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Dear Amy: I’ve been married to my husband for 29 years. He’s a good dad to our grown children and a good husband to me.
One thing gives me a lot of anxiety and causes heated arguments: I would like to visit my family and friends in Greece, where I am originally from.
He does not have as much time off from work as I do, and he dislikes taking long trips. He’s a homebody.
I have more time off from work, and I have the time and the means to travel to my homeland for a visit.
My husband and I have arguments over me traveling with our kids, or going away with my girlfriends for a couple of days.
He always guilts me or makes me afraid to go, and sometimes he even threatens me with a divorce if I go. We end up having huge fights about this.
Otherwise, he lets me do whatever I like to do.
He will absolutely not see a therapist.
I sometimes feel trapped because I have to make my case each time for why I want to go anywhere.
I wish I had a magic wand to make him understand that it is important for me to be with my family and to occasionally take overnight trips to see people in order to stay connected.
Your suggestions?
– Homebound
Dear Homebound: Other than controlling your time away from your home, your husband “lets you do whatever you like to do.”
Yes, marriage is fueled by compromise, but one partner should not actually be in charge of the other.
The kindest assumption is that your husband feels extremely anxious about you being away from home, and he reacts to his anxiety by acting out and trying to control you.
I suggest that you sit down with him and say: “Over the next 12 months, I plan to be away from home overnight for a total of around 14 [or whatever number] nights. This includes a trip to Greece, and an overnight or two with the kids or my friends. I’d love for you to come with me to Greece, if you can swing it. I understand that this is hard for you.”
If your relatively brief sojourns away from home inspire him to threaten divorce or emotionally punish you, then you need to decide whether you are willing to tolerate that in order to stay with him.
Threats of divorce are an extremely manipulative tool to try to control you, made by someone who feels very out of control. These threats actually weaken your relationship. If this is his “go to” nuclear option, then you should call him on it.
Dear Amy: My best friend has the annoying habit of copying me.
If I upgrade my phone, she upgrades hers. If I buy a designer purse, she’ll purchase the same brand.
If I tell her I’ve had lunch in a nearby town, she’ll ask where and later book a table.
I spend time researching what I buy, where I shop, and new places to visit.
It feels like she uses me as a concierge or personal shopper.
I used to joke with my husband, “Let’s see how long it takes her to buy one like this.” Over time, though, her behavior has worn thin. It infuriates me.
Is she being competitive? Envious? Clueless?
She sometimes does the same thing with her daughters.
I hope you can offer a fresh perspective that will make it possible for me to broach the subject with her.
– Copied
Dear Copied: The “appropriate” response is to feel flattered.
Your actual response is to feel annoyed. Part of the joy of your curation-experience is to find special items or experiences that are unique to you.
Tell her! Say, “I think I’m not ‘supposed’ to feel this way, but – honestly – when you duplicate my purchases, I notice it and … it bothers me.”
Dear Amy: My wife and I are planning our anniversary celebration for the end of July, with more than 100 expected guests from nearby cities and a few from out of state on our invite list.
When should we send invitations?
– Wondering
Dear Wondering: July can be a busy month for people who may already be scrambling to put their summer plans together.
Send a “Save the Date” email now, noting the particulars and asking people to put this on their calendars.
Send your invitation in late-May or early June; this will give everyone several weeks to RSVP.
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©2021 Amy Dickinson. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/advice/ct-aud-ask-amy-0414-20220414-uojyyfsol5buhct63eopyrfdzy-story.html | 2022-04-14T06:05:44 | 0 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/advice/ct-aud-ask-amy-0414-20220414-uojyyfsol5buhct63eopyrfdzy-story.html |
General Daily Insight for April 14, 2022
An energy shift slows our daily pace. As the exacting Virgo Moon opposes expansive Jupiter in Pisces, a lack of self-control could cause us to overwork ourselves, but when the Moon trines intense Pluto in Capricorn, that helps us to see what should be cut back. After this detail-oriented moment, the Moon slides into harmonious Libra, focusing on potential rather than flaws. Finally, Mars moves into Pisces at 11:06 am EDT, encouraging us to work together, rather than be the best as individuals.
Aries
March 21-April 19
Intuition can take you where you need to go at the moment. You may resist and tell yourself that you need to become better or be more powerful in your community first. The truth is, the universe is encouraging you to start now -- even if you don't have all the answers. You may make mistakes in the beginning, but no one is automatically good when they first start out. Allow yourself to follow to your gut with bold enthusiasm!
Taurus
April 20-May 20
You may be pulled in several different directions today. Multiple people that you feel loyal to may reach out, supplying you with a stacked social plate, even if your original plans for the day weren't that exciting. A busy day is likely, but you can handle it with creative scheduling! Be open to spontaneous opportunities -- you might run into some good luck while you're taking a detour from your normal routine! That said, don't let the day end before you've resolved any urgent responsibilities.
Gemini
May 21-June 20
What goes around comes around -- and it's coming around right now. An unexpected return on a joint venture, loan, or past investment could make itself known at any moment. This could be good or bad, but it likely reflects a seed that you've sown in the past. Consistently working hard should yield encouraging results, while letting things slide and not putting in time and effort will likely end in disappointment. Remember that you can't just speak your goals -- you have to chase them!
Cancer
June 21-July 22
High standards may not be reasonable today. Focusing on your lofty goals or an urgent checklist could be boxing you in and forcing you to choose productivity over connecting with those who care about you. Let the people that matter to you be your support system and your cheerleaders when you're feeling like the journey is taking too long. It's good to shoot for the moon, but it's not OK to isolate yourself or beat yourself up when you don't get there right away.
Leo
July 23-August 22
A positive shift in your routine may arrive today. A part of your life might seem like it's looming over you as something you have to frequently deal with. You're probably ready for a change of pace! You may not be able to fully remove this part of your life, but changing something can make it more enjoyable for you and less of a regular drag on your good mood. The difference might be unfamiliar at first, but you will likely come to appreciate it.
Virgo
August 23-September 22
Reactions can leap into real responses today. Your emotions may be unpleasantly triggered by a respected authority figure, which can lead you to feel unfulfilled or like you've wasted time. The reality is, you have a lot of life left to live! Suppress any urge to give up just because you feel like you haven't come far enough. Try to take your initial fear that you'll never reach your goals and transform it into fresh determination to get there in your own time.
Libra
September 23-October 22
An unclear feeling that's been nagging at you might finally become obvious. Even if you didn't have the specific details of a situation, your intuition most likely clued you in before the facts were put on the table. Once you can put your finger on the clear cause of your concerns, it'll be your turn to respond. Don't freeze now that you know what you're dealing with! Trust your instincts and use this newfound realization to act on your feelings with confidence.
Scorpio
October 23-November 21
Your deepest thoughts and feelings may not be understood by others today. You're a complex individual with many facets, and you're probably choosy about which sides you want to shine. You might have a chance to express yourself to new people, and this is not the best time to bring out your most shocking or intense stories or opinions. You may be making an effort to be authentic, but this can create a different first impression than you'd like. Think before you speak.
Sagittarius
November 22-December 21
A helping hand could appear from an unexpected place at this time. You likely have a typical group of people who can support you, but right now, they may all have prior commitments when you try to reach out. Instead, someone that you didn't expect to come through for you might end up displaying their ability to be a loyal friend and companion. As long as you ask for what you need, everything is likely to work out just fine in the end!
Capricorn
December 22-January 19
People who knew you in the past may not understand the person that you are today. While it can be hurtful to discover that someone disapproves of the choices you've made and the person that you've become, you don't need their approval to enjoy yourself as the person you truly are! It's OK to leave certain acquaintances in the past if they want to stay there. Let them know that you're going to love yourself even if they've decided they're no longer your fan.
Aquarius
January 20-February 18
Current fear may arise from a lack of security. When so much is left open-ended in a situation with other people, it can be nerve-wracking to try and make the situation end up in your favor. Try to let go of the authority you may be scrabbling to hold onto, because it's likely the illusion of power rather than reality! You can't fully control other people, and their choices will affect your life many times without your input. Accepting this will help you find peace.
Pisces
February 19-March 20
Having too much to say could lead to a letdown right now. You may be speaking too confidently about a subject that you don't know enough about or bragging about a recent achievement, not realizing that you're being overbearing rather than impressive. This can be difficult to notice from the inside! Consider making a conscious effort to rein in the need to speak your mind about anything and everything today, because tomorrow you may look back and ask yourself why you said so much. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/horoscopes/sns-daily-horoscopes-04142022-20220414-vkq2gmktkzhxfbl7kv5ma7hn7a-story.html | 2022-04-14T06:05:50 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/horoscopes/sns-daily-horoscopes-04142022-20220414-vkq2gmktkzhxfbl7kv5ma7hn7a-story.html |
The list of possible Miami Heat first-round playoff opponents has been whittled from four at the start of the NBA play-in round to two: the Atlanta Hawks or the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Those two teams will meet Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Cleveland to determine which will travel to South Florida for Sunday’s 1 p.m. Game 1 of the opening-round best-of-seven series against the top-seeded Heat at FTX Arena.
The Hawks punched their ticket to Friday’s winner-take-all play-in showdown with 132-103 victory Wednesday night over the visiting Charlotte Hornets at State Farm Arena.
On Tuesday night, the Cavaliers fell into the Friday night’s all-or-nothing game with a 115-108 road loss to the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center.
The play-in round determines the Nos. 7-8 playoff seeds in each conference, with a competition among the teams that placed seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th in the conference at the close of the regular season.
As a result of Tuesday’s play-in opener, the Nets, who ended the regular season seventh in the East, earned the No. 7 seed and will open the first round of the playoffs Sunday against the No. 2 Boston Celtics.
With Wednesday’s loss, the Hornets, who closed the regular season 10th in the East, were eliminated from playoff contention and became eligible for the NBA draft lottery.
The Cavaliers closed the regular season eighth in the East, the Hawks ninth.
The Heat went 1-2 against Cleveland during the regular season, 3-1 against the Hawks.
The winner of Friday’s Cavaliers-Hawks will have about a 39-hour turnaround before facing the Heat, with the Heat postseason opener the first of four NBA playoff games on Sunday.
The loser of Friday’s Cleveland-Atlanta game also will be eligible for the NBA draft lottery.
As the No. 1 seed, the Heat will have homecourt advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs, including Games 1 and 2 of the first round on Sunday and Tuesday at FTX Arena.
The Cavaliers are the lone Eastern Conference team the Heat has yet to face in the playoffs in the Heat’s 34 seasons. The Heat have played the Hawks twice in the postseason, losing 3-2 in the 1994 first round and losing 4-3 in the 2009 first round, the initial playoff appearance of Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.
The Hawks last season advanced to the Eastern Conference finals with much of the same core currently in place. The Cavaliers have not been to the playoffs since losing the 2018 NBA Finals in LeBron James’ final season with the team before leaving for the Los Angeles Lakers. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/fl-sp-miami-heat-play-in-wednesday-20220414-clbzmpksuzehbmyxtgoxrp6tuy-story.html | 2022-04-14T06:05:56 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/fl-sp-miami-heat-play-in-wednesday-20220414-clbzmpksuzehbmyxtgoxrp6tuy-story.html |
All Gerrit Cole could do was literally tip his cap.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had his way with the Yankees ace Wednesday night, hitting two home runs and a double off Cole — and another homer off Jonathan Loaisiga — as the Blue Jays beat the Bombers, 6-4, at Yankee Stadium.
“I mean, did you see the night? I mean, if you had a cap you’d tip it too,” Cole said of actually tipping his cap to the Blue Jays first baseman. “And it got better after that too, my goodness.”
Guerrero Jr., who had been hit-less in the first two games of the series, had his second-career three home run game, driving in four runs and absolutely dominating the Yankees (3-3). Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres each had their first home runs of the season. Anthony Rizzo had his third and DJ LeMahieu drove in a run, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays (4-2).
“That was impressive tonight. Wish it was against somebody else and I was watching on TV and I didn’t see it live,” Judge said. “That’s the type of player he is. He can take over a game. Those were three impressive swings. Even more impressive, with two strikes shooting a double down the right field line. He is a game changer.”
A game-changer is what the Yankees are hoping to have in Cole.
So far, the Yankees ace has not exactly redefined himself after last year’s struggles and the disastrous loss to the Red Sox in the American League Wild Card Game.
Wednesday night, Cole labored through 5.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out six. Cole had 17 swing-and-misses, including four each on his four-seam fastball, his cutter and slider.
Guerrero Jr., hammered a hanging slider in the first inning for his first homer of the night off Cole. In the third, with Bo Bichette on, Guerrero — who had to have his hand bandaged after Aaron Hicks stepped on it — turned on a 98 mile per hour fastball up and inside and sent a laser into left-center field for his third homer of the season (and second of the night). In the sixth, Guerrero went down and got a 98 mph fastball at the knees and lined it into the right-field corner for a double.
“He’s just a great hitter,” Aaron Boone said. “I thought the first home run to center was a hanger that he took advantage of... but then after that it was just kind of other-worldly hitting. ... Just a really good job of hitting and then you don’t see many right-handers elevate the ball like that off of (Loaisiga’s) two-seam fastball and he obviously squared it up. So pretty impressive display by him, and we got beat by obviously a great hitter.”
The Yankees’ brightside was that Cole held every other Blue Jay to just one hit.
Cole was slow to ramp up, making just two starts to the rest of the staff’s three, in a lockout-shortened spring training. He gave up a homer and three runs in his season debut, a no-decision against the Red Sox, which only brought back the nightmares from the Wild Card loss. Wednesday night, he lost the battle to Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays, another star and team who the Yankees are going to battling this season in the division and for a playoff spot.
Cole thinks he is almost where he needs to be.
“I still blew through the tempo on a few, especially some first pitches, but it’s just... it’s just coming,” Cole said. “I mean, the stuff looks pretty good. And the execution for the most part is pretty good. So, just crisp up the reads a bit and execute a few more pitches.”
The Yankees fans are hoping the dominant stuff that had the Yankees courting him and signing him to a nine-year, $324 million deal in December 2019 is coming too. He needs to rebuild the Yankee fans’ confidence that he will be the bulldog they need in big matchups and playoff games.
So far, that hasn’t been there. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/ny-gerrit-cole-vlad-guerrero-jr-20220414-jhpdpelctbbeti6jx2l24ebur4-story.html | 2022-04-14T06:06:02 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/ny-gerrit-cole-vlad-guerrero-jr-20220414-jhpdpelctbbeti6jx2l24ebur4-story.html |
PHILADELPHIA — It wasn’t the cleanest baseball game the Mets will play this year. But the Amazin’s offense overcame their bullpen headache, managing to leave their first road trip of the year on a high note.
Pete Alonso, Wednesday’s designated hitter for the Mets, had a banner day at the plate — one he enjoyed for the first time since his rookie season. His productive afternoon wound up being the difference for the club.
“I thought we did an excellent job of pouring it on all day,” said Alonso, who has nine RBI in two games as DH so far this year. “That’s what it takes to win these tough divisional games.”
Alonso drove in five of the Amazin’s nine runs in the Mets’ 9-6 win over the Phillies on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park. He crushed a three-run home run in the sixth inning, giving the Mets a seven-run lead at the time, and went 3-for-5 with two doubles. Wednesday was the first time Alonso collected five or more RBI since Aug. 15, 2019 in Atlanta.
The Mets (5-2) head back to Queens after a successful trip against their division rivals. The team will enjoy an off-day on Thursday, before the home opener against the Diamondbacks on Friday at Citi Field.
“We played so extremely well this road trip, and I’m just so excited to play in front of Mets fans,” Alonso said. “It’s going to be a fun year and I can’t wait to get back to Citi.”
Though it seemed like Alonso busted open the game, the Phillies cut the Mets lead from 8-1 to 8-5 after a productive couple of innings against New York’s relievers. Sean Reid-Foley, Joely Rodriguez and Adam Ottavino combined to give up four earned runs on three hits and allowed three walks in the sixth and seventh.
So, the Mets’ seven-run lead diminished to a save situation, requiring their Mets closer in a game he had no business entering just a few innings prior. Edwin Diaz allowed a leadoff home run to Bryce Harper in the ninth, but then he retired the side to shut the door on the Phillies for the second straight game.
Max Scherzer’s second start of the year was laborious, but he battled his way through five innings and limited the Phillies’ damage. Kyle Schwarber, who has a career 1.106 OPS in 32 games against the Mets, went hitless in the three-game series.
“Our guys pitched him really well,” manager Buck Showalter said.
Mets pitchers combined to stifle his at-bats; Schwaber went 0-for-12 with seven strikeouts.
“When I needed to, I made big pitches, when runners were on base,” Scherzer said. “Together, we navigated that lineup pretty well.”
Scherzer walked Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos in the first inning, putting himself in an early jam. But he managed to escape by striking out Jean Segura and inducing a groundout to Didi Gregorius. Though he settled down for the next two innings, his fourth inning was again a bit of a slog as he allowed a run on three hits.
But part of Scherzer’s speciality, and part of why he’s a once-in-a-generation pitcher, is his ability to prevent an inning from snowballing. So he dug deep, and grinded through his second outing of the season much the same way he did in his first.
Scherzer said the hamstring issue that materialized in spring training is finally 100% behind him. The veteran right-hander said he actually had his right leg underneath him on Wednesday, so he was trying to adjust to his returned, full strength.
“We’ve done all the good things here to start the season,” Scherzer said. “We’re doing good things on the mound, we’re doing good things at the plate. That’s how you win ballgames, playing team baseball, when everyone plays well together. That’s what it takes to consistently win – getting good pitching, good hitting and good fielding. When you get all three of those firing together, that’s when you can rattle off series.” | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/ny-phillies-alonso-scherzer-win-20220413-yux3wgweqnarfa5l37zhi76coq-story.html | 2022-04-14T06:06:09 | 0 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/ny-phillies-alonso-scherzer-win-20220413-yux3wgweqnarfa5l37zhi76coq-story.html |
Police: Missing Florida teen found safe
Published: Apr. 11, 2022 at 4:48 PM EDT|Updated: Apr. 12, 2022 at 7:21 AM EDT
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (Gray News) – Police in Florida said a missing 15-year-old girl has been found.
Saige Stiles was safely located by member of the Florida’s Treasure Coast Guardian Angels Chapter who was in the area searching for her on Monday, the Port St. Lucie Police Department said.
Saige was found in good health, officials said.
She had been reported missing Monday morning.
While walking to school, she was on the phone with a friend and said she was being followed. Her friend called 911.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/11/florida-teen-said-she-was-being-followed-way-school-before-disappearing-police-say/ | 2022-04-14T06:11:33 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/11/florida-teen-said-she-was-being-followed-way-school-before-disappearing-police-say/ |
Alabama elementary school principal accused of ‘excessive paddling’ of student
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF/Gray News) - An Alabama elementary school principal is on leave for paddling a child too much according to authorities.
In a letter obtained by WAFF from the district’s attorney, the principal of Hazelwood Elementary in Lawrence County, Alabama, is accused of using a wooden paddle on a child ten times in a row.
Corporal punishment is legal in the state of Alabama, meaning using paddling as a form of punishment is allowed. But there is a line, which Lawrence County Schools Superintendent Jon Bret Smith says was crossed.
A letter sent to Hazelwood Principal Dr. Datie Priest accuses her of paddling a third-grade student ten times in a row one time and five times in a row during a separate incident.
According to WAFF’s news partners at the Decatur Daily, Smith has said no more than three licks at a time is allowed.
The letter goes on to say Priest told Lawrence County School board members about the paddling on March 11.
She was then placed on detached duty.
Smith says Priest later told him and another supervisor that the child was given a choice of “two licks by his teacher or ten by me and it’s my personal belief that he would not take a paddling from a white teacher.”
Vice president for the Alabama NAACP Bobby Diggs said the organization recommended Priest for the principal position and stands by her, despite the accusations.
“The NAACP remains perplexed that the accusations against Priest were in her personnel file but accusations against Ron Rikard (principal at East Lawrence High School) were not in his file at the central office,” said Diggs. “It is in our opinion that the superintendent is being bias{ed} and discriminatory in the treatment of the two principals.”
Smith said he cannot comment on personnel issues.
State law also requires a student receive a written slip after a paddling. Smith said the student was not given one. The letter includes a few other accusations including leaving work early and mismanaging funds.
Priest is currently on paid administrative leave. However, the school district may not renew her contract, according to the Decatur Daily.
Copyright 2022 WAFF via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/alabama-elementary-school-principal-accused-excessive-paddling-student/ | 2022-04-14T06:11:40 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/alabama-elementary-school-principal-accused-excessive-paddling-student/ |
Boy bitten by shark in shallow water in Florida
Published: Apr. 12, 2022 at 5:30 AM EDT
(CNN) - A young boy was bitten by a shark in south Florida.
It happened in shallow water in Palm Beach County on Monday, officials said.
He said he saw the shark before it bit his foot and estimates it was about 4 feet long.
Paramedics bandaged the wound and took him to the hospital.
Sharks are not uncommon in shallow water, but unprovoked attacks are rare.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/boy-bitten-by-shark-shallow-water-florida/ | 2022-04-14T06:11:47 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/boy-bitten-by-shark-shallow-water-florida/ |
Bus driver charged in student’s death
WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. (WXYZ) - A Michigan bus driver is facing charges following the death of a 13-year-old boy last week.
Zyiar Harris was being dropped off on Wednesday when he was struck by an oncoming vehicle.
“It’s the bus driver’s fault,” his mother Cassandra Jones said.
Investigations revealed that the incident unfolded when 65-year-old bus driver Deborah White allegedly did not activate the bus’s stop sign and lights.
“My son was autistic,” Jones said. “When he got hit, she pulled off. She seen him get hit, and she pulled off.”
Zyiar later died in the hospital due to complications.
White, who worked for ABC Student Transportation, has been charged with second-degree child abuse and failure to stop at the scene, resulting in death.
White is being held on a $50,000 bond.
Copyright 2022 WXYZ via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/bus-driver-charged-students-death/ | 2022-04-14T06:11:53 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/bus-driver-charged-students-death/ |
DHEC reports new Covid-19 cases
Published: Apr. 12, 2022 at 2:29 PM EDT
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - On Tuesday, the South Carolina Department for Health and Environmental Control reported a total of 1,071 cases (711 confirmed, 360 probable), along with 5 deaths (3 confirmed, 2 probable).
Copyright 2022 WIS. All rights reserved.
Notice a spelling or grammar error in this article? Click or tap here to report it. Please include the article’s headline. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/dhec-reports-new-covid-19-cases/ | 2022-04-14T06:12:00 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/dhec-reports-new-covid-19-cases/ |
DSS: 2-day-old baby given to staff at Greenwood County hospital
GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Greenwood County Department of Social Services is caring for a newborn given to medical professionals at Self Regional Medical Center.
DSS officials said the baby boy was born on April 8 weighing 6 pounds and 3 ounces.
We’re told the baby was turned over to and taken in by staff at the hospital two days later under Daniel’s Law, the Safe Haven Act.
DSS mentioned the baby will be placed in a licensed foster home.
A permanency planning hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. on May 23 at the Greenwood County Courthouse, Gamily Court Room.
For information on the hearing, please call the Greenwood County DSS office at 864-229-5258 or the Greenwood County Clerk of Court office at 864-942-8546.
Copyright 2022 WHNS. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/dss-2-day-old-baby-given-staff-greenwood-county-hospital/ | 2022-04-14T06:12:08 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/dss-2-day-old-baby-given-staff-greenwood-county-hospital/ |
When Carlos Correa signed a three-year, 105.3 million contract with the Twins on March 19, it was quickly assumed this would be a short stay for the all-star shortstop.
The deal contains player opt-out clauses after each of the first two seasons, and although the deal is the largest in Twins history, Correa is clearly betting that with a healthy productive 2022, he will have a chance to make more elsewhere in 2023.
But if Correa decides to stay more than a year, well, that’s OK with Royce Lewis, the Twins’ heir apparent shortstop.
“I’m not a guy that’s going to come in and be stuck up if I don’t play shortstop,” Lewis said before the Saints’ rain-shortened, 5-1 loss to Indianapolis at CHS Field.
And if Correa does, in fact, use that first opt-out to cash in elsewhere, well, that might work out for the Twins, too, because despite a few bad breaks, Lewis is playing the part of a No. 1 overall draft pick.
After not playing in a real game since 2019, the top pick in the 2017 amateur draft entered Tuesday’s game hitting .333 with three doubles, a home run, four walks and three stolen bases for the Twins’ Triple-A club. He went 0 for 2 with a groundout to third and a pop fly to left on Tuesday.
“He has held his own pretty well so far,” manager Toby Gardenhire said.
When the 2020 minor league season was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, Lewis was part of the Twins’ alternative camp at CHS Field. But that was limited to drills and limited simulated games. Early in spring training last season, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during an infield drill and, after surgery, missed the entire season.
But Lewis appears too happy about playing real games to worry about lost time. The Saints’ six games last week in Louisville, Ky., were his first since the 2019 Arizona Fall League, where he hit .353 with three home runs and 20 RBIs in 22 games and was named Most Valuable Player of the prestigious prospects league. He estimates he hadn’t had a year away from physical activity since he was about 3 years old. Physically, he feels better than ever.
“I don’t need any rest,” Lewis said. “I’m going to be lobbying to play every single day.”
The majors are always full of good players who started their careers as shortstops and found most, if not all, of their playing time elsewhere — Twins second baseman Jorge Polanco and his predecessor Brian Dozier come to mind. But Lewis appears to be on track to make the leap at his lifelong position. He certainly looks the part of a modern shortstop, 6-foot-2 and a solid 200 pounds.
“I think he’s a shortstop. I think he’s somebody who can do it,” said Gardenhire, who was Lewis’ Single-A coach in Fort Myers in 2019. “But again, it’s all going to be team-dependent. If Carlos Correa’s up there for the next couple of years and they all the sudden call (Lewis) up, then maybe he’s not playing shortstop, because they’re not going to move Carlos Correa.”
Still, there are no current plans to play him elsewhere.
Lewis hasn’t lost the plot. He knows that a team that can grab a player like Correa has to do it, and the veteran of the past five American League Championships Series has been in consistent contact, “Helping me out, giving me tips, texting me back and forth.”
Lewis also understands that while he is the organization’s best in-house option at short, he has never played a season above Double-A and that in the Twins’ perfect world, there won’t be a place for him to get the major league at-bats to make his callup worth it — for him or the team.
“I want to be a guy who’s big-league ready and stays there,” he said. “That’s ultimately my goal, and the Twins are doing a great job of doing that and priming me for those goals.
“Then also, I just need to get a whole season, healthy, under my belt, get at-bats. It’s been a while.” | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/12/twins-prospect-royce-lewis-i-just-need-a-whole-season-healthy-under-my-belt/ | 2022-04-14T06:12:12 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/12/twins-prospect-royce-lewis-i-just-need-a-whole-season-healthy-under-my-belt/ |
Fentanyl behind doubling of teen overdose deaths over past decade, study says
Published: Apr. 12, 2022 at 2:44 PM EDT
(CNN) – More and more teens are overdosing on fentanyl, according to new research.
Adolescent drug overdose deaths doubled from 2010 to 2021, according to a study published Tuesday in the Medical Journal JAMA.
The research says there were about 500 adolescent overdose deaths in 2010 and more than 1,100 in 2021.
Fentanyl was involved in more than 75% of deaths in 2021.
Researchers say the increase isn’t because more teens are using drugs. It’s because drug use is becoming more dangerous.
Annual drug overdose deaths for all ages have reached record highs in the U.S. recently.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/fentanyl-behind-doubling-teen-overdose-deaths-over-past-decade-study-says/ | 2022-04-14T06:12:15 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/fentanyl-behind-doubling-teen-overdose-deaths-over-past-decade-study-says/ |
Hungry javelina gets stuck in car, goes for ride in Arizona
CORNVILLE, Ariz. (AP) — A hungry javelina in Arizona ended up going for a drive when it became trapped inside an empty car and bumped it into neutral.
Deputies in Yavapai County responded to a call last week in Cornville, a community 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Sedona, about a javelina stuck in a Subaru station wagon. Javelinas are pig-like animals that are native to desert environments.
After speaking with the car’s owner and other residents, they determined the car’s hatchback had been left open overnight.
The javelina jumped in to get to a bag of Cheetos. The hatch then closed, trapping the animal inside.
Authorities say the javelina ripped off a portion of the dashboard and the inside of a door in an attempt to escape.
The animal then managed to knock the car into neutral, causing it to roll down the driveway and across the street. The Subaru came to a rest, and the javelina was not injured.
A deputy opened the hatch, and the javelina was able to run back into the wilderness.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/hungry-javelina-gets-stuck-car-goes-ride-arizona/ | 2022-04-14T06:12:22 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/hungry-javelina-gets-stuck-car-goes-ride-arizona/ |
Appeals court: Johnson & Johnson must pay $302 million in pelvic mesh case
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that Johnson & Johnson must pay penalties to the state for deceptively marketing pelvic mesh implants for women, but reduced the amount by $42 million to $302 million.
Johnson & Johnson had appealed in 2020 after Superior Court Judge Eddie Sturgeon assessed the $344 million in penalties against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon.
Sturgeon found after a non-jury trial that the company made misleading and potentially harmful statements in hundreds of thousands of advertisements and instructional brochures for nearly two decades.
California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal issued a ruling Monday that $42 million in penalties assessed for the company’s sales pitches to doctors were unjustified because there was no evidence of what the sales representatives actually said.
But the appeals court said Sturgeon received ample evidence that Ethicon knowingly deceived both physicians and patients about the risks posed by its products, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Ryan Carbain, a Johnson & Johnson spokesperson, told the Chronicle that the company would appeal the appeals court ruling to the state Supreme Court.
The instructions for use in all of the company’s pelvic mesh implant packages “falsified or omitted the full range, severity, duration, and cause of complications associated with Ethicon’s pelvic mesh products, as well as the potential irreversibility and catastrophic consequences,” Presiding Justice Judith McConnell of the appeals court said in a 3-0 ruling upholding the $302 million in penalties.
She rejected the company’s claim that the fine was excessive, saying it amounted to less than 1% of Johnson & Johnson’s net worth of $70.4 billion.
The products, also called transvaginal mesh, are synthetic and surgically implanted through the vagina of women whose pelvic organs have sagged or who suffered from stress urinary incontinence when they cough, sneeze or lift heavy objects.
Many women have sued the New Jersey-based company alleging that the mesh caused severe pain, bleeding, infections, discomfort during intercourse and the need for removal surgery.
The condition is estimated to affect 3% to 17% of women, and it sometimes becomes severe after age 70.
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s biggest maker of health care products, is contesting other lawsuits over drug side effects, its role in the U.S. opioid epidemic and allegations its baby powder caused cancer in some users.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/johnson-johnson-ordered-pay-302-million-pelvic-mesh-case/ | 2022-04-14T06:12:28 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/johnson-johnson-ordered-pay-302-million-pelvic-mesh-case/ |
Krispy Kreme matching price of dozen doughnuts to national average for gallon of gas
GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Krispy Kreme wants to leave a sweeter taste in drivers’ mouths as they feel the pain at the pump. The company announced Monday it will price a dozen doughnuts at the U.S. national average for a gallon of regular gasoline every Wednesday.
Starting Wednesday, April 13 through May 4, Krispy Kreme will set the price for an Original Glazed dozen based on the national average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. on the Monday at the beginning of the week.
The company said guests can get up to two dozen Original Glazed Doughnuts, each for the price of a gallon of gas, in participating shops, via drive-thru and for pick-up by ordering online and through the Krispy Kreme app.
We’re told Krispy Kreme will notify its fans of the price by posting it on Facebook, Twitter, as well as their website.
“While Americans deal with the rising PPG – price per gallon – of gasoline, we’re lowering our PPOG – price per Original Glaze,” said Chief Marketing Officer Dave Skena in a news release. “Inflation and high gasoline prices are serious and forcing families to make tough tradeoffs. We know that despite the high gas prices people have to be out and about anyway. So, for the next several Wednesdays, we hope providing a little doughnut deflation will allow them to share some smiles during a difficult time. A dozen Original Glazed Doughnuts for the price of a gallon of gas will help our fans make midweek a little sweeter for their friends and family.”
Copyright 2022 WHNS. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/krispy-kreme-matching-price-dozen-doughnuts-national-average-gallon-gas/ | 2022-04-14T06:12:36 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/krispy-kreme-matching-price-dozen-doughnuts-national-average-gallon-gas/ |
‘Let’s get moving:’ Gov. McMaster talks about pause on new Panthers headquarters
No word yet from Panthers on when development will resume
GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - During an event in Greenville on Tuesday, Governor Henry McMaster said the state is “ready to go” for the Carolina Panthers’ move to South Carolina. Plans to relocate the team’s headquarters and practice facility to Rock Hill have stalled amid financial problems.
Development stopped over a month ago on the $800 million state-of-the-art facility while Rock Hill city and York County leaders work out a new deal with the Panthers. Tepper Sports said the city didn’t make its initial payment in March.
Two weeks ago York County Council voted on a new finance plan to try to restart development but there has been no word yet from the Panthers or owner David Tepper publicly about when that may happen.
“I’ve gotten a call from Mr. Tepper about it and he explained why they were trying to work out a number of important points, and he explained it as a pause,” McMaster said. “I look forward for that pause to be over with and we’ll get on going.”
McMaster said on the state level they are ready for the development to move forward, but despite multiple conversations, the team and local officials are “at an impasse.”
“I’ve had a number of conversations with him over the months,” McMaster said. “But they’re at an impasse now as you can read in the paper with the city and the county and the organization. I hope they get everything worked out because we’re ready to go.”
Last week, WBTV reported that York County government officials were still awaiting word from Tepper on the future of the project, but York County Senator Wes Climber said he believes “Tepper will be a man of his word and this project will be completed.”
“The state has done its part and we want to encourage everyone to resolve whatever differences there are and let’s get moving,” McMaster said Tuesday. “We want the Panthers to be right there.”
Copyright 2022 WHNS. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/lets-get-moving-gov-mcmaster-talks-about-pause-new-panthers-headquarters/ | 2022-04-14T06:12:43 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/lets-get-moving-gov-mcmaster-talks-about-pause-new-panthers-headquarters/ |
Murder charge over self-induced abortion dismissed in Texas
DALLAS (AP) — A Texas judge formally dismissing a murder charge Monday against a 26-year-old woman over a self-induced abortion did not quiet outrage or questions surrounding the case, including why prosecutors ever brought it to a grand jury.
A woman who ends her own pregnancy cannot be charged with a crime under Texas law. Officials in rural Starr County, along the U.S.-Mexico border, have not released details about why they decided to pursue a case against Lizelle Herrera after being contacted by a hospital.
“There should have been no reason for a report to have been made. There should have been no reason for a criminal investigation to take place,” said Farah Diaz-Tello, senior counsel and legal director at If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice.
News of Herrera’s arrest on Thursday raised alarms for abortion rights advocates, and sparked people to gather in protest outside the jail where she was being held on $500,000 bond. Her March 30 indictment alleges she “intentionally and knowingly” caused the death of “an individual ... by a self-induced abortion” in early January.
Authorities have not described what exactly Herrera allegedly did, and it wasn’t clear if she was accused of giving herself an abortion or assisting in someone else’s self-induced abortion.
An attorney for Herrera, who was released from jail Saturday after posting bond, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.
Starr County District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez said in a Sunday statement that he would file the motion to dismiss the charge, saying, “it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her.”
But he did not explain why the case was presented to a grand jury, nor did he reply Monday to an email from AP seeking additional information. A woman who answered the phone at his office said Sunday’s statement was “the only thing he’s going to say on the subject” and hung up before identifying herself.
“These were choices that did not have to be made because losing a pregnancy or ending a pregnancy or self-managing an abortion is not a crime in the state of Texas,” Diaz-Tello said.
Texas last year passed a law known as Senate Bill 8, or SB8, that bans abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. The law leaves enforcement to private citizens who can sue doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion.
Another new Texas law prohibits doctors and clinics from prescribing abortion-inducing medications after seven weeks and prohibits the delivery of the pills by mail.
Neither law authorizes any action against the woman who ends her pregnancy, Diaz-Tello said.
“The problem is, though, when you have this heightened situation of suspicion and fear and the chilling effect that this all creates, that is going to make it much more likely that health care providers are going to improperly err on the side of reporting — err on the side of violating their patient’s confidentiality and bringing in law enforcement,” Diaz-Tello said.
Diaz-Tello said actions taken by the hospital and law enforcement in this case could lead women to be fearful of seeking health care after an abortion.
Joanna Grossman, professor at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law in Dallas, said SB8 could be “indirectly playing a lot of roles here.” For one, there has been an increase since SB8 in women going online to get abortion pills, she said.
Also, she said, the law sends a message “that there’s just a war on abortion.”
“It certainly changed access but it’s also I think just changed the whole context in which people evaluate abortion care,” Grossman said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/murder-charge-over-self-induced-abortion-dismissed-texas/ | 2022-04-14T06:12:49 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/murder-charge-over-self-induced-abortion-dismissed-texas/ |
NFL’s Washington Commanders may have broken financial laws, House panel says
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday saying it found evidence the NFL’s Washington Commanders engaged in potentially unlawful financial conduct for more than a decade by withholding ticket revenue from visiting teams and refundable deposits from fans.
In the letter obtained by The Associated Press, the committee outlined through the testimony of former employees and access to emails and documents a pattern of financial impropriety by owner Dan Snyder and team executives. At one point in 2016, the committee said the team retained up to $5 million from 2,000 season-ticket holders while also concealing sharable revenue from the league.
One former employee testified before Congress saying the team had two separate financial books: one with underreported ticket revenue that went to the NFL and the full, complete picture. According to testimony, Snyder was aware of the numbers shared with the league while also being privy to the actual data.
The business practice was known as “juice” inside Washington’s front office. And, if correct, it could spell significant trouble for Snyder and the Commanders.
Ticket revenue is shared among all 32 NFL teams, with 40% of it deposited in a visiting team fund. Such money is among the pillars of the league’s revenue-sharing commitment.
A team spokeswoman said there was no new comment and referred to the statement from March 31: “The team categorically denies any suggestion of financial impropriety of any kind at any time.”
“We adhere to strict internal processes that are consistent with industry and accounting standards, are audited annually by a globally respected independent auditing firm, and are also subject to regular audits by the NFL. We continue to cooperate fully with the Committee’s work.”
The league did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The House Oversight Committee said it is sharing documents with the FTC because the commission has the authority to investigate unfair or deceptive business practices and determine if any laws were broken.
“We request that you take any other action you deem necessary to ensure that all funds are returned to their rightful owners and that those responsible are held accountable for their conduct,” said the letter signed by committee chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney and economic and consumer policy subcommittee chairman Raja Krishnamoorthi.
The letter is addressed to FTC chair Lina M. Khan but was also sent to the attorneys general of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Congress launched an investigation into the team’s workplace misconduct after the league did not release a report detailing the findings of an independent probe into the matter. The committee said the NFL and the team “have taken steps to withhold key documents and information.”
That led investigators to seek testimony and documents in other ways. The committee said its investigation uncovered everything from “pervasive sexual harassment and other workplace misconduct to potential financial misconduct.”
According to testimony, financial misconduct included making it intentionally difficult for season-ticket holders to recoup refundable deposit money, counting some of those leftover funds as a different kind of revenue that doesn’t need to be shared with the league, and shifting money from ticket sales for NFL games to other events at FedEx Field as a way of hiding that money from the league.
The committee in the letter shared spreadsheet data showing evidence of deposits that were not returned. Citing emails and the testimony of longtime vice president of sales and customer service Jason Friedman, ticket sales from Washington games were shifted to a 2013 Kenny Chesney concert and a 2014 Navy-Notre Dame college football game as a way to “juice” revenue and keep it off the books shared with the NFL.
When word first surfaced in early April about the team withholding ticket revenue, the team released a statement denying that report and added: “Anyone who offered testimony suggesting a withholding of revenue has committed perjury, plain and simple.” Lawyer Lisa Banks, who represents Friedman, said the team defamed her client, who testified truthfully “with evidence.”
After the committee sent the letter to the FTC, Banks and lawyer Debra Katz, who represent more than 40 former employees, called it “damning.”
“It’s clear that the team’s misconduct goes well beyond the sexual harassment and abuse of employees already documented and has also impacted the bottom line of the NFL, other NFL owners, and the team’s fans,” they said in a statement. “We are proud of our many clients who have come forward at great personal risk to reveal the truth and bring us closer to total transparency about the full extent of the dysfunction at the Washington Commanders.”
___
Associated Press reporter Farnoush Amiri contributed.
___
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://apnews.com/hub/pro-32 and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/nfls-washington-commanders-may-have-broken-financial-laws-house-panel-says/ | 2022-04-14T06:12:59 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/nfls-washington-commanders-may-have-broken-financial-laws-house-panel-says/ |
SC offers new resource for veterans looking for work
GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - South Carolina has a new resource for military veterans looking for work. The S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce launched a new veterans portal this week.
The SC Works Veterans Portal helps veterans search for jobs, locate SC Works centers to get help with their resumes or networking, and offers information about training and education.
Click here to visit the SC Works Veterans Portal.
If you are a veteran and already have an SC Works Online Services account, you can use the same login credentials for the new veterans portal.
“We are deeply grateful for our veterans and what they have sacrificed to ensure our nation’s safety, and this Veterans Portal is simply one way for us to better enrich their lives by offering resources and services that help them succeed in this new phase of their careers,” said DEW Executive Director Dan Ellzey. “This portal connects veteran jobseekers with employers in high-demand industries, and also allows South Carolina businesses the ability to post jobs, find resumes, and support veterans proactively.”
MORE NEWS: Owners of popular Upstate restaurant give update on fire that destroyed building
Copyright 2022 WHNS. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/sc-offers-new-resource-veterans-looking-work/ | 2022-04-14T06:13:07 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/sc-offers-new-resource-veterans-looking-work/ |
Sumter Police Department searching for missing teen
SUMTER, S.C. (WIS) - The Sumter Police Department is asking for help to locate 16-year-old Deondre Lindsay.
Lindsay was last seen at around 3 p.m. on Monday at his Miller Road residence and was reported missing earlier today.
He is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs about 235 pounds with brown eyes, black hair and has asthma.
It is unknown what he was wearing when he left home or how he is traveling.
According to officials he may have been going to Myrtle Beach to meet an acquaintance.
Anyone with information or knows where he could be is asked to call the Sumter Police Department at 803-436-2700.
Copyright 2022 WIS. All rights reserved.
Notice a spelling or grammar error in this article? Click or tap here to report it. Please include the article’s headline. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/sumter-police-department-searching-missing-teen/ | 2022-04-14T06:13:20 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/sumter-police-department-searching-missing-teen/ |
Target announces dates for its car seat trade-in recycling program
(Gray News) - Target has announced when people can trade in their old, expired or damaged car seats for a discount on new items.
The retailer announced its next car seat trade-in promotion will take place from April 18-30.
People can bring the car seats to a Target location, and in return, they can claim a 20% discount online or on the Target app toward a car seat, stroller or other baby items.
The coupon is valid through May 14.
The materials from the car seats traded in are recycled, and Target has received 1.7 million of them since 2016.
Target works with Waste Management to recycle the items. The retail giant said it has recycled 25.4 million pounds of car seat materials since the promotion began.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/target-announces-dates-its-car-seat-trade-in-recycling-program/ | 2022-04-14T06:13:27 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/target-announces-dates-its-car-seat-trade-in-recycling-program/ |
Umpire recovering after being punched in the face at kids’ softball game
LAUREL, Miss. (WLBT/Gray News) – An umpire in Mississippi is recovering after being punched in the face following a softball game for 12-year-old children.
According to WLBT, Kristie Moore was filling in for an umpire who got sick. She has been calling games for 10 years.
During the game, the coach asked one of the athlete’s mothers to leave the game for excessive cursing. Instead of going home, the woman is accused of waiting to confront Moore after the game, punching her and then running away.
The mother, Kiara Thomas, was arrested and charged with simple assault.
Moore said some parents are out of control and make it harder and harder for umpires to do their jobs.
“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “The verbal abuse. And even now, the physical abuse now, at this point, and enough is enough.”
Moore, who finds umpires for tournaments in Mississippi, said it is difficult to find people willing to officiate the games.
“No one wants to listen to the verbal abuse and run the risk of what happened to me happening to them,” Moore explained.
Moore said most umpires do the job because they love the game and the kids, not for the money as they get paid $40 a game at most.
A bill was introduced in the legislature earlier this year that would make assaulting a referee or umpire a felony as aggravated assault. That bill, however, died on the calendar.
Moore said she hopes that, after this, lawmakers will take a second look.
Copyright 2022 WLBT via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/umpire-recovering-after-being-punched-face-kids-softball-game/ | 2022-04-14T06:13:40 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/umpire-recovering-after-being-punched-face-kids-softball-game/ |
Upstate man sentenced after ‘reign of terror’ including home invasions, kidnappings
LAURENS, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - An Upstate man was sentenced to prison time this week for a crime spree the solicitor’s office called a three-month ‘reign of terror.’
Between early September and late November 2020, Tracy Parsons of Whitmire committed five separate burglaries. In one of the cases, he robbed an elderly Laurens County woman at knifepoint, cut her, and tied her up before stealing her car.
In another home invasion, he tied up a Newberry County couple and stole their car.
He was finally caught after he tried to run from police during a traffic stop on Nov. 19, 2020.
On Monday, Parsons pleaded guilty to the following charges:
- two counts of first-degree burglary
- three counts of armed robbery
- three counts of kidnapping
- three counts of second-degree burglary (nonviolent)
- one count of failure to stop for blue lights
- one count of unlawful carrying of a weapon
He had three prior convictions for theft-related crimes. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and he is not eligible for parole.
Parsons is 55 years old.
“I cannot say enough about the hard work and cooperation between Sheriff Reynolds and Sheriff Foster, and their investigators, in making sure this violent criminal is effectively in prison for the rest of his life,” said Solicitor David Stumbo. “My office will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our law enforcement officers to make sure we are getting violent career criminals like Tracy Parsons off the streets and out of our communities.”
Copyright 2022 WHNS. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/upstate-man-sentenced-after-reign-terror-including-home-invasions-kidnappings/ | 2022-04-14T06:13:47 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/upstate-man-sentenced-after-reign-terror-including-home-invasions-kidnappings/ |
VIDEO: Man arrested after child escapes attempted kidnapping, police say
ORLANDO, Fla. (Gray News) – A man in Florida was arrested Tuesday after attempting to kidnap a child, police said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that 37-year-old Vinh Nguyen approached and grabbed a child Monday morning in the Azalea Park neighborhood in Orlando and tried to lure the child into his vehicle.
The sheriff’s office said the child was able to get away and Nguyen took off. Following a tip from the public, detectives arrested Nguyen on Tuesday morning.
Nguyen has been charged with false imprisonment, luring or enticing of a child, and battery.
Detectives are continuing to investigate and want to know if there may be other victims of Nguyen. If you have any information, please call the Central Florida Crime Line at 1-800-423-8477.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/video-man-arrested-after-child-escapes-attempted-kidnapping-police-say/ | 2022-04-14T06:13:53 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/video-man-arrested-after-child-escapes-attempted-kidnapping-police-say/ |
VIDEO: Officer injured after metal luggage rack goes through patrol car’s windshield
MESA, Ariz. (KNXV) - A detective in Arizona is recovering after a scary incident over the weekend while he was behind the wheel.
Part of a metal luggage rack went through Mesa Police Department Det. Nick Cureton’s patrol car’s windshield as he was driving on the highway.
“I saw the item coming through the windshield and didn’t really have a lot of time to react,” Cureton said.
The officer said he didn’t know what item initially came through his windshield, but the piece of metal sent glass flying into his eyes.
“It hit me in the ribs as it ended up wedging itself between my left arm and my ribs,” Cureton said.
The luggage rack ended up bruising Cureton, who said he had to bring his car to a stop during the incident immediately.
“I tried to slow my car down as best as I could. After a while came to a complete stop, I threw my lights on, put my car in park, took a couple of deep breaths and then just tried to figure out if that item had actually gone into me or was just resting alongside me,” Cureton said.
Officials with Arizona’s Department of Transportation report debris on the roads is a problem and something the team continues to combat.
“It is so important for safety’s sake to ensure that any large items you’re hauling somewhere are safely secured and strapped to your vehicle,” said Ryan Harding, with ADOT.
Representatives with Arizona’s Department of Public Safety said driving with an unsecured load is illegal, and drivers can face citations and hefty fines.
According to the department, more than 300 drivers have been cited each year for failing to secure their load over the last three years, but nearly 150 yearly collisions have still occurred.
“It comes to those questions: ‘Would I feel safe driving behind my vehicle as it is, or would I be nervous?’” Harding said.
Cureton said he was taken to the hospital after last week’s incident, but he is recovering and hopes his story can help prevent future issues.
“I think it’s definitely a responsibility of all the drivers that are going to be out there to make sure that they secure whatever is in their vehicles to try and stop this from happening,” Cureton said.
Copyright 2022 KNXV via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/video-officer-injured-after-metal-luggage-rack-goes-through-patrol-cars-windshield/ | 2022-04-14T06:14:00 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/video-officer-injured-after-metal-luggage-rack-goes-through-patrol-cars-windshield/ |
Which industries get the most (and least) time off?
(Timetastic/Stacker) - Most private industry workers in the United States receive paid time off, but it is not required under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Timetastic used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, last updated in September 2021, to illustrate which industries offer the best access to paid vacation time. We’ve ranked industries according to the percentage of workers who have access to paid vacations, with ties broken by the number of days off a person receives after working in the industry for a year.
Data is available for workers who have consolidated leave plans (CLP), which are blanket time-off policies that do not distinguish between vacation, illness, or personal business days, and those who do not.
Nationwide, about three-quarters of all private industry workers receive paid time off, or PTO. Two weeks is the average offering for companies with CLP. More full-time workers get paid-time-off than part-time workers: 46% and 35%, respectively.
Larger companies tend to be more generous. At companies with 500 workers or more, 92% of workers have access to paid vacations. That compares to 71% at smaller companies of up to 49 employees.
Union members were also found to get 26.6% more vacation time than nonunion workers as more PTO is typically negotiated when settling union contracts.
Companies such as Netflix have even turned to an entirely different model: unlimited PTO. This gives employees the opportunity to take time off at will within reason.
But with U.S. workers already leaving 4.6 vacation days unused in 2021 on average, unlimited PTO may result in employees taking even less time off than average.
#10. Leisure and hospitality
- Workers with access to PTO: 43%
- Average PTO after 1 year: 9 days (CLP) 6 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 5 years: 13 days (CLP), 9 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 10 years: 15 days (CLP), 12 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 20 years: 16 days (CLP), 12 days (no consolidated leave)
The leisure and hospitality industry—made up of hotel clerks, restaurant cooks, casino workers, and a host of other positions—was hit exceptionally hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Hotel and Lodging Association found it lost as many jobs as government, health services, construction, retail, manufacturing, and education combined.
While workers in this industry tend to accrue more PTO after being with a company for more than a year, the turnover rate works against employees here: BLS data shows turnover in the hospitality industry hovers as high as 80% annually. versus 10%-15% across all industries.
The unemployment rate for this industry in February 2022 was 6.6%, compared to the national jobless rate of 3.8%.
#9. Trade, transportation, and utilities
- Workers with access to PTO: 81%
- Average PTO after 1 year: 11 days (CLP), 7 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 5 years: 16 days (CLP), 12 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 10 years: 19 days (CLP), 15 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 20 years: 23 days (CLP), 18 days (no consolidated leave)
The trade, transportation, and utilities industry is large and varied, from jobs in lumber yards to hauling cargo. Paid leave—which includes vacation time, holidays, sick leave, and personal leave—can cost employers up to 8.5% of a workers’ total compensation.
In Texas, these jobs contributed nearly 20% of the state’s GDP in 2016, at $317.3 billion; making trade, transportation, and utilities among the highest-grossing in the state.
#8. Professional and business services
- Workers with access to PTO: 81%
- Average PTO after 1 year: 14 days (CLP), 10 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 5 years: 18 days (CLP), 13 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 10 years: 20 days (CLP), 16 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 20 years: 22 days (CLP), 18 days (no consolidated leave)
Paid vacations are available to the vast number of employees in this field, which include advertising, law, accounting firms, architecture companies, management consulting companies, and others.
Americans often don’t always take the time they are entitled to. Some 70% of owners of small businesses, in particular, do not view holidays as a time to take away from work. According to the U.S. Travel Association, U.S. workers left 4.6 days unused in 2021, and 5.6 days unused in 2020, which contributed largely to burnout.
A 2016 Harvard Business Review article cited a study finding that for the first time more than half of Americans did not take all of their vacations. The article also noted workers who used more than 10 of their days off had a 65.4% chance of getting a raise or a bonus.
#7. Construction
- Workers with access to PTO: 82%
- Average PTO after 1 year: 8 days (CLP), 7 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 5 years: 11 days (CLP), 10 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 10 years: 13 days (CLP), 12 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 20 years: 14 days (CLP), 13 days (no consolidated leave)
Some construction companies have over the last decade moved away from the traditional way they allot time off, with separate categories for paid vacation, personal days and sick leave. They have instead adopted what is known as a PTO benefit. Vacation time, personal days, and sick leave are rolled into one plan for a consolidated-leave plan model.
Construction officials have largely been against other changes in paid leave. When former President Barack Obama signed an executive order in 2015 requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to provide up to seven days for sickness or other uses, the Associated General Contractors of America objected, citing long periods of layoffs because of weather and other variables in the industry.
#6. Education and health services
- Workers with access to PTO: 82%
- Average PTO after 1 year: 16 days (CLP), 10 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 5 years: 20 days (CLP), 14 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 10 years: 23 days (CLP), 16 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 20 years: 25 days (CLP), 17 days (no consolidated leave)
On average, teachers have about 12 days for sick time or personal leave during the school year. Amid COVID-19, however, teachers across the country are running out of sick days and a federal requirement that schools offer paid time off for COVID-19 illness or exposure has expired.
Similarly, many nurses, doctors, and other health professionals across the country have been under enormous stress during the pandemic. Adding to the pressure for some, they have recently been told to take sick leave or personal days if they test positive for COVID-19.
#5. Real estate and rental and leasing
- Workers with access to PTO: 86%
- Average PTO after 1 year: 12 days (CLP), 10 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 5 years: 15 days (CLP), 14 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 10 years: 17 days (CLP), 16 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 20 years: 18 days (CLP), 17 days (no consolidated leave)
With about 106,500 real estate brokerage firms in the country, a competitive benefits package with paid time off can help companies recruit and retain employees.
Brokers can classify their real estate salespeople as either employees or independent contractors, and those independent contractors have far more flexibility to take time away from the office. Independent contractors, not bound to rules and regulations of the company or companies they’re signed onto, are able to more freely create their own hours and schedules. Other companies in this category are primarily in the business of renting or leasing properties or goods or in related services.
#4. Information
- Workers with access to PTO: 90%
- Average PTO after 1 year: 17 days (CLP), 11 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 5 years: 22 days (CLP), 15 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 10 years: 25 days (CLP), 17 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 20 years: 27 days (CLP), 20 days (no consolidated leave)
Netflix, Oracle, LinkedIn, and Twitter are all companies in the information business sector—and all offer unlimited vacation days. The open vacation policy was originated by Netflix, whose CEO Reed Hastings says he takes at least six weeks each year. He attributes employee loyalty at the company in large part to Netflix’s generous vacation and parental leave policies.
Workplace management software company Kronos (now merged with Ultimate Software to become UKG) began an unlimited or open vacation policy in 2016. In a Harvard Business Review article, its CEO Aron Ain said changes in technology led professionals at every level to work after business hours. He added that vacation policies clearly delineating between time off and vacation seemed antiquated.
#3. Manufacturing
- Workers with access to PTO: 95%
- Average PTO after 1 year: 11 days (CLP), 8 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 5 years: 15 days (CLP), 12 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 10 years: 18 days (CLP), 15 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 20 years: 21 days (CLP), 18 days (no consolidated leave)
Among all non-agricultural workers, manufacturing’s share of U.S. employment peaked during World War II to 38% but cratered from 32% in 1955 to 8% in 2019 just prior to the advent of COVID-19. The sheer number of manufacturing employees hit an all-time high in the 1970s with around 20 million workers. Many of these jobs have since become automated or been shipped overseas.
The Congressional Research Service in 2017 warned the industry’s wages and benefits were under pressure from cost-cutting, plant closures, and the loss of jobs to other countries. The manufacturing industry was not spared from the Great Resignation, leading employers to rethink hiring incentives in a post-COVID-19 employment landscape.
#2. Financial activities
- Workers with access to PTO: 95%
- Average PTO after 1 year: 17 days (CLP), 12 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 5 years: 21 days (CLP), 15 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 10 years: 24 days (CLP), 17 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 20 years: 26 days (CLP), 19 days (no consolidated leave)
The financial services sector is key to the country’s security, but it faces a number of risks, including cyberattacks, says the federal Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency.
Professional services network Deloitte predicted a pivotal opportunity for financial services in 2022, pointing to banking, capital markets, financial services firms, and others to lead the industry’s future. Deloitte urged the industry to invest in talent while rethinking the workplace, and paid time off plans may be a place to begin.
#1. Insurance carriers
- Workers with access to PTO: 97%
- Average PTO after 1 year: 17 days (CLP), 11 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 5 years: 22 days (CLP), 15 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 10 years: 24 days (CLP), 17 days (no consolidated leave)
- Average PTO after 20 years: 27 days (CLP), 19 days (no consolidated leave)
Some 2.9 million people worked in the U.S. insurance industry in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The largest number of those, 1.7 million, worked for insurance companies.
Research from Deloitte found that despite concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry expects rapid growth in 2022 as the demand for insurance increases. With 97% of these workers having access to PTO, competitive benefits packages will need to be more comprehensive than in other industries.
This story originally appeared on Timetastic and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
Copyright 2022 Stacker via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/which-industries-get-most-least-time-off/ | 2022-04-14T06:14:07 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/which-industries-get-most-least-time-off/ |
WIS announced as finalist in the National Association of Broadcasters Service to America Awards
Published: Apr. 12, 2022 at 1:27 PM EDT
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - The National Association of Broadcasters announced that WIS is a finalist in the 2022 National Association of Broadcasters Service to America Awards.
Our station is being recognized for its Christmas campaign “Families Helping Families”, which has taken place at WIS News 10 for the last 30 years.
WIS will represent for Gray Media in the national competition at the awards ceremony on June 7, in Washington D.C.
The ceremony will be a special one-hour television event airing this summer.
Winners will be announced live at the in-person gala event.
Copyright 2022 WIS. All rights reserved.
Notice a spelling or grammar error in this article? Click or tap here to report it. Please include the article’s headline. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/wis-announced-finalist-national-association-broadcasters-service-america-awards/ | 2022-04-14T06:14:14 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/wis-announced-finalist-national-association-broadcasters-service-america-awards/ |
Yelp to cover travel expenses for workers seeking abortions
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yelp will cover the travel expenses of employees who must travel out of state for abortions, joining the ranks of major employers trying to help workers affected by new restrictions in Texas and other states.
The benefit announced Tuesday covers all 4,000 employees at the online review service, but seems most likely to have its biggest immediate impact on its 200 workers in Texas, which has passed a law banning abortions within the state after six weeks of pregnancy.
“We’ve long been a strong advocate for equality in the workplace, and believe that gender equality cannot be achieved if women’s healthcare rights are restricted,” said Miriam Warren, Yelp’s chief diversity officer.
Other states, including Oklahoma, are also are clamping down on abortions, prompting Yelp, based in San Francisco, and several other companies to draw up policies aimed at helping their workers get reproductive health care in other states.
Last month Citigroup, based in New York, disclosed plans to cover the travel expenses of any of its more than 220,000 employees, thousands of whom work in Texas, who travel to another state for an abortion.
The two largest U.S. ride-hailing services, Uber and Lyft, last year announced they will pay the legal fees for drivers who could get sued under the new Texas law for transporting a passenger to an appointment for an abortion.
The policies expose companies to potential backlash from those who support abortion restrictions, but they could be an advantage for employers with a footprint in states like Texas in an increasingly competitive job market.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/yelp-cover-travel-expenses-workers-seeking-abortions/ | 2022-04-14T06:14:20 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/04/12/yelp-cover-travel-expenses-workers-seeking-abortions/ |
PORTSMOUTH — The Titans’ true turnaround on the baseball diamond continued on Tuesday —with their latest victory.
Exactly one day after upsetting Ironton St. Joseph 5-1 in a rain-soaked Southern Ohio Conference Division I clash, Notre Dame defeated visiting South Gallia in a non-league affair — mercy-ruling the Rebels 13-3 in five innings.
The win raised the Titans’ record to 4-5, as they scored single runs in innings one and three —before erupting for 11 runs over the final two at-bats, including four in the fourth and seventh in the fifth for the mercy rule.
South Gallia garnered its runs by scoring one time apiece in innings one, two and three.
Notre Dame outhit the Rebels 11-5, and made one fewer errors (3-2).
Notre Dame senior Nathan Johnson pitched all five innings for the complete-game victory, allowing two earned runs on five hits and five walks while striking seven out.
Of the Titans’ 11 hits, senior Matt Boldman belted three including a double — and amassed five runs batted in.
Shepherd and Myles Phillips finished with two hits apiece including a double by Shepherd — as Dylan Seison, Reagan Lester and Shepherd had two runs batted in apiece.
Johnson also helped his cause by being walked three times — as he, Lester, Reed Lasswell and Alex Cassidy each collected one basehit.
Shepherd, Phillips, Brody Coleman and Eric Collins all crossed the plate for a pair of runs.
© 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved | https://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/sports/74650/titans-mercy-rule-rebels | 2022-04-14T06:26:07 | 1 | https://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/sports/74650/titans-mercy-rule-rebels |
Chilton County, Ala. (WIAT) — A senior prank involving Chilton County and Jemison High Schools is garnering significant attention, but what prank would gain that much attention? The answer: swapping places. Around 12 seniors from Chilton County went to Jemison High, and four from Jemison went to Chilton County.
“It was…it was a really good prank,” County Commissioner Allen Williams said.
According to several of the seniors involved with the prank, suspension were just one of the forms of punishment they face. Jemison Senior Haileigh Greer claims she was kicked off the softball team for her involvement with the prank and other Jemison students faced harsher punishments as well. She, along with most involved, felt the schools reactions were extreme.
“It was a harmless prank. We didn’t mean for it to go this far and we had no idea they would react like this,” Chilton County High senior Mallory Adams said.
Students also claim it took the schools a few hours to figure out what was going on.
“We got to the school around 7:50-55 a.m. and we stayed til 9:20 a.m. without getting caught or anything. The teachers and stuff, they didn’t notice,” Greer said.
“I walked right by the police officer and the principal in a spider-man costume and they, like, didn’t see me,” Adams said.
The news of the prank continues to gain attention online. A petition to change the students punishment has circulated and had thousands of signatures when CBS 42 last checked. Commissioner Williams also felt the punishment was harsh and says this prank opened up several issues for the schools, such as security. He also feels all punishments should be equal and that the students shouldn’t be the only ones in trouble.
“How did these students get into two of our schools? And the other thing I hope comes out of it is that they look at their punishment policies. Whether it’s the school, school board, and make it consistent for everybody involved,” Williams said.
Neither high school administration wanted to comment about the prank. Chilton County Superintendent Jason Griffin sent this statement: “Chilton County Schools follows law, policy and procedure in all aspects of day-to-day operations.”
But at the end of the day, these seniors say they have no regret about the prank.
“Heck I didn’t like Clanton people, but I actually like them now,” Greer said.
“We can’t stand Jemison, but we all came together,” Chilton County Senior Kolby Hughes said. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/chilton-county-and-jemison-high-seniors-swap-schools-for-senior-prank-draws-massive-attention/ | 2022-04-14T06:36:08 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/chilton-county-and-jemison-high-seniors-swap-schools-for-senior-prank-draws-massive-attention/ |
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) – As storms continue to brew in our western-most counties, EMA officials want to make sure you do not get complacent with warnings.
Weather fatigue is weighing down on EMA officials in Tuscaloosa County after pattern of mid-week storms. Regardless of the warning, the EMA office wants to make sure you take every single warning seriously.
“For me especially and those who were here on April 27, 2011, we don’t take those warnings and watches lightly,” Tuscaloosa County EMA Deputy Director Tamara Croom said. “We’re just trying to make sure people aren’t getting complacent with the severe weather alerts that are going out because we are facing five weeks straight of severe weather.”
April 27th keeps Croom on guard each time there’s a threat for severe weather. Now five weeks in a row, mid-week, leaving damage behind, and this time there’s a more elevated risk she said because the storm is happening overnight.
“The one time that you’re not prepared is when you need to be prepared,” Croom said. “We can’t get lazy when it comes to being prepared for any kind of severe weather.”
Croom said to make sure your weather radio is charged and that you are signed up for Tusc Alerts – which will give you a courtesy phone call just in case. She also says it’s important that you take pictures of damage to your home or business and report them on the county EMA website. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/ema-officials-warn-against-allowing-weather-fatigue-to-set-in/ | 2022-04-14T06:36:14 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/ema-officials-warn-against-allowing-weather-fatigue-to-set-in/ |
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) – The USFL kicks off this weekend in the magic city and nd many are grabbing tickets ahead of the first game.
Over the next 12 weeks, eight teams will be living and playing right here in Birmingham. The league is expected to bring in thousands of fans. Organizers said tickets are selling fast for the first game this Saturday. Right now based on sales, the stadium is projected to be over 50% full.
Bruno Events Team CEO Gene Hallman said with tickets being so affordable, at just $10 a pop, they are confident even out of state teams will draw a large crowds.
“We think that there’s going to be this adopt a team kind of attitude for local residents where they’ll pick a team because of their cool name or because they have a relative that lives in that city or they like the colors of the team. But we do think that each team will have an identity and a fan base right here but clearly the Birmingham Stallions will have the most fans,” said Hallman.
If you want to catch the stallions in action tickets are still available. To buy tickets click HERE.
The Stallions take on the New Jersey Generals Saturday at Protective Stadium. Kick off is set for 7:30 p.m. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/usfl-officials-confident-fans-will-turn-out-even-for-out-of-state-teams/ | 2022-04-14T06:36:20 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/usfl-officials-confident-fans-will-turn-out-even-for-out-of-state-teams/ |
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s reelection campaign is refusing to divulge details of a $72,556 payment to an Albuquerque-based law firm believed to have represented the governor in a sexual harassment case.
The Oct. 6 payment to Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias & Ward PA for unspecified “legal expenses” appeared in the governor’s most recent campaign finance report.
“The campaign retained the firm to represent and advise it on legal issues,” campaign spokeswoman Kendall Witmer wrote in an email Wednesday after ignoring repeated requests for comment Tuesday.
The law firm’s David A. Freedman did not return a message seeking comment.
Witmer did not respond when asked whether the payment was tied to a settlement involving James Hallinan, a former campaign staffer who accused Lujan Grisham of grabbing his genitals during her first campaign for governor.
Hallinan, who first alluded to the alleged assault in a 2019 Christmas Day tweet, told The New Mexican in an interview that year Lujan Grisham had dumped water on his crotch and then touched his genitals. He described the incident as a “slap and grab” that haunted him daily.
“It’s eaten away at me every single day, all the time. And I’m not the only one, like I tweeted,” he said at the time. “They can try to defame me and say I’m horrible, that I’m this or that. No one is perfect, and they can criticize me all they want, but that doesn’t change what happened.”
The payment for legal expenses comes after the campaign reported two installments — one in monthly payments totaling $62,500 and the second in monthly payments totaling $87,500, for an overall total of $150,000 — to a law firm that represented Hallinan. The payouts were reported over two campaign reporting periods and sparked unflattering headlines for the governor each time.
Republicans hoping to regain control of the Governor’s Office in November have used the alleged assault to assail Lujan Grisham as she seeks a second four-year term.
Witmer said in a statement in October that Lujan Grisham and then-campaign adviser Dominic Gabello unequivocally denied the “false, dubious, and meritless claims” made by Hallinan.
“The campaign reached this settlement in 2020 due to the expense of litigating business disputes and to prevent any distraction during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Witmer said at the time.
Hallinan declined to comment Wednesday. One of his attorneys declined to disclose whether the law firm that received the payment represented the governor in her client’s harassment case.
“That is a question best directed to the Governor,” the attorney, Rachel Berlin Benjamin, wrote in an email. “Governor Lujan Grisham and Mr. Hallinan have resolved any differences or issues to their satisfaction. I cannot provide any further information.” | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/lujan-grishams-campaign-refuses-to-explain-72-600-expenditure-for-legal-services/article_88154250-bb94-11ec-961c-d77a012834cc.html | 2022-04-14T06:39:50 | 0 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/lujan-grishams-campaign-refuses-to-explain-72-600-expenditure-for-legal-services/article_88154250-bb94-11ec-961c-d77a012834cc.html |
Meow Wolf is in the process of establishing a foundation to formalize its philanthropic pursuits and has hired Julie Heinrich, wife of U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, to serve as its executive director.
The Santa Fe-based arts and entertainment company, which boasts successful attractions in Santa Fe, Denver and Las Vegas, Nev., announced the move Wednesday.
“The foundation is a piece of our evolution of a growing, purpose-driven company,” Meow Wolf said in an email response to questions.
Julie Heinrich comes to Meow Wolf after eight years at the Washington, D.C, global public relations firm Weber Shandwick, most recently as senior vice president.
Meow Wolf noted in the release the company has contributed more than $2 million to nonprofit partners since its founding.
Launching a foundation comes in the wake of a meteoric 2021 for Meow Wolf, which opened its first out-of-state attractions in February with Omega Mart in Las Vegas, Nev., and in September in Denver with Convergence Station.
“We’ve been working towards launching a nonprofit foundation for a while now, as a complement to our existing corporate citizenship and social impact commitments as a certified B Corp.,” Meow Wolf wrote in an email, referring to companies that meet high standards in a variety of fields, including social and environmental performance, plus transparency.
“It will mean that as the business grows, we can give back and better serve our communities (N.M., Colo., Nev.+ future communities),” the email continued. “We have a strong culture of volunteerism so our employees will play an important role in the Foundation.”
Meow Wolf’s three attractions together drew 1.7 million visitors last year, the company reported.
Meow Wolf does not release revenue figures, but it likely multiplied several times over since 2019.
Meow Wolf states it has nearly 1,000 employees in New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada. The company dropped to as low as
270 employees in the early months of the pandemic with the state-mandated closure of Meow Wolfs’ first permanent installation, House of Eternal Return, on Rufina Circle in Santa Fe.
“The foundation is a demonstration of how Meow Wolf can be a force for good in our communities,” Meow Wolf CEO Jose Tolosa said in a release. “There’s a strong altruistic spirit at our company and many of our employees are eager to volunteer with partner organizations. As we grow, so will our impact in communities.”
Heinrich was raised in Colorado and served as digital media director for the city of Albuquerque and as chief communications officer for former Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca.
She and Martin Heinrich, a Democrat, have two sons. The senator is a former Albuquerque city councilor.
“The Meow Wolf Foundation will work alongside the company as a mission-driven entity, using art and imagination to build community, encourage more equal access to culture and impact change,” Julie Heinrich said in the news release. | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/meow-wolf-hires-sen-heinrichs-wife-to-lead-new-foundation/article_70f91d0c-bb3b-11ec-ab93-af9b78b4311d.html | 2022-04-14T06:39:56 | 0 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/meow-wolf-hires-sen-heinrichs-wife-to-lead-new-foundation/article_70f91d0c-bb3b-11ec-ab93-af9b78b4311d.html |
Katherine Miller inherited a string of scandals and problems when she stepped in as Santa Fe County manager in 2010.
Before she took the helm, the county public works director had been placed on administrative leave and was under investigation for taking cash bribes.
The sheriff resigned a short time later after he admitted he had stolen county-owned property and sold it on eBay for personal gain.
A multimillion-dollar courthouse project had stalled and was just a hole in the ground.
And the county was under the spotlight for paying $7 million for 470 acres near La Cienega but having no plan for the property.
“One of the things I was asked [when interviewing for the job] was, ‘Could you help lead us in a new direction, a different direction?’ ” Miller recalled in a wide-ranging interview Wednesday, a day after announcing she was retiring after a 25-year public service career.
The County Commission said Tuesday it has selected County Attorney Greg Shaffer to replace her. He is expected to step into the job in May, and Miller will aid with the transition.
Miller said she wanted to take on the challenge “because I knew that was not the county, having worked here before.”
She previously worked as the county’s procurement manager and finance director.
“Sure, there’s always things that maybe we could do better, and maybe there are things we wish didn’t happen or didn’t plan to have happen,” she said, “but I also knew that how the county was being portrayed publicly was not the core of what this organization is or how they performed for the constituents.”
While the county still stumbles occasionally, Miller, 58, has transformed its reputation to one of a well-run organization over the past 11½ years.
“I think what she brought to the position, especially as the years went by, was a level of professionalism that [didn’t exist] prior to her,” said Roman “Tiger” Abeyta, a former Santa Fe city councilor who served as county manager before Miller.
“In the 20 years that I was at the county, we had eight managers with myself included, so we averaged a county manager like every two, two and a half years,” Abeyta said. “I was county manager for four years, but I think she brought a stability to the position and also kind of a change in reputation of the position.”
Abeyta said the county manager’s job used to be considered a “political position.”
“She removed that political element from it and established it as more of a professional position, which it should have been all along,” he said.
Steve Kopelman, executive director of New Mexico Counties, said Miller is “extremely conscientious” and one of the hardest-working people he’s ever met.
“She’s sharp as an arrow, and she knows how to get things done,” said Kopelman, who was the county attorney when Miller first went to work for the county as its procurement manager.
“I think she is one of the top county managers in the state, without question,” he added. “She has tremendous respect among her peers.”
Miller didn’t set out for a career in public service.
The daughter of an Air Force officer who moved about every two to three years as a kid, Miller went to Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, on an art scholarship with the intent of becoming a commercial artist.
“My mom said I probably came out of the womb drawing,” she said.
But in college, Miller started to look at what commercial artists earned at the time.
“Well, I thought maybe I should get on the business side of things,” she said, laughing, “so I changed my major to a Bachelor of Science in business, marketing and management.”
At age 33 and in the midst of a divorce, she came to New Mexico, where her late mother lived.
“I had decided I was just going to come to Santa Fe for a few months and figure out what I was going to do from there,” she said.
One day, she was flipping through the newspaper and saw a job announcement for the county’s purchasing manager. After graduating from college and getting married, Miller worked as a procurement manager, as well as the manager of an energy conservation company, and had run an accounting office.
Miller applied and got the job.
“I loved working at the county from the first time I started here in 1997,” she said.
About a year and a half later, Miller was promoted to finance director.
“It was challenging because I was the fifth finance director in five years,” she said. “It was a little daunting because I didn’t want to be let go of. It was my first appointed position. It wasn’t classified. It was at-will, and I had just bought a house like six weeks before.”
After former Gov. Bill Richardson was elected, Miller joined his administration as deputy chief of staff of policy and projects in the spring of 2003.
“Talk about fast paced and learning on my feet. Every day was a learning experience,” she said.
The following year, Miller became executive director of the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, where she established the Housing Trust Fund and the affordable housing tax credit. In 2006, Richardson appointed Miller as Cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration.
As Richardson’s administration was coming to an end, Miller started looking for other work and was being considered for a job as the financial services director for the city of San Diego.
Around the same time, a Santa Fe County commissioner called Miller and asked if she was interested in returning to the county as manager, which she did in 2010.
“I really … welcomed a challenge to branch out into more general management, not just financial management,” she said. “While it was Santa Fe County — and that was great because I knew the county — it was also a much broader range of issues and a much broader level of management … and looking at the entire county and how do we move the entire county forward.”
Miller cites several accomplishments under her tenure, including developing a comprehensive land development code and growth management plan, which the county had tried to do for decades.
“Does it still need improvements? Yes. Could we make the process more streamlined? Yes, and we’re working on that,” she said.
Miller said the county is in great financial shape.
“We went from AA bond rating to now AAA,” she said. “We just got reaffirmed by Standard and Poor’s last week, and we are positioned to respond to any economic situations that are thrown our way.”
Richardson called Miller “an incomparable public servant.”
“She has been a compassionate and fiscally responsible executive for a long time,” Richardson wrote in an email. “However I believe that her retirement will be short lived. She is a workaholic with a great public interest. She will be back!”
Miller said she has no plans to return to work.
“In 2019, I was diagnosed with cancer. While I am now cancer-free, I haven’t physically recovered from the stress that that put on me and my body,” she said.
As she was coming out of her treatments, the coronavirus pandemic started, she said.
“I lost my dog of 15 years almost immediately and then I lost my mother, and I never took time off in either of those circumstances,” she said. “I took the bare minimum to bury my mother and the bare minimum to get through my treatments.”
After the pandemic hit, Miller said she felt a moral obligation to “stay and try to work us out of” the pandemic.
“But now, I would like to step away from the stress and take time with my husband and family and just get some time to myself to heal because this will suck the life out of anybody,” she said, laughing.
Miller said she doesn’t think she could be happier with how her career turned out.
“I have absolutely loved the opportunities that were given to me,” she said. “I love New Mexico. I love Santa Fe, and I have felt honored and privileged to be able to serve in roles where I’ve hopefully made a difference.”
Miller publicly announced her retirement during Tuesday’s County Commission meeting.
Deciding to retire likely was harder for her than most people, she said, adding, “I feel very blessed and grateful that this was such a difficult decision for me. I’ve been the manager for over 11.6 years or 4,240 days, to be exact, today. But who’s counting?”
Miller described her time as county manager as “one of the most rewarding and also most challenging positions” of her 40-year career.
Though commissioners were aware of her announcement beforehand, it left several of them teary-eyed.
“It makes me very sad to know that you’re leaving,” Commissioner Anna Hansen said. “There are clearly not words that we can all express our gratitude. … I know that many people will be very surprised and I guess shocked by the fact that you’re leaving. But at the same time, we’re lucky we had you for the time that we did, so thank you.”
Commissioner Hank Hughes, executive director and co-founder of the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, jokingly questioned whether the commission could vote to reject Miller’s retirement.
“I won’t go on quite as long as Commissioner Hansen because men aren’t supposed to cry,” said Hughes, who has known Miller for 20 years. | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/outgoing-santa-fe-county-manager-reflects-on-25-years-of-public-service/article_1468b152-bb3f-11ec-b858-f3481d248546.html | 2022-04-14T06:40:02 | 1 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/outgoing-santa-fe-county-manager-reflects-on-25-years-of-public-service/article_1468b152-bb3f-11ec-b858-f3481d248546.html |
Two days a week is all there will be at first, but Esquina Pizza finally opens Friday next door to Paloma.
Paloma and Esquina owner Marja Martin and business partner, chef and co-founder Nathan Mayes thought they had opened their takeout pizza joint in early March.
“We had a pizza party one weekend and we had one weekend of being open, and then we closed,” Martin said.
Mayes said a couple of permitting issues had to be ironed out, and the omnipresent staffing challenges stunted the March opening.
“We just haven’t been able to adequately staff Paloma and Esquina at the same time,” Mayes said.
Mayes found a way to reopen Esquina Pizza, 403 S. Guadalupe St., on a limited basis. Esquina will be open only from 4 to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays until more staff is hired, Mayes said.
“Takeout is the only thing we’re doing at this point,” Martin said. “It’s a tiny little space. We want to use that space efficiently.”
She said patio dining could happen in coming months.
Esquina (corner in Spanish) accepts online orders starting at 4 p.m. Friday at esquinapizza.com/menu.
“We suggest placing orders ahead of time as availability will be first come, first serve while supplies last,” the website reads.
Martin and Mayes opened Paloma in July 2017 as a Mexican-inspired restaurant and bar with authentic recipes from Mexico and Mayes’ fresh interpretations of Mexican cuisine. The Esquina idea surfaced in the early months of the pandemic as takeout dining became the only restaurant dining option.
The Esquina sign went up Aug. 4, but Martin at that time acknowledged no opening date was in place. Like the restaurant industry in general, Esquina has had hiring challenges, plus city permitting challenges — and the great unknowns that every day of the two-year pandemic have delivered.
Mayes and Martin originally thought Esquina could open a year ago. But once indoor dining at full capacity was restored and the dining public came out, the restaurant world became extra busy amid the effects of the ”Great Resignation”; many people across the country did not return to restaurant jobs.
“The pandemic caught everybody off guard,” Martin said. “We’ve been busier than we expected to be. We’ve been too busy to think of a new place.”
Esquina adjoins Paloma, and both spaces are leased. Mayes said the first thought was to expand the Paloma dining room or establish a high-end mezcal tasting room.
“Pizza just resonated,” Mayes said. “We just love pizza. It’s more the love of the game than a business venture. It’s the handmade artisan aspect that sets us apart.”
Martin said the dough is fermented for three days, which makes it “flavorful.” Mayes said he gets flour from Utah and wheat from local producers. “We hand-stretch our mozzarella,” he said.
The creation of Esquina allows his staff to source many topping ingredients from the Santa Fe Farmers Market.
“We are going to launch with local spinach on Friday,” Mayes said. “I’m looking forward to a full season of heirloom tomatoes and sweet peppers. I don’t have those now.” | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/paloma-restaurant-companion-esquina-pizza-has-limited-opening/article_f1983792-bb39-11ec-bb5c-4b911b01fb37.html | 2022-04-14T06:40:08 | 1 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/paloma-restaurant-companion-esquina-pizza-has-limited-opening/article_f1983792-bb39-11ec-bb5c-4b911b01fb37.html |
As city officials entered the second day of budget hearings Wednesday, union leaders questioned a proposal to create a mortgage fund for public safety personnel, arguing the money also should be extended to other city workers.
The $750,000 fund was unveiled Monday as part of the city’s proposed $382 million 2023 fiscal year budget and is intended to help police officers, firefighters and EMTs place down payments on local homes. But American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3999 Vice President Gil Martinez said he felt the fund created an inequity.
“I understand where they are coming from, but some of those incentives, AFSCME would like to be included in as well,” Martinez said Wednesday.
Martinez said the union appreciated the proposed 8 percent salary bump offered to AFSCME members. But he said the raise offered to the Santa Fe Police Officers Association, which could reach 16 percent, caught the union’s attention, as did the public safety mortgage assistance program.
The local chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters also is receiving a prospective 8 percent raise, but Martinez noted the firefighters union will have access to the mortgage fund as well.
The final distribution of the raises will have to be collectively bargained by the unions.
Union leaders voiced their frustration with the budget layout during the first day of the city’s Finance Committee budget hearing Tuesday. The introduction of the budget was the first leg in months’ worth of hearings that will wrap up at the April 27 City Council meeting.
“It was difficult not to notice the disparity of all the budgetary appropriations for all the employee unions,” Therese Martinez, chairwoman of the union’s labor management committee, said during the meeting.
According to a budget summary, the fund will kick off a pilot project that will then be vetted and studied after implementation.
In a Monday interview, Mayor Alan Webber said the fund was intended to help ensure more public safety personnel lived and worked in Santa Fe, which is in the throes of a housing crisis that is pushing many workers in both the public and private sectors to other communities, including Rio Rancho, Albuquerque and Española.
But Martinez countered the majority of city employees who aren’t in public safety also live outside Santa Fe’s boundaries and would benefit from the assistance as well.
“These essential people have to be as close to Santa Fe as well,” he said. “It’s not just the police.”
City Manager John Blair was in budget hearings Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. But in a statement he said, “We fundamentally believe that public safety is a very high priority for the community right now so we’re doing all we can to attract the very best men and women to serve in the Santa Fe Police Department.
“Offering mortgage assistance to public safety staff, including police officers and firefighters, so they can afford to live in the city is an important piece of this plan and one that will enhance the overall safety of our community,” Blair said. “At the same time, we’re excited to recommend the equivalent of an 8 percent increase for all other city employees and to engage with AFSCME on negotiations regarding what best meets their needs in accordance with the allocated budget and labor laws.”
The city is working toward completing a class and compensation study by December in the hopes of ironing out any salary inequities within city government.
City Councilor Chris Rivera, a former city fire chief, said he believes the fund should be extended to all city employees and expects the topic to be discussed later during budget hearings.
He said “public safety” could also define those who work in sanitation, public utilities and other positions.
“There are essential employees that cover all bases,” he said. “They are just as important to the system as everyone else.”
Rivera said there are some things about the budget he liked, but he was concerned about the proposed pay raises for city police and how they compare to other employees.
“You will never see the fire union say anything about it; it is just a common courtesy thing, but it is something that is of concern to me,” he said. “Not just for morale, but for retention of employees in all other areas.”
City Councilor Renee Villarreal, who serves on the Finance Committee, wrote other committee members Monday that she shared the union’s concerns while asking for additional information from Local 3999’s brass.
“I don’t want to sound like we are ungrateful for them offering the 8 percent raise,” Martinez said. “But our concern is AFSCME is always left behind compared to everyone else. We are the backbone of the city, and we are the ones who are left holding the bag all the time.” | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/union-says-mortgage-aid-for-first-responders-should-be-offered-to-all-city-workers/article_92ada9ee-bb5f-11ec-bbca-031cd0b1ae14.html | 2022-04-14T06:40:14 | 1 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/union-says-mortgage-aid-for-first-responders-should-be-offered-to-all-city-workers/article_92ada9ee-bb5f-11ec-bbca-031cd0b1ae14.html |
“There are no architects, managers, actors, singers, video directors in Ukraine now. Now all are military and volunteers.”
Kateryna “Katya” Virovtseva is 32. She was, is and will be again an architect.
For now, she is an animal rescuer.
Terrible explosions were heard in Kyiv at 5 a.m. Feb. 24. Everyone thought the Russians were just shelling the city as a warning; no one thought they would invade. Yet on that night, her life — and her husband Dmytro’s life — changed forever. They thought it was only an isolated shelling from the Russians and everything would end, and life would go back to normal.
As I write this, it is now day 47 of the war.
She told me it was difficult to describe what they felt during the siege of Kyiv. They hardly slept, and there was constant fear.
It was hard to be on the street when they saw the open sky and didn’t know if a Russian missile was flying toward them. Any loud sound caused terrible fear. The Russians stole their quiet, habitual lives, and many Ukranians lost their homes.
Katya wants us to understand how Ukrainians act whenever there is trouble to preface what happened next. She told me everyone unites and starts helping one another. It doesn’t matter if people know each other or not. They are now like one family of 40 million people, led by a courageous leader. She also said they are “insanely” grateful for the army.
“It cannot be described in words,” she said, “but we are fighting for our land, for what we have been building for years. This cannot simply be taken away!”
My colleague, Bill Daniels, an American expat living in France, has delivered drones and night vision goggles to Ukraine for the army and the civilian volunteers. He told me a story that as kids, when they’d kick over an anthill, the ants immediately began rebuilding their home. They didn’t complain. They just went to work. The Ukrainians, Daniels said, are precisely like that. They immediately began to fight, rescue and rebuild. He was amazed by their spirit under terrible conditions.
That is the spirit that Katya and Dmytro personify. They have always cared for animals. They usually had dog and cat food in the trunk of their car for strays.
During the initial siege of Kyiv, they bought food and supplies and donated items to the people running the shelters. Katya then posted on Instagram to raise more money to buy supplies for a growing population of homeless animals.
“After the liberation of the Kyiv region,” volunteers went back into the city to rescue abandoned pets, including dogs, from shelters that had been in Russian territory for over a month. This was particularly dangerous work because the Russians had left unexploded ordinance and mines in their wake as they retreated.
The volunteers could not save all the dogs. Many had died from starvation. But now, in the city, there are over 3,000 volunteers helping to care for the surviving animals, including walking and feeding them.
Katya and Dmytro also continue to ride around the city and feed the homeless animals because there are still not many people in Kyiv and all the animals are very hungry.
Of course, besides courage and tenacity, tragedy can also get lost in all the numbers. (Joseph Stalin, another Russian tyrant, allegedly said the death of one is a tragedy, the death of millions merely a statistic.)
Katya told me the story of one woman, Tatyana, who was killed by Russian violence. Her dog, Rini, had been found waiting for her on her doorstep — and she wouldn’t leave.
Rini only accepted food that volunteers brought to her. She wouldn’t leave the door. Volunteers were searching for a family to take Rini.
Finally, I asked Katya what she wanted. All she said was victory for Ukraine, nothing less. She wanted us, Americans, to not forget them as the war drags on. She wanted us to remember this is a war against tyranny, and evil versus a democracy. She knows America well enough to know we have a short attention span sometimes, and we go from news cycle to news cycle. What actor Will Smith did at the Oscars competes with the Ukrainian tragedy for our attention. She asks us not to forget that this war is ultimately our war. And it is another time we say, “Never forget!”
Slava Ukraini! (Glory to Ukraine!) | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/paws/couple-care-for-homeless-pets-around-kyiv/article_d5f56590-bb85-11ec-9452-ef8cb775c67b.html | 2022-04-14T06:40:20 | 0 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/paws/couple-care-for-homeless-pets-around-kyiv/article_d5f56590-bb85-11ec-9452-ef8cb775c67b.html |
The "Spring Into Love" adoption event begins Friday at the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society with adult dogs and cats over 5 months old costing $5 to adopt, and puppies and kittens costing $25.
The event runs through May 1.
Due to overcapacity issues already and to make room for the busy summer season, the Santa Fe animal shelter is bringing back the Spring Into Love promotion with the lowest adoption rates yet. The promotion aims to find as many homes as possible for the 200 animals at the shelter.
“We have a lot of great animals, all sizes, breeds and ages, who are looking for their second chance in life,” said shelter spokesman Murad Kirdar. “We hope the Spring Into Love promotion will bring the community out to meet one of these love bugs and will ease our population issues at the shelter.”
All the animals are spayed or neutered, microchipped, vaccinated and come with a bag of food. The Spring Into Love special excludes shelter heroes. For more information and to see available animals, visit SFHumanesociety.org.
Santa Fe animal shelter on the road
The Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society’s mobile adoption team will be at Daisy's Holistic Health, 4056 Cerrillos Road, Unit D-1, from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday. Animals of all ages will be on hand.
For more information and to see available animals, visit SFHumaneSociety.org.
'Pet Chat' discusses alternatives to crating dogs
Pet Chat with Murad and Bobbi discusses alternatives for dogs who hate being in a crate for long periods and share creative ways to confine them. Also, a new study says cats have an obesity problem; the pair discuss ways to keep cats active. And, how far would you travel to find a pet, and with recreational marijuana now legal in New Mexico, is it safe for pets?
Pet Chat airs 9 a.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday on 1260 AM and 103.7 FM. The show also streams on SantaFe.com.
Still time to vote for Petco Love finalist
Jayne Johnson of Santa Fe has been chosen by Petco Love as one of the five finalists for the 2022 Unsung Heroes and has received a $10,000 grant for her to continue her lifesaving work with animals. If Johnson is chosen as the national Unsung Hero Award recipient, her organization could receive a $25,000 grant.
Petco is accepting votes at petcolove.org/unsung-heroes. People can also watch Johnson’s story and vote for her. Voting ends Monday.
Española Humane gets $3,000 from Maddie's Fund
Maddie’s Fund recently awarded Española Humane a $3,000 prize for its marketing and communications efforts for embracing the community during the national fall Open Arms Challenge.
The shelter was among 194 organizations that embraced open and welcoming policies, including translating materials into multiple languages, creating new partnerships with organizations outside of animal welfare and removing barriers to adoption, fostering and volunteering.
The efforts resulted in the adoption of 47,341 dogs and cats and support for 33,565 volunteers and 25,296 foster caregivers during the month-long challenge period, organizers said.
Maddie’s Fund is a national family foundation established by Dave and Cheryl Duffield that aims to revolutionize the status and well-being of companion animals.
“Thanks to Maddie, this grant will help us continue to support our community and get the word out about the great work that we are able to do for the people and pets,” said Bridget Lindquist, the shelter’s executive director. “These challenges help our team stay up to date on national programs and yet apply that knowledge on the local level, where it is needed.”
During the challenge period, Española Humane looked at ways it could ensure that its shelter provided services to all those in need and opened opportunities to foster and volunteer.
Maddie’s Fund, created in 1994, has awarded nearly $250 million in grants toward increased community lifesaving, shelter management leadership, shelter medicine education and foster care across the United States. | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/paws/overcrowded-santa-fe-pet-shelter-cuts-adoption-fees/article_2e3aa4ec-bb89-11ec-bab7-2fd24c1a8c5a.html | 2022-04-14T06:40:26 | 1 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/paws/overcrowded-santa-fe-pet-shelter-cuts-adoption-fees/article_2e3aa4ec-bb89-11ec-bab7-2fd24c1a8c5a.html |
Cisco was abandoned outside of the Española Walmart at
7 weeks old. Española Humane volunteer Madeleine Zinn fell in love with the pit bull mix during one of her weekly dog-walking shifts and took him home to foster.
Sadly, the puppy tested positive for distemper, a vaccine-preventable disease that erupted throughout the state this past winter.
Zinn and her husband, Christopher Jones of Santa Fe, stayed the course, offering food and care while Española Humane’s veterinary team provided round-the-clock support.
“Each time we went in for a vet check and PCR test, his numbers were better, and at each visit, Dr. [Gretchen] Yost was so happy to see Cisco. She was patient as I asked a billion questions, and she was genuinely invested in seeing him get healthy — and big,” Zinn said.
Two months later, Cisco beat the often-fatal disease, and found himself a forever home with Zinn and Jones.
“I didn’t think our first foster would be a fail. The plan was to foster for two weeks until he was ready to be adopted,” Zinn said. “But within a couple days, Chris said he thought Cisco was our dog. By the end of our distemper saga, when he finally tested negative, he was so obviously ours. You’d never know he had been sick, except for the enamel dysplasia, or what they call ‘distemper teeth.’ He’s 5 months old now and he runs around like a baby moose.”
Tracks
Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society: Clovis is a dapper 2-year-old mixed-breed dog who has German shepherd in him. Clovis was a bit shy when he came to the shelter, but he is now an exuberant and friendly guy. Clovis weighs 78 pounds, and his previous owner says has been around children and cats. He could be a hiking buddy or someone to chill with.
Stella is a sweet 10-pound, 2-year-old domestic long-haired female cat. Stella has her groove and is a very independent lady who likes to be pet from time to time. She is loving and beautiful cat, but very much in her own world. If you are looking for a friend to hangout in your house, Stella could be the one.
These and other animals are available for adoption from the animal shelter, 100 Caja del Rio Road.
The shelter’s adoption hours are from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Call 505-983-4309, ext. 1610, or visit SFHumane
Society.org with questions.
Española Humane: Mural is a 7-month-old 53-pound, long-legged dog who is always smiling. He’s learning basic commands and loves to show off his sitting skills best. He enjoys playing with other dogs and could play all day.
Tiger arrived at the shelter with a giant abscess in his abdomen. With surgery, medication and some time to heal, this 1-year-old 10-pound tabby is as good as new. Tiger has been affectionate and kind even in distress.
Call 505-753-8662 or visit espanola
Felines & Friends: Eight-year-old Macavity came to Felines & Friends with two other cats when their owner died. This sweet black-and-white boy loves attention, pets, catnip, snuggling under blankets and playing with wand toys. Macavity is a social guy who enjoys sitting up high to watch out windows and talking to his friends. He is at Petco’s adoption center.
Orange-and-white tabby Baby Boy is the ultimate lap kitty. Currently in foster care, this 1-year-old is a friendly love bug with perfect manners who enjoys people and cats. He can be a little shy, but once Baby Boy warms up, he loves to follow people everywhere. Baby Boy isn’t food or play motivated, but he will do just about anything for some pets. Apply at FandFnm.org.
Dew Paws Rescue: Seth is a sweetheart of a big brother to his sister Sasha. Both are under 1-year-old dogs, vaccinated and neutered and spayed. Seth is a bit shy and walks well on leash. Sasha is outgoing and friendly. If you are interested in fostering or adopting, call 505-412-9096 or go to infodewpaws@gmail.com. | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/paws/pair-nurse-dog-back-to-health-adopt/article_e8840956-bb7f-11ec-a8e5-a37b4dde202a.html | 2022-04-14T06:40:33 | 1 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/paws/pair-nurse-dog-back-to-health-adopt/article_e8840956-bb7f-11ec-a8e5-a37b4dde202a.html |
The state of New Mexico is burning.
Northern New Mexico is battling the Hermits Peak Fire, started because flames jumped the lines of a U.S. Forest Service prescribed burn. Valencia County is fighting the Big Hole Fire in its bosque, while down south the Nogal Canyon Fire in Lincoln County is ablaze.
Then there’s the McBride Fire near Ruidoso, which already has destroyed dozens of structures and spread over 4,000-plus acres with little containment in sight. Hundreds of our neighbors across the state have been evacuated. They don’t know if they will have homes to return to — whenever they can return.
And we are only at the beginning of what traditionally has been the wildfire season in the West.
Increasing the danger of catastrophic fire is extremely dry weather — humidity in many parts of the state is in the single digits, according to the National Weather Service.
These dry conditions, of course, are nothing new. The state remains in an extended dry period, with around 99 percent of New Mexico in conditions ranging from abnormally dry to extreme drought as of April 5. That’s according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which monitors conditions around the country.
Given that the state is bone dry, many are asking what led Forest Service managers to give the go-ahead last week for the Las Dispensas prescribed fire in the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest.
This is the conflagration that turned into the Hermits Peak wildfire, which currently threatens homes, livestock, forest and, potentially, the watershed for the city of Las Vegas. More than 350 firefighters are working day and night to contain the blaze.
May they be both safe and successful in beating it back. As of midday Wednesday, only about 10 percent of the fire was contained. This promises to be a long, hard fight.
Yet it didn’t have to happen. The release announcing the burn in March said: “The decision to proceed will depend on multiple factors, including resource availability, fuel moisture levels, air quality, ventilation, and forecasted weather and wind.” Forest officials say the forecast allowed the burn to proceed, and it is a decision that will need close inspection. A similar prescribed burn that was to take place this week in the Santa Fe watershed now is on hold — a wise call.
It’s all too easy to second-guess decisions that turn out to be catastrophically wrong, but it’s also important for Forest Service officials to explain better what they were thinking. Gusty winds on a New Mexico spring afternoon are hardly surprising. If winds can’t be predicted, then the risk can’t be calculated.
Such investigations will happen after the blaze is extinguished, although we trust top forest officials and others already are examining the decision to start the fire.
This key consideration needs to be included: Though we fully understand mistakes can be made, any error on prescribed burns erodes public confidence. And prescribed burns are critical if there’s any hope of containing megafires that can destroy entire communities. With that as prologue, it’s in the Forest Service’s best interests to be unsparing in its self-examination, because it needs public support to make these burns happen.
State officials must weigh in, too. The forests are under federal jurisdiction, but it is New Mexicans who bear the weight of catastrophic losses. The state is dry and growing drier. Fires already are blazing. All have to work together to prevent more fires; lightning strikes are out of human control, but other fires can be prevented.
Santa Fe County, thankfully, instituted a temporary ban on outdoor burning and will no longer be issuing permits. Other cities and counties might need to join in banning outdoor fires or restricting machinery that causes sparks. Individuals, of course, can stop throwing cigarette butts out the window. Preventing human-caused fires is essential — and that includes ones set on purpose. | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/editorials/a-state-on-fire-with-little-end-in-sight/article_ae8cd3dc-bb6a-11ec-88f2-3b7720da0503.html | 2022-04-14T06:40:39 | 0 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/editorials/a-state-on-fire-with-little-end-in-sight/article_ae8cd3dc-bb6a-11ec-88f2-3b7720da0503.html |
Planning Commission approves Zia Station development, April 8
“This is a location directly abutting a major thoroughfare, a rail station and bikeway, a grocery and several schools. Is there not a better place in all of town to build new housing? I fail to understand the chronic resistance to this project.” Ernest Green
“Perhaps because there are Santa Feans who can’t understand that it is illegal to stop people from coming to Santa Fe to live or that people who work in Santa Fe need to find housing, or just straightforward NIMBYism — Santa Fe is not an island. There is no drawbridge to raise to stop new residents.” Barry Rabkin
“Come on — if a developer can get by with devoting only 10 percent of new housing to affordable units, the city will never make a dent in affordable housing needs.” Floyd Cable
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identities can be removed from the forum. | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/evoices/e-voices-april-14-2022/article_d0f86124-ba99-11ec-9093-e39bb0bb9bd6.html | 2022-04-14T06:40:45 | 1 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/evoices/e-voices-april-14-2022/article_d0f86124-ba99-11ec-9093-e39bb0bb9bd6.html |
A heads-up to the disabled community (of which I am one) that Santa Fe’s Sandoval parking garage is not reliable in honoring fee-free parking to holders of handicapped parking placards. The city Parking Division says that upon departing the garage, placard-holders need only to press the call button at the exit gate to speak with someone who will request the placard number and will open the gate remotely. While trying to depart the garage after attending a sold-out performance at the Lensic, I found the call button did not work, and I ended up stuck between the closed exit gate and the crowd waiting to exit behind me. I could not open my car door since I was close-in beside the ticket-taking machine.
I had no choice but to sit there while the bewildered folks behind me wondered what was going on, since the Parking Division no longer provides attendants. Finally, one driver approached me on foot and agreed to guide the several exasperated drivers behind me to move so I could back up and get out of the way. This was humiliating and extremely stressful. To its credit, the Parking Division did return my follow-up call the next day, apologized and said the system has had ongoing problems. No kidding!
Greg Kroll
Santa Fe
The checks will help
To Brett Kokinades on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham — (“Solutions, not checks,” Letters to the Editor,
April 9): The other side of this coin is I am very grateful to our governor and our state Legislature for combating or ignoring the dystopian events, bills and legislation that have occurred in many parts of our country pummeling our democracy. And, at a time when tyrants are increasing their control of governments, the letter writer’s quest for solutions may be foretold by dictators and not fully discussed and evaluated in a democratic venue where solutions, even temporary ones, are found. As for the meaningless $500? If I qualify, it will allow me to fill my gas tank 10 times or buy food for two months or pay my electric bill for several months. I don’t think that is meaningless to me or to others in a country where some are turning their eyes away from democracy.
Marcia Wolf
Santa Fe
Too many burns
The U.S. Forest Service plans to burn 905 acres in Valle Vidal, 1,587 acres in Angel Fire, 3,318 acres in Tres Piedras, 4,543 acres in El Rito and 912 acres around Canjilon. It had planned to burn 1,000 acres in our Santa Fe watershed, although this project is on hold right now. Then, foresters will burn 128,000 acres (200 square miles) in the Encino Vista Project just northwest of Los Alamos. Then they plan to burn 38,000 acres (60 square miles) between Tesuque and Glorieta in the Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project.
The Forest Service ignited 1,207 acres in the Las Dispensas prescribed burn that went out of control and is now called the Hermits Peak Fire, with 6,276 acres burning. Another controlled burn near Roswell by the Bureau of Land Management went out of control and engulfed 1,900 acres as the Overflow Fire. This totals some 179,822 acres of ignitions, covering 281 square miles and releasing 865,000 tons of CO2. Go to theforestadvocate.org, SantaFeForestCoalition.org and OnceAForest.org.
Jan Boyer
Santa Fe
Sad legacy
South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has been in Congress almost 30 years, serving as both a representative and senator. What will his legacy be? He will not be regarded as a lawmaker who is a profile in courage. His friend, the late Sen. John McCain, was a profile in courage. He knew Russian President Vladimir Putin was a killer and a thug. Graham was gaga over former President Donald Trump even though Trump was a liar and not adult enough to acknowledge he lost the 2020 presidential election.
During the recent Supreme Court hearings, Graham railed against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson after previously backing her for a federal judgeship. During the confirmation vote, he showed no respect for Judge Jackson or our judicial system. Graham will be remembered as a finger-in-the-wind lawmaker. He does not have one scintilla of the integrity McCain exuded.
Stan Cooper
Santa Fe | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/warning-trapped-in-city-parking-garage/article_c15d9550-ba84-11ec-8773-6feb40500221.html | 2022-04-14T06:40:51 | 1 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/warning-trapped-in-city-parking-garage/article_c15d9550-ba84-11ec-8773-6feb40500221.html |
As families prepare for the celebratory Passover Seder dinner on Friday, I remember my parents’ table set with the kosher plates and cutlery and the cut-glass Elijah’s goblet. Although that cup was filled with wine at the beginning of the evening, somehow the wine disappeared before we sang the final song, “God of Might.” Yet I never saw my father drink from Elijah’s cup, so could this have been a hint of a future messianic appearance of the prophet? Stories abound about the life of Elijah and his role in the Passover narrative. Of all the personalities in the Haggadah narrative, why is it only Elijah for whom we pour a special glass of wine?
The prophet Elijah lived in the ninth century B.C. and was active in the political and social controversies of the land of Israel. He often criticized the ruling government and was rebuked by the rulers of his generation. One famous biblical story involves his battle against the false prophets and their worship of the idol of Baal. Elijah saw the growth of such idolatry and was disturbed by these lapses of the Israelites in their worship of the one God. The prophet challenged the priests of Baal to gather on one side of Mount Carmel, and he would stand on the opposite side of the mountain. Elijah turned to the people and announced: “How long will you keep hopping between two opinions? Choose between God and the idols. (I Kings 18) Finally the Israelites shouted: “The Lord, He alone is God.”
It is this famous phrase that we repeat seven times at the conclusion of the Yom Kippur services (the Day of Atonement). As a people, we affirm the meaning of these words to remind us of God’s unity and uniqueness.
In another story, Elijah yearned for an encounter with the divine. He prays for the presence of God, “and the voice of Adonai came to him and said, stand in the front of the cave.” Suddenly a strong wind blasted the mountains and shattered rocks before him, but the Lord was not in the wind, and the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After all these extraordinary moments, Elijah heard a still small voice, and God was in the silence.
These prophetic narratives remind us that we have work to accomplish. Our world is rent by warfare, hatred and violence against innocent civilians. Yet our task is to repair this world and engender kindness and compassion for the less fortunate. Let me offer this story from the tales of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic Jewish movement. The Baal Shem Tov lived in the early 1700s. A follower of the Baal Shem told him Elijah never appears for the Passover meal. So the Besht (the Baal Shem’s nickname) instructed his student to load a wagon with matzos, wine and good food and travel to a far-off village, where he would spend the first two days of Passover with a destitute family. There he would encounter Elijah!
The disciple traveled and found the family, and his gifts were accepted with gratitude. Everyone celebrated Passover with joy, especially the five children. But Elijah didn’t appear. The man returned home and recounted his journey to the Baal Shem Tov, and his profound disappointment. His master told him the following year, he would meet Elijah. He was told to return to that same family for the next year’s Seder dinner, bringing all of his gifts. Before the traveler entered the family’s meager home, he put his ear to the keyhole and heard the laments of the mother of the household. “Oh we have matzahs, no brisket, no charoses for our children. How can we begin the Passover in these dire straits?” The husband replied, “Do not worry! Remember last year, Elijah visited us and brought us all the wonderful foods and gifts for our children as well. Have faith! Surely he will return again one more time.”
The message is clear: Where there is no Elijah, be thou Elijah! Bring joy and gifts to others, and help us bring the messianic hope to all who would celebrate with us. | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/this-passover-bring-hope-to-all-who-will-celebrate/article_c8e06420-bb73-11ec-b025-c75496411219.html | 2022-04-14T06:40:57 | 1 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/this-passover-bring-hope-to-all-who-will-celebrate/article_c8e06420-bb73-11ec-b025-c75496411219.html |
In the hours after the suspected Brooklyn subway station gunman was arrested, police got a tip that raises a new question in the investigation: Did the alleged shooter do a possible test run at a Brooklyn airfield leading up to the attack?
Three law enforcement sources told NBC New York that members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the NYPD Crime Scene unit were at Floyd Bennett Field near Jamaica Bay Wednesday evening, recovering remnants of smoke grenades.
A tipster said that a white van — possibly a U-Haul van — was seen in the area in the very early morning hours Tuesday, according to law enforcement sources, and police were told someone may have been exploding smoke grenades near a wooded area.
Investigators stressed that it was far too soon to determine if there could be any connection to the subway attack suspect, and if it was any sort of possible test run of the smoke grenades. Nevertheless, officials are investigating to see if any connections could be made.
Law enforcement will look to see if that U-Haul van could be the same one that helped police link the shooting at the Sunset Park subway station to Frank James, the 62-year-old who was taken into custody in the East Village around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday without incident after a 28-hour manhunt, police said.
Law enforcement had zeroed in on James in the hours after Tuesday's shooting on the train at the 36th Street station, 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.
Police said a Crime Stoppers tip on Wednesday helped nab the alleged shooter — and law enforcement sources said they believe James called the tip line himself, saying he was at a McDonald's on the Lower East Side.
"This is Frank. You guys are looking for me ... my phone is about to die," the sources say the caller said.
James wasn't at the McDonald's by the time cops responded to the call, but they drove around and eventually spotted him on a street corner. He didn't resist.
Three sources familiar with the arrest said one of the NYPD officers approached and asked the man if he was James. He responded saying yes, and that he had been waiting for police to find him all day, according to the sources.
The suspect was questioned at the 9th Precinct Wednesday afternoon, before being led out of the stationhouse in handcuffs. A federal complaint in Brooklyn charged him with one count of committing a violent attack with a dangerous weapon on mass transportation, with the intent to cause death and serious bodily injury to New York City transit riders, authorities said.
Prosecutors said they also intend to prove he crossed state lines to commit the attack, and pledged justice would be served. A conviction carries a max sentence of 20 years in prison.
James didn’t respond to reporters’ shouted questions as he was led to a police car Wednesday afternoon. He was transferred hours later to federal Bureau of Prisons custody and was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The first court appearance is set for Thursday. Once in police custody, James refused to answer any questions, and asked for a lawyer.
Just ahead 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.
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 said. James' last known whereabouts were traced to Park Slope's Ninth Street and Seventh Avenue subway station, which he was seen entering around 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, less than an hour after the shooting, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
It wasn't immediately clear what James was doing in the time between that Park Slope sighting and his capture in Manhattan on Wednesday.
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.
Essig said the same black rolling suitcase James is seen taking into the Kings Highway station, three blocks from where the U-Haul was left, was recovered at the 36th Street shooting scene. The construction vest and helmet James was seen wearing in that video also were recovered nearby in a trash bin, Essig added.
How James escaped the chaotic scene at 36th Street had remained unclear until Wednesday, when top NYPD officials explained how they think, after firing 33 shots, he got out as emergency personnel raced to treat the wounded.
According to the preliminary investigation, James hopped on an R train that had pulled into 36th Street and took it one stop to 25th Street, where he was also seen on surveillance cameras, Essig said. The handgun recovered at the shooting scene was also traced to the suspect. It appears he purchased it in Ohio in 2011.
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.
Five of the gunshot victims were critically injured, with details on the nature of their wounds not immediately clear. No fatalities were reported.
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, officials 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 of the victims are expected to survive. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/police-investigate-possible-test-of-smoke-grenades-at-nyc-airfield-before-subway-attack/3645459/ | 2022-04-14T06:41:00 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/police-investigate-possible-test-of-smoke-grenades-at-nyc-airfield-before-subway-attack/3645459/ |
April 14, 1922: Las Vegas, April 14 — The steeple of the First Methodist Episcopal church, which has pointed skyward for more than 50 years, has been torn down, preparatory to removing the structure from the corner of Eighth and National avenues to make way for a new house of worship. The building has been purchased by the New Mexico Normal University and will be located on the campus.
April 14, 1947: El Chivo, who claims to be an expert on automobiles because he takes a ride every Saturday night in the black maria, today had acquired a fur-trimmed uniform and was seeking endorsements for appointment as chauffeur for the second-floor governor.
April 14, 1972: The residents of Pojoaque Valley are circulating a petition to present their views to the State Highway Department and to other elected representatives regarding the proposed widening of the bridges over the Pojoaque River and alterations to the intersection of State Road 4 and U.S. 64.
April 14, 1997: Two dozen pairs of feet traversed desert brush Sunday afternoon in a walking tour of the future site of the Santa Fe Botanical garden headquarters and learning center.
President Michael B. Pulman led the group over a small portion of the L-shaped, 25-acre plot of land where the estimated $5.2 million project will take root.
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As bridges, monuments and entire Ukrainian communities are destroyed during Russia’s ongoing invasion, archivists from around the world are rushing to back up the country's websites to preserve them. Among them is a woman from Berkeley, California.
“Our goal is to make sure that there are safe backup copies of as many websites as we can find that represent that culture and the lives of everyday people that intersect with Ukrainian culture,” said Quinn Dombrowski, an academic technology specialist at Stanford Libraries.
The effort is called “SUCHO” or "Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online."
It started on Twitter, shortly after Russia's invasion, when several people struck up a conversation about preserving music collections in Ukraine.
By March 1, a group of digital humanities experts was archiving everything from museum sites to census data to after-school language programs. More than 1,000 people were contributing to the effort by March 8, the group said.
“We have people digitally walking through the streets using Google Maps, looking for the museum icon to find museums. We may have been able to find up to that point,” said Dombrowski.
The army of volunteers is made of up archivists, librarians and even some elementary school students.
U.S. & World
This includes Dombrowski’s 8-year-old son Sam, who switched out his video game controller for a laptop and a real-life mission to archive sites.
Quinn recently spoke with parents from Malcolm X Elementary School and got a few students there to join in the effort, too.
“During this war, sites might go down and we need to make sure we have copies of them,” Sam Dombrowski said.
The team of volunteers has already seen an impact after saving data from sites they say just stopped working due to apparent non-payments or destroyed servers.
“The Kharkiv State Archives was a site that was physically damaged. But also, their website went down at the beginning of March and hasn’t been able to come back up again. And that’s a website Sebastian was able to archive early on," Quinn Dombrowski.
The group says they won’t stop until they’ve made a copy of almost everything they can find that makes up the essence of the Ukrainian people.
Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/berkeley-woman-among-group-preserving-ukraines-history/3645518/ | 2022-04-14T06:41:06 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/berkeley-woman-among-group-preserving-ukraines-history/3645518/ |
ALBUQUERQUE — The way Danny Gonzales sees it, every kickoff, every field goal attempt, every panoramic shot coming out of a commercial break at University Stadium will serve as the University of New Mexico’s open window to the world over the next two football seasons.
Rising from the dirt being excavated inside the school’s 40,000-seat stadium will be a state-of-the-art weight training facility that will accomplish a lot more than build muscle and condition athletes.
“Every time we’re on TV, people are going to see this thing coming to life and they’ll know immediately that we’re committed to improving and winning championships at the University of New Mexico,” said Gonzales, the Lobos’ football coach the last two years.
He was one of a few dozen dignitaries on hand for an official groundbreaking ceremony for the new $4.3 million, 11,312-square-foot New Mexico Mutual Champions Training Center on Wednesday.
“It shows progress, and progress is what people want to see if you’re going to be taken seriously,” Gonzales said.
A host of executives from New Mexico Trust and the UNM athletic department stood shoulder to shoulder with red shovels emblazoned with the Lobos logo for a photo op. It signaled the latest addition to a school in search of an athletics makeover.
The new building will take roughly 18 months to complete, and its footprint will creep within about 30 feet of the goalpost in the south end zone. When finished, its floor to ceiling glass walls will dominate the scenery overlooking the field. Its sloped roof will eventually accommodate hundreds of fans in an exclusive party deck overlooking the field.
It’s the first significant construction project on the south campus since the $2.3 million R.D. and Joan Dale Hubbard Clubhouse was built across the street for the baseball program.
“We’re just moving dirt around, but it’s remarkable what the impact has already been and what it’s going to be for the future of UNM athletics, not just football,” said athletic director Eddie Nuñez. “Every sport will benefit from this.”
Therein lies the benefit of expanded space, Gonzales said. The training center will extend outward from the north face of the three-story Tow Diehm Facility, the bottom floor of which houses an extensive weight room that was traditionally the lair of football players.
Gonzales changed that when he came in, insisting every team should have equal access to something meant to benefit the entire department. Regardless, the new center will ease the crowding and allow UNM to finally disassemble a semipermanent tent standing next to the athletic department’s offices near the football stadium.
That tent, which has a rudimentary air-conditioning unit that doesn’t quite cool things off in the summer nor heat it up in the winter, is the home to a makeshift weight room set aside for the department’s nonrevenue sports.
“What will we do with that space once this is complete? I don’t know,” Nuñez said. “The better question is, will we miss it? I’m thinking we won’t.”
While the school’s men’s and women’s basketball teams will continue to benefit from their own weight room inside The Pit, the work being done at University Stadium will soon be the destination spot of anyone in a Lobo uniform.
As a loyal UNM graduate who has made it a point to take the lead as a cheerleader for all sports at his alma mater, Gonzales said winning isn’t just a priority in football. Getting there takes commitment from all sides, and this project is a good step in the right direction.
“I think, one, when football’s doing better everything will be better,” he said. “The more money we make from football, the more money we’ll have for swimming, for volleyball, for golf. If we can get football and basketball rolling, it’s going to be even better for them — but the only way we all get better is with resources. You look at what they’re doing here, this puts us in line with what other teams around our conference are doing and people out there watching, they’ll see what we’re doing.”
NOTES
Gonzales said he does expect the football team to make strides and be more competitive this fall, echoing comments he made when he was hired in December 2019. He said early on that fans wouldn’t start to see improvement on the field until his third year. ... Get ready for red lids this fall. In addition to its traditional silver helmets, Gonzales said the Lobos will also wear anthracite (dark gray) and red helmets. The Lobos wore red lids from 1966-73, but switched to silver the following year. They wore different variations of silver until 2011 when white was introduced. Anthracite made its first appearance in 2015. | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/sports/new-training-facility-for-more-than-just-football/article_fb7bcca8-bb37-11ec-8017-a3235957db48.html | 2022-04-14T06:41:09 | 0 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/sports/new-training-facility-for-more-than-just-football/article_fb7bcca8-bb37-11ec-8017-a3235957db48.html |
Scientists from UCLA have made an exciting discovery that's heading toward our part of the cosmos from the oldest, outermost part of the solar system: the largest comet astronomers have ever seen.
It's not in any danger of hitting Earth, as it won't come closer to us than Saturn, but a definitive measurement of the comet's huge size does give new insight into the early days of the solar system.
Here's what to know about the massive C/2014 UN271.
What Is a Comet?
Space enthusiasts probably know that comets are frozen balls of dust and ice.
Those materials heat up as the comet travels closer to the sun, causing the dust and gas to slowly stream off the frozen, central nucleus into the tail. This forms into a fuzzy cloud called a "coma," what comets are known for.
Comets are notable but not unheard of sights for Earthlings. Perhaps the most famous, Halley's comet, makes regular though infrequent streaks by our planet every 75 years or so.
But those comets are typically much smaller than the one UCLA scientist David Jewitt measured with his team.
So How Big Is This Comet?
"The typical size of a comet is more like 1 mile," Jewitt, professor of planetary science and astronomy at UCLA and co-author of a new study of the comet in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, said.
Halley's comet, for example, is about 9.3 by 5 miles across, according to NASA.
According to their observations and calculations, Jewitt and his team believe Comet C/2014 UN271 is between 80 and 85 miles across.
For context, that's more than twice the width of Rhode Island.
C/2014 UN271's much larger width also means a much, much larger mass, he explained. "That’s a big deal, no pun intended."
"Its nucleus is about 50 times larger than that at the heart of most known comets," a statement about the comet from UCLA stated. "Its mass is estimated to be a staggering 500 trillion tons, a hundred thousand times greater than the mass of a typical comet found much closer to the sun."
Jewitt, alongside Man-To Hui, lead author of the new study who earned his UCLA Ph.D. under Jewitt in 2019, isn't the first to find this particular comet in the night sky. Astronomers Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein discovered C/2014 UN271 while combing through images taken in 2014.
Where Did This Comet Come From?
The comet caught Bernardinelli and Bernstein's attention, and later that of Jewitt and Hui, because it was so visible from a point so far from Earth.
"Most comets are inside the orbit of Jupiter," Jewitt said, while this comet was way beyond the end of the solar system, closer to the Oort Cloud.
The Oort Cloud is a spherical "bubble" of objects encircling the solar system, according to NASA, and "a vast reservoir of far-flung comets encircling the solar system out to many billions of miles into deep space," Jewitt said.
It's home to the oldest relics of the solar system, like C/2014 UN271, which were "tossed out of the solar system billions of years ago by the gravitation of the massive outer planets," Jewitt said in UCLA's statement. But it's also too far away for scientists to observe.
Comet C/2014 UN271's origin in the Oort Cloud is "not unique in that regard, but it is unusual to see comets active that far out," he said. That's because when objects as small as the typical comet are that far away, they don't reflect enough light for our telescopes to pick them up.
It's the reason the Oort cloud remains a theory: it's too difficult to directly observe.
"You can’t see anything in the Oort cloud,” Jewitt explained. You only see the things that make their way out of it, as they travel back toward the sun after being "disturbed by the gravitational tug of a passing star," he added.
What Else Is Unique About the Comet?
The comet C/2014 UN271 had a few factors going for it that allowed Jewitt and Hui to make more direct observations.
First, it's moving toward the inner solar system, closer to Earth, where we can see it.
"It will never come closer than the orbit of Saturn," Jewitt said, so there's no need to panic that it will strike us. It won't even get within 1 billion miles from the sun — slightly farther from Earth than Saturn — until 2031.
But its path towards Saturn meant it could be photographed in 2010, discovered in photos in 2014, and measured from the photos Jewitt and his team took on Jan. 8, 2022.
Second, the comet was always very bright — which led scientists to believe it had to be big, given the still-large distance between it and the Earth.
That theory turned out to be correct. And its brightness was all the more impressive, Jewitt said, because the comet is so dark overall.
"Only 3% of the light that hits it is reflected off," he said. He believes its dark color comes from millions of years of being fried by cosmic rays, the way toast gets burned after it's left in the toaster for too long.
The cold nature of space means it's still icy, as all comets are, but it's not water ice, Jewitt said.
"I would just guess that it’s carbon monoxide, because we do see that in other comets," he explained.
The carbon gas slowly dissipating as the comet moves through space is what causes the cloud of "fuzz" around the comet's nucleus, a part of the comet's anatomy that was instrumental to Jewitt and Hui getting their 80-to-85-mile-wide measurement.
How Did They Measure the Comet?
By taking around five incredibly high-quality images of C/2014 UN271 with the Hubble Space Telescope, Jewitt and Hui observed the amount of reflected light coming out of the bright spike of light that is the comet's nucleus.
That spike allowed Jewitt and Hui to create a model of the comet's fuzzy cloud, or "coma," and adjusted it until it fit with the real coma in the Hubble images.
Then, the researchers subtracted the glow of the coma, leaving behind a measurable nucleus.
By comparing that measurement to the reflected heat from radio measurements of the comet that another scientific team took, Jewitt and Hui could essentially check their work.
"The new Hubble measurements are close to the earlier size estimates," the UCLA statement said, but also allowed Jewitt and Hui to discover how much darker the surface is than previously thought.
The new information about C/2014 UN271 serves as a reminder of just how little we know about the cosmos, even when it comes to our own solar system, Jewitt said.
"The outer solar system remains an unknown place," he said. "We all have this idea because we live in the inner solar system, we know everything around us…. But actually that’s very, very far from true."
"[The comet] is quite big, [but] nobody noticed it before," he added. "It’s just a reminder that there are tens, hundreds of thousands [of objects] remaining to be seen in the solar system, when the technology gets there. Don’t think the solar system is a known place."
And that's something to celebrate.
"There’s no end of discoveries to be made," Jewitt said. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/ucla-researchers-measured-the-largest-comet-astronomers-have-ever-seen/3645541/ | 2022-04-14T06:41:13 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/ucla-researchers-measured-the-largest-comet-astronomers-have-ever-seen/3645541/ |
Destructive wildfires rage in New Mexico, Colorado
(AP) - Firefighters scouted the drought-stricken mountainsides around a New Mexico village as they looked for opportunities to slow a wind-driven wildfire that a day earlier had burned at least 150 homes and other structures while displacing thousands of residents and forcing the evacuation of two schools.
Homes were among the structures that had burned, but officials on Wednesday did not have a count of how many were destroyed in the blaze that torched at least 6.4 square miles (16.6 square kilometers) of forest, brush and grass on the east side of the community of Ruidoso, said Laura Rabon, spokesperson for the Lincoln National Forest.
Rabon announced emergency evacuations of a more densely populated area during a briefing Wednesday afternoon as the fire jumped a road where crews were trying to hold the line. She told people to get in their cars and go.
So far, two deaths were reported from the fire, which has been fanned by strong winds, according to the New Mexico State Police.
The winds prevented forced a suspension of the aerial attack on the flames and kept authorities from getting a better estimate of how large the fire has grown. But some planes returned to the air as winds subsided late in the day, and seven airtankers and two helicopters have now been assigned to the fire, Forest Service officials said Wednesday evening.
While the cause of the blaze was under investigation, fire officials and forecasters warned Wednesday that persistent dry and windy conditions had prompted red flag warnings for a wide swath that included almost all of New Mexico, half of Texas and parts of Colorado and the Midwest.
Five new large fires were reported Tuesday, and nearly 1,600 wildland firefighters and support personnel were assigned to large fires in the southwestern, southern and Rocky Mountain areas, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Hotter and drier weather weather coupled with decades of fire suppression have contributed to an increase in the number of acres burned by wildfires, fire scientists say. And the problem is exacerbated by a more than 20-year Western megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change. The fire season has become year-round given changing conditions that include earlier snowmelt and rain coming later in the fall.
In Ruidoso, officials declared a state of emergency and said school classes were canceled Wednesday as the village — about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northeast of El Paso, Texas — coped with power outages due to down power lines.
The residences that burned were mostly a mix of trailers and single-family homes, and close to 4,000 people were displaced by evacuations that were ordered Tuesday. That number was expected to grow with the latest call for residents to leave.
Village spokeswoman Kerry Gladden said authorities spent part of Wednesday surveying as much damage as possible before the winds kicked up again. Air tankers also were able to drop a few loads of slurry, and more air support was expected Thursday.
“Right now, everybody is just rallying around those who had to be evacuated,” Gladden said. “We’re just trying to reach out to make sure everyone has places to stay.”
Donations were pouring in from other communities in southern New Mexico. State officials said emergency grants have been approved that will provide resources to firefighters and for other emergency efforts.
Ruidoso in 2012 was hit by one of the most destructive wildfires in New Mexico history, when a lightning-sparked blaze destroyed more than 240 homes and burned nearly 70 square miles (181 square kilometers).
Rabon said Wednesday that no precipitation was in the forecast and humidity levels remained in the single digits, which would make stopping the flames more difficult.
“Those extremely dry conditions are not in our favor,” she said.
Another wildfire in the Lincoln National Forest northwest of Ruidoso burned at least 400 acres (1.6 square kilometers) after it was sparked Tuesday by power lines downed by high winds. Crews confirmed Wednesday that 10 structures there were lost.
Elsewhere in New Mexico, wildfires were burning along the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque, in mountains northwest of the community of Las Vegas and in grasslands along the Pecos River near the town of Roswell.
In Colorado, crews were battling wind-whipped grass fires that had destroyed two homes and forced temporary evacuations.
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Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Davenport from Phoenix.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/destructive-wildfires-rage-new-mexico-colorado/ | 2022-04-14T06:47:43 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/destructive-wildfires-rage-new-mexico-colorado/ |
Police search for motive in Brooklyn subway suspect’s videos
NEW YORK (AP) — Frank James posted dozens of videos ranting about race, violence and his struggles with mental illness. One stands out for its relative calm: A silent shot of a packed New York City subway car in which he raises his finger to point out passengers, one by one.
Even as police arrested James on Wednesday in the Brooklyn subway shooting that wounded 10 people, they were still searching for a motive from a flood of details about the 62-year-old Black man’s life.
An erratic work history. Arrests for a string of mostly low-level crimes. A storage locker with more ammo. And hours of rambling, bigoted, profanity-laced videos on his YouTube channel that point to a deep, simmering anger.
“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,” says James in a video where he takes on the moniker “Prophet of Doom.”
After a 30-hour manhunt, James was arrested without incident after a tipster — thought by police to be James himself — said he could be found near a McDonald’s on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Mayor Eric Adams triumphantly proclaimed “We got him!” Police said their top priority was getting the suspect, now charged with a federal terrorism offense, off the streets as they investigate their biggest unanswered question: Why?
A prime trove of evidence, they said, is his YouTube videos. He seems to have opinions about nearly everything — racism in America, New York City’s new mayor, the state of mental health services, 9/11, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Black women.
A federal criminal complaint cited one in which James ranted about too many homeless people on the subway and put the blame on New York City’s mayor.
“What are you doing, brother?” he said in the video posted March 27. “Every car I went to was loaded with homeless people. It was so bad, I couldn’t even stand.”
James then railed about the treatment of Black people in an April 6 video cited in the complaint, saying, “And so the message to me is: I should have gotten a gun, and just started shooting.”
In a video posted a day before the attack, James criticizes crime against Black people and says things would only change if certain people were “stomped, kicked and tortured” out of their “comfort zone.”
Surveillance cameras spotted James entering the subway system turnstiles Tuesday morning, dressed as a maintenance or construction worker in a yellow hard hat and orange working jacket with reflective tape.
Police say fellow riders heard him say only “oops” as he set off one smoke grenade in a crowded subway car as it rolled into a station. He then set off a second smoke grenade and started firing, police said. In the smoke and chaos that ensued, police say James made his getaway by slipping into a train that pulled in across the platform and exited after the first stop.
Left behind at the scene was 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, police said.
That key led investigators to James, and clues to a life of setbacks and anger as he bounced among factory and maintenance jobs, got fired at least twice, moved among Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.
Investigators said James had 12 prior arrests in New York and New Jersey from 1990 to 2007, including for possession of burglary tools, criminal sex act, trespassing, larceny and disorderly conduct.
James had no felony convictions and was not prohibited from purchasing or owning a firearm. Police said the gun used in the attack was legally purchased at an Ohio pawn shop in 2011. A search of James’ Philadelphia storage unit and apartment turned up at least two types of ammunition, including the kind used with an AR-15 assault-style rifle, a taser and a blue smoke cannister.
Police said James was born and raised in New York City. In his videos, he said he finished a machine shop course in 1983 then worked as a gear machinist at Curtiss-Wright, an aerospace manufacturer in New Jersey, until 1991 when he was he was hit by a one-two punch of bad news: He was fired from his job and, soon after, his father whom he had lived with in New Jersey died.
Records show James filed a complaint against the aerospace company in federal court soon after he lost his job alleging racial discrimination, but it was dismissed a year later by a judge. He says in one video, without offering specifics, that he “couldn’t get any justice for what I went through.”
A spokesperson for Curtiss-Wright didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
James describes going in and out of several mental health facilities, including two in the Bronx borough of New York City in the 1970s.
“Mr. Mayor, let me say to you I’m a victim of your mental health program in New York City,” James says in a video earlier this year, adding he is “full of hate, full anger and bitterness.”
James says he later was a patient at Bridgeway House, a mental health facility in New Jersey, although that could not be immediately confirmed. Messages left with the facility were not returned.
“My goal at Bridgeway in 1997 was to get off Social Security and go back to f------ work,” he says in a video, adding that he enrolled in a college and took a course in computer-aided design and manufacturing.
James says he eventually got a job at telecommunications giant Lucent Technologies in Parsippany, New Jersey, but says he ended up getting fired and returned to Bridgeway House, this time not as a patient but as an employee on the maintenance staff. A message seeking comment was sent to Lucent Technologies.
“I just want to work. I want to be a person that’s productive,” he said.
Touches of that earnest, struggling man showed up after James’ parked car was hit in Milwaukee. Eugene Yarbrough, pastor of Mt. Zion Wings of Glory Church of God in Christ next door to James’ apartment, said James was impressed that the pastor owned up to hitting the car. Neither James nor anyone else was there to see the accident. And James called him up to say so.
“I just couldn’t believe it would be him,” Yarbrough said. “But who knows what people will do?”
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AP reporters Michael Balsamo in Washington, Deepti Hajela in New York, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia, Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin and Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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On Twitter follow Bernard Condon at twitter.com/bernardfcondon, Michael Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak and Michael Kunzelman at twitter.com/Kunzelman75 and send confidential news tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/police-search-motive-brooklyn-subway-suspects-videos/ | 2022-04-14T06:47:50 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/police-search-motive-brooklyn-subway-suspects-videos/ |
Lane County coronavirus update, April 13: 38 new cases
The Register-Guard is making this daily update related to the coronavirus free to read. To support important local journalism like this, please consider becoming a digital subscriber.
Lane County Public Health reported 38 confirmed or presumptive new cases of COVID-19 for the second day in a row Wednesday, raising the countywide case count to 57,530. The total local death count remained 522.
The past week's average new case count is 26.
Last week, Lane County Public Health spokesperson Jason Davis warned that many at-home positive tests are going unreported. At-home positive tests can be reported through the county's website.
Even though there are likely more cases in the county than are being reported, the virus's prevalence in the community remains low. To get a clearer idea of how the virus is impacting the community, residents can look toward hospitalization rates.
The number of county residents reported hospitalized for the virus Wednesday was 11, up three from Tuesday, with one person in intensive care and one on a ventilator, both unchanged from Tuesday. Of the 11 people hospitalized, 72.7%, or eight, are not fully vaccinated.
As of Wednesday, 276,584 people in Lane County — 72.52% of the total population — received first or second vaccine doses with 673,540 doses administered in Lane County, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
As more precautions ease, the county is seeing more cases of influenza. Public health officials are encouraging residents to get their regular immunizations and flu shots, especially ahead of the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
— The Register-Guard | https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/2022/04/14/lane-county-coronavirus-update-april-13-38-new-cases/65350065007/ | 2022-04-14T06:53:39 | 1 | https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/2022/04/14/lane-county-coronavirus-update-april-13-38-new-cases/65350065007/ |
Today
Al-Anon, 1-2 p.m., Faith Presbyterian Church, 1608 Kirk Row, enter through door 1.
Card Classes, 10-11 a.m., Greentown Public Library, 421 S. Harrison St., Greentown, this once-a-month class provides the materials to create beautiful and useful cards, call 765-628-3534 to register.
Crafter Work: Canning Jar Craft, 6-8 p.m., Library Community Room, Greentown Public Library, 421 S. Harrison St., Greentown, call 765-628-3534 to register.
Friday
Greentown Lions Club drive-thru fish fry, 4-8 p.m., Lions Cafeteria at the South End of the Howard County Fairgrounds in Greentown, $12 includes fish, tenderloin, beans, slaw and cookie.
Al-Anon, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Faith Presbyterian Church, 1608 Kirk Row, enter through door 1.
Saturday
Orlando A. Somers Camp # 1 Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War meeting, noon, South Branch of the Howard County Public Library, 1755 E. Center Road, Kokomo, any descendant from a Union soldier or sailor or anyone who has an interest in the Civil War is invited to attend, contact Travis LeMaster at 765-667-1940 or visit www.orlandosomerscamp.org
Greentown Historical Society open, 1-4 p.m. Saturdays and Mondays or by appointment, 103 E. Main St., Greentown, call 765-628-3800.
Youth Easter egg hunt, 1 p.m., Northwest Park, 1600 W. Judson Road, for children 10 and younger, free of charge, bring your own basket/bag, three age groups: 3 and younger, 4-6 and 7-10, all children must be accompanied by an adult, adults may only help children in the age group 3 and younger, all eggs will be filled with candy but some will have a numbered slip for an additional prize, for more information, contact the Parks & Recreation Department at 765-456-7275.
Russiaville Lions Club fish fry, 4-7 p.m., 555 N. Liberty St., Russiaville, meals $12 for adults and $8 for children ages 5-12, pie $2 a slice, menu includes all-you-can-eat fish and tenderloins from Hawg Heaven, baked beans, french fries, coleslaw or applesauce, bread and butter, water, lemonade and coffee, proceeds will benefit college scholarships awarded to Western students.
Adult-only Easter egg hunt, 8:30 p.m., Kirkendall Nature Center at Jackson Morrow Park, 4200 S. Park Road, ages 16+, wristbands on sale for $5 cash only, 10,000 eggs will be hidden and filled with candy, some eggs will also have a numbered slip for an additional prize, photo ID may be required for age verification, wristbands on sale 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday until April 14 at the KPRD office in Highland Park; wristbands also available from 5-8:25 p.m. on day of event, for more information, contact the Parks & Recreation Department at 765-456-7275.
Sunday
VFW bingo, noon to 4 p.m., 920 N. Washington St., kitchen open.
Monday
Greentown Historical Society open, 1-4 p.m. Saturdays and Mondays or by appointment, 103 E. Main St., Greentown, call 765-628-3800.
Pet portraits, 3:30-6:30 p.m. April 18-22, Kokomo-Howard County Public Library South, 1755 E. Center Road, kids can drop in with a photo of their pets and the library will show them how to transform it into a colorful portrait, photos can be headshots or include the whole body, black and white photos also accepted, finished size of print will be the same size as original photo.
VFW bingo, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., 920 N. Washington St., kitchen open. | https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/calendar-april-14-2022/article_6773c004-bb4d-11ec-a486-af9387a27720.html | 2022-04-14T06:54:30 | 0 | https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/calendar-april-14-2022/article_6773c004-bb4d-11ec-a486-af9387a27720.html |
Browning, Carolyn, services are at 1 p.m. today at Woodland Church of God, 3401 S. Webster St., Kokomo.
Prater, Jennifer, services are 5 p.m. today at Crossroads Community Christian Church, 3570 E. 200 South, Bringhurst.
Douglas, Larissa, services are 7 p.m. today at Howard Miami Mennonite Church, 3976 E. 1400 South, Kokomo.
Eaton, Janice, services are noon Saturday at Stout & Son Funeral Home, 44 Michigan St., Burlington.
Dice, James, services are 1 p.m. Saturday at Ellers Mortuary 3400 S. Webster St., Kokomo.
Cobb, Beulah, services are 2 p.m. April 20 at Mast-Hensler Cemetery, 3828 600 East, Kokomo.
Janes, Robert Henry, services are 11:30 a.m. April 21 at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 3155 S. 200 West, Kokomo.
Snyder, Richard, services are April 23 at Spruce Creek Presbyterian Church, Port Orange, Florida.
Lancaster, Dixie, services are 2 p.m. May 7 at Bennett Switch Community Church.
Tudor, William, services are 2 p.m. May 8 at the American Legion Post 6, 2604 S. Lafountain St., Kokomo. | https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/funeral-listings-april-14-2022/article_27550938-bb48-11ec-a5d6-134f4e57e607.html | 2022-04-14T06:54:36 | 0 | https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/funeral-listings-april-14-2022/article_27550938-bb48-11ec-a5d6-134f4e57e607.html |
Flory Bidunga made his Kokomo basketball debut on Nov. 23. Kokomo beat Western 60-58 in overtime and the 6-foot-10 sophomore center finished with 11 points, 14 rebounds, two blocked shots and two steals.
“He changes the game,” Kokomo coach John Peckinpaugh said after the game. “He doesn’t have to score to help us win games is the great thing. He rebounds at a high level and he changes shots at the rim and he’s only going to keep getting better at those two things. The scoring will come.”
Those words proved prophetic.
Bidunga turned in one of the most dazzling seasons in Kokomo’s long and rich history. The international student from the Democratic Republic of the Congo emerged into a dominant force in leading the Wildkats to a 20-8 season that included a spot in the Class 4A Final Four after the Kats won their first sectional since 2014 and their first regional since 2011.
Bidunga averaged 17.5 points, 13.3 rebounds and 5.3 blocked shots and shot an unfathomable 78.7% from the floor. Statewide, he ranked No. 1 in blocks and field-goal percentage and No. 3 in rebounding.
“He came a long way during the course of the year,” Peckinpaugh said Wednesday. “He was definitely a difference maker for us on both ends of the floor. It’s nice because he’s not only a good player, but he’s a really good young man who has a bright future.”
For his outstanding play, Bidunga is the Most Valuable Player of the 2022 Kokomo Tribune All-Area Team.
You could pick any number of games as examples of Bidunga’s brilliance, but here is a sampling:
• He had 28 points, 24 rebounds and seven blocks in Kokomo’s 67-66 victory at Fort Wayne Northrop on Jan. 8. That rebound total is the most by a Kokomo player since at least 1986.
• He had a triple-double of 32 points, 20 rebounds and 11 blocks in the Kats’ 59-45 victory at Richmond on Feb. 11. It was the first Kat triple-double in modern history.
• He delivered another triple-double in the Class 4A Logansport Sectional final on March 5. He made 14 of 15 shots, scored 30 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and rejected 10 shots in the Kats’ 49-42 victory over Lafayette Jeff.
As the season wore on, Bidunga’s defense changed games. Opponents simply shied away from attacking the lane when the Kat big man was protecting the basket.
“He has a really good knack of changing shots at the rim and in the lane,” Peckinpaugh said. “He can anticipate and he’s so quick off his feet, it just makes it very hard for opponents to get the shots they normally get in games.”
In terms of blocking shots, Bidunga brings to mind Indiana high school legend Greg Oden. The Tribune asked Peckinpaugh about the comparison; when Peckinpaugh played for Muncie Central, he went against Lawrence North’s Oden in the 2006 Class 4A title game.
“There’s similarities there,” he said. “I think they’re different players. Obviously Greg was bigger and more physical. I think Flory is a little bit better of an athlete, maybe not nearly as skilled as Greg was, but their overall size and ability to change shots in the lane is similar.”
Offensively, Bidunga is just scratching the surface of his potential.
“He still has a long ways to go offensively skill-wise and being able to use both hands on the block, but he works hard, he listens and he’s coachable so I think he can definitely get there,” Peckinpaugh said.
Bidunga is off to a hot start with his summer team. College offers are sure to start pouring in.
“I think the biggest thing is he has to stay grounded and keep working hard and keep getting better. The good thing about Flory is he’s not looking to find the biggest level to go play at, he wants to find the right fit,” Peckinpaugh said.
Kokomo’s success in 2022 sets the stage for next season. The Kats return all of their key pieces.
“It always take a little bit of luck to get to where we got [in 2022] so it’s not a guarantee, but I think we’ll have a chance to have a few good years here and continue to build Kokomo basketball to where it needs to be,” Peckinpaugh said.
FIRST TEAM
JAKE CHAPMAN, TC
Chapman capped his Tri-Central career with another big season in leading the Trojans to a 13-9 record. The 6-3 forward won the area scoring title for the second straight season and he averaged a double-double.
The University of Northwestern Ohio recruit scored 26.1 points per game, which ranked No. 7 in the state. He grabbed 11.5 rebounds, which ranked No. 2 in the area and No. 5 in the state. And he also averaged 3.5 assists and 1.9 steals.
Chapman poured in a career-high 46 points against Indiana Deaf in his home finale. That also broke the gym record. He had a 39-point game against Eastern and 37-point games against Clinton Central and Madison-Grant. He had a season-high 20 rebounds against Clinton Prairie.
Chapman played three seasons at TC and scored 1,708 points. He is a three-time All-Area first-team player and the 2020-21 MVP.
OWEN DUFF, CARROLL
Duff and fellow All-Area player Jake Skinner led the way as the Cougars put together a season to remember. Carroll won the Hoosier Heartland Conference title, put together a Class 2A Final Four run by upsetting No. 1-ranked Monroe Central to win its first regional title, and finished 24-2.
A 6-3 junior guard, Duff led the Cougars in scoring (16.3), assists (4.1) and steals (2.5) and was second on the team in rebounding (6.7). Defensively, his work guarding perimeter players helped the Cougars hold teams to an area-low 44.5 points per game.
The IBCA named Duff to its underclass small school all-state team. A two-time All-Area first-team player, he has 1,072 career points through his junior season.
The Cougars are 45-6 over the last two seasons, setting a school record for wins with 21 in the 2020-21 season, then bettering that record this season. With the bulk of the roster returning, the Cougars look capable of bettering it again next season.
NATE POWELL, TIPTON
A 6-4 senior, Powell anchored the inside for Tipton during a 17-7 season that included a Class 2A sectional title. He shot an impressive 70.3% from the field and led the Blue Devils in scoring (19.7) and rebounding (10.4).
Powell ranked fourth in the area in scoring, third in rebounding and second in field-goal percentage.
The Blue Devil standout was at his best in in the Class 2A Sectional 39 final. He scored a career-high 32 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead Tipton past Madison-Grant 60-51.
The IBCA named Powell to its senior small school all-state team. He also was an All-Area football player.
MATT ROSS, PERU
Ross helped power Peru to a 20-3 season that included the Class 3A Sectional 20 championship, the Bengal Tigers’ first sectional crown since 2009. Peru also won a share of the Three Rivers Conference title.
A 6-5 senior forward, Ross led Peru in scoring (19.3), rebounding (9.3) and blocked shots (1.9). He also led the Bengals in field goal percentage (51.4) and 3-point percentage (40.0).
Ross had eight double-doubles. He scored a season-high 34 points vs. Knox and grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds vs. Rochester.
A three-time All-Area player, including first-team selections in each of his final two seasons, Ross scored 1,080 career points.
BOBBY WONNELL, TAYLOR
The Wonnells, father and son, moved to Taylor as coach and player following three seasons together at Kokomo. The Titans went 12-10 with Bobby Wonnell leading the team in scoring (22.2) and assists (4.1). He ranked second in the area in scoring and fifth in assists. He also provided 6.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals.
The 6-2 senior guard had five 30-point games, with a high of 34 vs. Elwood. He had a triple-double of 31 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists vs. Indianapolis Riverside.
He shot 50.8% from the field overall, 46.9% from 3-point range and 90.3% from the free-throw line for the rare 50/40/90 shooting line. He ranked No. 1 in the area in 3-point percentage and No. 2 in free-throw percentage. For his career, he was 87.4% from the charity stripe. That ranks sixth all-time in Hickory Husker’s tracking.
He closed his career with 1,223 points.
The IBCA named Wonnell to its senior small school all-state team. He is two-time All-Area player. He previously made the 2020 team as a second-team pick after leading Kokomo in scoring.
SECOND TEAM
ELI EDWARDS, NW
Edwards provided a steady presence inside in leading Northwestern to a 9-11 record, a big improvement after the Tigers went 2-12 the previous season. The 6-5 senior center scored 17.5 points and grabbed 9.5 rebounds, averages that ranked ninth and fourth in the area, respectively.
Edwards was an efficient scorer. He shot 61.8% from the field, fourth best in the area, and 75% from the free-throw line.
A two-time All-Area pick — Edwards was a second-team pick in 2020-21 when he averaged 17.4 points and 10.0 rebounds — the Tiger standout will continue his career at Olivet Nazarene University.
EVAN KRETZ, WESTERN
Kretz helped the Panthers go 13-9 and repeat as Hoosier Conference champions. He scored a team-high 18.8 points and also provided 5.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists. He shot 49% from the field overall and 44.4% from 3-land. He ranked sixth in the area in scoring and third in 3-point accuracy.
A 6-3 senior guard/forward, Kretz was at his best during the Panthers’ 10-game winning streak that covered December and the first full week of January. He averaged 22.8 points during that stretch. He suffered an ankle injury in early February that caused him to miss three games.
An IUK recruit, Kretz scored 1,006 career points and was a two-time All-Area player.
HAYDEN MAIBEN, MACONAQUAH
Maiben and fellow All-Area player Brayden Betzner formed a terrific 1-2 punch in leading the Braves to an 18-6 record and a share of the Three Rivers Conference title.
Maiben, a 6-2 senior guard, scored a team-high 20.8 points, grabbed 4.8 rebounds and dished 2.7 assists. He was third in the area in scoring. He scored 25 or more points eight times, with a high of 30 vs. Cass.
An efficient scorer, Maiben shot 53.6% from the field overall, 38.1% from 3-land and 83.5% from the free-throw line.
A three-time All-Area player, Maiben scored 1,194 career points.
JAKE SKINNER, CARROLL
Skinner provided inside-outside play for the Cougars, who won HHC, sectional and regional titles during a 24-2 season. The 6-4 junior forward averaged 14.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists. He was first on the team in rebounding and second in both scoring and assists.
Skinner scored a season-high 31 points vs. Frankfort. He scored a team-high 17 points in the Cougars’ upset of No. 1-ranked Monroe Central in the Lapel Regional final.
Skinner is a two-time All-Area player. He made the third team as a sophomore.
NOLAN SWAN, TIPTON
Swan helped the go-go Blue Devils score 64.5 points. The 6-0 sophomore point guard scored 16.7 points, dished an area-best 5.2 assists and took 2.1 steals.
A proficient 3-point shooter, Swan canned four or more triples in nine different games. For the season, he made 75 triples on 46.6% accuracy, figures that ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the area. He also was first in free-throw accuracy (91.5%).
Swan scored a season-high 28 points vs. Taylor and had 10-assist games vs. Tri-Central and Danville.
THIRD TEAM
BRAYDEN BETZNER, MACONAQUAH
Betzner teamed with fellow All-Area player Maiben to fuel the Braves’ explosive attack. Maconaquah scored 66.6 points, which ranked No. 1 in the area and No. 22 in the state.
A 6-0 senior guard, Betzner scored 17.4 points and dished 2.4 assists. He made a team-best 61 3-pointers on 38.4% accuracy. He ranked third in the area in triples.
He scored a season-high 30 points in a memorable victory over Tipton. The Braves trailed 21-0 before roaring back for a 74-66 win.
Betzner closed his Brave career with 1,009 points and 193 3-pointers.
TYSON GOOD, CASS
Good scored a team-high 15.8 points for the Kings, who went 13-12 with a Class 2A sectional runner-up finish. The 6-6 junior guard/forward also contributed 4.3 rebounds, a team-high 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals.
Good scored a season-high 31 points vs. Pioneer and also had 30-point games vs. Pioneer and Southwood. He had a season-high eight assists in an upset of Western.
LEVI MAVRICK, EASTERN
Mavrick scored 18.3 points for the Comets, who finished 8-13. The 5-10 senior guard drilled 71 3-pointers on 37% accuracy. He finished second in the area in 3-point makes. For his Comet career, he made 187 3-pointers.
Mavrick also offered 2.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists.
MATTHEW ROETTGER, PERU
Roettger did a little bit of everything for Peru, which went 20-3 and won a share of the TRC title and won the Sectional 20 title.
The 6-1 sophomore guard/forward scored 12.9 points, grabbed 6.3 rebounds and dished 2.8 assists — all second best on the team. But his biggest impact might have come on defense where he took an area-best 3.5 steals.
The perfect example of Roettger’s all-around impact was Peru’s game vs. Northfield. He scored 10 points, took 11 steals, dished nine assists and grabbed six rebounds in Peru’s 72-34 win.
Roettger scored a season-high 22 points in Peru’s loss to Culver Academies in a Class 3A regional semifinal.
SHAYNE SPEAR, KOKOMO
Spear was a “glue guy” for the Class 4A Final Four Kats. The 6-2 junior guard/forward made a team-best 50 pointers and he averaged 9.3 points (third on team), 3.7 rebounds (second) and 2.9 assists (second). He proved adept at feeding All-Area MVP Bidunga in the post or for crowd-pleasing dunks.
Spear was instrumental in Kokomo upsetting Westfield 64-60 in the Logansport Regional final. With Kokomo trailing 49-42 early in the fourth quarter, he scored 11 points over the remaining 6:15. He finished with 17 points, four rebounds, two assists and three steals. Earlier in the day, he had eight points, seven rebounds and four assists in the Kats’ 45-40 victory over Fort Wayne Snider in the semifinal round.
Spear also is an All-Area football player.
HONORABLE MENTION
Zavion Bellamy was another key part to Kokomo’s success. The 5-10 junior guard scored 9.3 points and dished a team-high 3.4 assists. ... Mitchell Dean emerged as a go-to option for Western. The 6-7 junior center scored 10.2 points and grabbed a team-high 6.1 rebounds. He shot 54.9% from the floor. ... Chris Huerta provided strong two-way play for Class 2A Final Four squad Carroll. The 5-8 sophomore guard scored 12.3 points, took 3.4 rebounds, dished 2.4 assists and took 1.4 steals. ... Bauer Maple ran the point for TRC co-champion Maconaquah and provided a well-rounded game. He scored 11.0 points and led the squad in rebounding (6.3), assists (3.7) and steals (2.3). ... Mekhi McGee enjoyed a breakthrough season for Taylor. The 6-1 junior guard averaged 14.1 points and added 5.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.9 steals. | https://www.kokomotribune.com/sports/boys-bb-kats-bidunga-is-all-area-mvp-after-dazzling-debut-season/article_2b2ebc7c-b6eb-11ec-9fe5-639886141fec.html | 2022-04-14T06:54:42 | 1 | https://www.kokomotribune.com/sports/boys-bb-kats-bidunga-is-all-area-mvp-after-dazzling-debut-season/article_2b2ebc7c-b6eb-11ec-9fe5-639886141fec.html |
NKU’s Hicks wins HL’s Fong Award
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. — Northern Kentucky softball player and Kokomo High School product Lauryn Hicks was named the 2022 recipient of the Horizon League’s Bobby Fong Award on Tuesday for representing the league’s values of integrity, respect and leadership.
The award is named after Fong, Butler University’s president from 2001-11 and a member of the Horizon League Board of Directors over that same span.
Hicks is a junior on the NKU softball squad. She’s one of the Norse’s primary pitchers. She has an ERA of 3.92 this season in 75 innings with 21 walks and 86 strikeouts. A respiratory care major, she’s the softball team’s representative on NKU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
She has worked as a nursing assistant for a home healthcare company assisting clients with daily living last year, and this year is working with adults with developmental disabilities in a group home.
Hicks has also assisted initiatives for a fundraiser for people with Down syndrome, a Cincinnati Reds program to revive baseball in inner cities, an organization to match children with illness with college teams, and the Jared Box Project to provide toys, games and books for hospitalized children.
Hicks was diagnosed with Von Willenbrand Disease as a 12-year-old. The disease is caused by a defective Von Willebrand factor or blood-clotting protein. She takes extra precautions when playing softball such as wearing sliding shorts, a heart guard, and a face mask, to avoid bruising.
Eastern girls tennis wins HHC opener
GREENTOWN — Eastern’s girls tennis team beat Delphi 5-0 in the Comets’ Hoosier Heartland Conference opener Wednesday at the Howard County Indoor Tennis Center.
Maria Oliveria was a 6-0, 6-0 winner at No. 1 singles, Kennedy Horner was a 6-2, 6-1 winner at No. 2 singles, Emily Princell was a 6-2, 6-3 winner at No. 3 singles, Molly Farkas and Alivia Salkie took a 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 win at No. 1 doubles and Kate Salkie and Madi Guinn won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles.
“First off, a huge thank you to the Howard County Tennis Center for allowing us to play and get this match in,” coach Pat Rice said. “We went with a different lineup, just trying things out, and I was really pleased with how we played. Emily Princell at 3 singles, in her first varsity singles match, did a great job taking control of that match from the beginning.”
Cougars take 3rd in RSC men’s golf
FLORENCE — The IU Kokomo men’s golf team took third place in the River States Conference Men’s Golf Championship at Belterra G.C. Midway won its second straight title with a score of 898. IU East was second at 923 and IUK third at 936 in the 12-team tournament, which ended Tuesday.
IUK’s Harley Pugh was named to the All-RSC second team. He shot rounds of 83-77-70 for a 230 to tie for seventh and lead the Cougars. Jack Barnes was tied for 10th after shooting 233. Corbin Robinson followed in a tie for 12th with 234. Nate Slack tied for 24th with a 241. And Alec Weddell shot 244 to tie for 29th
Robinson was IUK’s representative on the RSC Champions of Character team.
Thatcher hits ace at Chippendale GC
Local golfer Jeff Thatcher hit a hole-in-one on Tuesday while playing at Chippendale G.C. Thatcher used a hybrid to card a one on hole No. 16, which was playing 130 yards. | https://www.kokomotribune.com/sports/sports-briefs-for-thursday-april-14/article_f40a903e-bb7e-11ec-bb9f-a70859a0da65.html | 2022-04-14T06:54:48 | 1 | https://www.kokomotribune.com/sports/sports-briefs-for-thursday-april-14/article_f40a903e-bb7e-11ec-bb9f-a70859a0da65.html |
NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty Wednesday to forcibly kissing a worker at a New York nightclub in 2018 in a deal that is likely to keep him out of jail.
Gooding also publicly apologized for the first time to two other women who accused him of similar behavior in separate encounters, calling himself a “celebrity figure” who meant no harm.
His admissions were part of a plea deal that came nearly three years after the Oscar-winning “Jerry Maguire” star was arrested in the case that saw several delays as his lawyers sought to get charges reduced or dismissed.
“I apologize for making anybody ever feel inappropriately touched,” he said. “I am a celebrity figure. I come into contact with people. I never want them to feel slighted or uncomfortable in any way.”
Gooding, 54, accused of violating three different women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019, pleaded guilty to just one of the allegations. He told the judge he “kissed the waitress on her lips” without consent at the LAVO New York club.
The deal lets Gooding avoid any possibility of jail time if he continues “alcohol and behavior modification” counseling for six months. After that, he can withdraw the misdemeanor plea and instead plead guilty to a lesser violation of harassment.
Gooding was arrested in June 2019 after a 29-year-old woman told police he fondled her without her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge near Times Square.
The accuser in that encounter, Kelsey Harbert, was allowed to speak in court on Wednesday, recounting how, out of nowhere, Gooding grabbed her breast “as if I was a piece of meat for dinner that night.”
Harbert, now 31, told the court she thought Gooding was getting off easy, while his accusers continue to suffer.
“I feel very sad and feel very lost for what I can do,” she said.
A few months after his arrest, Gooding was charged in two additional cases as more women came forward to accuse him of abuse. The new charges alleged he pinched a server’s buttocks after making a sexually suggestive remark to her at TAO Downtown and forcibly touched the woman at LAVO, both in 2018.
Gooding had previously pleaded not guilty to six misdemeanor counts and denied all allegations of wrongdoing. His lawyers have argued that overzealous prosecutors, caught up in the fervor of the #MeToo movement, are trying to turn “commonplace gestures” or misunderstandings into crimes.
Judge Curtis Farber earlier had ruled if the Gooding case went to trial, prosecutors could have called two additional women to testify about their allegations that Gooding also violated them. Prosecutors say the judge had since reversed that decision — a ruling that factored into their decision to not go to trial.
“We credit and believe all the survivors in this case,” said prosecutor Coleen Balbert. But under the circumstances, Wednesday’s outcome “is a fair and equitable disposition,” she added.
Along with the criminal case, Gooding is accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman in New York City in 2013. After a judge issued a default judgment in July because Gooding hadn’t responded to the lawsuit, the actor retained a lawyer and is fighting the allegations.
Gloria Allred, an attorney representing three of Gooding’s accusers, said in a statement that they would press ahead with civil litigation to hold him accountable.
“Justice was significantly delayed in this case for many reasons, and I do not feel that justice was achieved today with the entry of this plea, although I do understand why under the circumstances that the prosecution offered a plea,” she said. | https://www.cbs42.com/local/actor-cuba-gooding-jr-pleads-guilty-to-forcible-touching/ | 2022-04-14T07:08:14 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/local/actor-cuba-gooding-jr-pleads-guilty-to-forcible-touching/ |
Hattiesburg construction, road closures: What to know
As the weather warms and days get longer, Hattiesburg is seeing an uptick in construction.
Several road closures are impacting the city due to both traffic projects and unforeseen conditions.
Downtown roundabout
The partially completed downtown roundabout is closed to all traffic from Hardy Street, Green Street and Second Avenue to make progress in the construction zone, including pouring and stamping the concrete truck apron.
Depending on the weather and progress, the roundabout is slated to re-open to traffic Monday, according to Samantha McCain, chief communications officer for the city.
Detour signs will be posted and drivers should prepare for an alternate route and allow for additional travel time.
The project is currently in its third phase, with an anticipated completion date of May.
U.S. 49 and midtown project
The U.S. 49 and midtown multi-phased traffic improvement project that began last week is in Phase One.
This part of the project is estimated to take between four and six months, and the following changes will be made:
- 27th Avenue will be closed north of Camp Street. North of this closure will remain open to traffic.
- W. Frontage Road will be closed from north of Camp Street to Mamie Street. Access to Community Bank will remain open throughout the duration of construction.
- All southbound traffic south of Camp Street on W. Frontage Road will be directed to U.S. 49 or S. 28th Avenue.
- Mamie Street will be closed from S. 28th Avenue to the entrance of the Forrest General Hospital staff parking lot. South of this closure will remain open to traffic.
- Camp Street will be closed from U.S. 49 to S. 28th Avenue. Camp Street east of U.S. 49 will remain open.
To access Forrest General Hospital Emergency Department from U.S. 49, north and southbound traffic will use Mamie Street. To access the department from 28th Avenue, traffic will use a temporary roadway across the Forrest General Hospital staff parking lot between 28th Avenue and Mamie Street.
Detour signs will be posted throughout the hospital campus and along U.S. 49 and 28th Avenue. All work performed on U.S. 49 will be between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. with one-lane closures only.
Country Club Road bridge
The bridge located on Country Club Road at U.S. 49 that was closed due to a crack discovered during an inspection in March will remain closed until permanent repairs can be made.
Detour routes and signage will be in place to direct traffic across U.S. 49 via Memorial Drive, William Carey Parkway, Wisteria Drive, Country Club Road and Service Drive.
What's new in Hattiesburg:Here's what businesses and restaurants recently opened
Contact reporter Laurel Thrailkill at lthrailkill@gannett.com or on Twitter. | https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/local/hattiesburg/2022/04/14/hattiesburg-traffic-project-closures-roundabout-u-s-49-project/7304640001/ | 2022-04-14T07:08:18 | 1 | https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/local/hattiesburg/2022/04/14/hattiesburg-traffic-project-closures-roundabout-u-s-49-project/7304640001/ |
Amazon announced Wednesday its free streaming service IMDb TV will be renamed Amazon Freevee.
The new name will take effect on April 27, the company said in a news release.
The retailer said the streaming service will also expand its original programming by 70% in 2022, with spinoffs of shows such as “Bosh: Legacy” and other series. It will also add more original movies.
Amazon.com Inc. said the ad-supported service has tripled its monthly active users in the past two years and is expected to launch in Germany later this year.
“We’re looking forward to building on this momentum with an increasing slate of inventive and broadly appealing Originals, and are excited to establish Freevee as the premier AVOD (advertising-based video on demand) service with content audiences crave,” Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said in the news release.
Wednesday’s announcement comes as the retail giant embraces a path to boost its streaming services. Last month, the company closed an$8.5 billion deal to acquire Hollywood studio MGM, making it Amazon’s second-largest acquisition following its $13.7 billion deal with Whole Foods in 2017. That acquisition was targeted to make the company better compete against Netflix and Disney+. | https://www.cbs42.com/local/amazon-imdb-tv-will-be-renamed-amazon-freevee/ | 2022-04-14T07:08:22 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/local/amazon-imdb-tv-will-be-renamed-amazon-freevee/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Brandon Taylor’s “Filthy Animals” has won the Story Prize, a $20,000 honor for collections of short fiction.
“Taylor is incredibly attuned to the slightest shift in the emotional weather in his characters and writes with absolute precision and compassion about their desires, vulnerabilities, failings, joys, and longings,” prize judges wrote in a statement Wednesday. “His careful attention makes these very ordinary people extraordinary. His sentences are finely tuned, his language subtle and gorgeous.”
The finalists, Lily King for “Five Tuesdays in Winter” and J. Robert Lennon for “Think of Me,” will each receive $5,000.
The Story Prize was established in 2004. Previous winners include Lauren Groff, Anthony Doerr and Edwidge Danticat. | https://www.cbs42.com/local/brandon-taylors-filthy-animals-wins-20000-story-prize/ | 2022-04-14T07:08:29 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/local/brandon-taylors-filthy-animals-wins-20000-story-prize/ |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A pack of sled dogs belonging to an Iditarod veteran and reality TV star killed a family pet in Alaska, officials said.
Authorities in Wasilla are investigating the March 30 incident involving dogs owned by musher Jessie Holmes, who finished third in year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and stars in “Life Below Zero: Alaska” on the National Geographic channel.
Holmes, who lives in rural Alaska, was staying with his dog team at a Wasilla hotel that backs up to the adjacent homeowner’s yard. He let the dogs loose to relieve themselves when they attacked a pet dog named Lucky, who was attached to a lead in the yard.
When Lucky’s owner, Liza McCafferty, came outside to retrieve the 8-year-old Havanese, she saw a black dog dart from under her deck. It was part of a pack that suddenly appeared in her yard, she told the Anchorage Daily News.
She said the pack looked like it might attack her too, so she retreated. Then Holmes came down the hill to retrieve his sled dogs before returning to the home.
“He came in and was very, very apologetic,” McCafferty said. “He was on the verge of crying.”
Lucky was taken to a veterinary clinic but was dead.
“It was just a really terrible accident due to my negligence,” Holmes said.
Holmes said he has stayed at the hotel more than a dozen times and never had a problem letting his dogs loose to relieve themselves. He suspects two new dogs he had ventured off toward McCafferty’s yard, and the rest of the pack followed.
“There’s no way to not be distraught about this,” Holmes said. He said he’s fully accountable for this and wants to make things right.
Holmes said a Wasilla municipal official told him he would receive 10 loose dog citations and possibly another for animal cruelty, which could affect his mushing career.
Wasilla Mayor Glenda Ledford said in a statement that he incident was under investigation. | https://www.cbs42.com/local/dogs-owned-by-iditarod-vet-reality-tv-star-kill-family-pet/ | 2022-04-14T07:08:36 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/local/dogs-owned-by-iditarod-vet-reality-tv-star-kill-family-pet/ |
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Department of Archives and History is allowing the public to have access to additional papers from the late author Eudora Welty, including letters written by members of her family.
The release came Wednesday on the 113th anniversary of Welty’s birth. She died July 23, 2001. According to her will, the family correspondence was to remain private for 20 years after her death.
Welty, who lived most of her life in Jackson, was known for the lyrical quality of her short stories and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for her short novel, “The Optimist’s Daughter,” published in 1972. While establishing herself as a writer, Welty photographed scenes of everyday life in Mississippi during the Great Depression for the Works Progress Administration.
Welty’s niece, Mary Alice White, said in a news release from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History that the newly released letters begin with the courtship of Welty’s parents. White said they also include Welty’s correspondence with relatives and papers and letters from others in the family.
“Because these letters were not technically the property of Eudora — they belong to the letter writer — I think Eudora wanted them sealed to respect the privacy of those still living,” White said.
The Eudora Welty Collection was established in 1957, when she donated manuscripts, photographs and correspondence to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
The department said the Welty Collection has drafts, revised copies and printer’s versions of her works, including stories, books, essays, reviews, lectures, speeches and drama. The collection also contains incoming and outgoing correspondence of Welty, memorabilia, and negatives and photographs taken by Welty and her father.
Harriet Pollack, Welty scholar and affiliate professor at the College of Charleston, said in the news release that the newly released correspondence provides insight about Welty’s parents; her siblings and their families; her grandmother and great grandmother and their children.
“Through their intimate and everyday interactions with one another, we also come to know so much more about the woman and the writer, Eudora Welty,” Pollack said. “Astonishingly, a very private woman has unpredictably made generations of personal history available to those touched by her art, inviting us to better understand and to more fully engage the elusive woman behind it.” | https://www.cbs42.com/local/eudora-welty-letters-released-2-decades-after-authors-death/ | 2022-04-14T07:08:44 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/local/eudora-welty-letters-released-2-decades-after-authors-death/ |
A longtime friend and next-door neighbor of Johnny Depp testified Wednesday that Depp’s ex-wife, Amber Heard, had told him the movie star threw a phone at her and hit her inside the couple’s Los Angeles penthouse.
But Isaac Baruch said he never noticed any evidence of abuse on Heard’s face, both when he first saw her in the hallway or the next day in the sunlit lobby of their art deco-style building.
“She’s got her face out like this to show me, and I’m looking, and I inspect her face,” Baruch said of the encounter in May 2016. “And I don’t see anything. … I don’t see a cut, a bruise, swelling, redness.”
Baruch is the second witness called in the trial over Depp’s allegations that Heard falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuser. Depp says that an opinion piece Heard wrote for The Washington Post in 2018 indirectly defamed him.
Heard refers to herself in the article as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” It doesn’t name Depp. But his attorneys argue that it clearly referenced a restraining order that Heard sought in May 2016, right after Depp told her he wanted a divorce.
Depp denies abusing Heard.
Baruch, a painter, has been friends with Depp since 1980. He also worked at the Viper Room when the “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor partly owned the famed Los Angeles club. Baruch said Depp has financially supported him, providing him with places to live and giving him about $100,000 over the years.
Baruch testified that he noticed no makeup on Heard’s face when she said Depp hit her. But during cross-examination, Baruch conceded he didn’t know if Heard — who worked with cosmetics giant L’Oreal — had applied any concealer, foundation, powder or tint.
At one point, Baruch got emotional, stating that Heard needs to “take responsibility and move on.”
He said he never saw violence from Depp.
“His family has been completely wrecked by all of this stuff, and it’s not fair,” Baruch said. “It’s not right, what she did. … It’s insane.”
Baruch also testified that he saw security video showing Heard’s sister Whitney throwing a fake punch at Heard’s face while the two waited for an elevator in the building where he and Depp and Heard lived.
“And then they start laughing,” Baruch said.
Depp’s attorneys argue that the sisters were practicing for a real punch to to feign abuse from Depp.
But Heard’s lawyers have said the evidence will show that Depp physically and sexually assaulted Heard on multiple occasions. And they’ve argued that Depp’s denials lack credibility because he frequently drank and used drugs to the point of blacking out and failing to remember anything he did.
The first witness called for the trial was Depp’s older sister, Christi Dembrowski, who faced a barrage of questions from Heard’s lawyers about Depp’s alcohol and drug use.
When she took the stand Tuesday, Dembrowski said she and her brother endured a difficult childhood in which Depp learned to hide from an abusive mother. Dembrowski, who also worked as Depp’s personal manager, said she saw the same pattern in Depp’s relationship with Heard, adding that she would book an extra hotel room for Depp if Heard started a fight.
But Dembrowski struggled on cross-examination when asked why she sent texts to Depp in February 2014 that said, “Stop drinking. Stop coke. Stop pills.”
Heard’s lawyers asked similar questions Wednesday, zeroing in on a text exchange between Heard and Dembrowski in February 2014.
“Ms. Heard says, ‘JD is on a bender,’ and your response is, ‘Where are the kids?’ — correct?” J. Benjamin Rottenborn asked.
Dembrowski said that was correct. She also confirmed a 2014 email exchange she had with a doctor who treated Depp’s addiction to pain medication.
“You believe that your brother needed help with drugs and alcohol?” Rottenborn asked.
Dembrowski responded that she was concerned about Depp’s use of one medication but didn’t believe that he had a problem with drugs or alcohol overall, or that he romanticized drug culture.
Both Depp and Heard are expected to testify at the trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court, scheduled for six weeks, along with actors Paul Bettany and James Franco and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Heard’s lawyers had sought to have the case tried in California, where the actors reside. But a judge ruled that Depp was within his rights to bring the case in Virginia because The Washington Post’s computer servers for its online edition are located in the county. Depp’s lawyers have said they brought the case in Virginia in part because the laws here are more favorable to their case. | https://www.cbs42.com/local/heard-lawyers-zero-in-on-depps-drug-and-alcohol-use/ | 2022-04-14T07:08:51 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/local/heard-lawyers-zero-in-on-depps-drug-and-alcohol-use/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — A Netflix documentary about Jennifer Lopez titled “Halftime” will kick off the 21st Tribeca Festival.
The New York film festival announced its opening night film Wednesday. While Tribeca has traditionally been held in spring, this year it shifts to the summer, opening on June 8.
Organizers said “Halftime” follows Lopez “as she reflects on her milestones and evolution as an artist and navigates the second half of her career.” In 2020, Lopez hosted the Super Bowl halftime show alongside Shakira.
The film, which will debut June 14 on Netflix, will premiere at the United Palace in Manhattan’s Washington Heights. Tribeca opened last year in the same theater with the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical adaptation “In the Heights.”
Director Amanda Micheli said in a statement that it’s “so fitting to be celebrating this critical milestone in Jennifer’s life and career just miles from where she grew up. To have the opportunity to share this film on the big screen with a New York audience is a dream come true.”
Lopez, a Bronx native, r ecently suggested that she and Ben Affleck are engaged. A video posted on her members-only fan newsletter, showed Lopez gazing at a large green ring on her left hand.
The Tribeca Festival runs June 8-19. | https://www.cbs42.com/local/jennifer-lopez-doc-halftime-to-open-tribeca-festival/ | 2022-04-14T07:08:58 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/local/jennifer-lopez-doc-halftime-to-open-tribeca-festival/ |
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — Critically acclaimed debut albums by Wu-Tang Clan and Alicia Keys, Ricky Martin’s Latin pop megahit “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” are among the recordings being inducted this year into the National Recording Registry.
The Library of Congress announced on Wednesday the 25 songs, albums, historical recordings and even a podcast that will be preserved as important contributions to American culture and history.
Keys’ “Songs In A Minor,” released in 2001, introduced the young New York musician to the world with her unique fusion of jazz, R&B and hip hop and earned her five Grammy awards. With songs like “Fallin’” the album has been certified as seven-times multiplatinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The Staten Island collective Wu-Tang Clan, including RZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, GZA, Ghostface Killah, Method Man and more, released their highly influential debut “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” in 1993, which combined East Coast hardcore rap centered around kung fu film storylines and samples.
Other albums that were included were Linda Ronstadt’s “Canciones de Mi Padre,” a musical tribute to her Mexican-American roots, Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-winning “Nick of Time,” A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Low End Theory,” and the Cuban musical ensemble’s self-titled debut “Buena Vista Social Club,” which also inspired a film by the same name.
Other songs now in the registry include Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin,'” “Walking the Floor Over You” by Ernest Tubb, “Moon River” by Andy Williams and “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” by The Four Tops.
The Four Tops song was penned by the songwriting trio of Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier and became a No. 1 song in 1966 known for its unorthodox arrangement and the urgent, operatic vocals of lead singer Levi Stubbs. The last surviving member of the band, Duke Fakir, said he was honored to have their song included in the registry.
“When we recorded ‘I’ll Be There,’ I have to admit (for the first time), we thought of the song as an experiment for the album,” Fakir said in a statement. “We never believed it would even make it on the album, let alone be a hit for all time in ‘The Library of Congress.’ I wish Levi, Obie (Benson), and Lawrence (Payton) were here with me today so we could celebrate this incredible accolade together. And we owe an incredible debt of gratitude to Holland Dozier Holland, the tailors of great music, who wrote it.”
Other recordings include public radio station WNYC’s broadcasts from Sept. 11, 2001 and Marc Maron’s interview with Robin Williams on his podcast “WTF with Marc Maron.” | https://www.cbs42.com/local/songs-by-wu-tang-alicia-keys-added-to-recording-registry/ | 2022-04-14T07:09:06 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/local/songs-by-wu-tang-alicia-keys-added-to-recording-registry/ |
Amazon is taking a step to offset its rising costs, announcing Wednesday it will add a 5% “fuel and inflation surcharge” to fees it charges third-party sellers who use the e-commerce giant’s fulfillment services.
The Seattle-based company said on its website that the added fees, which take effect April 28, are “subject to change” and will apply to both apparel and non-apparel items.
The latest fee hike follows one announced in November and went into effect in January. Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for further details on the recent move. But in a notice sent to sellers Wednesday, the company said its costs had gone up since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic due to increases in hourly wages, the hiring of workers and construction of more warehouses.
It said it had absorbed costs whenever possible, and only increased fees to address permanent costs and to be competitive with other providers. Amazon competitors FedEx and UPS both have fuel surcharges.
“In 2022, we expected a return to normalcy as COVID-19 restrictions around the world eased, but fuel and inflation have presented further challenges,” the company said in the notice.
Federal data released Tuesday showed inflation jumped 8.5% in March, its fastest pace in more than 40 years.Gasoline prices have rocketed 48% in the past 12 months.
Though the company is blaming inflation and rising fuel costs for the surcharge, Stacy Mitchell, co-director for the anti-monopoly group Institute for Local Self-Reliance, criticized Wednesday’s announcement, saying Amazon was taking advantage of the moment.
“Amazon keeps increasing its fees on the sellers that have to depend on its platform,” Mitchell said, adding the new fees are a way “to take more money out of the pockets of independent businesses and put it into Amazon’s coffers.”
Amazon’s third-party marketplace, where independent merchants list millions of their products, is a huge part of its business. It has about 2 million sellers, and more than half the goods sold on Amazon.com come from these sellers.
Last year, sellers paid Amazon about $103 billion in fees, which made up about 22% of the company’s revenue. The online retailer said the new fees will apply to products ordered before April 28 but shipped and delivered after that date. Amazon is also expected to release its earnings report from the first three months of this year on April 28.
Amazon has long faced accusations of undercutting merchants that sell on its platform by making “knock-offs,” or very similar products, and boosting their presence on the site.
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Associated Press journalist Manuel Valdes in Seattle contributed to this report. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/amazon-adds-5-fuel-and-inflation-surcharge-to-seller-fees/ | 2022-04-14T07:09:13 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/amazon-adds-5-fuel-and-inflation-surcharge-to-seller-fees/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is extending the nationwide mask requirement for airplanes and 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.
Airlines have lobbied for months to kill the requirement, arguing that effective air filters on modern planes make transmission of the virus during a flight highly unlikely. Republicans in Congress also fought to kill the mandate.
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.
“It is very difficult to understand why masks are still required on airplanes, but not needed in crowded bars and restaurants; in packed sports arenas; in schools full of children; or at large indoor political gatherings,” Nicholas Calio, the CEO of industry trade group Airlines for America, said Wednesday in a letter to the heads of the CDC and the Health and Human Services Department. “Simply put, an extension of the mask mandate does not make sense.”
There has been a slight increase in cases in recent weeks, with daily confirmed cases nationwide rising from about 25,000 per day to more than 30,000. More than 85% of those cases are the highly contagious BA.2 strain. Those figures could be 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.
A poll in mid-March by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that Americans are evenly divided over keeping the mask rule for transportation.
The poll found that 51% wanted the mandate to expire and 48% said it should remain in place – in effect, a tie, given the poll’s margin of error. Democrats overwhelmingly supported the rule, and Republicans were even more united in opposing it. Vaccinated people and those with chronic health conditions favored keeping the rule, but by smaller margins.
Airlines imposed their own mask mandates in 2020, when the Trump administration declined to take action. Unions representing flight attendants, which once backed mask rules, now decline to take a position because their members are divided over the issue.
It is unclear whether eliminating the rule would make people more or less likely to travel on planes or subways.
Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Air Lines, said that some people might start flying if they don’t have to wear a mask, and others might stop flying if other passengers are unmasked. He called both groups “fringe,” and he predicted that many people will continue to wear masks even if the rule is dropped.
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David Koenig reported from Dallas. AP Health Writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-source-cdc-to-extend-travel-mask-requirement-for-2-weeks/ | 2022-04-14T07:09:20 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-source-cdc-to-extend-travel-mask-requirement-for-2-weeks/ |
BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher Thursday after an advance on Wall Street that ended a three-day losing streak.
Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai advanced while Seoul edged lower. Oil prices fell back and U.S. futures climbed.
Investors appeared to brush aside fresh evidence thatinflation remains widespread in the U.S. economy in a U.S. government report that rising energy costs pushed wholesale prices up a record 11.2% last month from a year earlier.
That report comes a day after the department reported that consumer prices remain at their highest levels in generations.
Rising prices are driving the Federal Reserve and many other central banks to tighten monetary policy by raising interest rates, among other measures, to help cool the surging demand that is contributing to the problem.
South Korea’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 percentage points to 1.50%. That was its fourth increase since August 2021. The Kospi in Seoul edged 0.1% lower to 2,714.44.
Shares in Singapore were flat after the Singapore Monetary Authority tightened its policy by adjusting currency exchange rates in a more aggressive move than had been expected. It also raised its forecast for 2022 inflation to 2.5%-3.5% from 2.0%-3.0%.
New Zealand’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gained 1.3% to 27,182.50 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney climbed 0.5% to 7,515.60.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.4% to 21,448.61 and the Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.7% to 3,207.85 on reports that China’s central bank may ease policy to counter the blow to its slowing economy from pandemic-related shutdowns in major cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou.
“Overall, there may be some relief with the positive moves in Wall Street, along with indications from the China authorities for further monetary easing. It was reported that China will cut banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR) or use other policy tools “at an appropriate time,” Jun Rong Yeap of IG said in a commentary.
U.S. stock and bond markets face a shortened week and will be closed on Friday for the Good Friday holiday.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 index rose 1.1% to 4,446.59, breaking a 3-day losing streak brought on by persistent worries about inflation and the tough medicine the Federal Reserve is planning to use against it.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% to 34,564.59 and the Nasdaq picked up 2% to 13,643.59.
Smaller company stocks outpaced the broader market in a sign that investors were confident about economic growth. The Russell 2000 index surged 1.9% to 2,025.10 and is on track for a weekly gain.
Travel-related companies were among the biggest gainers. Delta gained 6.2% after it reported strong revenue during its first quarter and solid bookings. American Airlines jumped 10.6% and rivals Southwest and United Airlines also gained ground. Cruise line operators Carnival and Royal Caribbean had solid gains, along with Expedia Group.
Technology stocks also gained, while banks slipped following a disappointing earnings report from JPMorgan. It fell 3.2% after revealing a sharp drop in profits after writing down nearly $1.5 billion in assets due to higher inflation and the Russian-Ukrainian War.
Bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.68% early Thursday from 2.72% late Tuesday.
Inflation may be peaking but will likely stick around for awhile as cost pressures filter their way through the markets.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised volatility for energy prices since oil supplies already were tight as demand rises with the waning of the pandemic. U.S. crude oil prices are up roughly 40% for the year, driving up gasoline prices and giving inflation’s a bigger hit on people’s wallets.
Companies in various industries have been raising prices to offset rising costs and maintain or increase their margins.
Internet retail giant Amazon said it will add a 5% “fuel and inflation surcharge” to fees it charges third-party sellers who use the retailer’s fulfillment services as the company faces rising costs.
Investors will get more details on how companies and consumers are dealing with inflation as more companies report their latest financial results. Insurer UnitedHealth Group and banks Wells Fargo and Citigroup are due to report their earnings on Thursday.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department will release its retail sales report for March, which will show whether and where consumers are pulling back on spending.
In energy trading U.S. benchmark crude oil slipped 35 cents to $103.89 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It jumped $3.65 to $104.25 per barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude, the standard for international pricing of oil, lost 28 cents to $108.50 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar slipped to 125.22 Japanese yen from 125.63 yen. The euro rose to $1.0906 from $1.0888.
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AP Business Writer Damian J. Troise in New York contributed. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/asian-shares-mostly-rise-on-interest-rate-inflation-hopes/ | 2022-04-14T07:09:27 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/asian-shares-mostly-rise-on-interest-rate-inflation-hopes/ |
Bed Bath & Beyond was unable to overcome supply issues during the final quarter of the year that have tripped up the home goods chain for months and it warned Wednesday that those problems are carrying over into the new year.
It also reported a surprise loss in a quarter when many other retailers booked surging profits.
The retailer has been unable to secure popular merchandise and it’s dragging down sales. For the three months ended Feb. 26, sales fell 22% to $2.05 billion.
Shortages led to an estimated negative impact of about $175 million in sales during the quarter, CEO Mark Tritton said.
Comparable store sales, which includes online sales, slumped 12%.
“The lack of available inventory to sell proved to be a continuing impediment to sales through the remainder of the fourth quarter and into the early part of fiscal 2022,” Tritton said in prepared statement. “Specifically, despite our overall inventory levels, product in transit, not available for sale or held at port remained abnormally high, particularly in key items.”
Some industry analysts were skeptical. Global supply disruptions have been well documented as nations emerge from the worst economic shocks of the pandemic. But Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said supply issues at Bed Bath & Beyond, “have been occurring for a long time and are deep seated.”
“Perhaps the most worrying thing is that if Bed Bath & Beyond is delivering such rotten numbers during a period of extremely elevated demand when consumer confidence was riding high, how will it fare now that the retail economy is turning sour?” Saunders asked. “In a more constrained economic environment, we are concerned that the company’s fortunes may well deteriorate further.”
Economists have grown concerned over the resiliency of consumer demand as inflation soars. On Tuesday, the U.S. reported that inflation in the past year rose at its fastest pace in more than four decades.
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond, down 40% over the past year, slipped another 2% Wednesday.
Tritton said the Union, New Jersey, company is investing in supply chain and technological infrastructure to rectify its supply issues.
During the fourth quarter, Bed Bath & Beyond lost $159 million, or $1.79 per share. Stripping out nonrecurring benefits, it lost 92 cents per share. That caught industry analysts, who had been expecting a 2 cent per-share profit according to a poll by Zacks Investment Research, by surprise.
During the same quarter last year, the company earned $9 million, or 8 cents per share. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/bed-bath-beyond-snared-by-ongoing-supply-issues/ | 2022-04-14T07:09:35 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/bed-bath-beyond-snared-by-ongoing-supply-issues/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — A major effort to overhaul care for people in the United States with mental health and drug problems is gaining traction as Congress and the Biden administration work on overlapping plans to address concerns across dividing lines of politics, geography and race.
Top goals include responding to the mental health crisis among youth, increasing the supply of professional counselors and clinicians, narrowing a persistent gap between care for physical and mental health problems, and preserving access to telehealth services that proved their usefulness in the pandemic.
COVID-19 has laid bare the need.
The U.S. was already in a mental health crisis, with suicide rates climbing and chronic problems accessing treatment. The opioid epidemic had a firm grip on cities and small towns. But the coronavirus made everything worse.
An analysis of government data found that about 4 in 10 adults reported symptoms of anxiety or depression in the first year of the pandemic, compared with about 1 in 10 before that. More than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses from May 2020 to April 2021,a record for lethality, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trying to translate need into action, the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee are working to produce bipartisan legislation this summer.
Leaders of the Finance Committee have enlisted pairs of senators — one Democrat, one Republican — to develop policy ideas in five broad areas. The committee has jurisdiction over major government health insurance programs while the other committee oversees private insurance and public health.
“I think everybody understands the challenge of threading the needle in a 50-50 Senate,” said the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. But, he added, “the most important takeaway for me is that the urgency is different … more people are falling between the cracks.”
President Joe Biden seems to be on the same page.
He released a comprehensive mental health and drug treatment plan as part of his State of the Union message. “Artificial distinctions between physical health and mental health are really not sustainable or relevant in the 21st century,” White House domestic policy adviser Susan Rice said in a recent speech to the Brookings Institution think thank.
House committees are also at work.
“There is a very nonpartisan aspect to this — I wouldn’t even say it’s bipartisan,” said policy expert Hannah Wesolowski of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “The need for a rapid scale-up of mental health services is one of the few issues where the parties can come together.”
It’s happening as the government plans to roll out 988 — the new three-digit number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline — in July.
While lawmakers acknowledge the need for government action, details remain contentious. Democrats want bold strokes. Republicans are wary of new federal mandates and looking to restrain costs.
“This committee has a strong track record of generating consensus-based bills,” Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, the top Republican on Senate Finance Committee, said earlier this year. “I truly believe we can replicate that success here.”
A key player is noncommittal.
The office of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had no comment on efforts in that committee. If McConnell were to oppose legislation, that would greatly complicate the prospects.
Nothing seems to have rattled policymakers more than a sharp increase in mental health problems among youth. Isolation and loss in the pandemic compounded the usual trials of passage into adulthood. Emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts increased, especially for adolescent girls, according to CDC.
As illicit drugs are routinely laced with potent fentanyl, new research shows a striking jump in overdose deaths among 14- to 18-year-olds.
The Finance Committee is considering increased spending on in-school mental health services, broader use of telehealth for youth and more financial support to train youth mental health workers. Young people in rural areas and minority communities have more difficulty getting services. Biden’s plan calls for more money for school-based services, along with new social media safeguards for kids — also an issue of interest on Capitol Hill.
An overarching focus both for the White House and lawmakers is the widely recognized shortage of mental health professionals. Plans would invest billions in building up the workforce by supporting training and education, but that could take years. There’s discussion about immediately increasing the supply of counselors by allowing a wider range of professionals, including family and marriage therapists, to bill government health programs.
There’s also support for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, a relatively new care model that offers services 24/7 to people dealing with drug and mental health crises. Centers rely on peer counselors, often in recovery from their own addictions.
A glaring inconsistency lawmakers want to address is the coverage gap between mental health and physical conditions. Parity is required by U.S. laws, but the reality can be far different. Some insurers honor parity on paper only, maintaining“ghost networks” of mental health providers who are not taking new patients — a dead end. Even Medicare falls short on parity. The program has a 190-day limit on inpatient psychiatric care.
Many Democrats would like to spell out mental health coverage requirements for private health insurance. But Republicans do not support new mandates. A compromise could involve civil fines on insurers that ignore legal obligations to cover mental health care.
One area where there does not seem to be much disagreement is telehealth, which was expanded in the pandemic. Video counseling and even voice-only sessions are becoming standard tools for mental health and drug treatment counseling. Making that coverage permanent would involve a cost. But lawmakers, particularly in rural areas, like the flexibility.
While there is clear momentum, that does not guarantee results in Congress. “I don’t know how it’s going to end up,” said Reyna Taylor, policy and advocacy chief for the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. “What I am happy to see is all the communication that is going on between the committees of jurisdiction.” | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/bipartisan-push-on-mental-health-crisis-that-covid-worsened/ | 2022-04-14T07:09:41 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/bipartisan-push-on-mental-health-crisis-that-covid-worsened/ |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California wants electric vehicle sales to triple in the next four years to 35% of all new car purchases, an aggressive target set as part of the goal to phase out the sale of gas-powered cars by the middle of next decade.
The California Air Resources Board’s proposal would slowly raise the sale of new cars that are electric, hydrogen-powered or plug-in hybrids to 100% by 2035. About 11% of all new passenger car sales nationally happen in California, giving the state significant influence over the auto market. Californians would still be allowed to drive gas-powered cars and sell used ones, meaning planet-warming emissions will still spew from the state’s roadways.
The hoped-for boost in electric vehicle sales will also require a major increase in charging stations. California has set a goal of 250,000 charging stations by 2025, and right now there are fewer than 80,000 stations in public spaces or in parking lots at office buildings, apartment buildings and other shared spaces. The California Energy Commission last year approved spending $314 million over three years for passenger car charging stations and Newsom added more in his proposed state budget.
The release kicks off a months-long state review process and the plan requires approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The state is unlikely to face resistance from a Democratic White House. The Biden administration recently restored California’s power to set its own vehicle emissions standards under the Clean Air Act and the president has committed $5 billion to build more charging stations around the country.
A group representing the auto industry said meeting the requirements will be “extremely challenging.”
Passenger vehicles contribute about a quarter of the state’s total greenhouse gas emissions — more than any other single source, according to the air board. The program is one part of California’s efforts to drastically reduce carbon emissions. Between 2026 and 2040, state experts estimate the program would lower emissions by nearly 384 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually. That’s a little less than all emissions across California’s economy in a single year.
Elsewhere, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law last month setting a goal of requiring all new vehicles in the state to be electric by 2030, but regulators have until the end of 2023 to say how the state will get there.
California’s rules would require 35% of new car sales for model year 2026 to be zero-emission vehicles, including battery or hydrogen powered, or plug-in electric hybrids. That’s a sharp increase from 2021, when about 12% of all cars sold in the state were zero-emission, according to the air board. About 1 million of the 26 million cars currently on California roads are zero-emission.
That requirement ramps up to 100% of all new sales by 2035. Up to 20% of sales by 2035 could be plug-in hybrids that run on a combination of battery and gas power, though the regulations boost how far such cars must be able to travel on battery power alone.
Automakers including Ford and Toyota deferred to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation for a statement on the proposal. The group says the industry is “committed to electrification and a net-zero carbon transportation future” but raised questions about the drastic ramp up in the required zero-emission vehicle sales.
“Automakers will certainly work to meet whatever standards are eventually adopted, but these draft requirements will be extremely challenging even in California and may not be achievable in all the states that currently follow California’s program,” the group said.
Nine states follow California’s current zero-emission vehicle rules, which set rules through model year 2025, and five states plan to join in future years. If the federal government approves California’s new plan, the other states would have to decide whether to follow suit. New York also aims to phase out gas powered vehicles by 2035.
The regulations also require electric vehicles to get at least 150 miles (241 kilometers) per charge, up from 50 miles (80 kilometers), though most manufacturers exceed that. They establish an eight-year or 100,000-mile (161,000-kilometer) battery warranty.
All 17 carmakers that sell in California would be required to hit the 35% sales mark. But there is wiggle room. California’s existing electric vehicle standards let companies save credits if they sell a higher percentage of electric cars than required, and those credits can be used later to meet sales goals.
Companies can also make deals with each other to count each other’s sales as their own. Electric-vehicle maker Tesla has made such deals with many automakers in the past, state officials said.
Some environmental groups said the state should set an even more aggressive timeline, arguing heavily polluted communities can’t wait, and make it easier for low-income people to purchase electric vehicles.
“There’s no excuse for California to take the slow road to an all-electric future when we’re being gouged at the gas pump and facing epic drought and wildfires,” said Scott Hochberg a transportation attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
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Associated Press journalist Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/california-plan-aims-to-triple-sale-of-electric-cars-by-2026/ | 2022-04-14T07:09:47 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/california-plan-aims-to-triple-sale-of-electric-cars-by-2026/ |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A top civil rights lawyer for California was fired while working on a discrimination case against video game giant Activision Blizzard and her colleague quit in protest Wednesday, a whistleblower attorney said.
Janette Wipper was fired on March 29 in “the midst of her success” in pursuing the case as chief counsel for the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, said her lawyer, Alexis Ronickher.
Melanie Proctor, an assistant chief counsel also involved in the Activision case, resigned Wednesday on what was Proctor’s official last day, the attorney said.
Ronickher didn’t specify why Wipper was terminated. However, she said Wipper is considering filing a claim under California’s whistleblower protection law.
The lawyer noted that Gov. Gavin Newsom had reappointed Wipper to her position just four months before she was being terminated.
Bloomberg was first to report the shakeup Wednesday, citing an email from Proctor to department staff accusing Newsom and his office of interfering with the Activision lawsuit.
“For there to be justice, those with political influence must be forced to play by the same set of laws and rules,” Ronickher said in a statement.
“Claims of interference by our office are categorically false,” Newsom spokesperson Erin Mellon said in a statement Wednesday.
The administration supports the fair employment department’s efforts “to fight all forms of discrimination and protect Californians,” Mellon said.
The agency sued the Santa Monica-based video game company in July, alleging a “frat boy” culture that had become a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.”
It was one of several legal problems affecting the maker of Call of Duty and Candy Crush, dragging down its stock price last year and paving the way for Xbox-maker Microsoft to make a takeover bid.
The $68.7 billion all-cash deal was announced in January. If approved by U.S. and overseas regulators, it could be one of the biggest tech acquisitions in history.
In announcing the agreement, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella noted the allegations about Activision and said it will be “critical” for the company to drive forward on longtime CEO Bobby Kotick’s commitments to improve its workplace culture.
Neither Microsoft nor Activision responded to a request for comment Wednesday.
Activision has come under fire from the government and even some shareholders over allegations that management ignored sexual harassment and discrimination against female employees.
A shareholder suit filed last year alleges that the company’s negligent response resulted in a loss of share value.
The company also agreed last year to pay $18 million to settle a complaint by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. After a nearly three-year investigation, the agency concluded that Activision failed to take effective action after employees complained about sexual harassment, discriminated against pregnant employees and retaliated against employees who spoke out, including by firing them.
A federal judge approved the settlement on March 29, the same day that Wipper was notified of her firing. The judge rejected a request by Wipper’s agency to delay the settlement as it pursued its own case. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/california-state-lawyer-suing-activision-blizzard-is-fired/ | 2022-04-14T07:09:54 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/california-state-lawyer-suing-activision-blizzard-is-fired/ |
BEIJING (AP) — China’s exports rose 15.7% over a year ago in March while imports were flat amid disruptions due to coronavirus outbreaks as the ruling Communist Party enforces a “zero-COVID” strategy to isolate every case.
Exports rose to $276.1 billion despite anti-virus controls in Shanghai and other industrial hubs that are causing factories to reduce production, customs data showed Wednesday. Imports rose less than 1% to $228.7 billion.
China’s infection numbers are relatively low, but the “zero-COVID” strategy has confined most of Shanghai’s 25 million people to their homes since late March and suspended access to other manufacturing regions.
The anti-virus curbs are adding to concerns over global trade disruptions that persist from the pandemic. Chinese officials say they are taking steps to keep ports functioning, but automakers and other factories have cut production due to problems with supplies.
Local outbreaks have “caused great pressure on production and operation of some enterprises and the stability of the supply chain,” said a customs official, Li Kuiwen, at a news conference. Li said the customs agency “makes every effort to coordinate ports well.”
An economic slowdown triggered by an official campaign to cut debt in China’s vast real estate industry, meanwhile, has sapped consumer demand. Economic growth slid to 4% over a year earlier in the final quarter of 2021, down from the full year’s 8.1%.
Exports to the United States rose 22.4% over a year earlier to $47.3 billion in March despite lingering tariff hikes in a feud over Beijing’s technology ambitions. Imports of American goods rose 11.5% to $15.2 billion.
That meant the politically volatile trade surplus with the United States widened by half over a year earlier to $32.1 billion. That imbalance was one of the factors that prompted then-President Donald Trump to hike tariffs on Chinese goods in 2019.
With almost no growth in imports, China’s global trade surplus more than doubled to $47.4 billion.
Imports from Russia, a major gas supplier, fell 26.4% from a year earlier to $7.8 billion. Exports to Russia edged down 7.7% to $3.8 billion.
Beijing has criticized trade and financial sanctions imposed on Moscow by the United States, Europe and Japan over its invasion of Ukraine. But Chinese companies appear to be abiding by them while trying to guard against possible losses in dealings with Russia.
Trade and manufacturing appear likely to suffer a bigger impact this month due to the shutdown of most businesses in Shanghai and suspension of access to Guangzhou, a manufacturing and trade center in the south, and to industrial centers of Changchun and Jilin in the northeast.
Managers of the port of Shanghai, the world’s busiest, say its operations are normal. But the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China has said its member companies estimate the volume of cargo handled by the port every day is down 40%.
Exports to the 27-nation European Union fell 9.1% from a year ago to $44.4 billion while imports tumbled 41.6% to $24.3 billion. China’s surplus with Europe jumped 179.3% to $20.1 billion. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/chinas-march-exports-grow-despite-virus-imports-flat/ | 2022-04-14T07:10:02 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/chinas-march-exports-grow-despite-virus-imports-flat/ |
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Should Netflix and other streaming services have to pay local governments the same fees levied on cable operators?
That was the question before the Ohio Supreme Court during a Wednesday hearing, as the court debates whether streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu are covered by a state law that would require them to pay to play.
The argument is similar to one in several other states, where cities are trying to force streaming service companies to pay cable operator fees.
At issue in Ohio is the state’s 2007 Video Service Authorization law, which directed the state Commerce Department to determine what entities must obtain permission to physically install cables and wires in a public right-of-way. Companies deemed video service providers must pay a fee to local governments under that law.
Officials with Maple Heights in suburban Cleveland contend that streaming services are subject to the fee because their content is delivered via the internet over cables and wires.
In Tennessee, the state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month brought by Knoxville against Netflix and Hulu. A similar case brought by the city of Creve Coeur is pending in Missouri. In 2020, four Indiana cities sued Netflix, Disney, Hulu, DirectTV and Dish Network to require them to pay the same franchise fees to local governments that cable companies must pay.
In related lawsuits brought in Arkansas, California, Nevada and Texas, Netflix and Hulu won their arguments last year that they can’t be treated the same as video providers.
Streaming companies argue their distribution method is different from traditional video providers. They also say in the Ohio case, it’s up to the Commerce Department to label them a video service provider, a process they say can’t be done through a lawsuit.
The state is siding with the streaming companies, contending that Ohio’s law only covers companies building infrastructure to carry cables.
“This is about those who dig, they must pay,” Mathura Sridharan, the Ohio deputy solicitor general, told justices on the state Supreme Court during oral arguments Wednesday. “If they don’t dig, then they don’t pay.”
A court decision isn’t expected for months.
Attorneys for Maple Heights argue that nothing in the 2007 law requires a video service provider to own or physically access wireline facilities in public rights-of-way to be subject to video service provider fees.
Without that equipment, streaming services “could not deliver their video programming to their subscribers,” Justin Hawal, an attorney representing Maple Heights, said in a December court filing.
The “modest 5% video service fee” is not burdensome but instead represents a small return on billions of dollars in benefits that the streaming services receive nationwide from network infrastructure, Hawal said.
Justices seemed skeptical of Maple Heights’ arguments, in particular questioning whether the argument was even one for the court to decide.
“Shouldn’t you be up at the Statehouse a block and a half away instead of at a courthouse trying to get the law changed?” Justice Pat Fisher asked Hawal Wednesday.
Hawal said Maple Heights is trying to apply existing law to a new technology.
Attorneys for Netflix say the company doesn’t have physical wires and cables and doesn’t need them under its internet streaming business model.
Unlike broadcast TV stations, “users can watch content anywhere, anytime, and in any amount, so long as they have an internet connection,” Amanda Martinsek, an attorney representing Netflix, said in a November filing.
Netflix argues a growing number of courts nationally have reached the conclusion that companies like Netflix and Hulu don’t owe provider fees because they’re not video service providers. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/cities-ask-netflix-hulu-stream-services-to-pay-cable-fees/ | 2022-04-14T07:10:09 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/cities-ask-netflix-hulu-stream-services-to-pay-cable-fees/ |
Delta Air Lines lost $940 million in the first quarter, hurt by a rise in fuel prices, but bookings surged in recent weeks, setting up a breakout summer as Americans try to put the pandemic behind them.
Wall Street had expected the loss in a quarter marred by the omicron variant of COVID-19. Investors focused Wednesday on Delta’s upbeat outlook for the rest of the year.
Shares of the Atlanta-based airline jumped more than 6%, and American, United and Southwest all gained between 5% and 11%.
Delta still faces stiff headwinds, including the rise in fuel and labor costs. And it is not clear whether spiking inflation will cause consumers to pull back on travel spending.
On Tuesday, the U.S. reported that in the past year inflation rose at its fastest pace since 1981, led by soaring energy prices. Jet fuel is Delta’s second-largest cost after labor.
Delta’s jet fuel costs rose 33% from just the last quarter. Total adjusted operating expense reached $9 billion in the first three months of the year, up 11% sequentially due to fuel prices and the cost of ramping up operations from the pandemic.
So far, though, neither inflation, the ongoing pandemic nor Russia’s war against Ukraine seem to be having any impact on ticket sales. Delta officials say that bookings started to rise in late February and have kept going.
“The last five weeks have been the highest bookings in our history,” CEO Ed Bastian said in an interview. “I think that’s an indication that people are through with the virus. They feel they have all the tools and the technology to manage it.”
Bastian said he expects travel demand to remain strong for two to three months — about as far into the future as airlines care to venture.
“Then, when we get to the fall, that will be the next inflection point as to consumer health, what impact inflation has had on them, higher fuel prices, what impact there is from the virus,” he said.
Delta forecast second-quarter revenue of about 95% of pre-pandemic levels, up from 89% in the first quarter. The trend will be driven by more spending on premium seats and more charging with Delta-branded credit cards.
At the same time, Delta is bracing for much higher costs. It forecast that spending on labor and everything else other than fuel will rise about 17% on a per-seat basis, compared with the same quarter in 2019.
And jet fuel, which cost Delta an average of $2.79 a gallon in the first quarter, is expected to jump to between $3.20 and $3.35. If Delta had paid the higher price in the first quarter, it would have spent an extra $364 million fueling up.
Bastian said travel demand is strong enough to let Delta cover higher fuel costs.
From under 90,000 on some days in April 2020, now more than 2 million people a day on average board planes in the United States. So far in April, airport crowds are down only 9% from April 2019, according to government figures.
Business travel, and in particular international corporate travel, have not recovered yet, however.
Airlines are lobbying the Biden administration to drop a requirement that flyers test negative for COVID-19 before boarding a flight to the U.S., which they think is holding back people — particularly business travelers — who are afraid of being stranded far from home if they contract the virus.
“We are getting a strong indication that the predeparture testing will be phased out in the near future, which of course is quite encouraging,” said Peter Carter, Delta’s chief legal officer. He based that view on discussions between airline representatives and officials “throughout the administration,” whom he did not name.
A requirement to wear face masks on planes, in airports and on public transportation that was due to expire next Monday will be extended by two weeks, through May 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday.
Bastian favors eliminating the mask mandate immediately. He said some people might start flying if they don’t have to wear a mask, and others might stop flying if other passengers are unmasked. He called both groups “fringe.”
If masks are no longer required, “I think you’ll see a surprising number of people continue to wear masks, and certainly some of our employees will wear masks,” he said. “I may choose to wear a mask once in a while.”
In the first quarter, Delta said its loss, excluding special items, worked out to $1.23 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a loss of $1.27 per share, but they predict profits in each of the next three quarters and the full year.
Revenue was $9.35 billion. Delta is getting nearly the same amount of money per passenger that it got in 2019, but there are more empty seats — the average flight was 75% full, compared with 83% in early 2019. Delta officials indicated they are willing to limit capacity to keep planes full this summer.
Jamie Baker, an airline analyst for JPMorgan, said Delta’s second-quarter outlook for revenue exceeded his most optimistic forecast, and he changed his prediction of a second-quarter loss to a profit.
Delta was the first U.S. carrier to post first-quarter numbers, and Baker said its report “bodes exceptionally well” for other airlines this earnings season. United and American are scheduled to release results next week and Southwest is set for April 28.
Peter McNally, an analyst for business researcher Third Bridge, said “Delta is delivering a confident message ahead of the busy summer travel season, which is expected to be the busiest in three years, and the company should return to full profitability.”
Like other airlines, Delta has added debt during the pandemic by borrowing from the federal government and private sources. At the end of March, Delta had total debt and finance lease obligations of $25.6 billion. It aims to trim about $6 billion in debt by the end of 2024.
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Follow David Koenig at www.twitter.com/airlinewriter | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/delta-loses-940-million-in-q1-but-bookings-strengthen/ | 2022-04-14T07:10:16 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/delta-loses-940-million-in-q1-but-bookings-strengthen/ |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch bank ABN AMRO apologized Wednesday for historic links to the slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, including the involvement of one of the bank’s predecessor institutions in “day-to-day business” of plantations.
The bank is the latest institution to apologize for historic ties to slavery, following the Bank of England in 2020 and the municipality of Amsterdam last year amid a global Black Lives Matter reckoning over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
ABN AMRO said in a statement that research it commissioned into its history and that of other banks that were its direct predecessors uncovered a dark side.
The bank said the research revealed that “ABN AMRO’s predecessor Hope & Co. played a pivotal role in the international slave economy of the 18th century. Not only were slavery-related operations a source of much of Hope & Co.’s profits, the firm was also actively involved in the day-to-day business of plantations.”
The plantations were in the Caribbean on Dutch colonies and other islands.
Another bank that went on to become part of ABN AMRO, Mees en Zoonen, “brokered insurance for slave ships and shipments of goods harvested by enslaved persons,” the bank said.
ABN AMRO CEO Robert Swaak said the bank has a proud history, but “we must also recognize that it has a darker side as well.”
He said ABN AMRO “apologizes for the past actions and activities of these predecessors and for the pain and suffering that they caused.”
Lead researcher Pepijn Brandon of the International Institute of Social History that documented the history said it revealed “slavery-related operations formed a core part” off the business of Hope & Co., which was the largest financial and commercial company in the Netherlands at the end of the 18th century.
ABN AMRO said it had discussed the findings with representatives of the descendants of enslaved people, who said they want to see “concrete measures to help improve the structural social disadvantages facing descendants of enslaved persons.” | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/dutch-abn-amro-bank-apologizes-for-historic-links-to-slavery/ | 2022-04-14T07:10:24 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/dutch-abn-amro-bank-apologizes-for-historic-links-to-slavery/ |
HELSINKI (AP) — 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, a 1,340-kilometer (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.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/finland-sweden-move-ahead-toward-possible-nato-membership/ | 2022-04-14T07:10:31 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/finland-sweden-move-ahead-toward-possible-nato-membership/ |
DENVER (AP) — Frontier Airlines has settled a discrimination lawsuit brought by a group of flight attendants who claimed the carrier discriminated against them during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.
Denver-based Frontier agreed to keep or change several policies to address the needs of pregnant and lactating personnel in settling the litigation, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, which represented the employees, announced Wednesday.
In their 2019 federal lawsuit, the four employees alleged that Frontier forced them to take unpaid leave for pregnancy-related absences and did not make it possible for them to pump breast milk while working.
Frontier at the time insisted that it offered “a number of accommodations for pregnant and lactating pilots and flight attendants within the bounds of protecting public safety, which is always our top priority.”
Under the settlement, Frontier agreed to clarify that pregnancy-related absences are not subject to disciplinary action, The Denver Gazette reported.
Flight attendants unable to fly because of pregnancy or lactation will be provided the same accommodations as those with other medical conditions, including medical leave or temporary ground duty.
The airline also will keep in place a recent change allowing flight attendants to use wearable breast pumps during flight, provide lactation facilities at its base locations and provide information on lactation facilities at other airports.
“Future flight attendants won’t have to worry about how they are going to fit in pumping between flights or wonder where they will be able to pump safely,” plaintiff Melissa Hodgkins said in a statement released by the ACLU. “I gave up breastfeeding to provide for my family, and no one should have to make that choice again.”
“We’re proud to be at the forefront of accommodating the needs of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in the airline industry,” said Jacalyn Peter, Frontier’s vice president of labor relations.
Two lawsuits originally were filed in 2019 by a New York law firm, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado and the Women’s Rights Project of the ACLU Foundation.
Attorneys filed two lawsuits because Frontier’s policies for flight attendants and pilots were different, according to the ACLU. The litigation involving the four female pilots continues in federal court in Denver. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/flight-attendants-settle-frontier-discrimination-suit/ | 2022-04-14T07:10:38 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/flight-attendants-settle-frontier-discrimination-suit/ |
PARIS (AP) — French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen warned Wednesday against sending any more weapons to Ukraine, and called for a rapprochement between NATO and Russia once Moscow’s war in Ukraine winds down.
Le Pen, an outspoken nationalist who has long ties to Russia, also confirmed that if she unseats President Emmanuel Macron in France’s April 24 presidential runoff, she will pull France out of NATO’s military command and dial back French support for the whole European Union.
Macron, a pro-EU centrist, is facing a harder-than-expected fight to stay in power, in part because the economic impact of the war is hitting poor households the hardest. France’s European partners are worried that a possible Le Pen presidency could undermine Western unityas the U.S. and Europe seek to support Ukraine and end Russia’s ruinous war on its neighbor.
Asked about military aid to Ukraine, Le Pen said she would continue defense and intelligence support.
“(But) I’m more reserved about direct arms deliveries. Why? Because … the line is thin between aid and becoming a co-belligerent,” the far-right leader said, citing concerns about an “escalation of this conflict that could bring a whole number of countries into a military commitment.”
Earlier Wednesday, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said France had sent 100 million euros ($109 million) worth of weapons to Ukraine in recent weeks as part of a flow of Western arms.
Earlier in his term, Macron had tried to reach out to Russian President Vladimir Putin to improve Russia’s relations with the West, and Macron met with Putin weeks before the Russian invasion in an unsuccessful effort to prevent it. Since then, however, France has supported EU sanctions against Moscow and has offered sustained support to Ukraine.
Le Pen also said France should strike a more independent path from the U.S.-led NATO military alliance.
And despite the atrocities that Russian troops have committed in Ukraine, Le Pen said that NATO should seek a “strategic rapprochement” with Russia once the war is over. Such a relationship would be “in the interest of France and Europe and I think even of the United States,” she said, to stop Russia from forging a stronger alliance with world power China.
She did not directly address the horrors unfolding in Ukraine.
Le Pen was speaking at a press conference Wednesday to lay out her foreign policy plans, which include halting aid to African countries unless they take back “undesirable” migrants seeking entry to France. She also wants to slash support for international efforts to improve women’s reproductive health in poor countries, increase minority rights or solve environmental problems.
At the end of the event, protesters held up a poster showing a 2017 meeting between Le Pen and Putin. One activist was pulled out of the room. Anti-racism protesters also held a small demonstration outside.
“The election of Madame Le Pen would mean electing an admirer of Putin’s regime, an autocratic regime and an admirer of Putin’s imperialistic logic,” said Dominique Sopo, head of the group SOS Racism. “It would mean that France would become a vassal to Putin’s Russia.”
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Follow all AP stories related to France’s 2022 presidential election at https://apnews.com/hub/ french-election-2022.
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Follow all AP stories on Russia’s war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/frances-le-pen-warns-against-sending-weapons-to-ukraine/ | 2022-04-14T07:10:45 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/frances-le-pen-warns-against-sending-weapons-to-ukraine/ |
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday defied intensifying pressure over his new border policy that has gridlocked trucks entering the U.S. and shut down some of the world’s busiest trade bridges as the Mexican government, businesses and even some allies urge him to relent.
The two-term Republican governor, who has ordered that commercial trucks from Mexico undergo extra inspections as part of a fight with President Joe Biden’s administration over immigration, refused to fully reverse course as traffic remains snarled.
The standoff has stoked warnings by trade groups and experts that U.S. grocery shoppers could soon notice shortages on shelves and higher prices unless the normal flow of trucks resumes.
Abbott announced Wednesday that he would stop inspections at one bridge in Laredo after reaching an agreement with the governor of neighboring Nuevo Leon in Mexico. But some of the most dramatic truck backups and bridge closures have occurred elsewhere along Texas’ 1,200-mile border.
“I understand the concerns that businesses have trying to move product across the border,” Abbott said during a visit to Laredo. “But I also know well the frustration of my fellow Texans and my fellow Americans caused by the Biden administration not securing our border.”
Abbott said inbound commercial trucks elsewhere will continue to undergo thorough inspections by state troopers until leaders of Mexico’s three other neighboring states reach agreements with Texas over security. He did not spell out what those measures must entail.
At the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, where more produce crosses than any other land port in the U.S., truckers protesting Abbott’s order had effectively shut down the bridge since Monday. But Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said the protests had concluded and commercial traffic had resumed.
Nuevo Leon Gov. Samuel García joined Abbott in Laredo, where backups on the Colombia Solidarity Bridge have stretched for three hours or longer. Garcia said Nuevo Leon would begin checkpoints to assure Abbott they “would not have any trouble.”
Abbott said he was hopeful other Mexican states would soon follow and said those states had been in contact with his office. On Tuesday, the governors of Coahuila and Tamaulipas had sent a letter to Abbott calling the inspections overzealous.
“This policy will ultimately increase consumer costs in an already record 40-year inflated market — holding the border hostage is not the answer,” the letter read.
The slowdowns are the fallout of an initiative that Abbott says is needed to curb human trafficking and the flow of drugs. Abbott ordered the inspections as part of “unprecedented actions” he promised in response to the Biden administration winding down a public health law that has limited asylum-seekers in the name of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
In addition to the inspections, Abbott also said Texas would begin offering migrants bus rides to Washington, D.C., in a demonstration of frustration with the Biden administration and Congress. Hours before the news conference in Laredo, Abbott announced the first bus carrying 24 migrants had arrived in Washington.
During the last week of March, Border Protection officials said the border averaged more than 7,100 crossings daily.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called Abbott’s order “unnecessary and redundant.” Trucks are inspected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents upon entering the country, and while Texas troopers have previously done additional inspections on some vehicles, local officials and business owners say troopers have never stopped every truck until now.
Cross-border traffic has plummeted to a third of normal levels since the inspections began, according to Mexico’s government. Mexico is a major supplier of fresh vegetables to the U.S., and importers say the wait times and rerouting of trucks to other bridges as far away as Arizona has spoiled some produce shipments.
The escalating pressure on Abbott, who is up for reelection in November, has come from his supporters and members of his own party.
The Texas Trucking Association, which has endorsed Abbott, said that the current situation “cannot be sustained.”
John Esparza, the association’s president, said he agrees with attempts to find a remedy with Mexico’s governors. But he said if talks take long, congestion could overwhelm bridges where inspections by Texas are no longer being done.
“The longer that goes, the more the impact is felt across the country,” Esparza said. “ It is like when a disaster strikes.”
The 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 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.
Critics question how the inspections are meeting Abbott’s objective of stopping the flow of migrants and drugs. Asked what troopers had turned up in their truck inspections, Abbott directed the question to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
As of Monday, the agency said 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 inspections turned up migrants or drugs.
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Associated Press reporters Acacia Coronado. Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to show it’s Customs and Border Protection. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/frustration-grows-over-truck-backlogs-at-texas-mexico-border-2/ | 2022-04-14T07:10:52 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/frustration-grows-over-truck-backlogs-at-texas-mexico-border-2/ |
BERLIN (AP) — A group of leading economic think tanks slashed its forecast for growth in Germany this year, predicting Wednesday that Europe’s biggest economy will expand by 2.7% as Russia’s war in Ukraine weighs on prospects.
The five institutes’ revised outlook compared with a forecast of 4.8% they made last fall. They forecast an even worse performance if Russian gas supplies are cut off suddenly.
They blamed the war and the “worse than expected course” of the coronavirus pandemic over the winter for Wednesday’s outook revision.
It is the latest in a string of downgrades for Germany’s economic outlook, but is still more optimistic than a recent prediction of 1.8% growth in gross domestic product by the government’s panel of independent economic advisers.
For 2023, the think tanks forecast moderately better growth of 3.1%. The baseline predictions for this year and next assume continuing gas deliveries and “no further economic escalation from the war in Ukraine,” they said.
If energy deliveries are cut off, they forecast growth of 1.9% this year and a contraction of 2.2% in 2023. They said “the cumulative loss of GDP in 2022 and 2023 in the event of a supply freeze is likely to be around 220 billion euros,” or $239 billion.
Germany relies on Russia for about 40% of its natural gas deliveries. The government is working to reduce that dependency, but says it needs time to exit Russian gas altogether and has opposed an immediate stop to supplies.
Last year, Germany’s GDP grew by 2.9%. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/german-economists-lower-growth-outlook-see-worse-if-gas-cut/ | 2022-04-14T07:10:59 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/german-economists-lower-growth-outlook-see-worse-if-gas-cut/ |
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday criticized a diplomatic snub by Ukraine for his country’s president and defended Berlin’s record on delivering weapons to Kyiv amid tensions that have flared at a delicate moment in German policymaking on the war.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s largely ceremonial head of state, had hoped to travel to Ukraine on Wednesday with his Polish and Baltic counterparts. But he said Tuesday that his presence “apparently … wasn’t wanted in Kyiv.” The German newspaper Bild quoted an unidentified Ukrainian diplomat as saying that Steinmeier was not welcome at the moment, pointing to his close relations with Russia in the past.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany later said the government would be glad to welcome Scholz — who, unlike Steinmeier, sets government policy. But the snub to Steinmeier may make that more difficult.
“The president would have liked to go to Ukraine,” Scholz told rbb24 Inforadio, noting that Steinmeier is Germany’s head of state and was recently reelected with broad support. “So it would have been good to receive him.”
“It is, in any case, somewhat irritating, to put it politely,” Scholz added, noting that Steinmeier has strongly criticized Russia’s war and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine.
The flap comes amid a discussion within Scholz’s governing coalition about whether Germany should authorize sending heavy weapons such as tanks to Ukraine as that nation prepares to face a stepped-up Russian offensive in the east. Germany broke with tradition after Russia’s invasion to supply arms to Ukraine but has faced criticism from Kyiv for perceived hesitancy and slowness in providing material.
A Ukrainian presidential advisor, Oleksiy Arestovych, told Germany’s ARD television that he didn’t know the reasons for the decision to reject a Steinmeier visit but also signaled that Kyiv would like to see Scholz so that “practical decisions” could be made on matters such as weapons.
A senior lawmaker with one of Germany’s three governing parties, Wolfgang Kubicki, said he didn’t think Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “well advised” to reject a visit by Steinmeier.
“I cannot imagine that the chancellor … will travel to a country that designates our country’s head of state as an unwanted person,” he told the German news agency dpa. Another governing party lawmaker, Juergen Trittin, told the RND newspaper group that the move was “a big propaganda success for Vladimir Putin.”
Steinmeier, who became president in 2017, served twice as ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foreign minister and before that as ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s chief of staff. During that time, Germany pursued a dialogue with Putin and cultivated close energy ties.
Last week, Steinmeier admitted mistakes in Germany’s policies toward Russia, saying that “we failed on many points.”
Asked when would go to Ukraine, Scholz said only that he had visited Kyiv shortly before the war and regularly speaks to Zelenskyy.
Scholz said “the weapons we are delivering have made a very substantial contribution” to Ukraine foiling Russia’s plans for a quick conquest. He was tight-lipped on the possibilities of a bigger German contribution, but insisted that “we are delivering, we have delivered and we will deliver.”
On Monday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of the Green party said “Ukraine needs further military material, above all heavy weapons, and now is not the time for excuses — now is the time for creativity and pragmatism.”
The message appeared directed at more hesitant German politicians, particularly among Scholz’s Social Democrats.
Scholz said “we are delivering the weapons that all the others are also delivering.” He also said Germany won’t make unilateral decisions and stressed the need to prevent NATO countries from becoming a party to the war.
Germany, which has Europe’s biggest economy, also has faced criticism for opposing a quick halt to deliveries of natural gas from Russia, which accounts for about 40% of its gas supplies.
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Follow all AP stories on Russia’s war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/germany-irritated-by-ukraines-snub-of-a-presidential-visit/ | 2022-04-14T07:11:07 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/germany-irritated-by-ukraines-snub-of-a-presidential-visit/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shortly after moving to South Florida for a new job with the U.S. military, Shannon Kaufman and his wife, Wendy, signed up for a whole other mission: buying a home.
For months, they scoured listings, strategizing late into the night on which homes to target and working out how much they could afford, even if it meant using some of their retirement savings.
After visiting 200 listings and making offers on 15 homes that ultimately didn’t pan out, the Kaufmans finally found a home that fits at least some of their needs. They’ll be renting it, however.
“We found a place that’s smaller than we want, but it’ll work until we have something built or until the market cools off,” said Shannon Kaufman, 47.
America’s housing market has grown increasingly frenzied, and prices are out of reach for many buyers, especially first-timers. This spring, traditionally the busiest season for home sales, is more likely to deliver frustration and disappointment for aspiring homebuyers than it is homeownership.
The number of homes for sale nationally remains near record lows, fueling fierce competition among buyers vying for fewer homes. From Los Angeles to Raleigh, North Carolina, when a house does hit the market, it typically sells within days.
Bidding wars are common, often driving the sale price well above what the owner was asking. And would-be buyers planning to finance their purchase with a home loan are often losing out to investors and others able to buy a home with cash. A quarter of all homes sold in February were purchased with cash, up from 22% a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. Real estate investors accounted for 19% of transactions in February, up from 17% a year ago.
Nichol Khan, a project manager, and her husband Ed moved to Mesa, Arizona, from Phoenix two years ago to shorten their commute to work. Home prices in the Phoenix area have jumped 20% from a year ago to $500,000, according to Realtor.com.
“The prices just keep going up and up,” Khan said.
The couple has lost out on more than a dozen homes they bid on. Some of the homes ended up selling for less in cash than the couple had offered.
“We don’t have $500,000 in cash,” said Khan, 42. “We just could not be competitive with that.”
Fewer homes on the market and high prices have been the hallmark of the housing market for the past 10 years or so. Now, rising mortgage rates further complicate the homebuying equation. Higher rates could limit the pool of buyers and cool the rate of home price growth — good news for buyers. But higher rates also weaken their buying power.
The average rate on a 30-year home loan has climbed to around 4.7%. A year ago, average rates hovered just above 3%, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. The increase follows a sharp move up in 10-year Treasury yields, reflecting expectations of higher interest rates overall as the Federal Reserve moves to hike short-term rates in order to combat surging inflation.
Would-be buyers who applied for a home loan in February faced a median monthly mortgage payment of $1,653, including principal and interest, an increase of 8.3% from a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
“It’s hard to believe, but I do think it’s going to be tougher this year, in some respects, than it was in previous years,” said Danielle Hale, Realtor.com’s chief economist. “So far, at least, we have seen the number of homes for sale continue to decline and prices continue to rise. Those two factors combined suggest that the competitive market is going to keep buyers on their toes.”
Buyers should set their sights on homes that are listed well within what they can afford, experts say.
“You should be looking 15%-20% below their limit; that gives them room for appraisal gaps, it gives them room for negotiating,” said Tracy Hutton, a broker with Century 21 in Indianapolis.
Being well prepared sometimes isn’t enough when a homeowner prefers to accept an all-cash offer, rather than sell to a buyer with financing.
Wendy Kaufman in South Florida couldn’t even get into an open house for a property on the market after she revealed the couple had a mortgage backed by the Veterans Administration.
“When they saw I had a VA preapproval they said, ‘Sorry we don’t want to work with you.’” she said.
Sometimes, buyers don’t have a chance to make an offer before a home is snapped up, sight unseen.
In the Miami area, so-called “blind offers” have become common as a way to get around other buyers, said Rafael Corrales, a Redfin agent.
One reason is the ultra-low level of homes for sale, which for the greater Miami metropolitan area, was down 55% in February from a year ago, according to Realtor.com.
While every market is unique, there is one common hurdle across the U.S.: affordability. The median U.S. home price jumped 15% in February from a year earlier to $357,300, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The San Jose, California, metro area had 40% fewer homes for sale in February than a year ago, according to Realtor.com. Buyers there have to navigate some of the most expensive home prices in the nation. The median home listing price climbed 13.3% to about $1.36 million in February from a year earlier.
The market trends are a bit more welcoming for buyers in the Midwest, including the Indianapolis metropolitan area, where the number of homes for sale was down about 23% from a year ago. The median home price there stood at $287,000 in February, up 8.5% from a year earlier.
In Raleigh, home listings were down a whopping 55% in February from a year earlier. Competition for fewer homes helped push the median home price to $430,000, a 9% increase from February 2021.
Those trends made for a more competitive market for first-time buyers like Lisa Piercey and her husband, Alex Berardo. First-time buyers made up 29% of all homes sold nationally last month. That share has averaged 31% annually over the past 10 years.
The couple began looking in December for homes at $350,000 or below. They offered $5,000 over the asking price on two properties but lost out to rival bidders.
“That was all we could afford,” said Lisa Piercey, a 32-year old project manager. “It’s really defeating, really disappointing.”
In the end, the couple bought a townhome in a new construction community, though they see it as a stepping stone to a more spacious house with a big yard.
“Its big enough that we can still start our family and then move when the market hopefully dies down in a couple of years,” she said. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/homebuyers-stymied-by-fewer-homes-high-prices-rising-rates/ | 2022-04-14T07:11:14 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/homebuyers-stymied-by-fewer-homes-high-prices-rising-rates/ |
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A Japanese electric vehicle battery technology company will build a factory in Kentucky, creating 2,000 jobs in a $2 billion investment that reinforces the state’s leadership in battery production, Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday.
The Envision AESC plant at Bowling Green in south-central Kentucky will produce battery cells and modules to power the next generation of electric vehicles, the Democratic governor said.
The gigafactory’s products will be made for multiple auto manufacturers globally.
The announcement represents Kentucky’s second-largest economic development investment, the governor said, following an even larger battery production plant announcement last year.
“With today’s announcement, we solidify that the commonwealth of Kentucky is the undisputed electric battery production capital of the United States of America,” Beshear said as he gathered with other state leaders to celebrate the new project.
The Envision AESC announcement comes months after Bowling Green was among several Kentucky cities hard hit by tornadoes last December. Parts of Bowling Green were devastated by the storm.
Envision AESC Group CEO Shoichi Matsumoto said the Kentucky investment is part of the company’s next phase of battery strategy to power electric vehicles in the U.S.
“This major investment builds on our commitment to the U.S. market, supports growth of the electrification supply chain and secures high value jobs for future generations in the region,” he said.
“This commitment takes us one step further toward our ambition to make high-performance, longer-range batteries for a diverse range of automotive manufacturers worldwide to support the EV transition,” he added.
Plans for the Kentucky plant follow the company’s announcements last year to build gigafactories in France and the United Kingdom. Envision AESC has 4,000 employees and 10 production plants in Japan, the U.S., the United Kingdom, China and France.
Automakers are trying to outdo each other with electric vehicle announcements and proclamations that they plan to sell nothing but zero emissions vehicles in the next decade or so. At present, there are 38 fully electric models now on sale in the U.S., with more than 120 expected by 2025.
Automakers sold nearly 4.6 million electric vehicles worldwide last year. LMC Automotive, an industry consulting firm, expects that to rise to nearly 7 million this year and to more than 15 million by 2025. Still, that will be only about 15% of global vehicle sales.
In the U.S., LMC says just over 400,000 EVs were sold last year. The company expects that to rise to more than 2.2 million by 2025. Still, that’s only about 13% of new vehicle sales.
In Kentucky, the Envision AESC project follows last year’s announcement that Ford and its battery partner will build twin battery plants outside Glendale in central Kentucky. That mega-project will create 5,000 jobs to produce batteries for the automaker’s next generation of electric vehicles.
“So once again a company that is redefining the automobile industry is betting their future on Kentucky and our workforce,” Beshear said Wednesday of the Envision AESC project.
The Democratic governor thanked the state’s Republican-dominated legislature for its role in luring the new company. Republican Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne said the new plant announcement shows “great things can happen when we all pull in the same direction.” Soon after the plant celebration, Republican lawmakers started overriding the governor’s many vetoes.
The state’s new partnership provides the company up to $116.8 million from state incentive programs and up to $5 million in grant-in-aid for skills training, the governor’s office said.
Envision AESC picked a fast-growing college town with its plans to build the approximately 3 million-square-foot factory at the Kentucky Transpark in Bowling Green.
“The scale of this project is like nothing our community has ever seen before,” Bowling Green Mayor Todd Alcott said.
Bowling Green is also home to General Motors’ Corvette assembly plant.
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Associated Press auto writer Tom Krisher in Detroit and Associated Press writer Piper Hudspeth Blackburn in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/japanese-e-vehicle-battery-company-to-build-kentucky-plant/ | 2022-04-14T07:11:22 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/japanese-e-vehicle-battery-company-to-build-kentucky-plant/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan Chase said its first quarter profits dropped by 42% from last year, partly because the bank wrote down nearly $1.5 billion in assets due to higher inflation and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The nation’s largest bank by assets said it earned a profit of $8.3 billion, or $2.63 per share, down from a profit of $14.3 billion, or $4.50 a share, in the same period a year earlier. The results missed the forecasts of Wall Street analysts, who were looking for JPMorgan to earn $2.72 a share, according to FactSet.
JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement that the bank sees “significant geopolitical and economic challenges ahead due to high inflation, supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine.”
A year ago, JPMorgan boosted first-quarter profit by releasing more than $4 billion in credit reserves tied to the improving economy and waning COVID-19 pandemic. For more than a year, JPMorgan and other banks had been releasing the funds they had socked away to cover potentially bad loans. Those releases had boosted the banks’ profits significantly, but investors knew these one-time bumps in profits were temporary.
Now JPMorgan is going in reverse. The bank set aside $1.46 billion to write off its assets tied to Russia as well as assets that have been negatively exposed to persistently higher inflation. The bank said most of the Russian exposure was in its investment banking division as well as its asset management business.
In a call with reporters, JPMorgan Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said most of the Russian write downs were “name specific” Russian companies and assets, as well as some Russian-related derivatives.
JPMorgan is the first of Wall Street big banks to report their results for the first quarter. Analysts expect Wall Street will report a modest, but noticeable, hit to its profits as banks individually report their exposure to Russia. JPMorgan had a modest business in Russia. Citigroup, which had both an investment bank and a consumer banking business, will report its results on Thursday.
Dimon said JPMorgan is optimistic in the short-term about the U.S. economy and consumer spending.
Dimon has said publicly that he believes the U.S. consumer is in the best shape he’s seen in his career. Delinquencies are low and wages are rising, which should make it easier for consumers to pay their debts. JPMorgan’s consumer banking division saw credit card users spend more on their cards, and noticed a jump in travel and entertainment spending as well.
The volatility in markets the first three months of the year due to Russia’s invasion as well as inflation also negatively impacted the bank’s trading desks. JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank posted a 26% decline in profits from a year earlier. Investment banking revenue and fees dropped sharply, as companies put deals on hold. Stock and bond trading revenues also declined.
JPMorgan shares were down more than 3% in early trading. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/jpmorgan-profits-drop-42-bank-writes-off-russian-assets/ | 2022-04-14T07:11:29 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/jpmorgan-profits-drop-42-bank-writes-off-russian-assets/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The surging cost of energy pushed wholesale prices up a record 11.2% last month from a year earlier — another sign that inflationary pressure is widespread in the U.S. economy.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — climbed at the fastest year-over-year pace in records going back to 2010 and rose 1.4% from February. Energy prices, which soared after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, were up 36.7% from March 2021.
The wholesale inflation report came out a day after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices last month jumped 8.5% from a year earlier — fastest annual clip since December 1981.
Under pressure to combat rising prices, the Federal Reserve raised ts benchmark short-term rate by a quarter-point last month and has signaled that it plans several more hikes this year.
Resurgent inflation isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon. The United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics reported Wednesday that British consumer prices rose 7% in the 12 months that ended in March, the fastest pace in 30 years, pulled up by soaring energy costs.
An unexpectedly quick economic recovery from the pandemic recession of 2020 caught businesses by surprise. Their scramble to meet surging customer demand overwhelmed factories, ports and freight yards. The Ukraine war and draconian COVID-19 lockdowns in China have further disrupted supply chains over the past month.
“With a new wave of lockdowns in China and the war in Ukraine raging on … risks to the inflation outlook remain firmly to the upside,” economists Mahir Rasheed and Kathy Bostjancic of Oxford Economics wrote in a research report. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/producer-prices-surge-11-2-in-march-on-higher-energy-costs/ | 2022-04-14T07:11:36 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/producer-prices-surge-11-2-in-march-on-higher-energy-costs/ |
LONDON (AP) — British consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in 30 years last month, fueled by soaring costs for household energy and motor fuels — the latest grim figures as inflation surges around the world.
Inflation in the United Kingdom accelerated to 7% in the 12 months through March, the highest annual rate since March 1992, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday.
The U.K. faces what economists say will be the biggest drop in living standards since the mid-1950s as rocketing energy costs, rising food prices and tax increases overshadow higher wages.
People around the world are feeling the squeeze of inflation as demand rapidly bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine further drove up energy costs and squeezed supply chains.
In the United States, consumer prices last month jumped 8.5% from a year earlier, the fastest pace in more than 40 years, the Labor Department said Tuesday. In the 19 European countries using the euro, inflation surged to 7.5% last month, the fifth consecutive month that it has hit a record high.
In the U.K., the toll of rising rising means disposable household incomes, adjusted for inflation, are expected to drop by 2.2% this year, according to the government’s independent budget adviser.
Household natural gas prices jumped 28.3% over the last year, and electricity prices rose 19.2% as the global economy recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing worldwide demand for energy.
Prices will continue to rise after Britain’s energy regulator authorized a 54% increase in gas and electricity bills for millions of households that took effect in April.
Transportation costs are also rising, with the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel rising by an average of 30.7% over the past year, the biggest increase since current records began in January 1989, the Office for National Statistics said.
Countries are moving to ease the pain from rising food, fuel and other costs by raising interest rates. The Bank of England has raised raised its key interest rate three times since December, and the U.S. Federal Reserve hiked its benchmark short-term rate last month and is expected to keep raising it, possibly aggressively.
The European Central Bank, meanwhile, has sped up its exit from economic stimulus efforts to combat inflation but has not taken more drastic steps. It meets again Thursday. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/uk-inflation-rises-at-fastest-pace-in-30-years/ | 2022-04-14T07:11:43 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/uk-inflation-rises-at-fastest-pace-in-30-years/ |
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s detention of fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been met with enthusiasm in Kyiv and irritation in Moscow.
Analysts saying Medvedchuk will become a valuable pawn in the Russia-Ukraine talks to end the devastating warthat the Kremlin has unleashed on its ex-Soviet neighbor.
Medvedchuk was detained on Tuesday in a special operation carried out by Ukraine’s state security service, or the SBU. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has proposed that Russia could win Medvedchuk’s freedom by trading Ukrainians now held captive by the Russians.
The 67-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest several days before the hostilities broke out Feb. 24 in Ukraine. He is facing between 15 years and a life in prison on charges of treason and aiding and abetting a terrorist organization for mediating coal purchases for the separatist, Russia-backed Donetsk republic in eastern Ukraine.
Medvedchuk has close ties with Putin, who is believed to be the godfather of his youngest daughter. His detention has sparked a heated exchange between officials in Moscow and Kyiv.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council and the country’s former president, posted threats to Ukrainian authorities on the messaging app Telegram, referring to them as “freaks” and warning them to “carefully look around and firmly lock the doors at night.”
Zelenskyy’s advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, in response, called Medvedev a “nobody,” and said his words were “nasty and, as usual, stupid.”
“The friendly relations between Putin and Medvedchuk turn him into a valuable trophy for Kyiv, and in the Kremlin they spark fury and a dangerous desire for revenge,” Volodymyr Fesenko, an analyst at the Penta Center, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “The fate of Medvedchuk will undoubtedly become a subject of bargaining and one of the points of undercover agreements between Kyiv and Moscow.”
Zelenskyy has released a photo of Medvedchuk sitting in handcuffs and wearing a camouflage uniform with a Ukrainian flag patch, in which he looks tired but visibly unharmed.
Medvedchuk’s wife Oksana Marchenko has appealed to Zelenskyy, calling for her husband to be released and given guarantees that “his life would not be in danger.”
“My husband is being persecuted for political reasons against the laws of Ukraine,” Marchenko said.
Medvedchuk is the head of the political council of Ukraine’s pro-Russian Opposition Platform — For Life party, the largest opposition group in the Ukrainian parliament. He is one of its 44 lawmakers in the 450-seat Rada. The activity of his party has been was suspended for the duration of the war at Zelenskyy’s initiative.
“The war automatically turned Medvedchuk into (Russia’s) accomplice, since he personally advised Putin on Ukrainian affairs and directly or indirectly influenced many of the Kremlin’s decisions,” Fesenko said. “Zelenskyy no longer needs to be careful, and by arresting Medvedchuk, he wants to show that he is not afraid of the Kremlin and is ready to bargain, having different cards on the negotiating table.”
Ivan Bakanov, the head of Ukraine’s national security agency, said Wednesday that the Russian security service, the FSB, had planned to evacuate Medvedchuk, disguised as a Ukrainian serviceman, to Moscow through the disputed territory of Transnistria in Moldova, where Russia has troops stationed.
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Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ukraines-detention-of-oligarch-close-to-putin-angers-moscow/ | 2022-04-14T07:11:51 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ukraines-detention-of-oligarch-close-to-putin-angers-moscow/ |
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia’s war on Ukraine threatens to devastate the economies of many developing countries that are now facing even higher food and energy costs and increasingly difficult financial conditions, a U.N. task force warned Wednesday.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres released the report saying that the war is “supercharging” a crisis in food, energy and finance in poorer countries that were already struggling to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and a lack of access to adequate funding for economic recovery.
“We are now facing a perfect storm that threatens to devastate the economies of many developing countries,” Guterres said at a news conference. “As many as 1.7 billion people — one-third of whom are already living in poverty — are now highly exposed to disruptions in food, energy and finance systems that are triggering increases in poverty and hunger.”
Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of the U.N. agency promoting trade and development who coordinated the task force, said those people live in 107 countries that have “severe exposure” to at least one dimension of the crisis — rising food prices, increasing energy prices and tightening financial conditions.
In these countries, the report says, people struggle to afford healthy diets, imports are essential to meet food and energy needs, and “debt burdens and tightening resources limit government’s ability to cope with the vagaries of global financial conditions.”
The report says 69 of the countries, with a population of 1.2 billion people, face a “perfect storm” and are severely or significantly exposed to all three crises. They include 25 countries in Africa, 25 in Asia and the Pacific, and 19 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, prices were already on the rise, “but the war has made a bad situation worse,” Guterres said.
Thirty-six countries rely on Russia and Ukraine for more than half their wheat imports, including some of the world’s poorest countries, he said, and wheat and corn prices have risen 30% just since the start of the year.
Russia is also the world’s top natural gas exporter and second-largest oil exporter, and Russia and neighboring Belarus export about 20% of the world’s fertilizers. Guterres said oil prices have increased more than 60% over the past year, natural gas prices have jumped 50% in recent months, and fertilizer prices have doubled.
The task force said the world is “on the brink of a global debt crisis.” Grynspan, who heads the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, pointed to Sri Lanka’s default on a debt payment Tuesday and said other countries are asking for help.
Guterres said the world can act to tackle the “three-dimensional crisis” and “cushion the blow.”
The task force calls on countries to ensure a steady flow of food and fertilizer through open markets, lift export restrictions, and direct surpluses and reserves to those in need. Guterres said this would help keep a lid on food prices and calm volatility in food markets.
On energy, the task force urges governments to refrain from hoarding, immediately release strategic petroleum stockpiles and additional reserves, and reduce the use of wheat for biofuels. Guterres urged countries to use the crisis as an opportunity to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.
On finance, the task force issued “an urgent call for prompt and swift action from the international community” to help developing countries avoid another decade of lost economic development, “a generalized debt crisis, and social and political instability.”
The task force says international financial institutions should provide emergency concessional financing to countries experiencing social and economic distress.
It calls on the International Monetary Fund to increase limits for rapid financial assistance, suspend interest rate surcharges for two years, and explore the possibility of providing more liquidity “through special drawing rights or special measures targeted at the vulnerable and most affected countries.”
Guterres said the upcoming spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank on April 18-24 are “a crucial moment” for decisions on many of these issues. He said it is crucial that their members understand the need to use money that is available to alleviate the suffering of people around the world.
The U.N. chief said political will is key, and announced that he has asked six leaders — the presidents of Senegal and Indonesia and the prime ministers of Germany, Barbados, Denmark and Bangladesh — to mobilize political leaders to ensure that developing countries in crisis get the help they need. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/un-says-ukraine-war-threatens-to-devastate-many-poor-nations/ | 2022-04-14T07:11:58 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/un-says-ukraine-war-threatens-to-devastate-many-poor-nations/ |
BOSTON (AP) — Multiple U.S. government agencies issued a joint alert Wednesday warning of the discovery of a suite of malicious cyber tools created by unnamed advanced threat actors that are capable of sabotaging the energy sector and other critical industries.
The public alertfrom the Energy and Homeland Security Departments, the FBI and National Security Agency did not name the actors or offer details on the find. But their private sector cybersecurity partners said the evidence suggests Russia is behind the industrial control system-disrupting tools — and that they were configured to initially target North American energy concerns.
One of the cybersecurity firms involved, Mandiant, called the tools “exceptionally rare and dangerous.”
In a report, it called the tools’ functionality was “consistent with the malware used in Russia’s prior physical attacks” though it acknowledged that the evidence linking it to Moscow is “largely circumstantial.”
The CEO of another government partner, Robert M. Lee of Dragos, agreed that a state actor almost certainly crafted the malware, which he said was configured to initially target liquified natural gas and electric power sites in North America.
Lee referred questions on the state actor’s identity to the U.S. government and would not explain how the malware was discovered other than to say it was caught “before an attack was attempted.”
“We’re actually one step ahead of the adversary. None of us want them to understand where they screwed up,” said Lee. “Big win.”
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which published the alert, declined to identify the threat actor.
The U.S. government has warned critical infrastructure industries the gird for possible cyberattacks from Russia as retaliation for severe economic sanctions imposed on Moscow in response to its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Officials have said that Russian hacker interest in the U.S. energy sector is particularly high, and CISA urged it in a statement Wednesday to be especially mindful of the mitigation measures recommended in the alert. Last month, the FBI issued an alert saying Russian hackers have scanned at least five unnamed energy companies for vulnerabilities.
Lee said the malware was “designed to be a framework to go after lots of different types of industries and be leveraged multiple times. Based on the configuration of it, the initial targets would be LNG and electric in North America.”
Mandiant said the tools pose the greatest threat to Ukraine, NATO members and other states assisting Kyiv in its defense against Russian military aggression.
It said the malware could be used to shut down critical machinery, sabotage industrial processes and disable safety controllers, leading to the physical destruction of machinery that could lead to the loss of human lives. It compared the tools to Triton, malware traced to a Russian government research institute that targeted critical safety systems and twice forced the emergency shutdown of a Saudi oil refinery in 2017 and to Industroyer, the malware that Russian military hackers used the previous year to trigger a power outage in Ukraine.
Lee said the newly discovered malware, dubbed Pipedream, is only the seventh such malicious software to be identified that is designed to attack industrial control systems.
Lee said Dragos, which specializes in industrial control system protection, identified and analyzed its capability in early 2022 as part of its normal business research and in collaboration with partners.
He would offer no more specifics. In addition to Dragos and Mandiant, the U.S. government alert offers thanks to Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks and Schneider Electric for their contributions.
Schneider Electric is one of the manufacturers listed in the alert whose equipment is targeted by the malware. Omron is another.
Mandiant said it had analyzed the tools in early 2002 with Schneider Electric.
In a statement, Palo Alto Networks executive Wendi Whitmore said: ““We’ve been warning for years that our critical infrastructure is constantly under attack. Today’s alerts detail just how sophisticated our adversaries have gotten.”
Microsoft had no comment.
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AP writer Alan Suderman contributed from Richmond, Virginia | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/us-agencies-industrial-control-system-malware-discovered/ | 2022-04-14T07:12:06 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/us-agencies-industrial-control-system-malware-discovered/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is warning that countries that undermine the sanctions the United States and its allies have imposed on Russia will face consequences for their actions.
“The unified coalition of sanctioning countries will not be indifferent to actions that undermine the sanctions we’ve put in place,” Yellen says in prepared remarks to be delivered at the Atlantic Council on Wednesday.
The U.S. and its allies have used sanctions to weaponize the global economy against Russia over its war in Ukraine. There aren’t any countries yet subverting the sanctions, but there are fears among the allies that China, which has criticized the Western sanctions, could potentially do so.
Yellen, leaving open the question of what the consequences could be, says Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has “redrawn the contours” of the global economy, which includes “our conception of international cooperation going forward.”
Her speech at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan U.S. think tank, comes one week before the world’s finance ministers and central bank governors convene in Washington for the International Monetary Fund-World Bank Group Spring Meetings.
The IMF and the World Bank hold an annual conference that addresses issues affecting the global economy. This year, the meetings will take place April 18-24 in Washington both virtually and in person. The Russian invasion of Ukraine — and how world powers should manage the spillover to economies — will take center stage.
Last week, Yellen told a U.S. House panel that Russia’s aggression in Eastern Europe will have “enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond,” adding that the rising prices of energy, metal, wheat and corn that Russia and Ukraine produce are “going to escalate inflationary pressures as well.”
The U.S. is currently facing historic inflation rates not seen since December 1981. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that prices in March climbed 8.5% from a year ago.
While inflation began to increase before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the war has strained supplies of oil and gasoline. Half of the past month’s increase in consumer prices came from gas.
Yellen says in her prepared remarks that she hopes cooperating countries can tackle the world’s biggest problems, despite the war.
“I see this,” she says, “as the right time to work to address the gaps in our international financial system that we are witnessing in real time.” | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/yellen-nations-flouting-russia-sanctions-face-consequences/ | 2022-04-14T07:12:13 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/yellen-nations-flouting-russia-sanctions-face-consequences/ |
BEIRUT (AP) — The chilling scenes from Syria of victims twitching and gasping for air after chlorine cylinders were dropped from helicopters in towns and villages were broadcast over and over in the course of country’s civil war.
Legal and moral taboos were shattered. Hundreds were killed, including many children, in dozens of poison gas attacks widely blamed on President Bashar Assad’s forces under the protection of his chief ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Several years later, concerns are growing that such weapons could be used in Ukraine, where Russian forces have been waging a devastating war for weeks.
As the conflict drags on, Western officials and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have warned that Putin could deploy chemical agents.
“The world must react now,” Zelenskyy said.
Officials say they are investigatingan unconfirmed claim by a far-right Ukrainian regiment that a poisonous substance was dropped in the besieged city of Mariupol this week. The claim could not be confirmed by independent sources, and Ukrainian officials say it could have been phosphorus munitions – which cause horrendous burns but are not classed as chemical weapons.
LOWERING THE THRESHOLD
Putin has threatened to broaden the Ukraine war into a nuclear conflict, but it is unclear if chemical agents will be used to support his military operations. Analysts say the Syria war set a horrific precedent in terms of deploying chlorine, sulfur and the nerve agent sarin, completely disregarding international norms and with no accountability.
“From what we’re seeing now, it seems that Russia has drawn the conclusion that it’s safe to continue this modus operandi from Syria in the Ukrainian context as well,” said Aida Samani, legal adviser with Civil Rights Defenders, a Sweden-based group.
“Of course, that undermines the international regulations that we have in place and lowers the threshold for the use of such weapons,” Samani added.
She has joined with other nongovernmental organizations to file a criminal complaint on behalf of a group of Syrians living in Sweden against the Syrian government for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to its use of chemical weapons.
Western officials say Russia may be looking to borrow from the Syria playbook, where Assad’s forces tested the international community’s resolve by gradually ramping up the brutality of attacks and methods.
Part of the equation in Syria was the difficulty of proving anything in the aftermath of such attacks, largely due to the lack of immediate access. Assad, with Russia’s backing, consistently cast a cloud of confusion, accusing the opposition of fabricating evidence or deploying poison gas themselves to try to frame him.
An investigative mechanism set up by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons blamed Syrian government forces for multiple chemical attacks in Syria, including the use of chlorine and sarin in an attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017 that killed about 100 people. At least one mustard gas attack was blamed on the Islamic State group, which held territory in Syria and Iraq for several years during the war that killed half a million people.
In comments reminiscent of Syria, Russia accused Ukraine of running chemical and biological labswith U.S. support, leading to accusations Moscow was seeking to stage a false-flag incident. Ukraine does have a network of biological labs that have gotten funding and research support from the U.S. — but they are part of a program seeking to reduce the likelihood of deadly outbreaks by pathogens, whether natural or manmade. The U.S. efforts date to the 1990s to dismantle the former Soviet Union’s program for weapons of mass destruction.
RED LINES
The assault early on the morning of Aug. 21, 2013, on the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus known as Ghouta shocked a world that had grown largely numb to the carnage of Syria’s civil war.
Fueling the international outrage were dozens of online videos showing victims in spasms, gasping for breath and foaming at the mouth. The attack crossed what then-U.S. President Barack Obama had called a “red line” for possible military intervention in the Arab country.
Obama came close to ordering U.S.-led military strikes but abruptly backed down after failing to secure the necessary support from the U.S. Congress and instead struck a deal with Moscow to eliminate Syria’s chemical arsenal.
By August 2014, Assad’s government declared that the destruction of its chemical weapons was completed. But Syria’s initial declaration to the OPCW has remained in dispute, and the attacks continued.
In 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump launched several dozen cruise missiles at a Syrian air base in retaliation for a suspected nerve gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib province that killed about 100 people. Experts from the U.N. and the chemical weapons watchdog blamed the Syrian government for the attack.
As Moscow pushes its offensive in Ukraine, world leaders and policymakers are grappling with how the West should respond to a Russian battlefield use of chemical or biological weapons. Members of Congress said the Biden administration and its allies will not stand by if that happens.
Unlike Syria, however, Russia is a nuclear power. Any reaction risks triggering a nuclear confrontation, which Putin has already alluded to.
ACHIEVING JUSTICE
Samani, of Civil Rights Defenders, faults the international community for not making a real effort to seek accountability for the chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
“There hasn’t really been any political appetite to explore how, for example, a special tribunal could be set up for Syria,” she said.
Last week, she and a group of NGOs presented new information relevant to the sarin gas attacks on Khan Sheikhun in 2017 and Ghouta in 2013 to investigative authorities in Germany, France and Sweden.
But justice appears to be a long way off.
“Holding the perpetrators of these crimes accountable for the use of illegal weapons is the first deterrent to ensure that they do not recur,” said Haneen Haddad, project leader for the Syrian Archive, a Syrian-led project that documents human rights violations and other crimes committed in Syria.
“Without meaningful accountability, cruel actors and their enablers think that they can do terrible things without real consequence from the international community.”
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/chemical-weapons-use-from-syrian-war-stokes-ukraines-fears/ | 2022-04-14T07:12:19 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/chemical-weapons-use-from-syrian-war-stokes-ukraines-fears/ |
CIUDAD DE GOSEN, Peru (AP) — Every day for more than two years, Cindy Cueto has woken up in the house she shares with her three children atop a desert hill in Peru’s capital, and wondered: “What are we going to eat?”
The 39-year-old bands together with her neighbors in impoverished Ciudad de Gosen each day to cook up a “common pot” of food, a survival strategy that surfaced in Lima’s sprawling shantytowns with the coronavirus pandemic. It has since expanded to ameliorate the impacts of the rising prices of food, fuel and fertilizer due to global inflation, the war in Ukraine and a government ineffective in keeping its promise to help the most vulnerable.
The common pot, comparable to a small-scale soup kitchen, provides them one meal a day. Cueto and her neighbors try to track down the cheapest food in the markets, buying cow bones, chicken offal, rice and potatoes. They keep their eyes open for any charity from more fortunate Peruvians.
“We don’t buy meat. It’s very expensive, we only have enough for bones to make soup,” Cueto, whose husband works as a security guard, said as she counted her coins. “The money goes like this,” she said, snapping her fingers.
On Monday — like 15 other days since January — the common pot was empty because they failed to raise any money. A day later, after collecting the equivalent of $16, they bought two kilos (4 1/2 pounds) of chicken bones, five kilos of potatoes and the same amount of rice to feed 70 people, especially children and the elderly.
The inflation sweeping the world has hit Peru’s 33 million inhabitants hard, especially the 10 million poor people who live on $3 a day. Monthly inflation in March reached 1.48%, the highest in a quarter of a century. Soaring prices for food and fuel, combined with the inefficiency of President Pedro Castillo’s government, have unleashed violent protests that have caused five deaths and led to calls for Castillo and Peru’s legislators to resign.
According to government data from February, there are at least 3,400 common pots in Peru, 70% of them in Lima. Most are in shantytowns like Ciudad de Gosen, where there is no running water, electricity is scarce and residents have built their own houses and roads in the dusty earth of the desert hills surrounding Lima. Neglected by the government, they now have had to organize their own food supply.
Ciudad de Gosen residents say the price of cooking gas has tripled since the start of the pandemic. Cueto and her neighbors feed the fire under their common pot with wood scraps they are given twice a month as charity from a carpenter’s shop.
Trinidad Espinoza, a local cooking gas vendor, said even she uses firewood.
“I can’t even afford a canister myself,” she said.
The response by Peru’s government to rising hunger and spreading unrest has been ineffective, this despite coming to office on promises to prioritize the poor.
Castillo, a rural teacher before winning election, has changed his Cabinet four times during just nine months in office and been criticized for appointing inexperienced allies and neophytes to key ministries. Peru’s unicameral congress has twice tried to remove him from office.
Surveys by Peru’s major polling companies show about three quarters of Peruvians disapproving of his performance as president, and 79% disapproving of congress.
“They don’t care about people, they fight all the time for their interests,” said Enedina Avilés, 66, who lives alone a few steps from the common pot.
To control the social unrest, protests and road blockades that have hit the Andean country in recent weeks, the government has prohibited protests on major highways for 30 days. It has also lifted a fuel tax, but people complain that prices remain high.
On April 5, authorities briefly ordered Lima’s 10 million residents to stay in their homes and shut down public transport in a lockdown reminiscent of the coronavirus pandemic. A Lima lawmaker angered many when he justified the 22-hour lockdown by calling those living in the impoverished hills surrounding Lima “looters.”
Cueto’s husband, Walter Ríos, works far away from Ciudad de Gosen in a wealthy Lima neighborhood. Without public transportation on April 5, he had to make the 36-kilometer (22-mile) round trip to and from work on foot.
When her husband arrived home that night, she had prepared a bucket of salty water to soak his swollen feet.
“They decide anything without thinking of the consequences,” she said. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/facing-hunger-perus-poor-band-together-with-common-pots/ | 2022-04-14T07:12:26 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/facing-hunger-perus-poor-band-together-with-common-pots/ |
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Flooding in South Africa’s Durban area has taken at least 259 lives and is a “catastrophe of enormous proportions,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said Wednesday.
“This disaster is part of climate change. It is telling us that climate change is serious, it is here,” said Ramaphosa, visiting flooded areas of Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area.
“We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change,” he said.
The death toll is expected to continue rising as search and rescue operations continue in KwaZulu-Natal province, officials said. The province is about to be declared a disaster area by the national government, said Ramaphosa.
“KwaZulu-Natal is going to be declared a provincial area of disaster, so that we are able to do things quickly. The bridges have collapsed, the roads have collapsed, people have died and people are injured,” said Ramaphosa.
He said one family had lost 10 members in the devastating floods.
Residents have had to flee their homes as they were swept away, buildings collapsed and road infrastructure severely damaged. Durban port was flooded and shipping containers were swept away into a jumbled heap.
Authorities were also seeking to restore electricity to large parts of the province after heavy flooding at various power stations.
Rescue efforts by the South African National Defense Force were delayed as the military’s air wing was also affected by the floods, Gen. Rudzani Maphwanya said. The military was able to deploy personnel and helicopters around the province on Wednesday, he said.
The South Africa Weather Services has warned of continued winds and rains and the risk of continued flooding in Kwazulu-Natal and other provinces over the upcoming Easter weekend. South Africa’s Eastern Cape, Free State and North West provinces could be affected, it said. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/flooding-continues-in-south-africas-durban-area-259-dead/ | 2022-04-14T07:12:34 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/flooding-continues-in-south-africas-durban-area-259-dead/ |
Destructive wildfires rage in New Mexico, Colorado
(AP) - Firefighters scouted the drought-stricken mountainsides around a New Mexico village as they looked for opportunities to slow a wind-driven wildfire that a day earlier had burned at least 150 homes and other structures while displacing thousands of residents and forcing the evacuation of two schools.
Homes were among the structures that had burned, but officials on Wednesday did not have a count of how many were destroyed in the blaze that torched at least 6.4 square miles (16.6 square kilometers) of forest, brush and grass on the east side of the community of Ruidoso, said Laura Rabon, spokesperson for the Lincoln National Forest.
Rabon announced emergency evacuations of a more densely populated area during a briefing Wednesday afternoon as the fire jumped a road where crews were trying to hold the line. She told people to get in their cars and go.
So far, two deaths were reported from the fire, which has been fanned by strong winds, according to the New Mexico State Police.
The winds prevented forced a suspension of the aerial attack on the flames and kept authorities from getting a better estimate of how large the fire has grown. But some planes returned to the air as winds subsided late in the day, and seven airtankers and two helicopters have now been assigned to the fire, Forest Service officials said Wednesday evening.
While the cause of the blaze was under investigation, fire officials and forecasters warned Wednesday that persistent dry and windy conditions had prompted red flag warnings for a wide swath that included almost all of New Mexico, half of Texas and parts of Colorado and the Midwest.
Five new large fires were reported Tuesday, and nearly 1,600 wildland firefighters and support personnel were assigned to large fires in the southwestern, southern and Rocky Mountain areas, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Hotter and drier weather weather coupled with decades of fire suppression have contributed to an increase in the number of acres burned by wildfires, fire scientists say. And the problem is exacerbated by a more than 20-year Western megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change. The fire season has become year-round given changing conditions that include earlier snowmelt and rain coming later in the fall.
In Ruidoso, officials declared a state of emergency and said school classes were canceled Wednesday as the village — about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northeast of El Paso, Texas — coped with power outages due to down power lines.
The residences that burned were mostly a mix of trailers and single-family homes, and close to 4,000 people were displaced by evacuations that were ordered Tuesday. That number was expected to grow with the latest call for residents to leave.
Village spokeswoman Kerry Gladden said authorities spent part of Wednesday surveying as much damage as possible before the winds kicked up again. Air tankers also were able to drop a few loads of slurry, and more air support was expected Thursday.
“Right now, everybody is just rallying around those who had to be evacuated,” Gladden said. “We’re just trying to reach out to make sure everyone has places to stay.”
Donations were pouring in from other communities in southern New Mexico. State officials said emergency grants have been approved that will provide resources to firefighters and for other emergency efforts.
Ruidoso in 2012 was hit by one of the most destructive wildfires in New Mexico history, when a lightning-sparked blaze destroyed more than 240 homes and burned nearly 70 square miles (181 square kilometers).
Rabon said Wednesday that no precipitation was in the forecast and humidity levels remained in the single digits, which would make stopping the flames more difficult.
“Those extremely dry conditions are not in our favor,” she said.
Another wildfire in the Lincoln National Forest northwest of Ruidoso burned at least 400 acres (1.6 square kilometers) after it was sparked Tuesday by power lines downed by high winds. Crews confirmed Wednesday that 10 structures there were lost.
Elsewhere in New Mexico, wildfires were burning along the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque, in mountains northwest of the community of Las Vegas and in grasslands along the Pecos River near the town of Roswell.
In Colorado, crews were battling wind-whipped grass fires that had destroyed two homes and forced temporary evacuations.
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Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Davenport from Phoenix.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/destructive-wildfires-rage-new-mexico-colorado/ | 2022-04-14T07:12:36 | 0 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/destructive-wildfires-rage-new-mexico-colorado/ |
YAHIDNE, Ukraine (AP) — The Russian soldiers forced more than 300 villagers into a school basement. Then, during weeks of stress and deprivation, some began to die.
Residents of Yahidne, a village 140 kilometers (87 miles) from Kyiv, told The Associated Press about being ordered into the basement at gunpoint after the Russians took control of the area around the northern city of Chernihiv in early March.
In one room, those who survived wrote the names of the 18 who didn’t.
“An old man died near me and then his wife died next,” Valentyna Saroyan, a weary survivor, recalled Tuesday as she toured the darkened basement. “Then a man died who was lying there, then a woman sitting next to me. She was a heavy woman, and it was very difficult for her.”
Village by village, town by town, Ukrainians in areas where Russians have withdrawn continue to unearth new horrors. More are feared.
The residents of Yahidne, which is on the outskirts of Chernihiv, said they were made to remain in the basement day and night except for the rare times when they they were allowed outside to cook on open fires or to use the toilet.
The health of the captives suffered.
“Here’s a chair, and that’s how we were sitting for a month,” Saroyan said, recalling her aching legs.
As people died one by one in the basement, neighbors were allowed from time to time to place the bodies in a mass grave in a nearby cemetery.
Each time, they passed through a doorway marked in dripping red paint with the plaintive words “Attention. Children.” The glare of a flashlight shows bright drawings on the walls.
The Russians could be cruel, surviving villages said.
Svitlana Baguta said a Russian soldier who was “either drunk or high” made her drink from a flask at gunpoint.
“He pointed the gun at the throat, put the flask and said, ‘Drink,’” Baguta said.
Julia Surypak said the soldiers allowed some people to make a short trip to their homes if they sang the Russian state anthem. “But they didn’t allow us to walk much,” she said.
The Russian forces left the village at the beginning of April, part of a regional withdrawal from northern Ukraine Russia’s military ordered in anticipation of after a large offensive in the east.
A message scrawled on a wall of the Yahidne school marked April 1 as “the last day” of their presence.
The soldiers left behind unexploded artillery shells, destroyed Russian vehicles and rubble.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/forced-into-a-basement-in-ukraine-residents-began-to-die/ | 2022-04-14T07:12:41 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/forced-into-a-basement-in-ukraine-residents-began-to-die/ |
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Interior Ministry said Wednesday it has authorized raising the rainbow flag at federal government buildings on some occasions, a move meant to end discussions about unclear rules and signal acceptance of diversity.
The ministry said that flying the rainbow flag “must be related to a concrete date,” such as Pride marches or the June 28 anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprisings in New York that helped propel a global LGBTQ movement. There are some national holidays and other days when it won’t be allowed.
The ministry said that, until now, there had been no rule formally allowing the flag, “which in the past has frequently led to discussions.”
“We are a modern and diverse country,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement. “It is high time that we as state institutions also show that more clearly.”
“We want discrimination against people because of their sexual identity to end in all areas of society,” she added. “We want to show solidarity with all those who still experience exclusion.”
Faeser’s decision comes as Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition of three socially liberal parties, which took office in December, pursues an agenda of social reforms.
The government has launched a drive to remove from the country’s criminal code aban on doctors “advertising” abortion services. Among other things, it also wants to legalize the sale of cannabis for recreational purposes, ease the path to German citizenship and lift restrictions on dual citizenship.
The government also wants to scrap 40-year-old legislation that requires transsexual people to get a psychological assessment and a court decision before officially changing gender, a process that often involves intimate questions. It is to be replaced with a new “self-determination law.” | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/germany-oks-raising-rainbow-flag-at-government-buildings/ | 2022-04-14T07:12:48 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/germany-oks-raising-rainbow-flag-at-government-buildings/ |
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Patients at the flagship hospital in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region are dying amid shortages of life-saving drugs and oxygen, according to health officials.
At least 60 patients with kidney disease have died since July, the result of a lack of supplies needed for regular dialysis, a doctor at Ayder Hospital in Mekele, Tigray’s capital, told the Associated Press.
Another 81 patients have died “directly because of a lack of oxygen” since the conflict between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, erupted in Nov. 2020, the doctor said.
The doctor spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, has been cut off from the rest of the country since the TPLF recaptured most of the region in late June. Its road networks, banking services and phone lines are all severed, a situation the United Nations has described as a “de facto blockade” imposed by Ethiopia’s federal government.
Ethiopian authorities didn’t respond to a request for comment on dwindling supplies at Mekele’s Ayder Hospital. The institution is a federal teaching hospital, meaning the education ministry in Addis Ababa, the federal capital is responsible for allocating its budget.
The hospital’s 3,600 staff have not been paid for months and many do not have enough money to buy food, hospital officials said, highlighting challenges that reflect a wider humanitarian crisis in the region.
More than 90% of Tigray’s 6 million people require humanitarian assistance, including 115,000 children who are severely malnourished, according to U.N. figures.
Some shortages have been alleviated by aid flights operated by the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which have flown in 438 metric tonnes (482 tons) of medical and nutrition supplies since late January.
But these supplies represent just 4% of what’s required, according to experts.
As a result, staff at Ayder Hospital say they have resorted to washing and reusing surgical gloves and treating patients with expired medicines. They are also recycling plastic breathing tubes and items used for dialysis.
“This is really risky for the patients; they can die of infections and other complications,” said the doctor. “Doctors elsewhere in the world would be shocked to hear we are doing this.”
The hospital also has been forced to cancel surgeries because of power cuts and a lack of supplies. Some services have been forced to close altogether, including the cancer center, which has treated 1,769 patients since Nov. 2020 but has now run out of drugs for chemotherapy.
“Since July we received no chemotherapy drugs at all,” he said. “We just tell the cancer patients to go back home and they die. There is nothing we can do for them.”
A surgeon at the hospital, who also asked not to be named for safety reasons, said the stock of intravenous fluids has run so low that colleagues have resorted to making their own using “different chemicals” from the hospital’s store.
“It is not ideal,” the surgeon said. “It means when patients go into shock, you can’t resuscitate them. It is so frustrating. You need to insert an IV line and give fluids, but there are no fluids.”
He said shortages are so dire that some patients’ relatives must personally buy medicines from private pharmacies at inflated prices and bring them to the hospital before their family members can be treated.
Patients with kidney disease are currently receiving dialysis once a week, down from three times a week before the war, while the hospital is unable to admit new patients with kidney disease due to a lack of supplies, the doctor said.
Ethiopian authorities declared an immediate humanitarian truce on March 24, a move they said would allow aid to enter Tigray. But since then just one convoy of 20 aid trucks and one fuel tanker have entered Tigray, far short of the 100 trucks the U.N. says must enter every day to meet the region’s needs.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war, according to estimates by international aid groups.
But there is little hope for peace talks as Ethiopian authorities have outlawed the TPLF, effectively making its leaders fugitives on the run. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/hospital-in-ethiopias-tigray-struggles-to-treat-patients/ | 2022-04-14T07:12:54 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/hospital-in-ethiopias-tigray-struggles-to-treat-patients/ |
ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — A military drone that apparently flew all the way from the Ukrainian war zone over three European NATO member states before crashing in the Croatian capital was armed with an explosive device, Croatian crash investigators said Wednesday.
The 6-ton Soviet-era aircraft apparently drifted uncontrolled out of Ukraine, crossed into Romania and Hungary before entering Croatia, slamming into a field near a student dormitory early morning on March 10 in Zagreb. About 40 parked cars were damaged in the large explosion, but no one was injured.
Members of the Croatian investigative team told reporters Wednesday that fragments of the drone found at the crash site showed that the device carried an “improvised aircraft bomb” that was filled with unknown type of explosives.
“It was unequivocally established that these were fragments of the OFAB 100-120 air bomb,” said Maj. Mile Tomic. “Both the bomb and its trigger were made in the former USSR.”
The investigators said that they have not yet conclusively determined which side in the war in Ukraine launched the TU-141 drone that was originally used in surveillance missions. But they indicated that the Ukrainians are more like to be behind the launch as “fresh” paint traces of their blue and yellow flag were found on the pieces of the wreckage that also included a red star, the Russian air force marking.
Both Russia and Ukraine have denied launching it.
NATO officials have refused to comment on the incident until an investigation is completed, but the alliance had increased its surveillance flights over countries near the war zone and a pair of US Air Force F-16s were deployed from Aviano Air Base, Italy, to Croatia on March 16, taking part in exercises and bolstering NATO’s southeastern flank.
Croatian officials had criticized NATO for what they called a slow reaction to a very serious incident and called into question the readiness of the military alliance’s member states to respond to a possible attack.
NATO said the alliance’s integrated air and missile defense had tracked the object’s flight path. But Croatian officials said the country’s authorities weren’t informed and that NATO reacted only after questions were posed by journalists.
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AP writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/investigators-drone-that-crashed-in-croatia-carried-a-bomb/ | 2022-04-14T07:13:01 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/investigators-drone-that-crashed-in-croatia-carried-a-bomb/ |