve complex numerical tasks,” the researchers wrote.
So, what do fish need math for anyway?
The team noted their findings were surprising, since math skills don’t have an obvious benefit for either species.
“Both are opportunistic feeders not hunters, that show no mating- or reproduction related behaviors relying on numbers (e.g. counting stripes or eggs),” study authors continued. “Neither species nests nor is there any information available about preferences for particular sized social groups.”
However, there may be important ecological advantages for fish who are good at math that scientists haven’t discovered yet.
“Arithmetic abilities could be one of many cognitive byproducts that may be useful to enhance individual recognition (e.g. by using phenotypic characteristics) or help detect changing environmental or socials conditions,” the team explained. “As both species live in complex habitats (rocky lake and coral reef environments), a certain degree of behavioral flexibility is essential for survival.”
“To possess an enhanced cognitive skill might be advantageous under some environmental circumstances but not possessing it might not necessarily present a disadvantage either.”
South West News Service writer Mark Waghorn contributed to this report. | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/fish-can-do-math-scientists-show-they-can-be-trained-to-add-subtract/ | 2022-04-13T18:29:19 | 1 | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/fish-can-do-math-scientists-show-they-can-be-trained-to-add-subtract/ |
The 62-year-old man wanted in connection with Tuesday's mass shooting on a rush-hour subway in Brooklyn is believed to be in custody in Manhattan, four law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the case said Wednesday
A man matching the description of Frank R. James was apprehended near St. Marks Place and First Avenue in the East Village, the sources said, adding a Crime Stoppers tip helped authorities track his location. James was being questioned at the 9th Precinct, but the sources said they were confident they had their man -- and they're looking into whether James may have called Crime Stoppers on himself, sources said.
The NYPD is expected to provide an update soon. Watch live in the player above.
Law enforcement had zeroed in on James in the hours after Tuesday's shooting on the train at the 36th Street station in Sunset Park, lifting critical clues from a rented U-Haul van, surveillance footage and evidence at the scene, including a gun, hatchet, additional ammunition and a bag that had unused smoke canister and fireworks.
Just ahead of reports of the arrest, law enforcement sources said a MetroCard purchased with a credit card linked to James was swiped at a Brooklyn subway station Tuesday night, hours after the attack, two law enforcement sources said.
Investigators believe James may still have been riding the subways following the shooting. MetroCard data isn't real-time, though, and his travel direction wasn't clear, they added. Other surveillance video was clear -- and apparently showed James entering the Kings Highway N station, not far from where the U-Haul was found, about two hours before he allegedly opened fire on commuters roughly eight stops away.
It wasn't clear how James escaped the scene, which was chaotic as emergency personnel rushed to treat the wounded. Law enforcement officials believe the attack that injured at least 23 people, 10 of them by gunfire and some of them children, was premeditated. The fact alone jarred riders already skittish amid recent upticks in subway violence and once again interrupted New York City's rocky pandemic recovery.
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Authorities have been examining social media videos in which the 62-year-old James decried the United States as a racist place awash in violence and sometimes railed against the city’s mayor, Eric Adams.
“This nation was born in violence, it’s kept alive by violence or the threat thereof and it’s going to die a violent death. There’s nothing going to stop that,” James said in one video.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell called the posts “concerning" and officials tightened security for Adams as investigators turn their attention to the U-Haul van.
Cops believe the van found parked on Kings Highway in Gravesend Tuesday afternoon is linked to the shootings. It had a table, chairs and memory foam pillows inside, senior law enforcement sources said. The key and the credit card used to rent the van were both found at the Sunset Park station. That's what yielded James' name.
They say his physical description could match that of the subway shooter, who was said to be a Black man about 5 feet 5 inches tall and 170 pounds. The shooter was wearing a gas mask, green construction vest and construction helmet when he tossed two smoke canisters on the floor of a northbound N car and opened fire.
Pictures: Multiple People Hurt in Brooklyn Subway Shooting
While the car filled with smoke, he fired at least 33 times, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig, striking 10 people. It's not clear how the shooter fled the scene. Cops were looking into reports he may have jumped onto the subway tracks and escaped through the tunnels, but all searches for him have come up empty.
James has ties to Philadelphia and Wisconsin as well as New York, according to police. Senior law enforcement officials say he has a past criminal record in New Jersey but none of the crimes are on par with Tuesday's attack.
As investigators search for James, they continue to meticulously comb through evidence and witness interviews for insight into a possible motive.
One rider's video, shot through a closed door between subway cars, shows a person in a hooded sweatshirt raising an arm and pointing at something as five bangs sound. In another video, smoke and people pour out of a subway car, some limping.
Greenish smoke spewed from the subway doors when the Manhattan-bound train stopped at the platform, according to officials. Throngs of panicked people were seen running, bleeding — in total, 23 were hurt, police said, most of them in the chaos.
“Someone call 911!” a person could be heard shouting.
Five of the gunshot victims were critically injured, with details on the nature of their wounds not immediately clear. No fatalities were reported.
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One source close to the investigation says the gunman's weapon may have jammed, potentially preventing further tragedy.
The gun was recovered at the scene, as was a bag with smoke canisters and fireworks, along with a hatchet, a spray bottle of gasoline and a fuse — lending further credence to the theory of a premeditated attack on New York City transit riders.
Three extended magazines of ammunition were also recovered at the scene: one still in the handgun, one in a backpack and one under his subway seat. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives completed an urgent trace to identify the gun’s manufacturer, seller and initial owner. That came back to James.
An MTA surveillance camera in the station wasn't working at the time of the shooting, three sources say. It's not clear why, but officials say there were “a lot of different options” from cameras elsewhere on the subway line to get a glimpse of the shooter.
More than a dozen victims who weren't hit by gunfire were injured in the crowd response to the chaos, Essig said, with injuries including smoke inhalation, panic attacks and falling. Some of the wounded were in the same train car as the suspect, while others were on the platform, authorities said.
All described a terrifying scene.
"You start seeing faces against the glass, and it's people, several women, banging against the glass, screaming," said Kenneth Foote-Smith, who was in the next subway car over. "
"I did see a gentleman who was shot in lower stomach, laying out the ground, being treated by three or four people — bystanders, not EMS," he added. "I wasn’t the one who was injured or shot. Those are the people I think about, who I can’t stop thinking about. The people I couldn’t help."
The injured were taken to at least three city hospitals, including NYU Langone, Maimonides Medical Center, NYP-Brooklyn Methodist and Kings County Hospital.
The youngest victims in the shooting, four children between 12 and 16 years old, were taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where they were visited by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in the evening.
MAP: Here's Where the Subway Shooting Happened
Houari Benkada was one of the gunshot victims, telling CNN in an interview that she actually sat next to the shooter before smoke filled the car, sending people running. He said he was trying to shield a pregnant woman when he was hit.
"She said 'I'm pregnant with a baby,' I hugged her, then the bum rush continued, and that's when I got shot in the back of my knee," the 27-year-old said.
All of the victims are expected to survive. Trying to reach a loved one? Here's what to do.
The New York City Unified Victim Identification System (UVIS) was activated in response to the NYPD activity located near 36th Street and 4th Avenue in Brooklyn.
If you are concerned about the welfare of someone who may have been affected by the event and are unable to contact them, please call 311. From outside of NYC, you may call 212-639-9675.
Police are asking for tips from the public, videos in particular, that could help them track down the suspect, as well as the person of interest, James. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
A reward of $50,000 from police, the MTA and Transport Workers Union is being offered for information leading to an arrest and indictment of the shooter.
Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/brooklyn-subway-shooting-suspect-in-custody-in-manhattan-sources/3644634/ | 2022-04-13T18:30:40 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/brooklyn-subway-shooting-suspect-in-custody-in-manhattan-sources/3644634/ |
ARKANSAS, USA — The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) has reported 12,210 cases of the flu since the beginning of the new flu season that began on Sept. 27, 2021.
The spread of the flu in Arkansas is "minimal," according to the ADH.
The number of cases does not represent the total number of flu cases in Arkansas.
Less than 2% of patients visiting emergency rooms this week were for influenza-related illnesses.
Arkansas has reported 18 flu-related deaths so far this season.
One nursing home in Arkansas has reported flu outbreaks this season, according to the ADH.
The average school absenteeism rate last week was 7.4% among public schools.
Arkansas reported 24 flu-related deaths last season.
According to the ADH, nationally, the proportion of deaths reported to the National Center for Health Statistics attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) is above the epidemic threshold this week.
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To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com. | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/health/flu-deaths-in-arkansas/527-82ccfed2-efa9-40bd-8daa-32c605b57447 | 2022-04-13T18:30:47 | 1 | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/health/flu-deaths-in-arkansas/527-82ccfed2-efa9-40bd-8daa-32c605b57447 |
New video obtained by News 4 Wednesday shows a man law enforcement believes to be suspected Brooklyn subway shooter Frank R. James entering the transit system in Brooklyn about two hours before Tuesday's rush-hour attack that left 10 people shot.
The video was captured at 6:15 a.m. Tuesday, about two hours before gunfire erupted on the Manhattan-bound N train at the 36th Street Station in Sunset Park. It shows a man believed to be James entering the N station at Kings Highway, which is the same area where investigators say a U-Haul also linked to the subway attack was found.
On a normal service day for the N line, there are eight stops between Kings Highway and the 36th Street Station, MTA maps show. It's not clear how much time it would have taken to get between the two stations during Tuesday's morning commute.
In the video, a man believed to be James, dressed in a construction jacket and yellow hard hat, is seen carrying a bag and rolling suitcase as he tries to swipe his MetroCard at the turnstile. In another angle, he is seen using an emergency exit to get inside.
Investigators officially labeled James a suspect in the case on Wednesday as the manhunt for the gunman intensified.
James, 62, has been arrested more than 24 hours after the attack terrorized rush-hour commuters in Sunset Park and left 23 people hurt, 10 of them by gunfire, according to four law enforcement source.
It wasn't immediately clear what prompted the shift to suspect from person of interest for James, but three senior law enforcement officials said ATF agents were able to trace the gun recovered at the shooting scene to a purchase James made years ago.
Surveillance video obtained from the area near the parked U-Haul includes grainy footage that appears to show James walking into the subway station, carrying a bag that looks similar to the one recovered at the shooting scene, senior officials said.
Cops believe James is the man who rented a U-Haul linked to the case. A key to the vehicle and the credit card used to rent it was discovered at the scene.
The van with Arizona license plates was found just before 5 p.m. Tuesday on Kings Highway in Gravesend. The vehicle was later searched and cleared, senior law enforcement sources said, as cops removed a table, chairs and memory foam pillows.
James was said to have a past criminal record in New Jersey that includes three arrests on charges related to petit larceny and disorderly conduct in 2007 and trespassing in 1992. He has no history on par with the violence he's suspected of in Tuesday's attack of which officials are aware at this point.
Part of James' criminal history included making "terroristic threats," according to sources, but investigators said the threats were similar to ones commonly made by those who are emotionally disturbed.
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Two senior law enforcement officials say the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York is considering filing federal criminal charges in the subway attack. One potential federal charge being considered is using a weapon/arson on mass transit/train, but no final decision has been made, the officials said.
Meanwhile, authorities are scouring social media posts and YouTube videos by someone with James' name that mentioned homelessness, New York and Mayor Eric Adams, leading officials to tighten the mayor's security detail, police said. Videos that James is believed to have posted on YouTube show him ranting about violence.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell called the online statements "concerning."
More Coverage
A motive for the attack remains under investigation, but officials quickly sought to assure already fearful New Yorkers there were no imminent outstanding threats.
“There are currently no known explosive devices on our subway trains and this is not being investigated as an act of terrorism at this time," Sewell said earlier Tuesday.
Cops believe the suspect acted alone. Law enforcement officials said a .9-mm semi-automatic handgun was recovered at the scene, along with a bag of smoke canisters and fireworks. A hatchet, two extra extended clips of ammo, a fuse and a spray bottle of gasoline were also found, police said.
One source told NBC New York that the gun the suspect used may have jammed, preventing worse tragedy. The shooter still fired at least 33 times inside the train car.
A total of 10 people were struck by gunfire, with five shooting victims said to have been critically wounded. Police said that an additional 13 people were hurt by falling, smoke inhalation or other injuries suffered during the panic after the shots were fired. The extent of the other victims' injuries wasn't clear.
A reward of $50,000 from police, the MTA and Transport Workers Union is being offered for information leading to an arrest and indictment of the shooter.
Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/video-shows-suspected-brooklyn-subway-shooter-frank-james-enter-station/3644503/ | 2022-04-13T18:30:52 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/video-shows-suspected-brooklyn-subway-shooter-frank-james-enter-station/3644503/ |
HIGHFILL, Ark. — Benton County Emergency Management (BCEM) says one water rescue was carried out on Wednesday, April 13, due to flash flooding from heavy rain.
According to BCEM, the rescue happened at Highway 264 and Bryant near the Northwest Arkansas National Airport.
Details on how many people were rescued or their condition were not immediately available from BCEM.
A flash flood warning has been issued in Benton County through 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Do not drive over the water if you are traveling in a vehicle and come across a flooded road. Your car could stall and be swept away in the water.
According to Benton County officials, the following roads are impacted by flooding:
- Bryant Place: Closed at culvert crossing
- Callis Road: Closed due to flooding
- Dickson Road: Closed at low water slab
- Fruitwood Road: Closed at the bridge west of Wildwood Way
- Gailey Hollow Road: Closed at the intersection of Logan Cave Road
- Gooseberry Road: Closed due to flooding
- Peach Orchard Road: Closed due to flooding
- Pearl Road: Closed at low water slab
- W. Pierce Road: Closed at low water slab
- Roupe Road: Closed due to flooding
- Spanker Creek Road: Low water slab closed
- Steward Road: Closed at the end of the road going towards Logan Cave Road.
- Sugar Creek Road: Closed at the intersection of Harris Road (low water slab)
- Youngs Road: Closed due to flooding
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To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com. | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/benton-county-emergency-management-water-rescue-xna/527-7a163e9e-70dc-4a18-8114-f887283ce9e0 | 2022-04-13T18:30:54 | 1 | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/benton-county-emergency-management-water-rescue-xna/527-7a163e9e-70dc-4a18-8114-f887283ce9e0 |
BENTON COUNTY, Ark — Flooding caused by severe weather has led to some road closures across Northwest Arkansas Wednesday, April 13.
According to Benton County officials, the following roads are impacted by flooding:
- Bill Billings Road: Closed at water slab
- Bill Young Road: Closed at boxes
- Callis Road: Closed due to flooding
- Dawn Hill East Road: Closed at bridge
- Fairmount Road: Closed due to flooding
- Fisher Ford Road: Closed at bridge
- Fruitwood Road: Closed at the bridge west of Wildwood Way
- Gailey Hollow Road: Closed at the intersection of Logan Cave Road
- Gooseberry Road: Closed due to flooding
- Mill Dam Road: Closed due to flooding
- N. Old Wire Road: Closed at the intersection of Bill Billings Road (bridge)
- Peach Orchard Road: Closed due to flooding
- Pearl Road: Closed at low water slab
- Phillips Cemetery Road: Closed at bridge
- W. Pierce Road: Closed at low water slab
- Roupe Road: Closed due to flooding
- Sawmill Road: Closed at water slab
- Spanker Creek Road: Low water slab closed
- Stateline Road: Closed due to flooding
- Steward Road: Closed at the end of the road going towards Logan Cave Road.
- Sugar Creek Road: Closed at the intersection of Harris Road (low water slab)
Melody Kwok with Benton County says this is the first flooding like this the county has seen this year and wants drivers to stay alert while on the roads.
"Please please please do not go past barricades and that includes signs, caution tape, barrels signage," Kwok said. "Really, don’t go past it because they are there for a reason and we want people to be safe and to not have to be rescued."
Stay with 5NEWS for updates on road closing.
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To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com. | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/flooding-road-closures-in-benton-county/527-384b4c7c-d080-47b9-97e8-90640ea7c476 | 2022-04-13T18:31:00 | 0 | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/flooding-road-closures-in-benton-county/527-384b4c7c-d080-47b9-97e8-90640ea7c476 |
Sherri Papini, the Northern California woman charged last month with faking her kidnapping in 2016, accepted a plea bargain with prosecutors Tuesday and acknowledged she made up the story that prompted a frantic search and international headlines.
Defense attorney William Portanova said his client will plead guilty to charges of lying to a federal officer and mail fraud.
“I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so very sorry for the pain I’ve caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needlessly suffered because of my story and those who worked so hard to try to help me,” she said in a statement released through Portanova. “I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done.”
The search for Papini, 39, of Redding, set off a three-week search across California and several nearby states until she resurfaced on Thanksgiving Day in 2016.
She had bindings on her body and injuries including a blurred “brand” on her right shoulder and a swollen nose. She had other bruises and rashes on many parts of her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm.
Federal prosecutors alleged in early March that she actually was staying with a former boyfriend nearly 600 miles (966 kilometers) away in Southern California’s Orange County and injured herself to back up her false statements.
Portanova told The Associated Press he's not sure why his client did what she did.
U.S. & World
“Honestly I don’t know if anybody does. I don’t know if she knows,” he said.
“In my opinion it is a very complicated mental health situation, but one that has to be confronted and dealt with — and that includes admission and acceptance and punishment,” Portanova said. He said treatment is not required under the plea deal, but “counseling is part of her daily life and will continue to be.”
The plea agreement calls for Papini to pay restitution topping $300,000.
That includes $30,694 to the California Victims Compensation Board, which reimbursed her for things including visits to her therapist for “treatment for anxiety and PTSD” and for the ambulance ride to the hospital after she surfaced near Sacramento.
She also will pay the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office nearly $149,000 and the FBI more than $2,500 for their expenses during the investigation. She also owes the Social Security Administration at least $127,568.
The Sacramento Bee first reported that Papini had reached a plea deal.
The charges carry penalties of up to five years in federal prison for lying to a federal law enforcement officer and up to 20 years for mail fraud. Prosecutors agreed as part of the plea bargain to recommend a sentence on the low end of the sentencing range, estimated for Papini to be between eight and 14 months in custody.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento filed amended charges Tuesday of 34 counts of mail fraud and one count of making false statements. But Papini agreed to plead guilty to a single count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements.
She is scheduled to be arraigned on those charges Wednesday and will likely enter the guilty pleas next week, Portanova said.
Papini was reported missing Nov. 2, 2016. She was found alongside Interstate 5 nearly 150 miles (240 kilometers) from her home, battered and with remnants of bindings on her wrists and ankles.
She told authorities at the time that she had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Hispanic women, and provided descriptions to an FBI sketch artist along with extensive details of her purported abduction.
She was still making false statements as recently as August 2020, when prosecutors said a federal agent and a Shasta County sheriff’s detective showed her evidence indicating she had not been abducted and warned her that it was a crime to lie to a federal agent.
A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $49,000 to help the family, which the couple used to pay off bills and for other expenses, according to a court filing by investigators.
She was a stay-at-home mom at the time and her husband worked at Best Buy. The family wasn’t wealthy and there was never a ransom demand, officials said at the time.
She had gone jogging that day near her home about 215 miles (350 kilometers) north of San Francisco. Her husband, Keith Papini, found only her cellphone and earphones when he went searching after she failed to pick up their children at day care. She left her purse and jewelry behind.
He passed a lie detector test, investigators said.
Papini had both male and female DNA on her body and clothing when she was found, and the DNA eventually led to the former boyfriend, prosecutors say.
The former boyfriend told investigators that Papini stayed with him while she was gone, and that she had asked him to come to Redding to pick her up. Authorities verified his account by tracking two prepaid cellphones that they had been using to secretly talk to one another as early as December 2015, according to the court filing.
A cousin of the former boyfriend also told investigators that he saw Papini, unrestrained, in the man’s apartment twice. Records also backed the ex-boyfriend’s story that he rented a car and drove Papini back to Northern California about three weeks later. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/california-woman-admits-she-faked-2016-kidnapping/3644608/ | 2022-04-13T18:30:58 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/california-woman-admits-she-faked-2016-kidnapping/3644608/ |
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is extending the nationwide mask requirement for public transit for 15 days as it monitors an uptick in COVID-19 cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was extending the order, which was set to expire on April 18, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S.
“In order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity, the CDC order will remain in place at this time,” the agency said in a statement.
When the Transportation Security Administration, which enforces the rule for planes, buses, trains and transit hubs, extended the requirement last month, it said the CDC had been hoping to roll out a more flexible masking strategy that would have replaced the nationwide requirement.
The mask mandate is the most visible vestige of government restrictions to control the pandemic, and possibly the most controversial. A surge of abusive and sometimes violent incidents on airplanes has been attributed mostly to disputes over mask-wearing.
Critics have seized on the fact that states have rolled back rules requiring masks in restaurants, stores and other indoor settings, and yet COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January.
There has been a slight increase in cases in recent weeks, driven by the BA.2 strain, with daily confirmed cases nationwide rising from about 25,000 per day to more than 30,000. Those figures are an undercount since many people now test positive on at-home tests that are not reported to public health agencies.
Severe illnesses and deaths tend to lag infections by several weeks. The CDC is awaiting indications of whether the increase in cases correlates to a rise in adverse outcomes before announcing a less restrictive mask policy for travel. | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/nation-world/federal-mask-mandate-for-transportation-extended/507-2c761be1-cc45-4ee7-aa81-1595de786326 | 2022-04-13T18:31:06 | 1 | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/nation-world/federal-mask-mandate-for-transportation-extended/507-2c761be1-cc45-4ee7-aa81-1595de786326 |
The wife of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins made her first public comments since the death of her husband, who was killed when he was hit by a dump truck on a South Florida highway.
"I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to every loving soul who has supported our family during this arduous time of loss," Kalabrya Haskins said in a statement Wednesday. "The overwhelming thoughts and prayers have been fuel for our emotional depletion. All of your blessings have been greatly valued and appreciated."
Haskins, 24, was hit by the truck while he was walking on Interstate 595 in Broward County Saturday morning. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Florida Highway Patrol officials are investigating the incident.
Haskins appeared to be in South Florida with several teammates, including fellow quarterback Mitch Trubisky, running back Najee Harris and tight end Pat Freiermuth.
Funeral services will take place next weekend, with the first memorial held April 23 at noon at Christ Church in Rockaway Township. The next day, services will occur at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland.
"The meaningful touches and impact Dwayne made as a husband, son, brother, teammate and friend is a timeless treasure imbrued in our hearts. I am truly grateful to everyone who has been by our side as we mourn his untimely passing," his wife's statement read.
A 2019 first-round draft pick by Washington out of Ohio State, Haskins was released by the team after going 3-10 over two seasons. He was signed by Pittsburgh as a developmental quarterback, but he didn’t appear in a game last season.
"My husband was more than a great football player. He had the smile of a rainbow that touched the diversity of so many. He will forever rest and remain in our hearts til the end of time," Kalabrya Haskins wrote. "His eternal love will always reside with us, Ohio State, Washington Commanders and Steelers National for eternity! LOVE OF MY LIFE, FOREVER…REST IN THE BEAUTIFUL PEACE OF HEAVEN!" | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/love-of-my-life-forever-wife-mourns-steelers-dwayne-haskins/3644678/ | 2022-04-13T18:31:06 | 1 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/love-of-my-life-forever-wife-mourns-steelers-dwayne-haskins/3644678/ |
WASHINGTON — What do the books "Speak," "King and the Dragonflies," "The Catcher and the Rye" and "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You" all have in common? They're all commonly-banned books in school districts, but New York Public Library wants to make sure anyone who wants to can still access them.
From now through the end of May, people nationwide will be able to browse, borrow and read these four books through the library's free e-reader app, SimplyE, available on iOS and Android devices. Users do not need to pay a fee or obtain an NYPL library card to access these titles.
In a statement uploaded to NYPL's website, Tony Marx, President of NYPL, said that the decision to make these books more widely available to the public was a direct response to recent efforts in various states to ban books in schools that explore themes like race and sexuality, which Marx described as "an all-out attack on the very foundation of our democracy."
"All people have the right to read or not read what they want—we are all entitled to make those choices," Marx wrote. "But to protect those freedoms, the books and information must remain available. Any effort to eliminate those choices stands in opposition to freedom of choice, and we cannot let that happen."
The effort came together as part of a partnership with publishers Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, and Scholastic, the library explained.
The four books made available by NYPL are just four of dozens of titles that school districts have considered censoring.
A number of schools around the country through the years have pulled "Speak" and "The Catcher and the Rye" from their shelves, with administrators raising concerns about "Speak" for depicting sexual assault, and parents complaining "Catcher" was too explicit in portraying sex.
"King and the Dragonflies" and "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You" were included in 86 formal removal requests from Texas parents over the last year. "King" includes a Black queer character who grows up in the South, and "Stamped" is a historical account of racism in the U.S. from historian Ibram X. Kendi's original novel, revised for young adults. | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/nation-world/nypl-provides-access-to-banned-books/507-7badaa3d-4ea1-4cd0-b8de-2b6b80422eb0 | 2022-04-13T18:31:12 | 1 | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/nation-world/nypl-provides-access-to-banned-books/507-7badaa3d-4ea1-4cd0-b8de-2b6b80422eb0 |
Another month, another four-decade high for inflation.
For the 12 months that ended in March, consumer prices rocketed 8.5%. That was the fastest year-over-year jump since 1981, far surpassing February's mark of 7.9%, itself a 40-year high.
Even if you toss out food and energy prices — which are notoriously volatile and have driven much of the price spike — so-called core inflation jumped 6.5% in the past 12 months. That was also the sharpest such jump in four decades.
Consumers have felt the squeeze in everyday routines. Gasoline is up an average of 48% in the past year. Airline tickets are up 24%, men’s suits nearly 15%, bacon 18%.
The Federal Reserve never anticipated inflation this severe or persistent. Back in December 2020, the Fed’s policymakers had forecast that consumer inflation would stay below their 2% annual target and end 2021 at around 1.8%.
More Inflation Coverage:
Yet after having been merely an afterthought for decades, high inflation reasserted itself last year with brutal speed. In February 2021, the government’s consumer price index was running just 1.7% above its level a year earlier. From there, the year-over-year increases accelerated — 2.6% in March, 4.2% in April, 5% in May, 5.4% in June.
By October, the figure was 6.2%, by November 6.8%, by December 7%.
For months, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and some others characterized higher consumer prices as merely “transitory” — the result, mainly, of shipping delays and temporary shortages of supplies and workers as the economy rebounded from the pandemic recession much faster than anyone had anticipated. Now, most economists expect inflation to remain elevated well into next year, with demand outstripping supplies in numerous areas of the economy.
So the Fed has radically changed course. Last month, it raised its benchmark short-term rate by a quarter-point and is expected to keep raising it, probably aggressively, well into 2023. In doing so, the Fed is moving decisively away from the ultra-low rates that helped revive the economy from the recession but also helped fuel surging consumer prices.
The Fed is making a high-risk bet that it can slow the economy enough to rein in inflation without weakening it so much as to trigger a recession. The overall economy is healthy, with a robust job market and extremely low unemployment. But many economists say they worry that the Fed's steady credit tightening will cause an economic downturn.
What Caused the Spike in Inflation?
Good news — mostly. When the pandemic paralyzed the economy in the spring of 2020 and lockdowns kicked in, businesses closed or cut hours and consumers stayed home as a health precaution, employers slashed a breathtaking 22 million jobs. Economic output plunged at a record-shattering 31% annual rate in 2020's April-June quarter.
Everyone braced for more misery. Companies cut investment and postponed restocking. A brutal recession ensued.
But instead of sinking into a prolonged downturn, the economy staged an unexpectedly rousing recovery, fueled by vast infusions of government aid and emergency intervention by the Fed, which slashed rates, among other things. By spring of last year, the rollout of vaccines had emboldened consumers to return to restaurants, bars, shops, airports and entertainment venues.
Suddenly, businesses had to scramble to meet demand. They couldn’t hire fast enough to fill job openings or buy enough supplies to meet customer orders. As business roared back, ports and freight yards couldn’t handle the traffic. Global supply chains seized up.
With demand up and supplies down, costs jumped. And companies found that they could pass along those higher costs in the form of higher prices to consumers, many of whom had managed to pile up savings during the pandemic.
Critics blamed, in part, President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, with its $1,400 checks to most households, for overheating an economy that was already sizzling on its own. Many others argued that the Fed kept rates near zero far too long, lending fuel to runaway spending and inflated prices in stocks, homes and other assets.
How Long Will It Last?
Elevated consumer price inflation could endure as long as companies struggle to keep up with consumers’ demand for goods and services. A recovering job market — employers added a record 6.7 million jobs last year and are adding 560,000 a month so far this year — means that Americans as a whole can continue to splurge on everything from lawn furniture to electronics.
Many economists foresee inflation staying well above the Fed’s 2% annual target this year. But relief from higher prices might be coming. Jammed-up supply chains are beginning to show some signs of improvement, at least in some industries. The Fed’s pivot away from easy-money policies toward an anti-inflationary policy could eventually reduce consumer demand. There will be no repeat of last year’s COVID relief checks from Washington. Inflation itself is eroding purchasing power and might force some consumers to shave spending.
At the same time, new COVID variants could cloud the outlook — either by causing outbreaks that force factories and ports to close and disrupt supply chains even more or by keeping people home and reducing demand for goods.
How Are Higher Prices Affecting Consumers?
The strong job market is boosting workers' pay, though not enough to offset higher prices. The Labor Department says that after accounting for higher consumer prices, hourly earnings for private-sector employees fell 2.7% last month from a year earlier, the 12th straight such drop.
There are exceptions: After-inflation wages rose 8% for hotel workers and 4% for restaurant and bar employees in March from a year earlier.
Partisan politics, in the meantime, is influencing the way Americans view the inflation threat. With a Democrat in the White House, Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say that inflation is having a negative effect on their personal finances, according to surveys of consumer sentiment conducted by the University of Michigan. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/why-us-inflation-is-so-high-and-when-it-may-ease-2/3644560/ | 2022-04-13T18:31:18 | 1 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/why-us-inflation-is-so-high-and-when-it-may-ease-2/3644560/ |
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As seen on News 4 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/frank-r-james-believed-to-be-in-police-custody/3644686/ | 2022-04-13T18:31:25 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/frank-r-james-believed-to-be-in-police-custody/3644686/ |
Their Brooklyn neighborhood felt like a safe haven in a big city. But the subway attack changed that
John Acevedo woke up to a commotion outside.
Not so strange for a New Yorker, perhaps, but unheard of in his neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, far off the tourist path. The 20-year-old could make out the sounds of sirens on the street, helicopters overhead. When he stepped outside his front door, he found himself in the middle of chaos.
Related video above: New York commuters wary after subway attack
Acevedo lives across the street from the 36th Street subway station where, just hours earlier, a gunman opened two smoke grenades and fired at least 33 shots at commuters, striking 10 people.
"It's really surreal for us," Acevedo told CNN of his neighborhood in the southwest part of Brooklyn. "This whole neighborhood, it's a community, crime isn't what you expect here. I'm speechless."
In the aftermath, neighbors held each others' hands across the fences that separate their homes. Others sat in shock on their stoops. This kind of violence is something the more than 135,000 residents of this tight-knit community — about a third of whom are Asian and a third Hispanic, according to U.S. Census data — are used to hearing about in other neighborhoods. Not here, not so close to their haven where they call everyone "family."
Like Acevedo, Nicholas Sciammarella and his partner, Anthony Valentino, realized something was amiss as the sound of sirens flooded their home during breakfast.
The couple live a block away from the station, and Valentino went out to see what was happening there.
"I saw two people holding up a man who was all bloodied, blood all over his hands, and he was in shock, walking like a zombie before sitting to the floor," Valentino said. He stayed, offering water, phone calls and help to those leaving the station.
Sciammarella said they also called down their list of neighbors, "checking one by one and making sure everyone is OK."
At the L&E Deli Grocery, just two blocks from the station, manager Elia Tapia, 38, was processing it all. She has lived in Sunset Park for 20 years.
"Never in my life could I have thought this would happen to our home," she said. "This is a huge surprise for us, this neighborhood is so nice and quiet, nothing happens. We are a family here, we all know and take care of each other."
Ask a Sunset Park local to describe their neighborhood, and they'll likely tell you it's a calm, friendly place, the type of neighborhood to raise a family in. The neighborhood has emerged as part of Brooklyn's Chinatown, thanks to a growing population of immigrants from China's Fujian province.
It's only a short subway ride from Manhattan but still far enough to feel like a different city altogether. Situated on the waterfront, Sunset Park offers green space and views of New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty and even New Jersey, on a clear day.
Tapia has lost that feeling of safety she had always adored about her neighborhood.
"I used to be able to walk here, late at night, 2 in the morning to the train, but now I could never," she told CNN. "We can feel the difference (in violence) in the city, but still we could have never expected this to happen to us."
The shooting at 36th Street subway station comes amid a surge in violence across New York City. More than 360 people have been shot this year in 322 shooting incidents, according to figures released by the New York Police Department on Sunday. That's an 8.4% increase in shooting incidents over this time last year.
General crime on the transit system has spiked even more — 68% over last year, the NYPD reports.
Crime in the 72nd Precinct, which includes Sunset Park, has rapidly risen as well, NYPD data shows.
Overall crime is up more than 103% so far this year through Sunday compared to this time in 2021 and up 70% from 2020, with the highest increases seen in burglary, grand larceny and auto theft. There had been one shooting incident in the precinct this year as of Sunday, the same number as this time last year.
For Lilea Ng, too, Tuesday felt like her home was under attack, she told CNN. A Chinese American born in Panama, Ng moved to the city 20 years ago, eager to find the American dream.
Now, that dream is turning into a nightmare, she said.
Even before Tuesday's violence, Ng avoided riding the subway or any public transportation, she said, noting the rising violence towards Asian Americans during the pandemic.
"I've never felt this unsafe before," Ng said. "Even after 9/11 I felt safe. But the feeling I have now, it's different. I'm never on the subway or any public transportation anymore."
Leaving New York was never on the table before — but now, the thought lingers in the back of her mind.
At Sunset Park's Minnie's Bar, a local favorite, neighbors gathered to discuss similar sentiments. Inside the dimly lit bar, the energy was still comforting — proof that despite the fears, heartache and confusion, this community is in it together.
That's how 30-year resident Guillermo Tejeta described it, sitting at the bar with his newborn baby on his lap. Tejeta was driving home after dropping his son at daycare when the commotion unfolded around him: Police officers flooded into the street, halting traffic and making space for first responders.
"People were talking about shootings and explosions and I was like, 'Yeah, whatever,'" Tejeta said. But when he got home, he went online and realized what was happening.
"Only yesterday, my girlfriend's mother called us, telling us, 'You guys need to leave New York.' And I was like, 'Hell no, I've lived my whole life here, I'm not going anywhere.' But this hit close to home."
Tejeta is often at Minnie's but especially felt the need to be there Tuesday to talk over what had happened with friends and family, he said.
"This is our train stop. This is what we use to go into work, to go into the city, so it's scary, really scary," he added.
He paused to kiss his baby's head. "We gotta make you New York strong, OK?" | https://www.koat.com/article/brooklyn-neighborhood-nyc-subway-shooting-reactions/39716354 | 2022-04-13T18:35:01 | 1 | https://www.koat.com/article/brooklyn-neighborhood-nyc-subway-shooting-reactions/39716354 |
Finland, Sweden move ahead toward possible NATO membership despite warning from Russia
European Union nations Finland and Sweden reached important stages Wednesday on their way to possible NATO membership as the Finnish government issued a security report to lawmakers and Sweden’s ruling party initiated a review of security policy options.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 triggered a surge in support for joining NATO in the two traditionally militarily non-aligned Nordic countries, with polls showing a majority of respondents willing to join the alliance in Finland and supporters of NATO in Sweden clearly outnumbering those against the idea.
Finland, a country of 5.5 million, shares the EU's longest border with Russia, an 833-mile frontier. Sweden has no border with Russia.
Russia, for its part, has warned Sweden and Finland against joining NATO, with officials saying it would not contribute to stability in Europe. Officials said Russia would respond to such a move with retaliatory measures that would cause “military and political consequences” for Helsinki and Stockholm. One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's reasons for invading Ukraine was that the country refused to promise that it would not join NATO.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, speaking Wednesday in Stockholm in a joint news conference with her Swedish counterpart Magdalena Andersson, said Finland is ready to make a decision on NATO “within weeks” rather than months following an extensive debate in the 200-seat Eduskunta legislature.
Marin stressed that Finland and Sweden, two neighboring Nordic countries which have close economic, political and military ties, will make independent decisions regarding their security policy arrangements, including whether to join NATO.
“But we do that with a clear understanding that our choices will affect not only ourselves but our neighbors as well,” Marin said, adding that she would prefer seeing both Finland and Sweden becoming NATO members.
Andersson said Sweden and Finland would maintain “a very close dialogue and have a very straightforward and honest discussions” in the coming weeks over their countries respective choices on NATO.
The only real option to NATO membership could be an enhanced bilateral military cooperation added with the United States and Nordic NATO member Norway, Finnish experts have said.
Marin and Andersson lead the ruling Social Democratic Parties in their respective countries. The parties are expected to announce their NATO views in early and late May, respectively. Parliaments in both countries are ready to finally decide the matter — something that could happen in Finland in late May and a bit later in Sweden.
Complicating things in Sweden is the general election in September, which is likely to be dominated by the NATO issue.
In Finland, President Sauli Niinisto said he was convinced that his country’s decision on NATO will be ready well ahead of NATO’s June 29-30 summit in Madrid, Spain.
On Wednesday, the Finnish government issued a much-awaited report on changes in Finland’s security environment that lawmakers will start debating after the Easter break. The report addresses the pros and cons of Finland’s possible membership in NATO, focusing on supply threats, economic effects, cybersecurity and hydrid threats.
“The war started by Russia endangers security and stability in entire Europe,” Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said as he presented the report. “Russia’s attack on Ukraine will have a long-lasting impact on our own security environment. Trust in Russia has plummeted.”
Andersson said Wednesday that the Swedish government is working on a security environment analysis together with all parties in the 349-seat Riksdag legislature. She said the report is due May 31 but could be finished earlier. In addition, Andersson's Social Democratic Party has initiated its own separate review of Sweden's security environment. | https://www.koat.com/article/finland-sweden-possible-nato-membership/39714614 | 2022-04-13T18:35:12 | 0 | https://www.koat.com/article/finland-sweden-possible-nato-membership/39714614 |
A luxury spaceflight company is offering cheaper trips to space. Here's how much it will cost you
A more comfortable and more affordable trip to space.
That's how the folks at Space Perspective — the world's first luxury spaceflight experience company — are pitching their new spaceship.
"If you can ride on a commercial airplane, you can fly on Spaceship Neptune," said Jane Poynter, founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective.
Poynter says unlike the other rocket-fueled experiences in the space tourism industry, Spaceship Neptune offers people a much more relaxing journey to the edge of space.
"When you fly on Spaceship Neptune, you're going to space at a very gentle 12 miles an hour, so there's no G-force. You're sitting in a space lounge," Poynter said.
That space lounge includes panoramic windows, free Wi-Fi, restrooms and a bar, Poynter said.
"The whole environment is set up to be able to share this experience with people both in the capsule on the flight and on the ground," Poynter said.
The journey lasts about six hours using a state-of-the-art space balloon.
Two hours rising up, two hovering on the edge of space and two descending back down, ending in a splashdown in the ocean.
Anyone can buy tickets. The price is $125,000 per person.
Space Perspective says demand is out of this world.
They have already sold out of tickets for 2024, the first year they plan to operate commercial flights. But tickets are still available for 2025 and beyond. | https://www.koat.com/article/spaceship-neptune-affordable-trip-space/39715761 | 2022-04-13T18:35:22 | 1 | https://www.koat.com/article/spaceship-neptune-affordable-trip-space/39715761 |
Suspect in Brooklyn subway train shooting has been arrested, officials say
The 62-year-old man suspected of shooting 10 people on a subway train in Brooklyn on Tuesday was arrested by patrol officers in New York's East Village neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon, three law enforcement officials told CNN.
Frank James, who police initially described as a "person of interest," was declared a suspect Wednesday after investigators determined he purchased the gun recovered at the scene, law enforcement officials said. Two law enforcement officials told CNN that the gun evidence was the turning point in elevating him from a person of interest to a suspect.
James is suspected of setting off smoke grenades and firing a handgun 33 times on a crowded subway train making its way toward the 36th Street station in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood. The attack left 29 people injured, including 10 who were shot, though none of the injuries appear to be life-threatening, officials said. Five of the victims were young people commuting to school, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
The motive of the shooting is not yet known. The attack is not being investigated as an act of terrorism but authorities have not ruled out anything, NYPD commissioner Keechant Sewell said.
The city issued an emergency alert to residents Wednesday saying James is "wanted" and asking the public for tips. The U.S. Marshals Service joined the manhunt as well, a spokesperson told CNN.
"We're going to catch this person," Mayor Eric Adams said on CNN's "New Day" on Wednesday. "We're going to bring him to justice and hold him responsible for this horrific act on innocent people that are utilizing our subway system."
The subway shooting represents a long-feared nightmare scenario for New York City, which relies heavily on its mass transit system. Subway ridership cratered during the COVID pandemic as many workers stayed home, and ridership has not returned to its pre-pandemic levels, in part due to wariness over an increase in violence on the transit system.
How investigators honed in on James
Investigators combing through the shooting scene found a Glock 9 mm handgun, three extended magazines, two detonated smoke grenades, two non-detonated smoke grenades, a hatchet and keys to a U-Haul van, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
A credit card that was used to rent the U-Haul was also found, two law enforcement sources told CNN. Two officials told CNN they believe the gun jammed during the shooting.
The U-Haul van was rented by James, police said, connecting him to the incident. The van was recovered near the station and has been cleared by the NYPD's bomb squad, police said.
Investigators did not find any other weapons or explosives in the van, two law enforcement officials said. The officials said it appeared James may have slept in the vehicle. They said a license plate reader detected the van driving over the Verrazzano Bridge from Staten Island into Brooklyn around 4 a.m. Tuesday.
Authorities also tracked the purchase of a gas mask to James through an eBay account, two officials said.
James has addresses in Wisconsin and in Philadelphia, where the U-Haul was rented, Essig said.
His family did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.
Within the 36th Street station, surveillance video may not be available. A preliminary review indicates there was some sort of malfunction with the camera system at the station, Adams told WCBS Radio.
Still, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) system has almost 10,000 cameras, including almost 600 cameras on the Brooklyn section where the attack took place, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said Wednesday.
"The result is that the NYPD has been able to comb through video from other stations and they have actually, as a result, identified three perspectives on the fellow who is wanted for this crime coming into the station," he said.
How the shooting unfolded
People aboard the train car on Tuesday morning said smoke filled the car and gunshots rang out, causing people to push their way to the other side of the train in panic and confusion.
Hourari Benkada, 27, who was shot in the back of the knee, said he thinks he was sitting next to the shooter.
Speaking from a hospital bed Tuesday, Benkada said he'd gotten into the last car of the N train and sat next to a man with a duffel bag who appeared to be wearing an MTA vest. The man let off a "smoke bomb," said Benkada, a housekeeping manager at the New Yorker Hotel.
"And all you see (is) smoke -- black smoke ... going off, and then people bum-rushing to the back," Benkada said. "This pregnant woman was in front of me. I was trying to help her. I didn't know there were shots at first. I just thought it was a black smoke bomb.
"She said, 'I'm pregnant with a baby.' I hugged her. And then the bum-rush continued. I got pushed, and that's when I got shot in the back of my knee."
The shooting started about 20 seconds after the train took off from the 59th Street station and felt like it lasted for nearly 2 minutes, Benkada said. Benkada heard other people in pain, but couldn't see them or the suspect because of the smoke, he said.
Claire Tunkel, 46, who was in the subway car where the shooting took place, described the scene as chaotic. She said she couldn't see anything because of the smoke, but she heard people crying out for help and others saying they were bleeding.
"You couldn't see anything, but you could feel it," she said. People were rushing to the front of the car, and some fell to the ground, she said. "You could feel the bodies."
She took off her jacket and tied it around the leg of a man who suffered a gunshot wound, she told CNN. Tunkel, who later went to the hospital for smoke inhalation, said several victims were lying on the floor of the subway platform after the train arrived at the station.
Suspect talked about mass shootings in rambling videos
James, the suspect in the shooting, has been linked to multiple rambling videos posted on a YouTube channel. A screenshot from one of the videos was used on an NYPD Crimestoppers flyer seeking information about the shooting.
James talked about violence and mass shootings in the videos, including one uploaded Monday in which he said he's thought about killing people who have presumably hurt him.
"I've been through a lot of (expletive), where I can say I wanted to kill people. I wanted to watch people die right in front of my (expletive) face immediately. But I thought about the fact that, hey man, I don't want to go to no (expletive) prison," he said.
In another video posted last week, James, who is Black, rants about abuse in churches and racism in the workplace, using misogynistic and racist language.
Many of the videos that James uploaded included references to violence, including at a set group of people he believed had maligned him, in addition to broad societal and racial groups that he appeared to hate.
In another video posted last month to the same channel, James said that he had post-traumatic stress. In that video, James said he left his home in Milwaukee on March 20. During the trip eastward, he said he was heading to the "danger zone."
"You know, it's triggering a lot of negative thoughts of course," he said in the video. "I do have a severe case of post-traumatic stress."
In a video posted in February, he also criticized a plan by the Adams administration to address safety and homelessness in the subway in part through an expanded presence of mental health professionals. In a racist and rambling recording, James called the new effort "doomed to fail" and described his own negative experience with city health workers during a "crisis of mental health back in the '90s, '80s and '70s." | https://www.koat.com/article/suspect-subway-train-shooting-arrested/39717222 | 2022-04-13T18:35:32 | 1 | https://www.koat.com/article/suspect-subway-train-shooting-arrested/39717222 |
World's top oil trader will stop buying Russian crude
Vitol Group, the world's top independent oil merchant, will stop trading Russian crude oil and products by the end of the year, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
The Dutch energy and commodities trading company will also not enter into any new Russian crude and product transactions, the source said.
Vitol declined to comment beyond confirming the accuracy of an article published by Bloomberg, which reported the news earlier.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia have all announced bans on Russian oil.
Major companies including Shell, TotalEnergies and Neste have also stopped buying Russian crude, or have said they will do so by the end of 2022, and a wider de facto embargo has taken hold as banks, traders, shippers and insurance companies try to avoid falling foul of Western financial sanctions.
As Russian oil has become toxic for many buyers, its benchmark Urals crude has traded at an ever wider discount on the world market. It's now worth $34 a barrel less than Brent crude.
The International Energy Agency estimated on Wednesday that supplies of Russian oil will drop by 1.5 million barrels a day in April, and could fall by as much as 3 million a day from May as buyers turn away.
"While some buyers, most notably in Asia, increased purchases of sharply discounted Russian barrels, traditional customers are cutting back," the agency said. "For now, there are no signs of increased volumes going to China."
Vitol's revenues almost doubled last year to $279 billion as global demand for oil bounced back after economies reopened from their pandemic lockdowns. The company traded 7.6 million barrels of crude and other oil products a day last year, according to its website.
That's more than Russia's daily exports of crude oil, which the IEA estimated at about 4.7 million barrels in 2021. Of that, about 2.4 million barrels per day went to Europe.
But there are signs that the European Union could be next to ditch Russian oil. Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc was considering an oil embargo as part of a fresh round of sanctions.
The cumulative impact of this widening embargo could be higher oil prices globally as buyers scramble to replace supplies. Russia is the world's second-largest crude oil exporter, behind Saudi Arabia, and accounted for 14% of global supply last year, according to the IEA.
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, soared in early March to briefly pass $139 a barrel — a 14-year high — but has since fallen back down to around $107.
The coordinated release of 240 million barrels from the United States and IEA member countries could help ease prices and make up for a loss in supplies of Russian crude. | https://www.koat.com/article/worlds-top-oil-trader-to-stop-buying-russian-crude/39716242 | 2022-04-13T18:35:42 | 0 | https://www.koat.com/article/worlds-top-oil-trader-to-stop-buying-russian-crude/39716242 |