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Best dog selfie sticks
It’s natural that you want to take selfies with your pup to have a record of the good times you have together, but dogs won’t always play ball — or would rather be playing with balls than posing for a selfie.
If you’re sick of filling your camera roll with endless photos of you with your dog looking the other way or appearing uninterested, you need help. With the right advice, you’ll soon learn how to take the perfect selfie with your dog.
Don’t force your dog to take a selfie with you
You might want to record a nice moment for posterity or get more likes on Instagram, but your dog doesn’t care about any of that. That doesn’t mean you should never take a selfie with your pooch, but don’t force it — stop if they seem stressed out. After all, you want to capture a pleasant memory, not a time when your dog was getting annoyed with you for sticking a phone in their face.
You’ll usually get better results after a play session with their favorite ball or at other times when they’re relaxed, happy and curious, rather than when they’re napping or engaged in something else.
Go to your dog rather than bringing them to you
If your dog gets stressed, impatient or fidgety when you ask them to pose for a selfie, try entering their space instead of bringing them into yours. For instance, if your dog’s standing out in the yard, soaking up some rays, kneel down next to them and get a quick snap of the two of you together. Your dog probably won’t even notice what you’re doing, or you might capture a sweet unstaged moment as your dog greets you.
Use natural lighting for pet selfies
All dogs are beautiful, but the right lighting will make them look just as good in a photo as they do in three dimensions. Natural lighting will capture your dog’s coloring and the texture of their coat better than artificial light, so switch off those overhead lights and position yourself near a window, or head outside.
Turn off the flash
Natural lighting is ideal, but even bright artificial lights are far better than using a flash. Photos generally look better without flashes, which tend to wash out their subjects and cause red eyes. More importantly, a flash can startle dogs and hurt their eyes, so you should always avoid it in pet photography. Make sure you have the flash turned off before you take a photo with your dog.
Consider burst mode when taking selfies with your dog
Dogs are notoriously fidgety when taking photos, so you might press the shutter button at the perfect moment, only for your dog to move right away, leaving your image a blurred mess. You’ll usually get better results by using your phone’s burst mode, which takes multiple photos in quick succession. This way, you should get a good photo even if your dog moves mid-snap.
Avoid distractions for your dog
Let’s face it, dogs are easily distracted. It’s not fair to expect your canine companion to pose patiently for a photo with all kinds of distractions around them. If there are other dogs to greet at the dog park, squirrels to chase or delivery drivers to bark at, let your pup do their thing and choose a different time to take a selfie with them.
Resort to bribery to get the perfect selfie with your dog
There’s no shame in bribing your dog to take a selfie with you. A liberal dose of treats sweetens the deal for most dogs. Small training treats, such as Zuke’s Mini Naturals, are ideal because you can ply your pup with lots of them without adding too many extra calories to their diet.
Use treats to encourage your dog to sit and wait, take a selfie or two, then give them another treat as a reward for sitting still. If you have someone else with you, ask them to hold a treat just beyond the camera to keep your dog’s attention while you snap a selfie.
If your dog isn’t food motivated, you can reward them with a play session instead. For example, if they know they’ll get to play with their favorite tug toy after a selfie session, it will build positive associations so your dog will eventually look forward to selfie time.
Use a dog selfie stick
Think about using a dog selfie stick to capture the perfect picture of your pup. These devices aren’t really selfie sticks, as such — you could more accurately describe them as selfie tools.
You clip them on top of your phone and they can hold treats or toys, or have built-in toys. This captures your dog’s attention while you get a selfie — the perfect solution if your dog is usually staring off to one side or looking at the floor in selfies, rather than looking even remotely in the direction of the camera.
Best dog selfie sticks
Get your dog’s attention with a squeaking tennis ball for a happy, engaged face in every shot.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Chewy
Fred Howligans Woofie Pet Selfie Tool
One end of this tool attaches to the top of your phone while the other holds a treat of your choice — the perfect way to get the attention of a food-motivated dog.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Consisting of a flexible arm with a clip on the end to hold a favorite treat or toy, it easily helps you get a decent selfie with your pup.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Lauren Corona writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/pets-br/toys-br/how-to-take-the-perfect-selfie-with-your-pup/ | 2022-04-14T11:03:48 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/pets-br/toys-br/how-to-take-the-perfect-selfie-with-your-pup/ |
Which squat rack is best?
A squat rack is the single-most effective piece of fitness equipment for building strength and muscle. Whether you’re new to lifting weights or looking to take your workouts to the next level, a squat rack can dramatically alter your routine by enabling a huge variety of exercises.
This bedrock piece of equipment is a big commitment. So choosing the right one for your home or gym depends on available space and your fitness goals. In general, the best squat rack for home-gym users is the Fitness Gear Pro Half Rack.
What to know before you buy a squat rack
What a squat rack is
Squat racks are metal stands designed to support the weight of a fully loaded barbell. They’re used to perform a number of Olympic weightlifting exercises, from squats to presses. While bare-bones models feature a single two-pronged stand on which you rest a barbell, more elaborate squat racks include safety pins, weight-storage pins and pull-up bars.
Exercises you can perform using a squat rack
Primarily used to perform their namesake compound movement, a squat rack’s simplicity can be used for numerous Olympic lifts and isolation exercises. With a rack alone, you can perform overhead presses, bent-over rows, front and back squats, lunges, curls and shoulder shrugs.
With the addition of an adjustable bench, users can bench press in the neutral, incline or decline position. And if you have the right floor or pads, a squat rack can be used for deadlifts, Pendlay rows and other floor-based exercises.
Olympic vs. standard weights
Squat racks are designed to hold Olympic barbells and weights. An Olympic barbell is about 45 pounds, 7.2 feet in length and 1 inch in diameter with 2-inch diameter end sleeves. Olympic weights are divided into 2.5, 5, 10, 25, 35 and 45 pounds. Each plate has a 2-inch diameter hole.
Contrary to their name, standard weights and barbells are not standardized. Barbells can vary dramatically in length and diameter and are usually not compatible with Olympic racks. Likewise, the weights’ increments, materials and sizes depend on the manufacturer. The only consistent factor is that they usually have a 1-inch diameter hole, which makes them too small for Olympic barbell sleeves.
Squat rack vs. power rack
These days, squat racks have dramatically improved upon the simple two-pronged stand. This makes them similar to power racks, which are metal cages used to perform the same lifts. Because of this, the only real advantage of a power rack is enhanced safety thanks to their structural rigidity.
What to look for in a quality squat rack
Design
- Squat stand: This is the simplest design. It has two vertical bars supported by horizontal bracing so you can rest a loaded barbell. They might not come with safety pins to catch the bar if you fail a lift. These take up the least space.
- Half rack: These are half of a power rack, so they’re a little sturdier than a stand, and bigger. They also usually come with safety pins and weight-storage pins, and their height allows for a built-in pull-up bar.
- Standard squat rack: These take up the most space. They have two static safety bars at about hip height that connect to an angled, triangular cage with numerous fixed barbell holders. These racks are the least likely to tip, and usually come with plenty of weight storage capacity. Their only downside is their lack of adjustability.
- Combo rack: Often sold by brands with standard-weight sets, these are designed to maximize exercise potential. In addition to vertical bars, they can feature safety bars, benches, pull-down and leg supports. If you’re a purist, combo racks can prove unwieldy and obstructive when trying to perfect form.
Size
Squat racks take up a lot of room. If you’re outfitting your home gym, you need to take the rack’s entire footprint into account. A squat stand is the safest bet, but depending floor space and ceiling height, you might be able to get away with a standard squat rack or half rack.
In addition to space, commercial and brick-and-mortar gyms should focus on the fitness ecosystem. Half racks and squat racks are the best choices, as each type has significant weight-storage capacity to support other pieces of equipment throughout the gym.
Weight limit
Verify its loaded capacity before purchasing a squat rack. Most can hold 400-600 pounds, including the barbell. For novice and intermediate home gym users, this should be more than enough for years of incremental progress. Advanced lifters and gym owners should look to half racks, or even power racks, which hold more weight (often up to 1,000 pounds).
How much you can expect to spend on a squat rack
Squat racks represent a significant investment. Simple stands cost between $150-$250, and a standard rack or half rack can cost as much as $300-$1,000.
Squat rack FAQ
What fitness routines use a squat rack?
A. Squat racks fit into just about any fitness regimen. They’re especially popular among power lifters who use them for hypertrophy or strength-training exercises. A squat rack can also be used for CrossFit, bodybuilding or high-intensity interval training.
Do squat racks come with barbells and weights?
A. Most racks require you to purchase the barbell and weights separately.
What’s the best squat rack to buy?
Top squat rack
What you need to know: With its small footprint, this sturdy half rack is great for home gyms without a lot of space.
What you’ll love: Weightlifters of all levels can get a lot of use out of this rack’s 600-pound capacity. Its safety pin and barbell holders are adjustable, and the top cross bar features separate grips for chin- and pull-ups. You also have ample weight plate storage potential with three posts on either side that can hold 180 pounds each.
What you should consider: Its feet don’t have any knobs for resistance bands.
Where to buy: Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
Top squat rack for the money
What you need to know: This squat stand covers all of the basics for home users on a budget.
What you’ll love: The rack has a condensed design, so it’s easy to tuck into a cramped room. You get an angled multi-grip pull-up bar at the top, anchor points for resistance bands and two storage posts for weights.
What you should consider: This isn’t the best rack for heavy lifters, as it can only hold 300 pounds and the safety pins are on the shorter side.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Sunny Health and Fitness Power Zone Half Rack Heavy-Duty Performance Power Cage
What you need to know: This fully loaded half rack has something to target every muscle group.
What you’ll love: With a whopping 1,000-pound weight limit, it’s tough to max this rack out. Not only does it come with three adjustable pull-up bars, but also resistance-band knobs at the bottom for warmups and isometric exercises. Both the barbell holder and safety pins are fully adjustable, and this rack can be paired with a number of accessories to maximize your workout options.
What you should consider: It’s bulky and poorly suited for low ceilings.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Karl Daum writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/fitness-equipment-br/best-squat-rack/ | 2022-04-14T11:03:55 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/fitness-equipment-br/best-squat-rack/ |
Which are best: trail running shoes or hiking boots?
There are plenty of ways to stay active and improve your cardiovascular health. Some people prefer to hit the trails for either a leisurely walk in the woods, while others like to pick up the pace and run along the trail. Both of these activities can improve your health, and they get you out into nature, which has its own benefits.
But if you’re looking to be more active on hiking trails, you need to find what type of shoe is right for your particular adventure. Trail running shoes have a tread level appropriate enough to grip more than just a paved road. Hiking boots, however, offer a thicker, more durable support and are often waterproof.
Trail running shoes
Trail running shoes are low-top shoes used for running longer distances with sudden elevation level changes. They grip well on uneven and winding running trails in the wilderness. These shoes allow you to focus on the cardio aspect of trail running. Several shoe companies make models that fit both men and women comfortably.
Trail running shoes pros
Trail running shoes have excellent traction and are very comfortable. They keep your feet firmly gripped to the trail, no matter the terrain. These shoes also offer some arch support and fit just below the ankle to provide full range of motion. You can run confidently on sidewalks, streets or gravel trails in this style of shoe.
Trail running shoes cons
These shoes are meant for running on well-maintained hiking trails, so if you intend to go off-road, you will want something different. And while they are weather-resistant, very few are waterproof. Furthermore, if you run somewhere with tall grass or other high foliage, grass and leaves can get into your shoes easily due to the low-top style.
Best trail running shoes
These trail running shoes are perfect for women who need an all-terrain grip. They have rubber soles and are weather-resistant.
Sold by Amazon
This model is ideal for those who like running on all kinds of terrain. You can move comfortably across streets or trails in these lightweight, cushioned shoes.
Sold by Amazon
Saucony Versafoam Excursion Tr13
These have a triangular-lugged outsole to provide traction that you need on various terrains. They have a cushioned sole that allows you to run comfortably for short and long distances.
Sold by Amazon
Hiking boots
Hiking boots are designed to be sturdy, durable and maintain plenty of traction on the hiking trail. They have additional support in the heel and ankle to keep you steady. There are several hiking boots models for men and women that allow you to move throughout various environments with ease. Hiking boots tend to have a bit more support and coverage, specifically due to the mid- to high-tops that cover your ankle bone and keep debris out of the boot. These features protect your feet and help prevent injury both on and off the trail.
Hiking boots pros
The benefit of using hiking boots is that they provide a lot of protection for your feet. With these boots, you can walk through puddles, snow, mud and even venture a bit off-trail. They come up high enough on the foot and ankle to keep out grass, dirt and small rocks. Hiking boots are also typically waterproof, so you won’t have to worry about wet socks and potential blisters if it starts to rain on your hike.
Hiking boots cons
This style of boot is very heavy-duty. And they may weigh too much if you are just going on a level park trail or walking on paved roads. Furthermore, since they are not running shoes, they do not allow you the same kind of full-range mobility that low-top shoes provide.
Best hiking boots
Keen Women’s Voyageur Mid Hiking Boot
These shoes feature a sturdy design and use mesh and leather to keep your feet dry. They work well in all kinds of terrain, including mud, rocks and uneven surfaces.
Sold by Amazon
These hiking boots have synthetic soles and can be used both on and off the trails. Many users reported these had excellent arch support, too.
Sold by Amazon
Keen Men’s Targhee II Mid Waterproof Hiking Boot
These are comfortable to wear for long-distance hikes, and some users have said that they helped with foot pain. They are durable and useful for all terrains.
Sold by Amazon
Columbia Men’s Redmond Mid Waterproof Hiking Boot
These hiking shoes use Omni-grip technology, which holds great traction on any surface. You can wear them in rocky, rough conditions or on a clear-cut path.
Sold by Amazon
Should you get trail running shoes or hiking boots?
It depends on how active you plan to be. If you want to run for long distances on designated trails, you will get the most use out of trail running shoes. However, if you want to start hiking in the woods or in the mud, you will need hiking boots. They are both useful for their own particular adventure.
If you are trying to decide between hiking or trail running, consider your current fitness and wellness level as well as your goals. Both hiking and trail running are great for your health, but trail running requires a bit more agility and coordination. If you want to get into nature and hike, moving at a slower pace through the woods might be a better match. Either way, both shoe styles can provide you with the right amount of grip and support that you’ll need on the trail.
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Erica Redding writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/footwear-br/trail-running-shoes-vs-hiking-boots/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:02 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/footwear-br/trail-running-shoes-vs-hiking-boots/ |
INDIANAPOLIS — The grand plan for the redevelopment of the historic Stutz building is beginning to take shape. We now know some of the first tenants joining the landscape of this future district.
Developer SomeraRoad bought the property last year from Turner Woodard. They plan to turn the 400,000 square foot space into a blossoming district and car museum. Amelia’s Bakery joins Cafe Patachou as two local hot spots that will soon become tenants at the Stutz. The Nashville coffee shop Barista Parlor is also signing on. The building itself has become a haven for Indy’s artists in recent years.
“This is going to make a broader destination. Before, the Stutz building was a destination for Stutz artist open houses and specialty nights where they would get huge crowds of people. But, if you went there on a Tuesday, there is not a lot of people,” said Ed Battista, owner of Amelia’s Bakery. “Fully activating this space is going to give the artists that remain in the space the opportunity to have more exposure hopefully.”
Currently the building is three sprawling buildings. SomeraRoad plans to turn it destination district that can attract people from growing residential developments in the area or nearby IU Health facilities.
“In the Stutz location we are working on designing a program for discounts for health care workers and health professionals in the area,” added Battista.
Basel Bataineh, principal at SomeraRoad, gave this statement about the project:
“The goal of this development is to breathe new life into an iconic historic building, while giving it 100 plus years of vibrancy and life. Construction plans address deferred maintenance throughout the historic building, including modernizing the obsolete HVAC system, restoring the façade and replacing the windows. We are very excited to share that four new tenants will be moving into the Stutz. These include local favorites like Cafe Patachou and Amelia’s Bread. At the Stutz, Cafe Patachou will occupy a 3,000-square-foot restaurant space and Amelia’s will occupy 1,800 square feet. The other two announced tenants include Barista Parlor, which will be the first in Indianapolis and planned for 2,600 square feet and VisonLoft Events planned for approximately 7,000 square feet.”
There will also be opportunities for young businesses that are looking for a place to gain exposure without having to set permanent roots. St’artup 317 is an Indy organization that helps to bring business incubator space to the city. They have secured two spaces in the Stutz building.
“The spaces will be move-in ready, and have the fixtures and technology in place to support brands, so they can really focus on growing their business,” detailed Catherine Esselman, project lead at St’artup 317. “We see this as a longer runway, or a little try before you buy, so that you are not overcommitting.”
Esselman says the spaces are aimed at what she calls “makers or designers,” which could be small businesses that create t-shirts, sell clothing, plants, e-commerce, etc.
“This gives a space to hold for historically under represented business owners that otherwise would not have the same opportunity to get in with the market tenants you have already heard about,” said Esselman.
St’artup 317 will begin taking applications around September. Sign up will be on their website. | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/first-tenants-announced-for-redevelopment-of-the-stutz-building/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:07 | 1 | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/first-tenants-announced-for-redevelopment-of-the-stutz-building/ |
Which meat slicer is best?
A good chef’s knife can accomplish many tasks, but it can’t make paper-thin cured meats or dozens of slices of cheese with consistent thickness. You’ll need an electric meat slicer to make the perfect charcuterie board at home. The right one can help you slice cold cuts, artisan bread and raw meat for jerky in small and large batches.
The best meat slicer for most people is the Berkel Red Line 300. It comes from a highly respected manufacturer and is modeled after commercial-style machines, with the precision, speed and duty cycle that every cook needs.
What to know before you buy a meat slicer
You need to keep it clean
It’s important to respect all your kitchen equipment and keep it clean, but that’s never more true than it is for a meat slicer. Even the most refined designs can allow for food buildup in various places, and leftover meat, cheese and other food can hurt an appliance’s finish, damage seals and contribute to bacterial contamination. It’s far easier to maintain a clean slicer regularly than it is to deep clean a thoroughly messy one every few weeks. This is especially important if you’ll only use the slicer occasionally, as food particles are particularly bad things to store in your cupboard.
It will take up space
Even the smallest meat slicers aren’t really that small. Unless you have a truly massive home kitchen, you’ll need somewhere to put your new meat slicer that’s out of the way, as very few make attractive kitchen decorations. Along with that, don’t forget that meat slicers also tend to be heavy. After all, the most effective ones boast durable steel bodies and rugged gears and motors.
It may require an investment
A good meat slicer can do a lot. If you frequently make large batches of beef jerky, slice artisanal bread with thick crusts or prepare homemade hot pot or pho, you might find yourself using a meat slicer often. If that’s the case, take a good look at a full-size model like the ones found in restaurant kitchens. They are faster and more precise and can prep more food at once than budget-friendly options, known as having a long duty cycle. A longer duty cycle means an appliance will ultimately receive less wear and tear.
What to look for in a quality meat slicer
Blade diameter
Typical consumer-grade meat slicers have 7- or 8-inch blades. That should do fine for small jobs, but more demanding cooks will notice that the blade moves too slowly and gets dull too quickly for satisfactory results. Models with 10-inch blades are usually the best ones that don’t break the bank. If you’re ambitious and have room for it, a 12-inch meat slicer should perform even better if you get it from a reasonably dependable manufacturer.
Durable and precise construction
Ideally, your new meat slicer will have a rugged stainless steel body and be easy to clean and sanitize. Another build quality aspect is how consistent the materials and components are. Subpar tolerances and poorly machined parts lead to cracks, crevices and other areas where it’s easy for food to get stuck. When you finally receive your new meat slicer, check it thoroughly to make sure it’s assembled properly and doesn’t have any glaring errors or broken fasteners.
Motor wattage
Budget-friendly meat slicers are rated for around 100 watts and commercial models roughly 500 watts or more. Mid-range slicers that offer excellent bang for your buck tend to have 250- or 300-watt motors.
How much you can expect to spend on a meat slicer
The most affordable meat slicers worth buying cost just over $100. You can spend several thousand dollars on a premium commercial meat slicer, but the absolute best for home use top out at just under $2,000, and most consumers should look to spend around $400.
Meat slicer FAQ
What safety equipment do you need for a meat slicer?
A. Aside from extreme caution and attention to detail, a chainmail glove is the only thing that will protect you from the high-speed rotating blade found on a meat slicer. Consider ordering one size bigger than you need, and keep in mind that wearing a nitrile glove outside of your chainmail glove will significantly increase your dexterity.
Are Hobart slicers any good?
A. Hobart slicers are some of the best and most popular in kitchens worldwide, which is why they’re so well-known. However, they’re incredibly bulky, don’t look great in homes and usually cost an extreme amount, so only the most passionate home cooks should consider one.
What’s the best meat slicer to buy?
Top meat slicer
Berkel Red Line 300 Electric Food Slicer
What you need to know: It’s a commercial-style meat slicer reworked to fit perfectly in a large home kitchen.
What you’ll love: For starters, Berkel actually claims to have made the first meat slicer ever. The Red Line 300 is modeled after institutional meat slicers but has a less industrial aesthetic and a less bulky design. Its 12-inch blade is big enough and rotates fast enough to handle the finest cured meats and the unit’s overall construction is particularly solid.
What you should consider: A high-quality meat slicer like this one requires an investment that few home cooks are willing to make.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot and Amazon
Top meat slicer for the money
Chef’sChoice 615A Electric Food Slicer
What you need to know: This is the most affordable meat slicer that’s actually able to get most jobs done.
What you’ll love: If you only occasionally need sliced meat, cheese or bread, this one’s an excellent choice. It isn’t as large, doesn’t rotate as fast and can’t handle the same size jobs as a commercial-grade meat slicer, but it’s perfectly suited to home kitchens where you need to do your own sandwich prep every now and then. As long as you keep it clean and take care not to force anything while using it, it should last for a long time.
What you should consider: Some people have trouble with hard meats or highly precise cuts. For a more consistent and thinly cut end product, many owners recommend picking up the compatible non-serrated blade.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot and Amazon
Worth checking out
Vevor Commercial Electric Food Slicer
What you need to know: This 10-inch meat slicer is modeled after a commercial unit but priced right for the discerning consumer.
What you’ll love: The Vevor lies in the middle between plastic-bodied consumer and industrial slicers. It has the size and power needed for most meats, cheeses and bread but costs a fraction of what you pay for one from a more well-known brand. We’ve highlighted the 10-inch version because it’s the most convenient size for many home kitchens, but there’s a 12-inch model available for those who need more performance and a larger cutting area.
What you should consider: The quality control and product consistency aren’t exactly perfect, but it’s better than most other off-brand competition.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Home Depot
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Chris Thomas writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/tools-br/best-meat-slicer/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:09 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/tools-br/best-meat-slicer/ |
HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. – Hamilton County is growing, and so is the case load at the courthouse.
It’s adding a new Superior Court No. 7 by January 2023 because more people coming to Hamilton County means more people suing each other, more divorces, and more crime.
“The main reason is Hamilton County has been the fastest growing county in the state for several years. The population is growing, and businesses and retail stores are growing a lot faster than the number of courts that have been added,” said current Hamilton County Superior Court No. 4 Judge Rick Campbell.
While current judges like Campbell say they can handle the cases, it’s challenging to do so in a timely matter. This will help speed up the process in the courts.
“We have to serve the public better in handling their cases. That’s a primary reason for it,” said Campbell.
Right now, judges are studying to decide what cases Superior Court No. 7 will handle and that could mean changes in other courts.
The new Superior Court No. 7 is years in the making. Judge Campbell shared that one of the common complaints he hears is that it takes too long for cases to be heard.
“They will be able to get to court sooner and their dispute decided, because they don’t want these cases hanging of their head forever, they want resolution. They want to be able to move on with their lives. So, the more courts we have, the faster we can make a resolution in their cases,” said Judge Campbell, “The attorneys feel the same way, they would like to have their cases decided.”
Before the court is operational, the public does get to have a voice. Once the judges finalize the rules of the new court, they’ll have to publish them. The hope is to have that complete by August 1.
Then the public will have the chance to comment on the proposal.
“The Supreme Court will have to approve the rule of what cases are heard by the new court. However, it was the legislature that passed a law last year to create the court,” said Judge Campbell. “Most counties have elections, there are a few counties in Indiana that have a committee member to make an appointment. In Hamilton County, we still have elections. Like I said, there is a primary election in May, so voters will have a choice.”
There are currently two people running in the May primary election to become Judge for Superior Court No. 7.
We’ll keep you updated on the process. | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/hamilton-county-planning-to-add-new-superior-court-to-handle-an-increase-in-cases/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:13 | 0 | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/hamilton-county-planning-to-add-new-superior-court-to-handle-an-increase-in-cases/ |
Which Funko Pop bobblehead is best?
Funko Pop has thousands of figurines to collect and display, not to mention a handful of different types of figurines. The most playful type is a Funko Pop bobblehead. The little ones are perfect for adding to your desk for a little lighthearted fun, while the big ones can be an entertaining centerpiece.
The best Funko Pop bobblehead is Funko Pop Marvel: Dancing Groot Bobblehead. Put on some music and give this bobblehead a tap to relive the famous “Guardians of the Galaxy” post-credits scene.
What to know before you buy a Funko Pop bobblehead
Funko Pop bobblehead types
Funko Pop bobbleheads come in a few forms and sizes.
- Standard bobbleheads are similar to Funko’s vinyl figurines, being that they’re roughly 4 inches tall and 3 inches wide, save for their necks being attached to the spring that lets them bobble.
- Oversized bobbleheads are just that — oversized. Most are somewhere from 6-10 inches tall and have varying widths.
- Deluxe bobbleheads are large, extravagant pieces. They take a character and pair it with something connected to them that they often sit on or stand beside.
- Ride bobbleheads are halfway between a standard and a deluxe Pop. They’re typically the same size as standards but are depicted riding something rather than having the bobble be paired to a body.
Source material
If the source material you’re passionate about is even slightly known to pop culture, it’s likely that Funko has made a bobblehead of it. Major pop culture properties from Disney like Marvel and “Star Wars” are common, as are figurines from many popular TV shows, including “Game of Thrones” and “The Office.”
What to look for in a quality Funko Pop bobblehead
Boxed vs. unboxed
Funko Pop bobbleheads are packaged in boxes bearing the character’s name, the source that they come from, authenticating information and the mold they come from. Whether you remove them or keep them in the box has a huge bearing on several factors.
- Boxed bobbleheads are more valuable to collectors and resellers. The box preserves the condition of the bobblehead and proves it’s an authentic Funko Pop. Always purchase an authenticated boxed bobblehead if you want to ensure it’s a quality purchase.
- Unboxed bobbleheads are less valuable, but they’re more enjoyable to enthusiasts who just like the character. The head can be bobbled, it’s easier to display, kids can play with them, etc. If an unboxed bobblehead is purchased from a secondary market, it may be noticeably inauthentic and low-quality.
Chase variants
Some Funko Pop bobbleheads have rare chase variants that are more valuable than the base bobblehead. These variations are often minimal, but you can’t specifically order them. They only have a small chance of inclusion when purchasing the original model online.
How much you can expect to spend on a Funko Pop bobblehead
Basic Funko Pop bobbleheads cost just over $11. Most cost $15-$30, with some of the larger or harder-to-find bobbleheads costing more. Secondary market bobbleheads can cost hundreds.
Funko Pop bobblehead FAQ
How should I clean a Funko Pop bobblehead?
A. This depends on whether or not it’s still in the box. Boxed Funko Pop bobbleheads only require a brief dusting at least once a month to stay clean. Unboxed bobbleheads also require dusting, but it must be as gentle a dusting as possible. Being too rough can damage the springs responsible for the bobble, making the head lie skewed to the side rather than remaining upright.
What’s the best method for tracking my Funko Pop bobblehead collection?
A. There are dozens of methods for tracking your Funko Pop collection, bobbleheads and all, from digital trackers online to manually updating a spreadsheet. The official Funko app is one of the better online trackers, but if you’re serious about collecting, it’s worth experimenting until you find an organizational system that works best for you.
What do the numbers on the top right of the box mean?
A. The number relates to the order in which a given Funko Pop in a specific line was produced. For example, in the Marvel line of Funko Pops, there have been hundreds of rounds of productions, with any number of Pops produced in each round. So, an upper right number of 11 means that Pop was part of the eleventh round of Pops produced in the Marvel line.
What’s the best Funko Pop bobblehead to buy?
Top Funko Pop bobblehead
Funko Pop Marvel: Dancing Groot Bobblehead
What you need to know: This is a cute bobblehead for Marvel fans and plant lovers.
What you’ll love: Marvel fans will love being able to bob along with this bobblehead for a fun and stress-relieving break from work and other hassles. The top of Dancing Groot has just enough space to be converted into a miniature planter.
What you should consider: A few consumers were unhappy with the stability of the base, reporting it to be too top-heavy to always safely bobble.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Funko Pop bobblehead for the money
Funko Pop Marvel: Deadpool as Bob Ross
What you need to know: This is a clever pop culture intersection as a bobblehead.
What you’ll love: The figurine is stable and balanced, making it easy to tap the bobblehead without knocking it over. The Deadpool and Bob Ross combination is perfect for Marvel fans, especially for Marvel historians looking to remember one of the original “Deadpool” film’s best ad spots.
What you should consider: A few consumers received damaged boxes, which is devaluating for collectors.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Funko Pop Deluxe Mandalorian: The Mandalorian & The Child on Bantha
What you need to know: This is an excellent centerpiece for “Star Wars” fans.
What you’ll love: This is among the more detailed Funko bobbleheads available — the fur of the bantha, the armor details of the Mandalorian and the cute Grogu attached to the back. The Tatooine sand base is stable enough to tap the bobblehead without risking it tipping over.
What you should consider: It takes up a large amount of space, both in-box and out. There are some rare reports of missing jetpacks on the Mandalorian.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/toys-games-br/theme-toys-br/best-funko-pop-bobblehead/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:16 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/toys-games-br/theme-toys-br/best-funko-pop-bobblehead/ |
GARY, Ind. — Officials in Gary have confirmed the remains of a missing woman were recovered Wednesday.
Ariana Taylor, 23, was last heard from on April 2. Taylor’s mother said Ariana told her she was going out with friends that evening and last saw her between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Saturday.
On Sunday, Gary police responded to an accident scene near the I-65 and I-80/94 interchange. Officials said a vehicle left the expressway and crashed below.
The vehicle’s owner told police Taylor was supposed to be the last person with the car. No one has heard from her since and she was reported missing on Sunday.
At a news conference Wednesday, Gary police said remains were recovered earlier in the day and Taylor’s mother was contacted.
After days of searching by police and family, one of the police’s K9 handlers discovered her body Wednesday in a shallow drainage ditch near the crash site.
Taylor’s mother positively identified her Wednesday afternoon, police said. A cause of death is pending an autopsy that will be performed on Thursday.
Police did not comment if foul play is suspected, citing the ongoing investigation, but said they are not currently looking for any potential suspects. | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/remains-of-missing-gary-woman-recovered-after-days-of-searching/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:19 | 0 | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/remains-of-missing-gary-woman-recovered-after-days-of-searching/ |
Which Kevin Minion toy is best?
“Despicable Me” was a hit when it came out, due partially to the adorable Minion characters, and the Minions are still popular, thanks to the movie’s sequels and spinoffs. Kevin is the tall Minion with two eyes and many people’s favorite character.
If you or your kid want a Kevin Minion toy, you can’t go wrong with the Just Play 15-Inch Plush Kung Fu Kevin, which is decked out in goggles, gloves and a yellow jumpsuit.
What to know before you buy a Kevin Minion toy
Types of Kevin Minion toys
- Plush: These are popular display items, and their smooth material makes them fun to squeeze and cuddle. Sometimes, they play sounds or music when you press them. Although they’re soft, Minion plush toys often feature plastic goggles.
- Action figure: These may have movable arms and legs. Most feature one of the many wacky props they use in the movies, such as the fart gun, freeze ray or a banana.
- Collectible: These are used as display pieces and don’t have movable arms and legs. Funko Pops are the most popular Minion collectibles.
Age recommendations
The recommended age range for Minion plush toys is 3 and up, as they don’t contain small pieces or sharp edges. Although the plastic goggles may eventually fall off, they don’t pose a choking hazard. Small action figures are best suited for children 5 and older.
Batteries
Most Minion toys don’t require batteries, though they may be included with those that require them for operation. Many interactive toys require AA batteries and eventually require replacements. Small action figures require LR44 batteries.
Kevin’s personality
In the “Minions” spinoff movie, Kevin is the leader of the trio. He loves to tease other Minions and is frequently seen in golf attire. He isn’t known for being particularly smart. Like all Minions, Kevin lives to find a master to serve.
Kevin Minion toy size
Kevin toys come in a variety of sizes. Many Kevin plush toys are 7-12 inches tall, while some are up to 20 inches tall. Kevin action figures are 4-6 inches tall. Some toy sets include numerous tiny Minions less than 1 inch tall.
Ease of cleaning
Kids get their toys dirty if they play with them daily. You can clean action figures and collectibles with a damp washcloth or moist towelette. You can use the washer and dryer for many plush toys, but you should use the cold and light settings. Still, it’s usually best to use a damp washcloth and spot clean plush toys.
What to look for in a quality Kevin Minion toy
Accurate design
The Minions have a specific style. Officially licensed toys are usually the best designed. Still, several third-party manufacturers produce great toys. Quality Minion toys capture the personality of the character.
Features
The Minions have numerous gadgets they use, many of which come with the toys. Toys with gadgets that light up, make sound effects and fire projectiles are ideal. Some Minion toys include interactive expressions or remote-controlled roller skates. Several Minion toys, such as the Action Assortment figures, interact with each other.
Outfits
Although Kevin’s classic overalls are great, he’s known for wearing numerous costumes in the movies. Kevin’s yellow kung fu outfit is a popular choice. Many Kevin toys show him wearing pilot’s outfits, golfer outfits and more.
Durability
Durability is essential when buying plush toys. Cheaply made plush toys can rip, and the material they’re stuffed with may pose a choking hazard. Children are rough on action figures, so you’ll want a sturdy toy with arms and legs that won’t break off easily.
How much you can expect to spend on a Kevin Minion toy
Most Kevin Minion toys cost $10-$20.
Kevin Minion toy FAQ
Is Kevin the most popular Minion?
A. Kevin, Stuart and Bob are the three most recognizable Minions. Kevin’s leadership role in the spinoff movie made him quite popular.
What language do the Minions speak?
A. The Minions’ language is a mixture of English, Spanish, French, gibberish and food references.
How do you know if a Minion toy is durable?
A. In many cases, the materials aren’t listed in the product description. The best way to determine a toy’s durability is by reading product reviews.
What’s the best Kevin Minion toy to buy?
Top Kevin Minion toy
Just Play 15-Inch Plush Kung Fu Kevin
What you need to know: This plush showcases Kevin in one of his most popular costumes.
What you’ll love: It stands nearly 16 inches tall and is soft but durable. The arms are posable. The hard plastic goggles are securely attached to the plush material.
What you should consider: The goggles make it top-heavy.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Kevin Minion toy for the money
Minions: Rise of Gru Kevin Action Figure
What you need to know: This action figure features a flamethrower that fires pretend flames at the press of a button.
What you’ll love: It’s compatible with numerous other figures, including the Wild Rider RC vehicle. The welding mask is removable. It features posable arms.
What you should consider: The legs don’t move.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Just Play Minions: The Rise of Gru Small Plush Pilot Kevin
What you need to know: This plush dresses Kevin in his captain’s jacket and cap.
What you’ll love: The plush stands 9 inches tall. The embroidered eyes and mouth look excellent. It’s soft and durable.
What you should consider: The uniform isn’t as cuddly as the rest of the toy.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Cody Stewart writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/toys-games-br/theme-toys-br/best-kevin-minion-toy/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:23 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/toys-games-br/theme-toys-br/best-kevin-minion-toy/ |
JACKSON COUNTY, Ind. — A man from Scottsburg was killed in a Jackson County crash involving two dump trucks, Indiana State Police confirmed.
Police say just before 3 p.m. Wednesday, 43-year-old Ronnie Brickley Jr. of Scottsburg was going northbound on U.S. 31 just south of Seymour when his pickup truck crossed the center line and hit the side of a dump truck.
Brickley then hit another dump truck head on. The dump truck went off the road, and Brickley’s truck came to rest in the road.
Police say Brickley was declared deceased at the scene.
The two dump truck drivers were not hurt. Both dump trucks were owned by King’s Excavation of Seymour, Indiana.
Another car received minor damage when it was struck by debris from the crash.
Alcohol and drugs are not suspected to be factors in the crash, but toxicology results are pending at this time. | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/scottsburg-man-killed-after-hitting-2-dump-trucks-in-jackson-co-crash/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:25 | 1 | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/scottsburg-man-killed-after-hitting-2-dump-trucks-in-jackson-co-crash/ |
Best kids kneepads for skating
Skating is a rough-and-tumble activity. And beginners are prone to lots of spills. One way to ensure your child is safe tearing it up on the asphalt is with the proper protective gear. This means pads — especially kneepads. Not only do they protect sensitive bones and joints, but they also inspire the confidence necessary to improve as a skater.
Which kneepads you choose depends on your child’s age and ability. There are plenty of cool designs to excite all ages to skate safely.
Skating with kneepads
Purpose of kneepads
Kneepads are pieces of safety equipment designed to slide over or strap around each knee. Used for a number of extreme sports, they protect the vulnerable ligaments and bones in your knees from strain and impact.
Types of skating that require kneepads
Wheeled action sports involve lots of falls, especially if you’re learning tricks. Skateboarding is one of the world’s most popular action sports, but if your child instead loves roller skating or blading, they should also wear pads. Likewise, any kid who enjoys longboarding or just cruising around should have them, too. Impacts while falling are a given, but longboarding and cruising can lead to wicked road rash that kneepads can prevent.
Other protective gear
While kneepads are crucial, a safe skater should also have the following:
- Elbow pads: These work like kneepads, protecting your arm’s major ligaments and bones from strain and impact.
- Wrist pads: When falling our instincts tell us to catch ourselves with our hands. But by stiffening our wrists, we risk breaking a number of bones. Wrist pads provide a protective, supportive barrier to this sensitive area by covering the palms and preventing flexion. They not only protect against broken hand bones and wrists, but also nasty scrapes.
- Helmet: A helmet is the number-one piece of safety equipment to protect against head trauma. Look for a helmet with a multi-directional impact protection system. These are some of the safest helmets out there.
Choosing the right kneepads
A good pair of kneepads fits comfortably without restraining your child’s range of motion. To get the sizing right, it should account for their weight and leg size.
Overall size
Kneepads use alpha sizing, which corresponds to the wearer’s weight.
- Small: Under 125 pounds.
- Medium: 125-150 pounds
- Large: 150-180 pounds
- Extra-large: Over 180 pounds
You’ll also find pads sized according to the “child, youth and adult” spectrum. Child sizes typically fit age 5 and under, youth 5-10 and adult 10 and up.
Center circumference
This measures the diameter of your child’s leg from the center of their kneecap. To get the center circumference accurately, try using a soft tape measure or a piece of string you can mark and measure when laid flat.
- Junior: Universal sizing for under 12 inches
- Small: 12-14 inches
- Medium: 14-16 inches
- Large: 15-17 inches
- Extra-large: 17-20 inches
Hard vs. soft shell
Choosing between a hard- and soft-shell kneepad depends on the level of protection you’re after. While soft-shell pads are more comfortable, they won’t provide enough protection in case of a big fall.
For kid skaters, hard-shell pads are your best bet. These are reinforced with foam padding to provide superior protection against big impacts and abrasion. They can be a little bulky, so make sure you size right. Opt for straps so you can adjust them easily and wear them over clothing.
Best kneepads for kid skaters
Best kneepads for young kids
BoneShieldz Youth Cruiser 3000 Multi-Sport Protective Set
This complete set of pads has your little skater covered from wrists to elbows to knees. With black sleeves, metallic gray hard shells and red accents, your kid will feel like a superhero rocking their matching set. The adjustable straps and lightweight design help with comfort and breathability. These are also available in pink for toddlers with discerning taste.
Where to buy: Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
Available in a fun array of colors, this complete set of pads is sized for little ones but is cool enough for big kids who love to shred. These plastic hard-shell pads are padded with airy foam and secured with comfortable elastic straps, making them great for long rides.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Best kneepads for youth
Bosoner Kids/Youth Protective Gear Set
Bosoner upgrades their kids pads for youth users who take bigger and harder falls. This full set of heavy-duty hard-shell pads provide ample coverage over sensitive areas with a shock-absorbing design that distributes impact forces away from the center cap. You have your choice of seven colors.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
DBX Youth Inline Protective Set
This full set of pads is designed to cover your kid’s knees and elbows above and below the olecranon and patella. They come in a sleek black design with foam padding and a mesh layer to wick moisture. They’re great for older youth skaters who want to upgrade to more serious, adult-like pads.
Where to buy: Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
Best kneepads for teens
Gonex Skateboard Protective Gear Set
This full set of pads should fit most teens. You have your choice between all-black and pink-and-black pads. The studded hard-shell design is particularly adept at absorbing big falls when skating vert ramps. You can wear them as a sleeve for extra support, or strapped over clothing for maximum comfort.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
JBM Adult/Child Kneepads Elbow Pads Wrist Guards 3 In 1 Protective Gear Set
This set comes in five mature yet trendy colorways for older skaters who want the protection of an adult set but don’t want to settle for plain old black. Though they only come in two sizes, they’re adjustable for comfort, and the large shell bubbles not only provide ample room to grow, but can also take a beating. Most teens and tweens fit in the adult size.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Karl Daum writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/which-kneepads-are-best-for-kid-skaters/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:30 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/which-kneepads-are-best-for-kid-skaters/ |
INDIANAPOLIS — Studies show an alarming number of veterans do not seek the services and support offered by Veteran Affairs Offices. But Marion County is trying to change that.
A study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found nearly half of American veterans who need mental health care don’t get it.
Often, these individuals find it difficult to ask for help but Marion County’s Veteran Services Office is trying to change the stigma.
“The biggest stigma that comes to anyone who serves in the military or public safety is mental health. Nobody talks about it,” said Gregory Stevens, Veteran Service Officer for the city of Indianapolis.
If you’ve served in the U.S. military, you are eligible for veteran services offered at your county Veteran Service Office.
In Marion County, every officer is a veteran – so they know what you’re going through and how to help.
Those services include helping veterans file benefit paperwork, connect with other veterans, utilize the military family relief fund and much more.
“When I got out of the military, I was active-duty Army,” said Sheena Linville, director of Veteran Services for the city of Indianapolis. “I didn’t know a lot about the services.”
Officers at the Marion County office say if you don’t contact them for yourself, do it for a family member or your battle buddy.
“I hope veterans take advantage of this when they get out of the military and file with the VA and call VSO,” Linville said. “You don’t know what kind of benefits you might be enabled to.”
If you do not live in Marion County, you can find your County Veteran Service Officers information on the Indiana Department of Veteran Affairs website. | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/studies-show-many-veterans-dont-seek-help-heres-what-marion-county-is-doing-to-change-that/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:31 | 1 | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/studies-show-many-veterans-dont-seek-help-heres-what-marion-county-is-doing-to-change-that/ |
Administration unveils steps to boost racial equity in govt
(AP) - The Justice Department is improving language access to its programs to help people with limited English proficiency better report crimes. The Interior Department is providing technical assistance to Native American tribes to help them apply for grants. The Energy Department is helping low-income households access programs to weatherize their homes and save energy.
Those efforts are among hundreds of strategies and commitments the Biden administration was announcing Thursday. They are the product of an executive order that President Joe Biden signed hours after taking office with the goal of advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities across the federal government.
The order was the first of its kind by a president, said Chiraag Bains, deputy assistant to the president for racial justice and equity.
“We set the mission and the mandate for every agency, the entire federal government, to center equity in all that we do,” Bains told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
After more than a year of review, more than 90 federal agencies, including all major Cabinet departments, were releasing their “equity action plans” on Thursday.
The plans outline more than 300 strategies and commitments that aim to make federal policies fairer for everyone, including poorer communities and communities of color; tribal, rural and LGBTQ communities; and people with disabilities and women and girls.
They were to be discussed at a White House event hosted Thursday by domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, budget director Shalanda Young and members of the Cabinet. Biden, a Democrat, has one of the most diverse Cabinets, with Black and Hispanic people leading major departments, including Defense, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Some of the equity plans have been announced, such as work by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to close the racial gap in homeownership, address disproportionate rates of homelessness among underserved communities and reduce bias in home appraisals.
Others strategies are being made public for the first time, such as Defense Department efforts to promote the use of artificial intelligence technology to reduce algorithmic bias by investing in the development of a more diverse AI workforce. That work includes partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities.
Equity action teams at every agency led the reviews. Bains said that, taken together, the strategies “will advance equity and justice so that everybody can thrive in America.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/administration-unveils-steps-boost-racial-equity-govt/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:31 | 1 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/administration-unveils-steps-boost-racial-equity-govt/ |
INDIANAPOLIS — One person was killed, and another seriously hurt in two separate shootings reported just minutes apart overnight Thursday.
IMPD officers were first sent to the 2900 block of N. Sherman Drive at 2:43 a.m. for a report of a person shot. Dispatchers then received a call for what was called a “gunshot scene” at 2:45 a.m. in the 8100 block of Lafayette Road. The two scenes are about 17 miles apart.
Officers responding to the first call on N. Sherman initially went to the intersection of Sherman and 38th but didn’t find anything. They then went south on Sherman and found a male shooting victim inside a car.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police say a suspect in the shooting was seen driving away north on Sherman in a white Ford F150 truck.
In the second shooting, police say a woman was seriously hurt. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
There is no suspect information in this case. | https://fox59.com/news/indycrime/1-killed-1-hurt-in-2-shootings-in-span-of-2-minutes/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:37 | 0 | https://fox59.com/news/indycrime/1-killed-1-hurt-in-2-shootings-in-span-of-2-minutes/ |
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Federal officials say it may be necessary to reduce water deliveries to users on the Colorado River to prevent the shutdown of a huge dam that supplies hydropower to some 5 million customers across the U.S. West.
Officials had hoped snowmelt would buoy Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border to ensure its dam could continue to supply power. But snow is already melting, and hotter-than-normal temperatures and prolonged drought are further shrinking the lake.
The Interior Department has proposed holding back water in the lake to maintain Glen Canyon Dam’s ability to generate electricity amid what it said were the driest conditions in the region in more than 1,200 years.
“The best available science indicates that the effects of climate change will continue to adversely impact the basin,” Tanya Trujillo, the Interior’s assistant secretary for water and science wrote to seven states in the basin Friday.
Trujillo asked for feedback on the proposal to keep 480,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell — enough water to serve about 1 million U.S. households. She stressed that operating the dam below 3,490 feet (1,063 meters), considered its minimum power pool, is uncharted territory and would lead to even more uncertainty for the western electrical grid and water deliveries to states and Mexico downstream.
In the Colorado River basin, Glen Canyon Dam is the mammoth of power production, delivering electricity to about 5 million customers in seven states — Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. As Lake Powell falls, the dam becomes less efficient. At 3,490 feet, it can’t produce power.
If levels were to fall below that mark, the 7,500 residents in the city at the lake, Page, and the adjacent Navajo community of LeChee would have no access to drinking water.
The Pacific Northwest, and the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico and Texas are facing similar strains on water supplies.
Lake Powell fell below 3,525 feet (1,075 meters) for the first time ever last month, a level that concerned worried water managers. Federal data shows it will dip even further, in the most probable scenario, before rebounding above the level next spring.
If power production ceases at Glen Canyon Dam, customers that include cities, rural electric cooperatives and tribal utilities would be forced to seek more expensive options. The loss also would complicate western grid operations since hydropoweris a relatively flexible renewable energy source that can be easily turned up or down, experts say.
“We’re in crisis management, and health and human safety issues, including production of hydropower, are taking precedence,” said Jack Schmidt, director of the center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University. “Concepts like, ‘Are we going to get our water back’ just may not even be relevant anymore.”
The potential impacts to lower basin states that could see their water supplies reduced — California, Nevada and Arizona — aren’t yet known. But the Interior’s move is a display of the wide-ranging functions of Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam, and the need to quickly pivot to confront climate change.
Lake Powell serves as the barometer for the river’s health in the upper basin, and Lake Mead has that job in the lower basin. Both were last full in the year 2000 but have declined to one-fourth and one-third of their capacity, respectively, as drought tightened its grip on the region.
Water managers in the basin states — Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado — are evaluating the proposal. The Interior Department has set an April 22 deadline for feedback.
___
Associated Press writers Sam Metz in Salt Lake City contributed to this report. | https://www.cenlanow.com/science/ap-science/in-drought-stricken-west-officials-weigh-emergency-actions/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:36 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/science/ap-science/in-drought-stricken-west-officials-weigh-emergency-actions/ |
Tesla CEO Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter in cash deal
NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter, just days after the Tesla CEO said he would no longer be joining the social media company’s board of directors.
Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Musk, who currently owns slightly more than 9% of its stock and is the company’s biggest shareholder, provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn’t already own. Musk offered $54.20 per share of Twitter’s stock.
He called that price his best and final offer, although the billionaire provided no details on financing.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk says in the filing. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
The buyout offer from Musk is just the latest development in his relationship with Twitter. The billionaire revealed in regulatory filings over recent weeks that he’d been buying shares in almost daily batches starting Jan. 31. Only Vanguard Group’s suite of mutual funds and ETFs controls more Twitter shares.
Musk has been a vocal critic of of Twitter in recent weeks, mostly over his belief that it falls short on free speech principles. The social media platform has angered followers of Donald Trump and other far-right political figures who’ve had their accounts suspended for violating its content standards on violence, hate or harmful misinformation. Musk also has a history of his own tweets causing legal problems.
Musk said last week that he informed Twitter he wouldn’t be joining its board of directors five days after he was invited. He didn’t explain why, but the decision coincided with a barrage of now-deleted tweets from Musk proposing major changes to the company, such as dropping ads — its chief source of revenue — and transforming its San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter. Musk left a few clues on Twitter about his thinking, such as by “liking” a tweet that summarized the events as Musk going from “largest shareholder for Free Speech” to being “told to play nice and not speak freely.”
After Musk announced his stake, Twitter quickly gave Musk a seat on its board on the condition that he not own more than 14.9% of the company’s outstanding stock, according to a filing. But Musk backed out of the deal.
Musk’s 81 million Twitter followers make him one of the most popular figures on the platform, rivaling pop stars like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. But his prolific tweeting has sometimes gotten him into trouble with the SEC and others.
Musk and Tesla in 2018 agreed to pay $40 million in civil fines and for Musk to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share. That didn’t happen but the tweet caused Tesla’s stock price to jump. Musk’s latest trouble with the SEC could be his delay in notifying regulators of his growing stake in Twitter.
Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has said he doesn’t think Twitter is living up to free speech principles — an opinion shared by followers of Donald Trump and a number of other right-wing political figures who’ve had their accounts suspended for violating Twitter content rules.
Shares of Twitter jumped 11% before the market open. The stock is still down from its 52-week high of about $73.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/elon-musk-offers-buy-twitter/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:41 | 0 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/elon-musk-offers-buy-twitter/ |
Rain is ending across the state, as it pulls east, while drier air rushes in on gusty winds! No need for the rain gear today but a coat or jacket will be needed, as the winds remain stiff throughout the afternoon. The bright sunshine will be great, marking the sunniest day of the workweek!
A Wind Advisory is in effect for counties north of Indianapolis until 8 p.m., with some gusts reaching 50 mph at times. Additionally, some mildness will return by late afternoon, under sunshine as highs reach around 60° by 5 p.m.
Expect a chilly night ahead, as clouds will slowly increase overnight and into early Friday morning. There will be a shower chance by sunrise tomorrow morning for counties well north of downtown.
Friday will bring an increase in clouds throughout the day, along with a limited shower chance. Expect a slight bump in warmth through the day with highs reaching 64° in downtown. A greater shower chance will return by Friday evening and into the overnight with another cold front arriving across the state.
This Easter weekend will bring us plenty of dry time but a much cooler flow for mid-April! Highs both days in the 50s, with the threat of frost for early Sunday morning. | https://fox59.com/weather/gusty-but-brighter-day-ahead-cooler-shift-for-easter-weekend/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:43 | 1 | https://fox59.com/weather/gusty-but-brighter-day-ahead-cooler-shift-for-easter-weekend/ |
Allyson Felix, who closed the Tokyo Games last year with more Olympic medals than any U.S. track and field athlete in history, says she will retire after the 2022 season.
“This season isn’t about the time on the clock, it’s simply about joy,” Felix said in an Instagram post Wednesday. “If you see me on the track this year I hope to share a moment, a memory and my appreciation with you.”
At age 35, Felix won a bronze medal in the 400 meters last summer in Tokyo, then followed it up with a gold medal in the 4×400 relay.
Those were her 10th and 11th Olympic medals, which helped her pass Carl Lewis in the U.S. record book and left her behind only one runner in history, Finland’s Paavo Nurmi, who won 12 medals between 1920 and 1928.
Her last major meets figure to be the U.S. championships from June 23-26, then the world championships, which take place in Eugene, Oregon, from July 15-24.
Felix also has a record 13 gold medals and 18 overall from world championships.
More recently, she has become an outspoken advocate for women. Her daughter, Camryn, was born in 2018. Around the same time, Felix cut ties with Nike, upset with the way the company treated pregnant athletes.
In her Instagram post, she said: “This season I’m running for women. I’m running for a better future for my daughter.”
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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/allyson-felix-says-shes-retiring-after-2022-track-season/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:43 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/allyson-felix-says-shes-retiring-after-2022-track-season/ |
Pope marks Holy Thursday ahead of prison feet-washing ritual
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark Holy Thursday, hours before he was expected at an Italian prison to perform a foot-washing ritual for a dozen inmates in a gesture of humility.
Attending the Mass were some 1,800 priests. Francis in his homily advised priests not to focus on worldly concerns such as power, planning and bureaucracy. He exhorted them to “serve, with a clear conscience, the holy and faithful people of God.”
Francis made no reference to decades of scandals involving priests who sexually abused children and were often transferred from parish to parish by bishops who tried to avoid embarrassment rather than protect minors.
In the afternoon, Francis is expected at a prison in Civitavecchia, a port town 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Rome, for the foot-washing ceremony that recalls Jesus’ gesture of humility for his apostles.
Francis has made paying attention to those on society’s margins — including refugees, migrants and people in prisons — a hallmark of his papacy. On Holy Thursday in past years, he has gone to prisons in or near Rome.
Holy Week, which draws hundreds of thousands of faithful to the Vatican, began with Palm Sunday Mass on April 10 in St. Peter’s Square.
This year, the Good Friday torch-lit Way of the Cross procession returns to its traditional venue at the ancient Colosseum after a two-year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Vatican has invited a Russian woman and a Ukrainian woman, who work together at a Rome hospital, to carry a cross together during the procession. That has angered some Ukrainians, including Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See and the archbishop of Kyiv. Their objections center on whether such a gesture, implying reconciliation, is suitable, given Russia’s invasion of its neighbor Ukraine and ongoing war against the country’s people.
The Vatican is still going ahead with the procession’s lineup of participants, who take turns carrying a lightweight cross during the procession, which is presided over by the pontiff and recalls Jesus’ death by crucifixion.
Holy Week culminates on Easter Sunday, two days later.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/pope-marks-holy-thursday-ahead-prison-feet-washing-ritual/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:47 | 1 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/pope-marks-holy-thursday-ahead-prison-feet-washing-ritual/ |
HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Through a season of turmoil, Derek Carr performed at his best. So the Las Vegas Raiders have given the veteran quarterback a three-year contract extension.
The extension is worth $121.5 million, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press, speaking Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
Despite all of the issues with the Raiders last season, including the resignation of coach Jon Gruden, Carr helped them to the playoffs as a wild card in the tough AFC West. He threw for a career-high 4,804 yards and 23 touchdowns as Las Vegas went 10-7 before losing at Cincinnati in the postseason.
“I’ve only wanted to be a Raider again and I told my agent (Tim Younger), I said, ‘I’m either gonna be a Raider or I’m gonna be playing golf.’ I don’t want to play anywhere else,” Carr said during Wednesday’s news conference. “That’s how much this place means to me.”
Carr said it also meant a lot for him to structure the contract so the team could keep key components around him for a long time while building “a championship team.”
“We made sure guys like Chandler (Jones), guys like Davante (Adams), guys like hopefully Hunter (Renfrow), and Foster (Moreau) and those guys can stay here,” said Carr, the longest-tenured quarterback in the AFC. “I went through a heartbreak already the last time I signed my contract, my best friend (Khalil Mack) left. And I didn’t want that to ever happen again.
“This was an opportunity for me to prove to the team, to the organization, to our fans, that the way we’re gonna structure this is so we can keep everyone together and really have real continuity, really have something to build on.”
An eight-year veteran, Carr, 31, was entering the final year of his deal, worth nearly $19.8 million in base salary. That contract was for five years at $125 million, the richest in the NFL at the time he signed it in 2017.
He said he told his agent he was willing to play out his contract if it wasn’t extended.
“At the end of the day I want to be a Raider and I am crazy enough to go out there on one year, especially with the guys that’ll be around me. I said I’ll take that chance,” he said. “Thankfully, it’ll be four more. Hopefully, we can build on that and I can finish and just do what I set out to do nine years ago, and that is to win a championship.”
The new deal puts him more in line with what veteran starting quarterbacks make throughout the league.
When healthy, Carr has been a starter for nearly all of his time with the Raiders and has made three Pro Bowls.
Carr had a career-high and franchise-record 4,804 passing yards in 2021 and was the only quarterback in the league to finish among the top five in both passing yards and completion percentage (68.4).
Carr holds franchise records for passing yards (31,700), passing touchdowns (193), games with multiple-touchdown passes (59), games with a passer rating of at least 100 points (44), and 300-yard passing contests (31).
Last month at the owners meetings, new Raiders coach Josh McDaniels seemed to stress the importance of finding the money for Carr. Wednesday he reaffirmed that in a prepared statement
“Derek Carr has been the leader of this franchise for a long time and we are thrilled to continue that relationship moving forward,” McDaniels said. “He has been a great example of someone who always puts the team first, and we appreciate his desire to keep doing that while leading on and off the field. It is clear how much Derek cares about this organization, his teammates and winning. I look forward to the opportunity to work with him this season and beyond.”
Extending Carr is the latest move in a busy offseason. Carr will have All-Pro Adams added to his receiving group in a trade with Green Bay, and standout pass rusher Jones as a free agent.
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AP Pro Football Writer Barry Wilner contributed.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://apnews.com/hub/pro-32 and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/ap-source-qb-derek-carr-gets-3-year-extension-from-raiders/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:50 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/ap-source-qb-derek-carr-gets-3-year-extension-from-raiders/ |
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — CJ McCollum got New Orleans going early and Brandon Ingram took over late to send the Pelicans to Los Angeles for a chance at the final playoff spot.
McCollum scored 27 of his 32 points in the first half to carry the young Pelicans to a 113-103 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night. New Orleans will face the LA Clippers on Friday night for the eighth playoff seed.
“He was great,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said of McCollum. “He set the tone early. He understood the moment, and it sort of calmed the rest of the guys down. We just got the ball to him and he made play after play, score after score, and then the rest of the guys that just started to feed off CJ.”
Playing in his 57th playoff game, McCollum displayed a calming presence to his younger teammates. Rookies Herb Jones, José Alvarado and Trey Murphy played large chunks of the fourth quarter.
“I was just trying to be locked in and aggressive early,” McCollum said. “The playoffs is a lot of antics, a lot of momentum plays, a lot of back and forth. You’ve got to be stable and mentally locked in to withstand a certain level of (chaos). … There’s going to be a lot of winning in our future.”
McCollum wasn’t alone. Ingram shook foul trouble to add 27 points and center Jonas Valanciunas added 22 points and 14 rebounds as the Pelicans’ stars delivered under pressure of New Orleans’ first postseason game since 2018.
“The three best players for New Orleans all played great, and if that happens, you’re going to lose,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of his team’s inability to contain McCollum, Ingram and Valanciunas. “We stayed in it and got back in it, but then we made the same mistakes as we did in the first three quarters – non physical defense.”
“We’re just playing for each other,” Valanciunas said of combining for 81 points with McCollum and Ingram. “When things struggle, we need somebody to slow the game down, which (CJ) does. Next step is on Friday.”
Popovich said his young team, which averages 25 years in age, learned a lesson the hard way.
“It’s the playoffs, and you’ve got to be into people,” Popovich said. “The grunt is important. Ingram scored two in a row right in the middle of the lane with no one even touching him. It’s a great lesson for our guys.”
The Pelicans, who finished ninth in the West after starting the season 3-16, will play at the Clippers with the winner facing the top-seeded Phoenix Suns in the first round. New Orleans beat Los Angeles in three of four meetings this season.
The Pelicans seemed headed to a rout, leading 96-75, with 10:39 left, but the 10th-seeded Spurs used a 16-1 run over the next 5:25 to cut it to 97-91. The Pelicans missed seven consecutive shots during the run.
Ingram hit a pair of soft jumpers in the lane and Valanciunas added a short jumper to put New Orleans back on top, 103-91.
Devin Vassell led San Antonio with 23 points. Dejounte Murray had 16 points, but he went just 5 of 19 from the floor while being shadowed by Pelicans rookie defensive stopper Herb Jones.
“You have to take the good and bad and learn from it,” Murray said. “We had guys not shoot well, starting with myself. They were physical. I ain’t making no excuses.”
After Ingram went to the bench with three fouls 5:17 before halftime, McCollum carried the Pelicans offensively. In a 14-4 run over the final 3:36 of the half, McCollum made two 3-pointers and pierced the San Antonio defense for two finger-roll layups on strong drives into the lane as New Orleans built a 61-50 lead.
McCollum made 10 of his first 12 shots, including 2 of 3 from long range, despite drawing consistent double teams.
TIP INS
Spurs: After eight years as a San Antonio assistant, Becky Hammon officially assumed her new position as head coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces. Coach Gregg Popovich said he would miss Hammon’s contributions. “She’s been wonderful for a while,” Popovich said. “I just wish her well, and I just wish she was here.” … G Dejounte Murray had two of his 13 triple-doubles against the Pelicans in the regular season.
Pelicans: While F Zion Williamson missed the entire regular season with a fractured right metatarsal, the former No. 1 overall pick was doing 360-degree dunks in pregame before sliding back into his street clothes. Coach Willie Green said he was not looking for Williamson to return until the beginning of next season. | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/cj-mccollum-leads-pelicans-past-spurs-in-play-in-game/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:57 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/cj-mccollum-leads-pelicans-past-spurs-in-play-in-game/ |
Teen says gaming headset saved him from stray bullet
LOS ANGELES (KCAL/KCBS) - A family counts itself fortunate. They still don’t know where a bullet that struck an 18-year-old came from, but they now realize how close they came to tragedy.
A gaming headset is credited with saving the life of Jonathan Gonzalez.
“You can see the damage. It actually bent this piece of metal here and went through,” said Gonzalez, an active gamer.
He was on his PlayStation the morning of April 1 just after midnight listening to music and chatting with friends when he felt something hit his head.
“It felt like if you’re wearing a bike helmet, and someone just smacks the top of your head,” Gonzalez said.
He looked up and found the bullet hole in his bedroom window. The gunshot ripped his curtains down.
After it struck him in the head, the bullet ricocheted against the wall and landed in his bed.
“If it wasn’t for these on my head, it probably would’ve went through,” Gonzalez said.
He ran to his parents’ room shouting he thought he’d been shot.
Nearly two weeks later, his family is still trying to process this close call.
“It’s still a trigger for me to process the thought that I could’ve lost my son. We were asleep, and if it did hurt him, we would not have known until we woke up hours later,” said Janet Popoca, the teen’s mother.
When the Los Angeles Police Department responded, officers could not find the shooter. They don’t believe the gun was fired at close range.
Gonzalez’s mom says even officers couldn’t believe what happened. “They were just shocked,” she said.
Gonzalez said he keeps thinking about how an inch in either direction could’ve changed things drastically.
“Minding my own business in my own room, and I could’ve been gone. Just thinking about it for the first week made me sick,” he said.
Razor, the company that makes the headphones, sent him a replacement.
Gonzalez said he still loves to game, but he’s now leery of what’s happening outside his window.
Police are still investigating the shooting.
Gonzalez’s family said they hope for an arrest, but they are learning to appreciate life a lot more.
Copyright 2022 KCAL/KCBS via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/teen-says-gaming-headset-saved-him-stray-bullet/ | 2022-04-14T11:04:54 | 0 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/teen-says-gaming-headset-saved-him-stray-bullet/ |
LONDON (AP) — The coach of Northern Ireland’s women’s team apologized Wednesday for saying girls and women are susceptible to conceding multiple goals in a short space of time because they are “more emotional than men.”
Kenny Shiels provoked criticism for the comments he made after his team’s 5-0 loss to England on Tuesday which ended Northern Ireland’s chances of qualifying for next year’s Women’s World Cup.
“In the women’s game, you’ll have noticed, I’m sure you will if you go through the patterns,” the 65-year-old Shiels said in the post-match news conference, “when a team concedes a goal, they concede a second one within a very short period of time.
“Right through the whole spectrum of the women’s game, because girls and women are more emotional than men. So, they take a goal going in, they don’t take that very well.”
In a statement released Wednesday, Shiels said he was “sorry for the offense that (the comments) have caused.”
“Last night was a special occasion for the women’s game in Northern Ireland,” he said, “and I am proud to manage a group of players who are role models for so many girls, and boys, across the country.
“I am an advocate for the women’s game and passionate about developing opportunities for women and girls to flourish.”
After conceding the opening goal against England in the 26th minute, Northern Ireland let in four more goals in a 27-minute span in the second half. Shiels’ team conceded three goals in nine minutes against Austria on Friday.
Shiels, who has coached Northern Ireland since 2019 after nearly three decades managing in the men’s game, described the second goal in such a situation as “an emotional goal.”
Former England and Arsenal striker Ian Wright said Shiels was “talking foolishness.”
“Talking about emotional women!” Wright wrote on Twitter. “Didn’t that man see how many times I was crying on the PITCH!”
Siobhan Chamberlain, the former goalkeeper for England’s women team, said Shiels needed to be “aware of the message that your words can carry.”
“We all know — and we get it drilled into us as footballers — the five minutes after you concede a goal, the five minutes after you score a goal across the board, not just in women’s football, in men’s football as well, you’re more likely to concede a goal, you’re more likely to potentially go on to score again,” she told the BBC.
“That’s not just in the women’s game, that’s in the men’s game as well. And to just generalize that to women is a slightly bizarre comment.”
Northern Ireland played in front of a crowd of 15,348 at Windsor Park in Belfast — a record for a women’s match in the country.
The team has reached the European Championship for the first time and will face Norway, Austria and host England in group play in July.
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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/coach-apologizes-for-saying-women-more-emotional-than-men/ | 2022-04-14T11:05:04 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/coach-apologizes-for-saying-women-more-emotional-than-men/ |
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco Giants first base coach Antoan Richardson and San Diego Padres third base coach Mike Shildt hugged on the field before their game Wednesday, a day after Richardson was ejected following an incident that he said included Shildt making comments that had “undertones of racism.”
Richardson said Shildt had used an expletive and told Giants manager Gabe Kapler to control Richardson on Tuesday night. At the time, Richardson said he interpreted Shildt’s comment “as if I was to be controlled or a piece of property or enslaved.”
On Wednesday, the two men chatted on the field and shook hands before addressing the media regarding the exchange. They embraced after speaking to reporters.
“I don’t believe he’s a racist,” said Richardson, who is Black. “I think, though, to the important point, he’s recognizing that some of his words, our words, are powerful and they’re impactful. And we just want to bring awareness to a situation that I think is important for our community.”
Shildt, who is white, acknowledged he used inappropriate language and said he appreciated Richardson saying he was not a racist.
“I’m grateful for Antoan clearing that up,” Shildt said. “Clearly misinterpreted, and I think he knows this, my value as a human is to love people. That’s exactly what I represent. So I appreciate him clearing that up for myself and my family.
“I don’t know Antoan’s heritage. I can’t walk in his shoes. I can only have empathy and love, which I do have, and I’ve always had in my life,” he said.
Richardson told reporters Tuesday night that his ejection stemmed from an incident that began when Shildt approached the Giants dugout.
Richardson said he asked Shildt what he needed. The San Francisco coach said Shildt used an expletive and told Kapler to “control” Richardson. “At that point in time I went up to the top step and said, ‘Excuse me,’ because I couldn’t believe what I heard” and got ejected, Richardson said after Tuesday’s game.
Shildt said Wednesday that Padres players and coaches had been upset the Giants’ Steven Duggar stole second base in the second inning with San Francisco leading 10-1. When Shildt went to coach third base in the top of the third, he and Richardson exchanged words.
“There’s some emotions running high. We looked at each other and then I looked in the dugout to find a couple guys that, they really don’t need to be named, but guys I’ve had relationships with since they were younger or I managed before,” Shildt said.
“I was looking for some support to try to diffuse the situation. I couldn’t find them, and then we had words exchanged. I’m not going to get into who started it. We’re past that point. … And I could have handled it differently with my verbiage,” he said.
Shildt said he thinks something positive will come of the controversy.
“The reality is we handled this tough solution publicly as men, with solution in our heart without any animosity. And I think it’s a great example of how people can communicate together regardless of backgrounds or colors or situation,” he said.
After Richardson was ejected, Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken took over his spot at first base. Nakken made history as the first female coach on the field in a Major League Baseball regular-season game.
The Giants won 13-2.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/tag/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/coaches-richardson-shildt-clear-the-air-after-confrontation/ | 2022-04-14T11:05:11 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/coaches-richardson-shildt-clear-the-air-after-confrontation/ |
ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Hawks were missing John Collins and Lou Williams for their NBA play-in game Wednesday night against the Charlotte Hornets.
Collins hasn’t played since March 11 because of a right ring finger sprain and a sprained right foot. He has resumed 4-on-4 workouts but is still not ready for game action.
Williams was out because of lower back discomfort.
Gordon Hayward remained sidelined for the Hornets with a sore left foot. He has played only one game, for less than 17 minutes, since Feb. 7.
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/collins-williams-out-for-hawks-in-play-in-game-vs-hornets/ | 2022-04-14T11:05:18 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/collins-williams-out-for-hawks-in-play-in-game-vs-hornets/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. declared this spring that last year was just the trailer for the upstart Blue Jays. This seasonwould be the feature-length film.
Bloodied by a baserunner’s cleats and forced into the dugout, Guerrero sure looked to manager Charlie Montoyo like a best picture winner.
“Like in the ‘Rocky’ movie,” Montoyo recalled. “‘Cut me, Mick! I’m bleeding!’”
Audiences agree: Guerrero delivered a trilogy worth seeing Wednesday night in the Bronx.
Guerrero shook off a bloody gash on his right ring finger and hit three home runs against the rival Yankees, including two off ace Gerrit Cole, as Toronto beat New York 6-4. He also had a double and slickly gloved a sharp line drive for the game’s final out.
“Add that one to my list,” Guerrero said via translator when asked if it was his most impressive feat yet.
George Springer hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh, and Toronto held off the Yankees despite homers from Anthony Rizzo, Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres — and a fly in the eighth by pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton that was caught on the warning track.
Guerrero had a big hand in that.
The AL MVP runner-up homered off Cole in the first inning, had his hand accidentally spiked on a play at first base in the second, then hammered a line-drive, two-run shot against Cole in the third to put Toronto up 3-0.
He doubled off Cole in the sixth — prompting the pitcher to emphatically tip his cap — then launched a 443-foot leadoff homer against Jonathan Loaisiga in the eighth for a 5-3 lead.
“Did you see the night?” Cole said. “If you had a cap, you’d tip it, too. It got better after that, too. My goodness.”
Guerrero got two stitches after the game but said his hand felt fine, although he anticipated some soreness might set in Thursday.
“It’s not that bad,” he said.
It was the second three-homer game of Guerrero’s career, matching a career high set last April 27 against Washington. He was on deck when teammate Bo Bichette made the final out in the top of the ninth, leaving him without a shot at matching the big league record of four homers in a game.
Guerrero leads the majors with four homers in six games after topping the bigs with 48 last season.
“That guy,” Judge said, “he’s a game-changer.”
Guerrero seemed like he’d have to leave in the second inning whenhis bare throwing hand was stepped on by baserunner Aaron Hicks. Guerrero had to reach across his body for Bichette’s throw and placed his right hand down behind the first base bag to balance. Hicks stomped on it running out an infield single.
The fourth-year big leaguer immediately began waving the hand around, then walked toward Toronto’s dugout as blood dripped onto his uniform and the turf. In a show of toughness sure to satisfy hockey-mad fans back in Toronto, Guerrero had trainer Voon Chong tape up his wound, then jogged back to first base a couple minutes later.
Guerrero was lobbying Montoyo to leave him in the game even before Chong figured out how to clean up the mess.
“I saw a lot of blood,” Montoyo said. “Besides Vladdy, the trainers were kind of MVPs tonight.”
With a dark red stain on the right thigh of his pants, Guerrero batted again in the top of the third and turned Cole’s 98 mph fastball into a 427-foot, two-run homer and a 3-0 Blue Jays lead.
New York erased that deficit with homers by Rizzo and Judge and a tying double from DJ LeMahieu against José Berríos in the sixth. Springer responded in the seventh with an RBI single against Loaisiga.
Guerrero’s first homer was nearly robbed in center by Hicks, who leaped above the wall and briefly had the ball in his glove. It fell out when Hicks hit the wall, bounced off something beyond the home-run barrier and fell back into play. A replay review confirmed the ball went out.
Jordan Romano pitched the ninth for his fourth save of the season. He’s converted 27 straight chances.
Blue Jays outfielder Teoscar Hernández left the field in pain after a groundout in the sixth and was removed from the game with left side discomfort. Montoyo said he’d get an MRI, and the team would know more Thursday.
Rizzo has three homers in six games. Judge and Torres each hit their first. Stanton’s drive in the eighth would’ve tied it, but left fielder Raimel Tapia caught it with his back against the wall.
Cole struck out six in 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on Guerrero’s homers. Three of the four hits against him were by Guerrero.
Adam Cimber (1-1) pitched a scoreless inning for the win. Chad Green (0-1) walked Alejandro Kirk, and pinch-runner Cavan Biggio scored on Springer’s single.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Blue Jays: Montoyo says Toronto may shift to a six-man rotation. RHP Ross Stripling could be plugged in to start Friday against Oakland.
Yankees: LHP Jordan Montgomery is expected to pitch as scheduled Friday at Baltimore despite taking a 103 mph comebacker off his left knee.
UP NEXT
Yankees RHP Luis Severino (0-0, 6.00) faces Toronto RHP Kevin Gausman (0-0, 5.40) in the series finale.
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Follow Jake Seiner: https://twitter.com/Jake_Seiner
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EWA BEACH, Hawaii (AP) — Hannah Green shot a 6-under 66 on Wednesday to take the lead after the first round of the LPGA Lotte Championship.
Green had eight birdies, including five on the front nine, at breezy Hoakalei Country Club, a first-time venue in the 10th edition of the tournament. The Australian hit 11 of 14 fairways, 14 of 18 greens in regulation and needed just 26 putts.
“I’ve been hitting the ball good,” Green said. “I just felt like with the putter I just needed to see a couple go in. So, that’s kind of what led to my score today. Holed a couple longer ones, which is nice. Just made the hole feel a little bit bigger.”
She won both her tour titles in 2019, taking the major KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the Cambia Portland Classic.
“I really enjoy coming to Hawaii,” Green said. “It’s such a relaxed vibe, and I think that’s what we need a little bit more of when we’re on the golf course. This afternoon, I’m probably going to go to the beach. Hopefully, doesn’t get too much windier or might not be too pleasant.”
Hyo Joo Kim, Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Aditi Ashok, Alison Lee and Gemma Dryburgh were a stroke back.
“We were lucky to get out kind of before it really started blowing,” Dryburgh said. “When we made the turn it got pretty strong. Yeah, just used my Scottish knowledge.”
Defending champion Lydia Ko opened with a bogey-free 69.
“I felt like I kept it in play for most parts,” Ko said. “The wind picked up quite a lot over my back nine, which is the front nine, so it made it a lot tougher out there.”
Brooke Henderson, the only player to have won the tournament twice, had a 74. She had back-to-back bogeys on the sixth and seventh holes, then dropped two more strokes with a double bogey on the 180-yard, par-3 ninth.
Jennifer Kupcho, coming off a major victory two weeks ago at Rancho Mirage in the California desert, also posted a 74 and is tied for 77th.
Danielle Kang, who owns four top-10 finishes this year, including a win at the season-opening Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in January and is third in the Rolex Player of the Year point standings, withdrew from the field following her round of 76 due to injury.
Inbee Park, who finished tied for second at last year’s Lotte Championship, opened with a round of 80, her highest single-round score since the second round of the 2019 Mediheal Championship, when she also shot an 8-over 80.
The event was played at Ko Olina Golf Club for its first eight years, was canceled in 2020 and moved to Kapolei Golf Club last year.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Already the face of the upstart Toronto Blue Jays, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. looked the part of a true Maple Leaf on Wednesday night, too.
Guerrero shook off a bloody gash on his right ring finger to hit three home runs against the rival Yankees, including two off ace Gerrit Cole.
The AL MVP runner-up homered off Cole in the first inning, had his hand accidentally spiked on a play at first base in the second, then hammered a line-drive homer off Cole in the third to put Toronto up 3-0. He doubled off Cole in the sixth — prompting the pitcher to make a show of tipping his cap to the 23-year-old — then launched a 443-foot leadoff homer against Jonathan Loaisiga in the eighth for a 5-3 lead.
It was the second three-homer game of Guerrero’s career, matching a career high set last April 27 against Washington.
Guerrero seemed like he’d have to leave in the second inning when his bare throwing hand was accidentally spiked by baserunner Aaron Hicks. Guerrero had to reach across his body for infielder Bo Bichette’s throw and placed his right hand down behind the first base bag to balance. Hicks stomped on it running out an infield single.
The 23-year-old Guerrero immediately began waving the hand around, then walked toward Toronto’s dugout as blood dripped onto his uniform and the turf.
In a show of toughness sure to satisfy hockey-mad fans back in Toronto, Guerrero had a trainer tape up his wound and jogged back to first base a couple minutes later.
With a bloody stain on the right thigh of his pants, he batted again in the top of the third and turned Cole’s 98 mph fastball into a 427-foot, two-run homer and a 3-0 Blue Jays lead.
He used his right hand for high-fives with base coaches Mark Budzinski and Luis Rivera as he rounded the bases, then clapped his hands together emphatically before touching home plate.
Guerrero’s first homer was nearly robbed in center by Hicks, who leaped above the wall and briefly had the ball in his glove. It fell out when Hicks hit the wall, bounced off something beyond the home-run barrier and fell back into play. A replay review confirmed the ball went out.
Guerrero has four homers in six games this season after leading the majors with 48 last season.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Clayton Kershaw was in prime form — call it perfect — in his season debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers, leaving no concern about his health after facing no resistance from the Minnesota Twins.
When the time came for manager Dave Roberts to relieve him, Kershaw didn’t put up a fight, either.
Kershaw took a perfect game through seven innings for the Dodgers until he was pulled after 80 pitches, dominating the Twins with 13 strikeouts in 21 batters during a 7-0 victory on Wednesday.
“Those are selfish goals. We’re trying to win. That’s really all we’re here for,” Kershaw said.
Roberts consulted with Kershaw after the sixth, and the three-time NL Cy Young Award winner told him his preference: one more inning with an 85-pitch limit.
“I would have loved to have stayed, but bigger things, man, bigger things,” Kershaw said.
So on a the gray, windy, 38-degree afternoon at Target Field, Alex Vesia entered for the eighth to boos from the blue-clad Dodgers fans in the crowd of 17,101. Vesia gave up Minnesota’s first and only hit, a one-out single by Gary Sánchez.
Cody Bellinger, Gavin Lux and Austin Barnes hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the eighth against reliever Dereck Rodriguez, who made his Twins debut.
Chris Paddack had a rough first start with the Twins, too, less than a week after he was acquired in a trade with the Padres. He lasted four innings, with six hits and three runs allowed.
Justin Turner hit a two-run single in the first, Trea Turner had a sacrifice fly in the second and Max Muncy went deep in the ninth for the Dodgers, who won a 7-2 game the night before that was paused for 1 1/2 hours due to rain and ended after midnight.
Kershaw was plenty refreshed.
Re-signed with the Dodgers for $17 million this year after missing more than two months in 2021 with inflammation in his left forearm, Kershaw was slotted fifth in the rotation out of the gate. That unusual assignment was to give his arm more time to build up strength in light of the limited spring training schedule.
“Blame it on the lockout. Blame it on me not picking up a baseball until January,” said Kershaw, who threw a no-hitter against Colorado on June 18, 2014. “My slider was horrible the last two innings. It didn’t have the bite. It was time.”
The breaking ball was awfully good before that, though. Kershaw threw 41 sliders, with 17 swinging strikes, with a fastball that never topped 91 mph. He struck out the side in the sixth and fanned every Twins batter at least once except Gio Urshela, who grounded out to third and flied out to right in his first two at-bats.
“He’s been pitching like that for years. He’s been having a lot of success. So he knows how to do it,” said Urshela, who hit a sharp grounder up the middle with two outs in the seventh that skidded under Kershaw’s glove as he tried to backhand the ball.
Lux, shifted to the shortstop side of second base, made a slick pickup and throw for the inning-ending out.
“Every decision I make is for the best interest of the player, their health and the ballclub, because there’s a lot of people that are cheering for the Dodgers, not only just for today and Clayton to throw a no-hitter, but for the Dodgers to win the World Series,” Roberts said. “For us to do that, we need him healthy.”
FEELS FAMILIAR
Roberts has pulled a starting pitcher with a no-hitter before. Walker Buehler came out after six innings in May 2018, Rich Hill left with a blister after seven perfect innings in September 2016, and Ross Stripling was removed after 7 1/3 innings in April 2016.
“Those guys make it tough on me,” Roberts said.
According to ESPN research, Kershaw and Hill are the only pitchers in major league history to be pulled after seven-plus innings with a perfect game still intact.
TEAM PLAYER
Kershaw hugged his catcher Barnes in the dugout after his day was done.
“He said, ‘Sorry,’” Barnes said. I knew it was the right call and stuff like that, but I thought we could get it done. That’s baseball.”
FOR THE SCRAPBOOK
This was Kershaw’s 66th career double-digit strikeout game in 380 regular season appearances. The Twins became the 27th major league team he faced, missing only the Red Sox and Orioles. He did pitch against Boston in the 2018 World Series.
MAYBE CORREA WOULD’VE HELPED
The Twins gave shortstop Carlos Correa a rest and center fielder Byron Buxton a turn at DH, as a reaction to the late night on Tuesday. Buxton struck out all three times he faced Kershaw.
UP NEXT
Dodgers: RHP Walker Buehler (1-0, 1.80 ERA) takes the mound for the home opener on Friday at Dodger Stadium against Cincinnati. LHP Reiver Sanmartin (0-1, 19.29 ERA) pitches for the Reds to start the four-game series.
Twins: After an off day on Thursday, RHP Joe Ryan (0-1, 4.50 ERA) takes the mound at Fenway Park on Friday to begin a four-game series against Boston. RHP Nick Pivetta (0-1, 6.35 ERA) starts for the Red Sox.
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More AP MLB coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/kershaw-pulled-after-7-with-perfect-game-dodgers-top-twins/ | 2022-04-14T11:05:46 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/kershaw-pulled-after-7-with-perfect-game-dodgers-top-twins/ |
A look at what’s happening around the majors on Thursday:
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GASHED GUERRERO
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays wrap up their four-game series at Yankee Stadium, a day after the slugger hit three home runs and a double despite a nasty gash.
The AL MVP runner-up homered off Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in the first inning, then seemed like he’d have to leave an inning later when his bare throwing hand was accidentally spiked by baserunner Aaron Hicks.
Guerrero had to reach across his body for infielder Bo Bichette’s throw and placed his right hand down behind the first base bag to balance. Hicks stomped on it running out an infield single.
The 23-year-old Guerrero immediately began waving the hand around, then walked toward Toronto’s dugout as blood dripped onto his uniform and the turf. A trainer taped up the digit in the dugout, and after a couple of minutes, Guerrero jogged back to first base and the game continued.
With a bloody stain on the right thigh of his pants, Guerrero hit a two-run homer in his next at-bat. He then lined a double and hit another homer in a 6-4 win.
TRAVELING CHAMPS
The World Series champion Atlanta Braves begin their road series of the season when Charlie Morton (1-0, 3.38 ERA) starts at San Diego. Morton is 6-1 with a 2.09 ERA in nine career starts against the Padres.
Atlanta will be without reliever Luke Jackson this season after he had Tommy John surgery on Wednesday in Arlington, Texas. The Braves said shortly before opening day that Jackson had damage to the ligament in his right elbow.
Jackson was 2-2 with a career-best 1.98 ERA in 71 games last year. He had a 0.00 ERA in three World Series games against Houston.
NEEDS RELIEF
The Mariners will be minus reliever Sergio Romo after putting him on the 10-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation.
The move was made retroactive to Tuesday, a day after he pitched a scoreless inning at Minnesota in his 800th major league appearance. The 39-year-old righty also tossed a scoreless inning against the Twins in his Mariners debut on Saturday.
Romo finalized a $2 million, one-year contract with Seattle last month.
NICE WHILE IT LASTED
Closer Corey Knebel’s return from the COVID-related injured list meant the end of 28-year-old journeyman reliever Jeff Singer’s brief time with his hometown Phillies.
The South Jersey native who was working with his father at a Northeast Philadelphia car dealership in 2016 when the team signed him got to sit in the bullpen at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday night for the game against the Mets. He and had dozens of friends and family in attendance for his first game in a major league uniform.
“He got to fulfill a lifetime dream, and I think that was a special day for him,” Girardi said. “It could be just the start of things to come.”
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DENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon had three goals and two assists, Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored twice in a dominant first period and the Colorado Avalanche set a franchise record with their 53rd win by routing the Los Angeles Kings 9-3 on Wednesday night.
Valeri Nichushkin added two goals, Cale Makar had a goal and three assists, Andre Burakovsky also scored and Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves for the Avalanche, who led 4-0 before the game was 11 minutes old.
Colorado won its seventh straight and improved to 53-14-6, besting the 2013-14 and 2000-01 teams for most victories. The Avalanche also moved two points ahead of Florida for the best record in the NHL and are a franchise-best 29-4-3 at home.
“The crowd was chanting before the anthem even started,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “You can feel that when you go on the bench as a coach, as a player, that they’re into it and they were going to be energized. And we wanted to make sure we came out and played a really good game after having a couple of off games in Winnipeg and Edmonton.
“I think our guys feel that and that’s why our record is so good at home.”
Adrian Kempe, Alex Iafallo and Phillip Danault scored for the Kings, who have dropped four of five. Jonathan Quick allowed three goals on 10 shots before he was pulled while starting on consecutive nights for the first time in over four years. Cal Petersen allowed six more goals on 25 shots.
LA remained in a playoff spot in third place in the Pacific Division, but sits only three points ahead of Vegas, which has two games in hand.
“Definitely not the performance you want tonight, especially at this time of year,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. “But we’ve got to look at this one and correct stuff and make sure this is not going to repeat, because it is crunch time for our team.”
The schedule did the Kings no favors. They won in Chicago 5-2 on Tuesday night and got into Denver early Wednesday to play at altitude while the Avalanche had been off since Saturday.
And Colorado opened with relentless pressure and crisp passing that overwhelmed weary LA. Aube-Kubel scored 2:54 in and Nichushkin tallied 39 seconds later. MacKinnon scored on the power play and Aube-Kubel scored 41 seconds after that to make it 4-0 with 9:04 left in the first period.
“We can put earrings on a pig if we want, but it’s not going to make it any better,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said in a 55-second postgame media session. “That was awful and we move on. We get an opportunity to play more games, so good for us and we have to be better.”
Kempe scored his 33rd goal early in the second and and Iafallo made it 4-2 with a slap shot just inside the blue line at 10:40 of the second. But the Avs steadied things when MacKinnon fed Burakovsky in the high slot at 13:05.
MacKinnon scored on a breakaway on a stretch pass from Makar early in the third period and picked up his third career hat trick with 10:08 left to make it 9-2.
Fans chanted “We want 10!” over the final minutes, but had to settle for a Colorado season-high nine goals.
“I didn’t want to score,” Aube-Kubel said with a smile. “There were no hats left.”
Added MacKinnon: “Nine’s enough, I think.”
NOTES: Avs rookie Bowen Byram assisted on the first two goals in his fourth game back after being on personal leave for nearly three months with concussion issues. … Makar’s goal was the 60th for Colorado defensemen, the most in the NHL since Washington (62) in 1993-94. … Avs coach Jared Bednar hopes captain Gabriel Landeskog (knee surgery) will return for a game or two before the playoffs. … Quick started back-to-back games for the first time since Jan. 18-19, 2018. He last played on consecutive nights Feb. 9-10 that same season. … Nichushkin became the seventh Colorado player with 20 goals. … The Avs signed undrafted college free agents Ben Meyers (Minnesota) and Wyatt Aamodt (Minnesota State).
UP NEXT
Kings: Host Columbus on Saturday night in the first of five straight games against teams out of playoff contention.
Avalanche: Home on Thursday night vs. New Jersey, whose 24 regulation road losses are the most in the NHL. The Avs are 7-1-1 in the second game of back-to-backs.
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JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Bashir Mason is looking forward to the challenge of taking over at Saint Peter’s after its incredible run to the Elite Eight.
He understands that replacing Shaheen Holloway will be a tough act to follow after the Peacocks became the first No. 15 seed to reach the final eight in the NCAA Tournament, and fan favorites across college basketball.
Even tougher for the 38-year-old Jersey City native, who spent the past decade at nearby Wagner, will be keeping the Peacocks’ roster intact. Starting guards Daryl Banks III and Matthew Lee are in the transfer portal and top reserve guard Doug Edert has decided to transfer to Bryant.
“Getting the roster settled is what I’m focused on,” Mason said Wednesday, shortly after being introduced as the Peacocks’ new coach. Holloway left two weeks ago for the job at Seton Hall, his alma mater.
Banks, Lee and Edert were at the news conference in the refurbished Run Baby Run Arena along with Peacocks teammates and players from Wagner in Staten Island. Edert confirmed his decision to tranfer.
Banks said Mason tried to recruit him out of high school, so he knows him.
“I am listening to all my options,” said Banks, who led the Peacocks, averaging 11.3 points. “I am just going to be open-minded to everything.”
Mason said he spoke Tuesday with the Peacocks, telling them that he is a worker and knows they are, too. He said he’s not there to shake things up and wants to take the program to new heights.
Athletic director Rachelle Paul said there was a lot of interest in the Saint Peter’s job from all walks of college and high school coaches. She ultimately said Mason was attractive because he reminded her of Holloway, who led the team to a 22-12 mark this past season and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament title. Both men stress hard work, toughness and family.
Paul refused to disclose details of Mason’s contract with the Jesuit university, which has an undergraduate enrollment of about 2,100 students.
Mason said he was in seventh grade when he first met Holloway, a fellow guard who never backed down. They got to play because both youngsters knew Chris Chavannes, the current coach at The Patrick School.
Mason played two seasons at Marist High School for Chavannes and got to play against older players during the summer after his coach left for St. Patrick High School. He frequently went head-to-head with Holloway, who attended St. Patrick, which became The Patrick School a decade ago.
“He probably won most of them,” Mason said of their matchups. “But I fouled him a lot because I refused to get blown out.”
That’s the way Saint Peter’s will be on the court, although Holloway had them doing that in knocking off Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue in the NCAA Tournament.
“A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into Wagner and building up that program,” Mason said. “But this opportunity here was really difficult to turn down, and had nothing to do with the run they made to the Elite Eight. This is more about a new challenge. The bar has been set really high, and I’m excited about pushing the program further.”
This is the second time Mason has taken over a team after a big season. He replaced Dan Hurley at Wagner after a 25-6 season. Hurley left to go to Rhode Island and eventually to UConn.
Mason led Wagner to three Northeast Conference (NEC) regular-season titles, posting a 165-130 record. The Seahawks posted a 21-6 record this past season and appeared in the NEC title game. Wagner’s 15 conference wins matched the most in program history.
Wagner senior guard Elijah Ford said Saint Peter’s is getting a really good coach who will let the players know where they stand.
“Come in ready to play 150% every day,” Ford advised the Peacocks. “I know now practice is the hardest thing I have to go through, so if your best battle is not in practice, I don’t know what you are doing here.”
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CINCINNATI (AP) — José Ramírez homered, doubled and drove in three runs, Owen Miller hit two home runs and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-3 Wednesday for their fourth straight win.
Rookie Steven Kwan went 0 for 4, but drew a bases-loaded walk in the second inning that put Cleveland ahead to stay as it completed a two-game sweep.
“That’s why he’s hitting second,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “We think he’s a pretty good hitter.”
Kwan is 10 for 19 and has reached base in 19 of 29 plate appearances since making his major league debut on opening day. The 24-year-old outfielder had seen 128 pitches this season and taken 42 swings without miss before he couldn’t check his swing on a 2-1 offering in the fourth inning from Nick Lodolo, who made his major league debut.
A day after hitting a grand slam with six RBIs, Ramírez again broke loose. Miller produced his first multihomer game, Oscar Mercado also homered and Myles Straw matched a career high with four hits.
“I think it’s just being comfortable and understanding what the pitchers are trying to me,” Miller said. “It’s that next guy up approach. This is a good environment. It’s fun to see.”
The Guardians have scored 44 runs during their winning streak after producing just one in a combined 19 innings while losing the season’s first two games.
Ramirez went the other way with a two-run line drive to right-center field.
“You get rewarded here when you go the other way,” Francona said. “I like to see guys get rewarded.”
The left-handed Kwan took four straight balls with the bases loaded to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead in the second. That was the third of three straight walks by the left-handed Lodolo, who also hit two batters in the inning.
Lodolo (0-1), the seventh overall selection in the 2019 draft, allowed seven hits and five runs with three walks and four strikeouts in four innings.
Cleveland starter Triston McKenzie pitched three-hit ball for four shutout innings. He struck out six and walked none.
Eli Morgan (1-0) relieved and gave up one run and one hit in three innings.
STRANGLEHOLD
The win guaranteed the Guardians a tie of the four-game season series with their in-state rivals, allowing them to retain possession of the Ohio Cup for the eighth straight season.
TEXTBOOK
The Guardians cut down Kyle Farmer trying to score on Brandon Drury’s double to end the second inning. Straw played the carom off the center field wall on one hop and threw to shortstop Amed Rosario, whose relay to catcher Austin Hedges was in time to catch Farmer sliding headfirst.
RAIN DELAY
Lodolo had to wait an extra 43 minutes to make his debut. The start of the game was delayed by rain.
OFF THE HOOK
Reds center fielder Jake Fraley’s diving catch of Franmil Reyes’s sinking liner with the bases loaded prevented further damage against Lodolo in the second inning.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Guardians: Lodolo hit Ramirez in the left foot with the bases loaded in the second inning.
Reds: LF Tommy Pham didn’t start after injuring his left hand in a collision with center fielder Nick Senzel on Tuesday. X-rays were negative, but Pham was scheduled for extra tests, manager David Bell said before the game. … RHP Lucas Sims (back spasms) started and pitched one inning in his first rehab appearance with Triple-A Louisville on Tuesday.
UP NEXT
Guardians RHP Zach Plesac (0-0, 0.00) is scheduled on Friday to make his second 2022 start in Cleveland’s home opener against the Giants.
Reds The team after Wednesday’s game announced RHP Luis Cessa (0-0) will start in place of LHP Reiver Sanmartin (0-1, 19.29) on Thursday at Dodger Stadium. A reason for the switch was not immediately announced.
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Nick Saban’s willingness to adapt and often be a catalyst for change in college football, both on the field and off, has propelled Alabama to six national championships in 13 seasons.
The 70-year-old coach is confident his program will continue to thrive during this new era of college athletics, with players having more opportunities to earn money than ever before and more power to determine where they play.
But the current state of college football has Saban concerned.
“I don’t think what we’re doing right now is a sustainable model,” Saban told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
That’s a common theme among coaches these days, with Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Southern California’s Lincoln Riley among the most prominent who have echoed Saban’s sentiments. The combination of empowered athletes and easily accessible paydays is changing the way coaches go about their business.
The uncertainty comes with the NCAA in a weakened state following last year’s Supreme Court loss and in the midst of a dramatic restructuring. Schools and the NCAA itself would prefer federal legislation to regulate how athletes are compensated for their names, images and likenesses, but when that might come and in what form is unknown.
That has led to concerns about vast sums of money flowing in and around college athletics, including brazen entities called collectives put together by well-heeled donors whose donations have traditionally funded everything from lavish facilities to multimillion-dollar buyouts of fired coaches around Power Five conferences.
“The concept of name, image and likeness was for players to be able to use their name, image and likeness to create opportunities for themselves. That’s what it was,” Saban said. “So last year on our team, our guys probably made as much or more than anybody in the country.”
Paying a player to attend a particular school is still a violation of NCAA rules, but NIL deals have quickly become intertwined with recruiting — both high school prospects and the growing number of college transfers.
“But that creates a situation where you can basically buy players,” Saban said. “You can do it in recruiting. I mean, if that’s what we want college football to be, I don’t know. And you can also get players to get in the transfer portal to see if they can get more someplace else than they can get at your place.”
Riley told reporters last week NIL has “completely changed” recruiting.
“I think that anybody that cares about college football is not real pleased with that because that wasn’t the intention,” said Riley, who is in his first season at Southern California after five years at Oklahoma. “And I’m sure, at some point, there is going to be a market correction if you will, with recruiting.”
What exactly is going on with recruiting and NIL is hard to know for sure because it is mostly happening outside the purview of schools and the NCAA between parties with no obligation to publicly disclose deals.
A NIL contract drawn up for an unidentified blue-chip recruit reportedly could be worth up to $8 million. Earlier this year, Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher was angered by rumors the Aggies used millions in NIL money to sign the nation’s consensus No. 1 recruiting class for 2022.
Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin is among those who worry about conflicts in recruiting between coaches and emboldened boosters,
“I think that there’s going to start being issues potentially of donors and collective groups saying they want Player A from their area. And the coaching staff wants Player B,” Kiffin told AP.
Swinney told ESPN major college football needs a “complete blowup” that might result in something that looks more like professional football.
“I think you’ll have 40 or 50 teams and a commissioner and here are the rules,” he said.
Saban said he is not against the shift toward players being compensated and given more freedom to switch teams.
“We now have an NFL model with no contracts, but everybody has free agency,” said Saban, echoing a comparison Kiffin has made.
“It’s fine for players to get money. I’m all for that. I’m not against that. But there also has to be some responsibility on both ends, which you could call a contract. So that you have an opportunity to develop people in a way that’s going to help them be successful,” Saban said.
Saban, the highest-paid coach in college football with a salary of nearly $10 million last season, said the balance of power in the sport could tip toward the schools with the wealthiest collectives.
“So there’s going to have to be some changes implemented, some kind of way to still create a level playing field,” he said. “And there is no salary cap. So whatever school decides they want to pay the most, they have the best chance to have the best team. And that’s never been college football, either.”
Saban would prefer Alabama guarantee a set amount of money for every player who plays football for the Crimson Tide.
“We give everybody the same medical care, academic support, food service. Same scholarship. So if we’re going to do this, then everybody is going to benefit equally. I’m not going to create a caste system on our team,” Saban said.
LSU coach Brian Kelly supports a similar model, with players agreeing to sign over certain NIL rights for a base amount of compensation along with the ability for a school to help boost an individual’s brand.
“And we’ve got the best NFT, “ Kelly added, referring to the popular digital collectors’ items. ”Who can’t sell Mike the Tiger?”
Saban isn’t worried about the changing landscape derailing his dynasty. Alabama had more players on NFL rosters (53) than any school at the beginning of last season. The Tide’s track record of personal and professional development should remain attractive to top players, though maybe not quite as many as in the past.
Saban is OK with that.
“I know we have to adapt to that,” Saban said. “You’re going to have kids out there that say, ‘Well, I can get a better deal going someplace else,’ and they’ll go there. But you’re also going to have people that see the light and say, ‘Yeah, they’ve got a good history of developing players. They got a good history of developing people, they got a great graduation rate and that value is more important.’
“And they’re distributing money to everybody in the organization.”
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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.appodcasts.com
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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25. | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/saban-current-state-of-college-football-not-sustainable/ | 2022-04-14T11:06:21 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/saban-current-state-of-college-football-not-sustainable/ |
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Max Scherzer finally could pitch with all his strength now that his right hamstring wasn’t bothering him anymore.
It took a bit for him to figure that out, but when he did, he looked back to his Cy Young self.
Scherzer settled in after working out of an early jam, Pete Alonso drove in five runs with a homer and two doubles and the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-6 Wednesday. It took loading the bases in the first for Scherzer (2-0) to recalibrate how to pitch on his right leg again, then he struck out the next batter, induced a groundout and allowed one run and five hits with seven strikeouts in five innings.
“I just wasn’t completely executing every pitch where it needed to be,” Scherzer said. “Fortunately enough to be able to walk three in an inning to not have that spiral out of control and give up a bunch of runs in that situation. That really set a tone and allowed our offense to get going.”
Alonso and the rest of New York’s offense provided more than enough run support for the 37-year-old three-time Cy Young Award winner. Brandon Nimmo hit a solo home run off Aaron Nola in the third inning — the first Mets hit of the afternoon — before the middle of the order teed off in the fourth and fifth.
“We did an excellent job of pouring it on all day,” said Alonso, who was again the designated hitter instead of his preference to play first base. “We had excellent at-bats one through nine, and that’s what it takes to win these tough, divisional games.”
Alonso’s first RBI double helped knock Nola out of the game. The right-hander also lost command in the fourth, walking a batter and hitting two more to load the bases and get the hook from manager Joe Girardi. Nola (1-1) allowed three earned runs on three hits in 3 1/3 innings.
The Mets also knocked around the Phillies bullpen, which went five relievers deep after Nola’s short start and with an off day coming up. Alonso drilled a three-run homer run to right-center in the sixth to make it 8-1 and close Scherzer’s day after throwing 96 pitches.
“That was a big moment in the game that kind of put us ahead by a bunch, and thankfully that was enough,” Alonso said. “Philly has a great offense. They’re a great team. They started to come back there. But I feel like coming through like that for the team was huge.”
All nine batters who started the game for New York reached base at least once. Philadelphia got to the Mets bullpen in the later innings, with Nick Castellanos hitting an RBI double and reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper launching his first home run of the season to make it interesting before Edwin Diaz closed it out.
SEGURA INJURED
Phillies second baseman Jean Segura left in the sixth after getting hit by a pitch in his left forearm. He walked to first base and was attended to by a trainer before coming out of the game.
PHILIES ROSTER MOVES
After the game, the Phillies optioned right-hander Connor Brogdon and left-hander Damon Jones to Triple-A and activated right-hander James Norwood off the bereavement list.
METS LINEUP FLIP
Manager Buck Showalter flipped Francisco Lindor into the second spot in the lineup with Starling Marte batting third. Lindor doubled and scored in the fifth, while Marte had an RBI single in the sixth.
QUICK CAMEO
Closer Corey Knebel’s return from the COVID-related injured list meant the end of 28-year-old journeyman reliever Jeff Singer’s brief time with his hometown Phillies. The South Jersey native who was working with his father at a Northeast Philadelphia car dealership in 2016 when the team signed him got to sit in the bullpen Tuesday night and had dozens of friends and family in attendance for his first game in a major league uniform.
“He got to fulfill a lifetime dream, and I think that was a special day for him,” Girardi said. “It could be just the start of things to come.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mets: Showalter hopes right-handed reliever Trevor May can dodge the injured list with a minor triceps strain and expects the right-hander to benefit from the team’s day off Thursday.
Phillies: OF Odúbel Herrera (strained right oblique) began a rehab assignment at Single-A Clearwater on Tuesday. Girardi said Herrera got four at-bats in his first game with the Threshers as the designated hitter and was scheduled to play five innings in center field Wednesday.
UP NEXT
Mets: Chris Bassitt is set to start Friday afternoon against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the home opener at Citi Field.
Phillies: Kyle Gibson takes the mound Friday night for the opener of a three-game series at the Miami Marlins.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/scherzer-cruises-alonso-drives-in-5-as-mets-beat-phillies/ | 2022-04-14T11:06:28 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/scherzer-cruises-alonso-drives-in-5-as-mets-beat-phillies/ |
MIAMI (AP) — Udonis Haslem started the Miami Heat postseason with an apology.
It wasn’t a real apology.
Haslem, like many other Heat players, is amused by the notion that the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs isn’t considered a favorite to win the Eastern Conference title. Miami doesn’t have an MVP candidate, didn’t have anyone qualify for the top 20 in the league’s scoring race, and according to FanDuel Sportsbook only has the third-best odds of winning the East behind Milwaukee and Boston.
“It might not be the sexiest,” Haslem, the longtime Heat captain and 19-year veteran, said of Miami’s 53-29 regular season mark. “We ain’t got nobody out here scoring 85 points in one game. Ain’t got none of that. But we are winning basketball games collectively as a unit and as a team. I’m sorry to everybody in the basketball world that that’s not sexy enough for you guys, but we’re thankful for the guys that we have and the opportunity that we have to be the No. 1 seed.”
Miami opens the playoffs at home on Sunday afternoon; the Heat will find out their opponent on Friday night. By then, the Heat expect to have center Bam Adebayo — out because of a stint in the league’s health and safety protocols — back and ready for Game 1. He was the only Heat player missing Wednesday when the team resumed practice after a two-day, players-only, bonding trip to the Bahamas.
“In terms of whether there’s motivation because people are counting us out or not giving us a due respect, each person can translate that on their own,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I think the more powerful motivation is what we’re trying to play for and compete for, which is the hardest thing you attempt to do in a team sport, to compete for a title.”
It might seem surprising to some that a team that made headlines a few weeks ago for an in-game argument — All-Star forward Jimmy Butler exchanging words with Spoelstra during a time out, then Haslem getting involved in a rather demonstrative way — went on vacation together. Whatever caused that argument was forgotten by the next day anyway, since some players arrived for work the following morning and found Butler and Haslem already in the locker room and carrying on with their usual brand of conversation and nonsense.
The Heat insist they’re united. They bicker, and that argument wasn’t the worst dustup the team has experienced this season, but Haslem said that’s all part this team’s DNA.
“Typical day in Miami, man,” Haslem said of the time-out mess last month. “That’s how we get stuff done around here. We believe in eye-to-eye communication. … You say what you’ve got to say, I’ll say what I’ve got to say, I love you, you love me, let’s get back on the basketball court, let’s play.”
That dustup came during a four-game Miami losing streak. When that slide ended, the Heat won six straight to lock up the No. 1 seed in the East before losing a meaningless regular-season finale in Orlando. Most Heat regulars didn’t play in that game, and the Bahamas trip then got underway.
Being the No. 1 seed guarantees nothing; no top seed has won the East title since Cleveland in 2016, and a top seed has only made one East final in the last four years — that being Milwaukee, when it lost to Toronto in 2019.
But the Heat, just as they were in the bubble two years ago when they went to the NBA Finals as the East’s No. 5 seed, insist that they believe they have enough to contend for a title.
“I feel good. I do,” Butler said. “I don’t put a ceiling or basement on anything, man, because we can’t control everything. I just know that if we focus in on us, and what we can control, and what we’re capable of, we’re going to be OK.”
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/sorry-not-sorry-heat-arent-fazed-by-the-lack-of-believers/ | 2022-04-14T11:06:34 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/sorry-not-sorry-heat-arent-fazed-by-the-lack-of-believers/ |
ATLANTA (AP) — For one night, at least, the Atlanta Hawks looked like the team that made a stunning run to the Eastern Conference final last summer.
Trae Young bounced back from a sluggish start to score 24 points and De’Andre Hunter led a third-quarter surge Wednesday that carried the Hawks to a 132-103 rout of the Charlotte Hornets in a play-in game.
“We’re definitely confident right now,” Hunter said. “But we’ve got a lot more work to do. We’re not satisfied yet.”
The Hawks were a bit of a disappointment during the regular season, finishing ninth in the East after their surprising playoff success in 2021.
They’ve still got to win one more play-in game just to make the playoffs, heading to Cleveland to face the Cavaliers on Friday night. The winner claims the No. 8 seed in the East and will face the top-seeded Miami Heat in the opening round of the playoffs.
The season is over for the Hornets, who were overwhelmed in the 9-10 play-in game for the second year in a row and haven’t made the playoffs since 2016.
Still, coach James Borrego called it another step forward for a rebuilding team.
“A lot of good things have happened for this franchise based on where we’re at today compared to where we were two or three years ago,” he said.
Miles Bridges was ejected in the fourth quarter and could be facing additional punishment from the league office after he appeared to strike a young fan with his mouthpiece.
All five Atlanta starters scored in double figures, as did Bogdan Bogdanovic off the bench. It was Hunter who came up big in the decisive third period, bursting out with 16 points after being held to 3 in the first half.
“I think I’m a big part of this team,” Hunter said. ”Me being aggressive, scoring and defending, helps this team a lot.”
Hunter finished with 22 points, while Danilo Gallinari added 18 and Clint Capela 15. Kevin Huerter and Bogdanovic chipped in with 13 apiece.
The Hornets closed the regular season strong and felt like they had a good chance to win a couple of play-in games on the road. But those hopes came crashing down against their I-85 rival.
LaMelo Ball led Charlotte with 26 points on 7-of-25 shooting.
The Hawks led by 13 in the first half before settling for a 60-52 advantage at the break. Charlotte had a bit of momentum in the closing minutes of the half, but it sure didn’t carry over to the third.
The Hawks outscored the Hornets 42-24 during that 12-minute barrage, hitting 16 of 24 shots, and led 102-76 heading to the final period.
With the Hornets doubling at every opportunity, Young made only 1 of 9 shots in the opening quarter and 3 of 13 in the first half.
But his teammates found plenty of open looks and made the Hornets pay dearly.
“It’s great for my team,'” said Young, who had 11 assists. “If you can make two guys guard you, it only opens up the floor for everybody else. I have to embrace it.”
Charlotte should’ve known what kind of night it would be on their way to State Farm Arena.
The Hornets’ chartered bus was blocked by a freight train that stopped on a crossing near the downtown sports complex. The bus had to turn around and take a different route to the arena, delaying Charlotte’s arrival for pregame warmups.
It didn’t get much better once the game tipped off.
BRIDGES EJECTION
The Hornets’ frustration boiled over with about 6 1/2 minutes to go when Bridges complained so vehemently about a goaltending call that he picked up two quick technicals and was ejected.
Then, with a Hawks fan yapping at him on the way to the locker room, the Hornets player wildly threw his mouthpiece and appeared to strike a female who was simply watching the scene.
Bridges went on Twitter shortly after the game looking to make amends.
“Somebody get me in contact with the young lady,” he said. “That’s unacceptable.”
Bridges said he’ll accept whatever punishment he gets from the league.
“I was upset about a call, a couple of calls really,” he said. “I let my temper get the best of me. It was definitely the wrong thing to do.”
TOURNAMENT FEEL
The Hawks were in a play-in game for the first time, but Hunter knows something about the one-and-done feel of the format.
During his college career at Virginia, he helped lead the Cavaliers to the national championship in 2019.
“It’s like the NCAA Tournament,” Hunter said. “I’m not sure how feel about it. We won, so I guess I like it. But I’m not sure. It’s tough.”
TIP INS
Hornets: Terry Rozier had 21 points. …. As a team, Charlotte shot 37.8% (37 of 90) from the field.
Hawks: F John Collins (sprained foot, sprained finger) has stepped up workouts but still wasn’t able to play. His hasn’t been in a game since March 11. … G Lou Williams also was inactive with lower back discomfort. … Capela had 17 rebounds, leading the Hawks to a 54-41 edge on the boards.
UP NEXT
The Hawks went 3-1 against the Cavaliers during the regular season, splitting the two games in Cleveland.
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Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pnewberry1963
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/young-hunter-lead-hawks-to-132-103-play-in-rout-of-hornets/ | 2022-04-14T11:06:40 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/young-hunter-lead-hawks-to-132-103-play-in-rout-of-hornets/ |
Administration unveils steps to boost racial equity in govt
(AP) - The Justice Department is improving language access to its programs to help people with limited English proficiency better report crimes. The Interior Department is providing technical assistance to Native American tribes to help them apply for grants. The Energy Department is helping low-income households access programs to weatherize their homes and save energy.
Those efforts are among hundreds of strategies and commitments the Biden administration was announcing Thursday. They are the product of an executive order that President Joe Biden signed hours after taking office with the goal of advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities across the federal government.
The order was the first of its kind by a president, said Chiraag Bains, deputy assistant to the president for racial justice and equity.
“We set the mission and the mandate for every agency, the entire federal government, to center equity in all that we do,” Bains told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
After more than a year of review, more than 90 federal agencies, including all major Cabinet departments, were releasing their “equity action plans” on Thursday.
The plans outline more than 300 strategies and commitments that aim to make federal policies fairer for everyone, including poorer communities and communities of color; tribal, rural and LGBTQ communities; and people with disabilities and women and girls.
They were to be discussed at a White House event hosted Thursday by domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, budget director Shalanda Young and members of the Cabinet. Biden, a Democrat, has one of the most diverse Cabinets, with Black and Hispanic people leading major departments, including Defense, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Some of the equity plans have been announced, such as work by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to close the racial gap in homeownership, address disproportionate rates of homelessness among underserved communities and reduce bias in home appraisals.
Others strategies are being made public for the first time, such as Defense Department efforts to promote the use of artificial intelligence technology to reduce algorithmic bias by investing in the development of a more diverse AI workforce. That work includes partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities.
Equity action teams at every agency led the reviews. Bains said that, taken together, the strategies “will advance equity and justice so that everybody can thrive in America.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/administration-unveils-steps-boost-racial-equity-govt/ | 2022-04-14T11:06:45 | 1 | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/administration-unveils-steps-boost-racial-equity-govt/ |
VICTORY, Vt. (AP) — In the remote Vermont community of Victory, Town Clerk Tracey Martel says she’s regularly frustrated watching a spinning circle on her computer while she tries to complete even the most basic municipal chores online.
“Fast internet would be really good,” said Martel, whose community of about 70 was one of the last in Vermont to receive electricity almost 60 years ago. The DSL service she has now works for basic internet, but it can be spotty and it doesn’t allow users to access all the benefits of the interconnected world.
About 5 miles (8 kilometers) away as the bird flies in the neighboring community along Miles Pond in the town of Concord, a new fiber optic line is beginning to bring truly high-speed internet to residents of the remote area known as the Northeast Kingdom.
“I’m looking forward to high-speed internet, streaming TV,” said Concord resident John Gilchrist, as a crew ran fiber optic cable to his home earlier this year.
The fiber optic cable that is beginning to serve the remote part of Concord and will one day serve Victory is being provided through NEK Broadband, a utility of nearly 50 Vermont towns working to bring high speed internet service to the most remote parts of the state.
NEK Broadband Executive Director Christa Shute said the group’s business plan calls for offering services to all potential customers within five years, but given current supply constraints and the shortage of trained technicians, she’s beginning to think that goal isn’t achievable.
“I think our build will take seven to 10 years,” she said.
Congress has appropriated tens of billions of dollars for a variety of programs to help fill the digital gap exposed by the pandemic when millions of people were locked down in their homes with no way to study, work or get online medical care.
The first of those funds are reaching municipalities, businesses and other groups involved in the effort, but some say supply chain issues, labor shortages and geographic constraints will slow the rollout.
The demand for fiber optic cable goes beyond wired broadband to homes and businesses. The cable will help provide the 5G technology now being rolled out by wireless communications providers.
But there’s a bottleneck in the supply. Michael Bell, of Corning Optical Communications based in Charlotte, North Carolina, said the issue lies with supply of the protective jacket that surrounds the hair-thin strands of glass that carry information on beams of light.
Currently, some working to expand broadband say delays in getting the fiber optic cable they need can exceed a year.
“Based on the capacity we’re adding, and the capacity we see our competitors adding, wait times will start going down dramatically as the year progresses and into next year,” Bell said. “And I think as we get into next year, the lead time for most customers is going to be well under a year.”
Meanwhile, there’s a labor shortage for installing the cable. Many in the industry are setting up educational programs to train people to work with the fiber, said Jim Hayes, of the Santa Monica, California-based Fiber Optic Association.
“It needs to be done now,” Hayes said. “We’re going to need to train probably ten techs for every tech that we’ve got who’s competent to lead them.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill passed last fall, says areas that receive broadband speeds of less than 25 megabit downloads and 3 megabit uploads are considered unserved. To qualify for different federal grants through the infrastructure bill and other programs, most finished projects must offer speeds of at least 100 megabits per second for downloads. Upload speeds differ, but most federal grants have a minimum of 20 megabit uploads.
For comparison, it takes 80 seconds to download a 1 gigabyte video at the speed of 100 megabits per second. It takes four times as long — 320 seconds, or more than 5 minutes — at 25 megabits per second.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration — a part of the Agency of Commerce, which is funding broadband projects across the country through the infrastructure law — is neutral about about how internet service providers reach the speed requirements. Many providers say the key to bringing true high-speed internet service to the entire country is to install fiber optic cable to every nook and cranny.
Deploying high-speed internet in tribal communities and rural areas across the western United States where distances dwarf those of rural northern New England will be even more challenging.
Broadband access on the Navajo Nation — the largest reservation in the U.S. at 27,000 square miles (69,930 square kilometers) in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah — is a mix of dial-up, satellite service, wireless, fiber and mobile data.
The U.S. Department of the Interior, which has broad oversight of tribal affairs, said federal appraisals, rights-of-way permits, environment reviews and archaeological protection laws can delay progress.
The argument against the wireless options currently being used in some areas is they can’t offer speeds needed to qualify for the federal grants.
Mike Wendy of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association said wireless technology is getting faster and more reliable, and wireless connections could be the only way to reach some of the most remote locations.
“The challenge of all this money is to make sure that the unserved are served,” said Wendy, whose organization represents about 1,000 fixed wireless internet providers. “Our guys are in those markets right now and they’re growing.”
Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said $233 million in state dollars will be used in his state to expand broadband to over 43,000 households. Other internet service providers have agreed to expand broadband to another 51,000 households. Ohio is expected to receive an additional $268 million in federal funding to further broadband expansion in the state.
Husted said Ohio is focused on infrastructure while groups and organizations are needed to provide computers and to help people adapt to the fast-growing digital age.
“We’re building the road,” Husted said. “Access to broadband is like the highway system. That’s where we’re focused. It doesn’t mean there are people who don’t need cars or need driver’s licenses.”
There are still scattered locations across the country that rely on dialup and some people in remote locations use satellite internet services. Some people have no internet options whatsoever.
Martel, the Victory town clerk, said that when the people from NEK Broadband visited, they told residents it would be five to seven years before fiber optic cable would reach the community.
But Shute said her organization hopes to get a grant to connect the most rural areas, which could move the timeline for Victory up to three years.
Back in East Concord, after having the service for several weeks, Gilchrist said he and his daughter Emily, who is 19 and headed to college in a few months, no longer have to go to the local diner to use the internet. He canceled his expensive satellite TV service, his daughter and her friends have been using it to play online video games and in a few months she will be using the connection while doing college studies.
“It’s been working great, as far as I’m concerned, all I do is check email,” Gilchrist said. “I don’t watch TV, but my daughter loves it.”
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Gillispie reported from Cleveland. AP Correspondent Felicia Fonseca contributed to this report from Flagstaff, Arizona. | https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/lots-of-broadband-money-but-us-expansion-finds-speed-bumps/ | 2022-04-14T11:06:47 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/lots-of-broadband-money-but-us-expansion-finds-speed-bumps/ |
Tesla CEO Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter in cash deal
NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter, just days after the Tesla CEO said he would no longer be joining the social media company’s board of directors.
Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Musk, who currently owns slightly more than 9% of its stock and is the company’s biggest shareholder, provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn’t already own. Musk offered $54.20 per share of Twitter’s stock.
He called that price his best and final offer, although the billionaire provided no details on financing.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk says in the filing. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
The buyout offer from Musk is just the latest development in his relationship with Twitter. The billionaire revealed in regulatory filings over recent weeks that he’d been buying shares in almost daily batches starting Jan. 31. Only Vanguard Group’s suite of mutual funds and ETFs controls more Twitter shares.
Musk has been a vocal critic of of Twitter in recent weeks, mostly over his belief that it falls short on free speech principles. The social media platform has angered followers of Donald Trump and other far-right political figures who’ve had their accounts suspended for violating its content standards on violence, hate or harmful misinformation. Musk also has a history of his own tweets causing legal problems.
Musk said last week that he informed Twitter he wouldn’t be joining its board of directors five days after he was invited. He didn’t explain why, but the decision coincided with a barrage of now-deleted tweets from Musk proposing major changes to the company, such as dropping ads — its chief source of revenue — and transforming its San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter. Musk left a few clues on Twitter about his thinking, such as by “liking” a tweet that summarized the events as Musk going from “largest shareholder for Free Speech” to being “told to play nice and not speak freely.”
After Musk announced his stake, Twitter quickly gave Musk a seat on its board on the condition that he not own more than 14.9% of the company’s outstanding stock, according to a filing. But Musk backed out of the deal.
Musk’s 81 million Twitter followers make him one of the most popular figures on the platform, rivaling pop stars like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. But his prolific tweeting has sometimes gotten him into trouble with the SEC and others.
Musk and Tesla in 2018 agreed to pay $40 million in civil fines and for Musk to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share. That didn’t happen but the tweet caused Tesla’s stock price to jump. Musk’s latest trouble with the SEC could be his delay in notifying regulators of his growing stake in Twitter.
Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has said he doesn’t think Twitter is living up to free speech principles — an opinion shared by followers of Donald Trump and a number of other right-wing political figures who’ve had their accounts suspended for violating Twitter content rules.
Shares of Twitter jumped 11% before the market open. The stock is still down from its 52-week high of about $73.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/elon-musk-offers-buy-twitter/ | 2022-04-14T11:06:52 | 1 | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/elon-musk-offers-buy-twitter/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The conservative activist group Project Veritas said Wednesday that the Justice Department had secretly obtained from Apple and Google personal information about its staffers as part of an investigation into how the organization received a diary purported to belong to President Joe Biden’s daughter.
The organization said it had recently learned from Apple and Google that the department had issued nine subpoenas and warrants between November 2020 and March 2021. The requested materials included payment information and browsing history, and the department compelled the technology companies to not disclose the government’s orders, according to Project Veritas.
The organization disclosed Wednesday what it said were notifications from Apple, dated last month, in which the tech company said it had received legal requests in late 2020 and early 2021 for “customer data.” The notification said the request allowed “delayed notice to the affected customer.” Project Veritas also revealed last month that the Justice Department had obtained secret court orders to seize emails of eight staffers.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which is leading the investigation, declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for Apple.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement, “In order to protect user privacy, we don’t comment on specific cases, but we’re firmly committed to protecting user data and we have a long history of pushing to notify people using our services about legal requests that relate to their data.”
Project Veritas calls itself a media organization, though it relies on tactics — including sting operations — that are not regarded as conventional or widely accepted media practices.
Its founder, James O’Keefe, said previously that agents had searched his home, and the homes of two others, in connection with the diary investigation. O’Keefe said that, ultimately, Project Veritas did not publish information from the diary because it could not confirm it belonged to Ashley Biden. He has said the diary, which Project Veritas had received from “tipsters” who said it had been abandoned in a room, had been turned over to a law enforcement agency.
Federal prosecutors in New York are investigating, and a former federal judge has been appointed to ensure no First Amendment protections or attorney-client privileges are violated in the review of materials seized by federal law enforcement authorities from individuals connected with Project Veritas.
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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP | https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/project-veritas-says-us-seized-staffer-info-as-part-of-probe/ | 2022-04-14T11:06:54 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/project-veritas-says-us-seized-staffer-info-as-part-of-probe/ |
Pfizer to seek COVID booster for healthy 5- to 11-year-olds
(AP) - Pfizer said Thursday it wants to expand its COVID-19 booster shots to healthy elementary-age kids.
U.S. health authorities already urge everyone 12 and older to get one booster dose for the best protection against the newest variants -- and recently gave the option of a second booster to those 50 and older.
Now Pfizer says new data shows healthy 5- to 11-year-olds could benefit from another kid-sized shot.
In a small study, 140 youngsters who’d already gotten two shots were given a booster six months later, and researchers found the extra shot generally revved up their immune response. But a closer look at 30 of the children found a 36-fold increase in virus-fighting antibodies, levels high enough to fight the super-contagious omicron variant, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said in a press release.
The data has not been published or vetted by independent experts.
Pfizer tested the kid booster while omicron was surging this winter. While COVID-19 cases now are at much lower levels in the U.S., in recent weeks an even more contagious version of omicron, called BA.2, has become the dominant type locally and around the world.
In the coming days, the companies plan to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize a booster for healthy 5- to 11-year-olds. They also plan to share the data with European and other regulators.
Vaccinations are generally less effective against the omicron variant than earlier versions of the coronavirus -- but they do still offer strong protection against severe disease. While COVID-19 is a bigger threat to adults, youngsters can get seriously ill. But regulators will have to decide if healthy elementary-age kids really need a booster, and if so, when.
The Pfizer shots are the only vaccine available to U.S. children. Those ages 5 to 11 receive one-third of the dose given to everyone 12 and older. Just over a quarter in the younger age group have gotten two doses since vaccination opened to them in November, shortly before omicron struck.
The U.S. hasn’t yet allowed vaccinations for children under 5. But certain 5- to 11-year-olds -- those with severely weakened immune systems -- already are supposed to get three doses, to give that high-risk group a better chance of responding.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/pfizer-seek-covid-booster-healthy-5-11-year-olds/ | 2022-04-14T11:06:58 | 0 | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/pfizer-seek-covid-booster-healthy-5-11-year-olds/ |
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.
—-
AP writer Alan Suderman contributed from Richmond, Virginia | https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/us-agencies-industrial-control-system-malware-discovered/ | 2022-04-14T11:07:01 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/us-agencies-industrial-control-system-malware-discovered/ |
Pope marks Holy Thursday ahead of prison feet-washing ritual
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark Holy Thursday, hours before he was expected at an Italian prison to perform a foot-washing ritual for a dozen inmates in a gesture of humility.
Attending the Mass were some 1,800 priests. Francis in his homily advised priests not to focus on worldly concerns such as power, planning and bureaucracy. He exhorted them to “serve, with a clear conscience, the holy and faithful people of God.”
Francis made no reference to decades of scandals involving priests who sexually abused children and were often transferred from parish to parish by bishops who tried to avoid embarrassment rather than protect minors.
In the afternoon, Francis is expected at a prison in Civitavecchia, a port town 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Rome, for the foot-washing ceremony that recalls Jesus’ gesture of humility for his apostles.
Francis has made paying attention to those on society’s margins — including refugees, migrants and people in prisons — a hallmark of his papacy. On Holy Thursday in past years, he has gone to prisons in or near Rome.
Holy Week, which draws hundreds of thousands of faithful to the Vatican, began with Palm Sunday Mass on April 10 in St. Peter’s Square.
This year, the Good Friday torch-lit Way of the Cross procession returns to its traditional venue at the ancient Colosseum after a two-year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Vatican has invited a Russian woman and a Ukrainian woman, who work together at a Rome hospital, to carry a cross together during the procession. That has angered some Ukrainians, including Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See and the archbishop of Kyiv. Their objections center on whether such a gesture, implying reconciliation, is suitable, given Russia’s invasion of its neighbor Ukraine and ongoing war against the country’s people.
The Vatican is still going ahead with the procession’s lineup of participants, who take turns carrying a lightweight cross during the procession, which is presided over by the pontiff and recalls Jesus’ death by crucifixion.
Holy Week culminates on Easter Sunday, two days later.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/pope-marks-holy-thursday-ahead-prison-feet-washing-ritual/ | 2022-04-14T11:07:05 | 1 | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/pope-marks-holy-thursday-ahead-prison-feet-washing-ritual/ |
Teen says gaming headset saved him from stray bullet
LOS ANGELES (KCAL/KCBS) - A family counts itself fortunate. They still don’t know where a bullet that struck an 18-year-old came from, but they now realize how close they came to tragedy.
A gaming headset is credited with saving the life of Jonathan Gonzalez.
“You can see the damage. It actually bent this piece of metal here and went through,” said Gonzalez, an active gamer.
He was on his PlayStation the morning of April 1 just after midnight listening to music and chatting with friends when he felt something hit his head.
“It felt like if you’re wearing a bike helmet, and someone just smacks the top of your head,” Gonzalez said.
He looked up and found the bullet hole in his bedroom window. The gunshot ripped his curtains down.
After it struck him in the head, the bullet ricocheted against the wall and landed in his bed.
“If it wasn’t for these on my head, it probably would’ve went through,” Gonzalez said.
He ran to his parents’ room shouting he thought he’d been shot.
Nearly two weeks later, his family is still trying to process this close call.
“It’s still a trigger for me to process the thought that I could’ve lost my son. We were asleep, and if it did hurt him, we would not have known until we woke up hours later,” said Janet Popoca, the teen’s mother.
When the Los Angeles Police Department responded, officers could not find the shooter. They don’t believe the gun was fired at close range.
Gonzalez’s mom says even officers couldn’t believe what happened. “They were just shocked,” she said.
Gonzalez said he keeps thinking about how an inch in either direction could’ve changed things drastically.
“Minding my own business in my own room, and I could’ve been gone. Just thinking about it for the first week made me sick,” he said.
Razor, the company that makes the headphones, sent him a replacement.
Gonzalez said he still loves to game, but he’s now leery of what’s happening outside his window.
Police are still investigating the shooting.
Gonzalez’s family said they hope for an arrest, but they are learning to appreciate life a lot more.
Copyright 2022 KCAL/KCBS via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/teen-says-gaming-headset-saved-him-stray-bullet/ | 2022-04-14T11:07:11 | 0 | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/teen-says-gaming-headset-saved-him-stray-bullet/ |
Windy Thursday, cooler temperatures for the weekend
SAGINAW, Mich. (WNEM) - After a warmer Wednesday, a cool down in temperatures will come back into play for the rest of the week leading into the weekend.
Winds will also be a big topic of discussion as stronger gusts will be likely.
We also get another mainly dry day ahead!
Here’s the latest forecast!
Weather Alerts
Wind Advisories are in effect from Thursday morning until the evening for all of Mid-Michigan.
Get the latest information on your area right here!
Today & Tonight (Thursday)
After a rainy early overnight period, we still have a few more showers to deal with, but most of the rain is expected to move NE out of the area by mid morning.
Winds will be the big topic of discussion for Thursday. Winds from the SW will be sustained around 20-30 mph. Gusts at times could reach 50+ mph.
Be sure to secure any loose items you may have outdoors along with using caution if driving a high profile vehicle. A few power outages will be possible today; best to make sure any electronic devices you’ll need are charged.
Highs today will be a touch cooler behind a passing cold front near 50 later this afternoon. Skies will remain mostly sunny going into the afternoon and early evening.
Clear to partly cloudy skies looking likely going into tonight. Lows drop back into the 30s. Winds stay breezy into tonight from the SW around 10-20 mph. Gusts still could near near 30 mph.
Extended Forecast
Friday into Saturday will feature low end chances for a few showers. Could even be a few snow showers trying to mix in for areas north of the Saginaw Bay. Many should be able to get through this time frame dry.
Easter Sunday is look like another winner with the better chance for some more sunshine! Temperatures will be “cooler for the weekend held back in the 40s.
The chance for a few rain/snow showers will remain possible for early next week. Good news is we expect temperatures to slowly warm back up mid next week.
Copyright 2022 WNEM. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/windy-thursday-cooler-temperatures-weekend/ | 2022-04-14T11:07:17 | 0 | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/14/windy-thursday-cooler-temperatures-weekend/ |
Since I was a teenager, Spain has been near the top of the list of places I wanted to visit.
I studied the language in high school and college, and the history and beauty of the country had always fascinated me.
Life happens, but a few decades later, I finally got my wish.
I’ll tour much more of the country with readers in the fall (if you want to join us, here’s info), but when Spain’s tourism office asked if I wanted to visit Madrid this spring, I was elated.
The visit was to check out Madrid Fusión, a giant culinary expo, but I would also have some time to explore on my own and eat at some of Madrid’s finest restaurants in the evenings.
In a too-short week, I got a real taste of Spain’s beautiful, bustling capital, and I can’t wait to return with some of you.
MADRID FUSIÓN
If you’ve ever been to a food and wine event, imagine that on steroids, and you have Madrid Fusión.
The three-day event occupied two floors of the enormous convention center IFEMA in the northern part of Madrid. Many of Europe’s top chefs attend, and this year, I heard talks on everything from using local London ingredients to re-create the tropical flavors of Mexico to making kombucha with artichokes. It was mostly in Spanish, which challenged my rusty skills, and it wasn’t until day two that I discovered headsets that offered translation into English. Still, food is a universal language, and it was easy to discern what the chefs were talking about by what they were cooking on stage.
Wandering the expo floors, a large part of each was dedicated to cocktails and wine. Because I was alone in a foreign country, I was hesitant to drink any hard liquor. Wine tasting was more my speed.
Though I wouldn’t be able to buy most of the wines I was trying, I learned about how verdejo grapes can be transformed into three wildly different wines, depending on fermentation and aging methods, and sipped some really special riojas.
Spain’s olive oil contingent also had a prominent showing, and I enjoyed sampling the sharp, peppery versions along with the more mellow, blended varieties.
Regions of the country offered coursed lunches to special guests, and though I missed most of a day because of a (quickly solved because of Spain’s excellent health-care system) medical issue, I did get a fabulous sit-down lunch from the region of Andalusia in the south of Spain. Because it is a coastal region, the lunch consisted of a lot of seafood — much of it raw. I ate everything from scallops to the largest langoustines I’ve ever seen to beautiful, fresh-caught shrimp.
In all, Madrid Fusión was a big, brash celebration of modern Spanish — and all European — cuisine, but was lacking what I really wanted to see and taste, which was history.
RICH CULINARY HISTORY
Luckily, the tourism office of Madrid had evening plans for us to dine at some really excellent restaurants, a few of which have been in operation for a century or longer.
One of those restaurants, Lhardy, opened its doors in Madrid’s city center in 1839. There’s a pastry shop when you enter the doors — the opulent dining rooms reside on the second floor.
There are a handful of dining areas, including several intimate private dining rooms, and each has its own decor. A hallway connecting them has giant hooks that an employee explained were used to hang the muddy jodhpurs of patrons who had ridden through the dirt streets to arrive at the restaurant.
Most of the artwork in the restaurant was created by the original proprietor, Agustín Lhardy, who was a well-known impressionist at the time.
The menu is old-school Spanish, and our group sampled a variety of dishes, from pickled partridge to young duck to clams and a filet of sole. All were decadent and mostly prepared well. My favorite parts of the meal, though, resided at the beginning and end. Each diner starts with a small glass of rich chicken stock, enriched with a dash of aged sherry. Warming, comforting and packed with flavor, it was the perfect palate cleanser. And because Lhardy is well-known for its pastries, we sampled a smattering of the dessert menu and loved each of them equally — from an eggy, custardy torrijas (sort of like French toast here) to a sublime baked-Alaska-type dessert with homemade ice cream that was set aflame tableside.
After a very special tour of the kitchens of the Royal Palace (more on that later), we descended to the caves below Casa Ciriaco, a restaurant which was originally a wine cellar that began operating in 1887.
The restaurant, which has been serving traditional Spanish dishes since 1929, served some of my favorite dishes of the trip, including fluffy croquettas (breaded and fried potato puree studded with bits of jamón), hake in piquillo sauce and a fricassee chicken that had our entire party wanting to lick the plate.
When I had a day of free time, I opted for dinner at Restaurante Botín, which is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the world.
Its rustic wood beams, shutters and light fixtures, as well as traditional Spanish tiling, really make it feel like you’re stepping back in time. And the restaurant’s famous suckling pig is still prepared in an ancient wood-burning stove.
I had the standard three-course meal, which included a delicious, fresh gazpacho, that tender, crisp-skinned pig and a perfectly executed flan. And of course, a half-bottle of richly fruity Rioja.
DINNER AND A SHOW
The group was also treated to a multi-course meal at Corral de la Morería, which has been serving dinner and fantastic flamenco shows to patrons since 1959. Photos of celebrities who have enjoyed dinner and a show here line the walls — Benecio del Toro, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Pelé, Harrison Ford, Rock Hudson and many more.
The show was absolutely amazing, with expressive, graceful dancers and a world-class guitarist holding our attention until well after midnight, but the nine-course dinner before it, paired with sherries from the restaurant’s incredible 1,200-plus-bottle collection, was equally as magical. Seriously, I sampled sherries that ranged from 14 years to (just a few sips) of a sherry that was 150 years old. It was almost sticky sweet because of evaporation, but also intensely flavorful, with notes of dried fruit. I learned that I really, really like sherry, especially when I have a guide as magnificent as the sommeliers at Corral de la Morería.
As I yawned on the bus back to my hotel, I felt like the luckiest person in the world.
A MAGICAL BASEMENT
Perhaps my favorite part of the trip was a tour of the basement of the Royal Palace.
The basement, which extends throughout several wings of the enormous structure, contains the kitchens. You might not think a kitchen tour would be that special, but no one has lived in this palace, which is still considered the official home of the Spanish monarchy, since 1931. The kitchens remain largely the way they were when the royals moved out.
Room after room, from a pastry kitchen with a stove and oven from 1914, to a medieval-looking prep kitchen to the cavernous room where the main dishes were prepared, utterly fascinated me.
It’s hard to say what was most impressive. Possibly the giant wood-burning stoves, or maybe the copper pastry molds the size of a toddler. Or maybe the six-foot-tall iron warming cabinets from 1861, which kept the food warm before it traveled up a dumbwaiter to the service staff. My imagination ran wild, thinking of what it must have been like for the chefs back then, slaving over giant, wood-fired equipment in the freezing cold basement.
TOWARD THE FUTURE
Although Madrid Fusión featured some of Madrid’s best chefs, I was eager to see some modern Spanish cuisine in its natural habitat.
The easiest way to see that in a short time was a visit to Galerìa Canalejas, a gorgeous, modern food hall that will eventually be the bottom floor of a very swank mall full of high-end fashion boutiques. Cartier and Hermès are already there — the rest of the stores are set to open later this year.
As for the food hall, the strikingly modern design is eye-catching at every turn. There are 13 full-service restaurants. Some of the highlights: A burger joint from a Michelin-starred chef, a Mexican/Japanese fusion spot, a restaurant focused entirely on octopus and the Chinese eatery where I ate, which focuses on high-end dim sum. Most of the dumplings that were served to me in a towering bamboo steamer were fairly traditional, except the last, which was stuffed with the elements of a Spanish tortilla and topped with a fried quail egg. It was all delicious.
There are also 20 stalls, which are serving tapas, pintxos (small snacks), poke bowls, sushi, smoothies and much more.
It’s unlike any food hall I have seen anywhere in the United States, not only in its stunning design, but also in the breadth and depth of quality food being served. I definitely hope to return — and bring some of you along — when I’m there this fall.
TRAVEL WITH JESS
Did you enjoy this story? You can travel with me to Spain at the end of September, and when we return, I’ll write a story about our journey.
We will visit Madrid, but also Valencia, Toledo, Granada, Barcelona and Seville.
Hurry, the trip goes up in price on April 26.
For more information, check out the website at gateway.gocollette.com/link/1087066. And as always, email me with questions at eat@pioneerpress.com. | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/14/a-taste-of-madrid-i-sipped-and-nibbled-my-way-through-spains-capital/ | 2022-04-14T11:07:28 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/14/a-taste-of-madrid-i-sipped-and-nibbled-my-way-through-spains-capital/ |
Q: Ira, who you got, Hawks or Cavaliers? — Ed.
A: I do not have either, considering I have not made the playoffs. The question is who would the Heat prefer or should prefer? And on that count, I don’t believe it is particularly close. The Cavaliers would just be happy to make it to the playoffs for the first time since LeBron James left in 2018. The Hawks, by contrast, made it to last season’s Eastern Conference finals, and have a load of playoff-tested talent. Yes, Darius Garland has improved, well, to a Most Improved level. But beyond that, Cleveland’s go-to scoring options are limited. With the Hawks it all starts with Trae Young, but is also can be Bogdan Bogdanovic, Danilo Gallinari, Kevin Huerter, and that’s not even getting into a potential return by John Collins. The safest path to the second round for the Heat seemingly would run through Cleveland.
Q: I love the people taking this as gospel. As if Erik Spoelstra is giving away exactly what he plans on doing. Because we all know that’s always how it goes. — Jimmy.
A: Typically I would agree with you, that few, if any, coaches are going to give away their playoff approach ahead of the playoffs. And we’ve certainly seen dynamic swerves by Erik Spoelstra in previous postseasons, as Kendrick Nunn assuredly can attest to. But this feels different for the simple reason that there already has been such a dynamic shift just weeks ago, with the move of Max Strus into the starting lineup and the reconfiguring of the rotation. Had it not been for the four-game losing streak at the time, it is a move that Spoelstra well may have kept in his back pocket until a postseason moment of truth. But even more radical that tipping his playoff hand would be altering and then re-altering within a three-week span. That’s seemingly would eliminate the continuity created over the successful close to the regular season.
Q: When the Celtics are done with the Nets and the Heat are still playing, then who will be the smartest man in the room? — Don.
A: Um, Ime Udoka? Jayson Tatum? Brad Stevens? And that’s if the Celtics are done with the Nets before the Heat’s opening-round series is over. Look, you never know how it all plays out. In the end, Cleveland’s Darius Garland/Jarrett Allen could prove more problematic than what the inconsistent Nets throw out there against Boston. But I stand by my concerns about Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving as arguably the best two-man pairing in the East playoffs, with all due respect to the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo-Jrue Holiday, Tatum-Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid-James Harden or Fred VanVleet-Pascal Siakam.
() | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/14/ask-ira-which-is-preferred-heat-playoff-path-atlanta-or-cleveland/ | 2022-04-14T11:07:35 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/14/ask-ira-which-is-preferred-heat-playoff-path-atlanta-or-cleveland/ |
John Means was supposed to spend this season pitching well for a bad Orioles team, largely as the only member of Baltimore’s rotation consistently worth coming to see until Grayson Rodriguez, DL Hall and Kyle Bradish joined him partway through the year.
The thought that the Orioles could spend the next couple of months with none of those arms taking the mound for them is a dreadful one. Wednesday night, Means was slated to throw at least five innings on an 85-pitch limit in a duel with reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes. Instead, he exited after 51 pitches in four innings with what the Orioles called left forearm tightness, and he said later he also experienced it in his opening day start last week.
The Orioles’ left-handed ace will undergo an MRI in the coming days to pinpoint whether the injury is limited to muscle as he’s been reassured it is, leaving Means to say “there’s not a ton of concern.” Extreme cases of forearm tightness are sometimes precursors to Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery for torn ligaments, though it’s far too soon to tell the severity in Means’ case, and he was clear he didn’t have “tingly fingers” or any other symptoms that suggest the issue stems from anywhere other than the forearm muscle.
“I told them I could go back out there,” Means said, “but they wanted to make sure.”
Still, when Joey Krehbiel began rapidly warming with the Orioles batting in the bottom of the fourth, teammates took notice.
“Obviously, a little worried because that’s our No. 1 guy out there, and so when you see him go down, it’s never a good thing,” infielder Ramón Urías said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “But we still don’t really know what’s going on, what’s really happening, so we’re not scared or anything like that. Just hoping for the best right now.”
Means is bound to miss some time, especially with the likelihood the Orioles are cautious with a 28-year-old who executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said last year he could be at “the top of a playoff rotation” for them at some point. Means said he’ll rest for a couple of days before throwing “in a few days,” which would at the minimum delay his next start.
His absence would leave an Orioles rotation that features a so-called innings-eater who has only once in a decadelong career thrown enough innings to qualify for an ERA title, a converted reliever and a journeyman minor leaguer in further disarray.
Baltimore signed Jordan Lyles to the largest free-agent contract of Elias’ tenure to pitch relatively deep into games after he threw 180 innings in 2021, but entering last season, Means had a larger career-high for innings pitched. After Tyler Wells had two lost seasons and another in their bullpen, the Orioles will limit his innings throughout the year. Spenser Watkins, who had an 8.07 ERA for Baltimore in 2021 in his first taste of the majors at 28, is penciled in as their fifth starter.
Through six games, Bruce Zimmermann has joined Means as the only Orioles starters to allow fewer than four runs in a start, with the Ellicott City native pitching four scoreless innings in Monday’s home opener. Of the other rotation options on the roster, many are mid-20s pitchers who struggled in the majors last year, though Keegan Akin and Mike Baumann seem to potentially be finding niches as relievers. Dean Kremer suffered a left oblique strain while warming up to piggyback with Wells on Sunday, prompting a shuffling of manager Brandon Hyde’s pitching plans that he said makes Thursday’s off day even more welcome after a 1-5 start.
More significant is it will be a day that brings either good or bad news in Means’ case. Means has spent time on the injured list in each of his three major league seasons and could do so again in 2022. In 2021, he missed nearly two months with a left shoulder strain — during which the Orioles’ rotation had a 7.63 ERA in his absence — and spent this offseason at a physical therapy facility in Texas to make sure this injury, which also flared up in 2019, did not bother him this season.
His offseason work was focused on being a workhorse for an Orioles team that figured to spend much of this year starved for innings. Means threw a career-high 155 innings in 2019, when he represented the Orioles in the All-Star Game and finished second in American League Rookie of the Year voting, but had his eyes on reaching 200 frames this year. That threshold seems even more difficult to cross in the wake of Wednesday.
“It’s frustrating, for sure,” Means said. “Wanted to get rolling and wanted to start the season strong. It’s a long season, and we’ll get this out of the way, get going. Still confident I’m able to go.”
Although Rodriguez and Bradish are both in Triple-A Norfolk’s rotation, it’s doubtful the Orioles will deem either ready for the majors after only one start each for the Tides thus far this season. Instead, whoever takes Means’ place, even if for only one start, will just add another question to a rotation full of them.
YANKEES@ORIOLES
Friday, 7:05 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
() | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/14/orioles-rotation-loaded-with-questions-gets-another-with-john-means-forearm-injury/ | 2022-04-14T11:07:41 | 0 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/14/orioles-rotation-loaded-with-questions-gets-another-with-john-means-forearm-injury/ |
Do you have a favorite restaurant patio for those warm, sunny days? We want to know about it.
Nominate your favorite restaurant patios through May 11. The most-nominated restaurants will be in the running for “Best Patio” in our readers’ voter contest held May 15-21 (here are last year’s winners).
So what are you waiting for? Tell us where you like to go to get decked out.
Nominate your favorite at twincities.com/patio. | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/14/twin-cities-best-restaurant-patios-nominate-your-favorite-now/ | 2022-04-14T11:07:47 | 0 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/14/twin-cities-best-restaurant-patios-nominate-your-favorite-now/ |
(AP) — Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter, just days after the Tesla CEO said he would no longer be joining the social media company’s board of directors.
Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Musk, who currently owns slightly more than 9% of its stock and is the company’s biggest shareholder, provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn’t already own. Musk offered $54.20 per share of Twitter’s stock.
He called that price his best and final offer.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk says in the filing. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
The buyout offer from Musk is just the latest development in his relationship with Twitter. The billionaire revealed in regulatory filings over recent weeks that he’d been buying shares in almost daily batches starting Jan. 31. Only Vanguard Group’s suite of mutual funds and ETFs controls more Twitter shares.
At that point Twitter quickly gave Musk a seat on its board on the condition that he not own more than 14.9% of the company’s outstanding stock, according to a filing. But Musk backed out of the deal.
Musk’s 81 million Twitter followers make him one of the most popular figures on the platform, rivaling pop stars like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. But his prolific tweeting has sometimes gotten him into trouble with the SEC and others.
Musk and Tesla in 2018 agreed to pay $40 million in civil fines and for Musk to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share. That didn’t happen but the tweet caused Tesla’s stock price to jump. Musk’s latest trouble with the SEC could be his delay in notifying regulators of his growing stake in Twitter.
Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has said he doesn’t think Twitter is living up to free speech principles — an opinion shared by followers of Donald Trump and a number of other right-wing political figures who’ve had their accounts suspended for violating Twitter content rules.
Shares of Twitter jumped 11% before the market open. | https://www.wivb.com/news/national/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-offers-to-buy-twitter/ | 2022-04-14T11:09:21 | 1 | https://www.wivb.com/news/national/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-offers-to-buy-twitter/ |
During the this week’s National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, a Colorado State University professor proposed a better a way to predict the damages of a devastating hurricane — do away with the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
Hurricane specialist, Philip Klotzbach, spoke Tuesday at Orlando’s Rosen Centre hotel about his crusade in doing away with the famous wind scale in favor of measuring surface pressure, the force exerted on the sea surface by the air above, as a better metric to predict hurricane damages.
“Wind hasn’t worked recently,” said Klotzbach, a CSU meteorology professor. “It’s not bad but pressure actually does (predict) better.”
Klotzbach spoke Tuesday to a standing room-only event during the four-day biannual Orlando conference, which showcases experts, authorities and entrepreneurs from all over the country versed in climatology, emergency management and tropical phenomenon.
His pitch was simple: replace the wind scale for a pressure scale. Klotzbach is not the only person supporting a movement of using pressure over wind, and Tuesday was not the first time the CSU professor pitched the idea. During the 2020 hurricane season, Klotzbach and other meteorological scholars, published a paper about the subject, but it went largely ignored and overshadowed by a storm of a different nature — the COVID-19 pandemic, Klotzbach said.
“Frankly, I think to get attention, we need a large hurricane like a Hurricane Ike, which was a Category 2,” Klotzbach said. “People said, ‘Oh, it’s not a major hurricane, I’m not going anywhere.’ And then, you know, 15-20 feet of storm surge in the Baltimore peninsula, and all those people lost their lives.”
Last week, CSU released its predictions for an above-average hurricane season this year predicting 19 named storms.
The Saffir-Simpson scale, which ranks hurricanes based on wind strength from categories 1 through 5, was first made in 1971 by civil engineer Herbert Saffir and meteorologist Robert Simpson, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Since then, the scale has become the most used tool in communicating a storm’s strength to the public.
“It became more than just the wind, it became kind of the overall damage that the storm was likely to cause,” Klotzbach said.
Earlier versions of the scale in the ‘70s do incorporate central pressure as a metric, but it was removed for reasons that aren’t clear.
The NOAA describes the Saffir-Simpson scale as an example of the types of damages associated with winds, but also acknowledge the scale doesn’t address other “potential” impacts for other hurricane-related hits such as storm surge, rainfall-induced floods, and tornadoes.
Understanding pressure is crucial to the Klotzbach’s argument. Pressure is what is largely responsible for storm surge — which the National Hurricane Center has said is the most deadly force a hurricane produces. In 2019, the NHC found that most people consider wind to be the greater destructive force in a hurricane’s arsenal, however that isn’t the case, said NHC’s storm surge specialist Cody Fritz.
“Historically, storm surge has contributed to about half of storm-related deaths,” Fritz said.
A study of storm damage between 2007 and 2021 found that Saffir-Simpson scale predictions mostly didn’t see much of a consistent relationship between forecasted wind and excessive hurricane damages, according to CSU. However, CSU found a very strong relationship between predicted pressure and damages to an area, Klotzbach said.
Consider a tale of two hurricanes: 2004′s Charley and 2005′s Katrina. Both were devastating storms, but measuring the wind speeds before landfall predicted Category 5 Charley as the more threatening storm. Katrina was measured in as a Category 3 storm before landfall.
“But if we look at the pressure for Katrina, it was much lower than for Charlie when it made landfall,” Klotzbach said. The lower the pressure, the bigger the storm and more widespread its winds tend to reach, which means not only is there a wider coverage of strong winds but also a greater exertion of storm surge.
Hurricane Charley was devastating for Southwest and Central Florida, but the storm only produced about 7 feet of surge. Katrina put New Orleans through 28 feet of storm surge.
“The levees failed in New Orleans and all the damage that caused was devastating, but even had the levees held in New Orleans, we had 200 fatalities in Mississippi from storm surge,” Klotzbach said. About 1,800 people in total died because of Katrina. Comparatively, Charley was responsible for 37 deaths.
Applying the surface pressure scale to Katrina would have labeled the storm as a Category 5 hurricane, according to Klotzbach. The same could be said for 2012′s Super Storm Sandy, which made landfall in New Jersey as an extratropical storm under the wind scale, but a pressure scale would’ve labeled it as a Category 4 hurricane.
So why do meteorologists include the wind scale in the public forecast? Opposition argue it’s because most people don’t understand what surface pressure is, Klotzbach said.
“But I don’t think most people really understand what wind is either,” he said.
There is misconception that when a major storm hits an area, anyone in neighboring communities would also be encountering major hurricane winds, said Michael Lindell a professor at the University of Washington. Lindell spoke Tuesday at the Orlando hurricane conference about hurricane risk perception.
“People who are 50 miles up the coast in tropical-storm-force winds might think, ‘Oh I’ve been through a major hurricane and it was no big deal,’” Lindall said. “But they haven’t really been through the brunt of the storm ... They misinterpreted the experience.”
Risk perception and communication was big topic at the Orlando hurricane conference — it’s also a big priority for the NHC — but Klotzbach thinks his recommendation of pressure as a public tool is an important way to highlight the danger a resident might face in light of a storm.
“There are other things to worry about besides just the central winds, you know? A larger storms means it’s going to have more storm surge,” he said. “There have been some crazy hurricanes in the past. And if we can prepare from (what we learned) in the past, it will definitely get us better prepared for what we might see in the future.”
Jpedersen@orlandosentinel.com | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-ne-national-hurricane-conference-orlando-klotzach-end-saffir-simpson-scale-20220414-b5fsa5mz35h57fckufk467cxp4-story.html | 2022-04-14T11:14:22 | 0 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-ne-national-hurricane-conference-orlando-klotzach-end-saffir-simpson-scale-20220414-b5fsa5mz35h57fckufk467cxp4-story.html |
KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian forces said they struck and seriously damaged the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, dealing a potentially major setback to Moscow's forces as they try to regroup for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital.
Russia said Thursday the entire crew of the Moskva, a warship that would typically have 500 sailors on board, was forced to evacuate after a fire overnight and also reported it was badly damaged. It did not acknowledge any attack, which would also deal a major blow to Russian prestige seven weeks into a war that is already widely seen as a historic blunder.
The reported ship attack came hours after Ukraine's allies sought to rally new support for the embattled country. On a visit with leaders from three other countries on Russia's doorstep who fear they could next be in Moscow's sights, Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda declared that "the fight for Europe's future is happening here."
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden, who called Russia's actions in Ukraine "a genocide" this week, approved $800 million in new military assistance to Kyiv. He said weapons from the West have sustained Ukraine's fight so far and "we cannot rest now."
The news of the flagship's damage overshadowed Russian claims of advances in the southern port city of Mariupol, where they have been battling the Ukrainians since the early days of the invasion in some of the heaviest fighting of the war - at a horrific cost to civilians.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday that 1,026 troops from the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade surrendered at a metals factory in the city. But Vadym Denysenko, adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, rejected the claim, telling Current Time TV that "the battle over the seaport is still ongoing today."
It was unclear when a surrender may have occurred or how many forces were still defending Mariupol.
Russian state television broadcast footage Wednesday that it said was from Mariupol showing dozens of men in camouflage walking with their hands up and carrying others on stretchers or in chair holds. One man held a white flag.
Mariupol's capture is critical for Russia because it would put a swath of territory in its control that would allow its forces in the south, who came up through the annexed Crimean Peninsula, to link up with troops in the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine's industrial heartland and the target of the coming offensive.
Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukraine in the Donbas since 2014, the same year Russia seized Crimea. Russia has recognized the independence of the rebel regions in the Donbas.
But the loss of the Moskva, which satellite images show was at the port of Sevastopol in Crimea a week ago, could set those efforts back.
The governor of the Odesa region, Maksym Marchenko, said the Ukrainians struck the guided-missile cruiser with two Neptune missiles and caused "serious damage." Russia's Defense Ministry said ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire.
It was not clear if the ship was totally disabled, but even serious damage could be a major blow to Russia, which already saw its tank carrier Orsk hit late last month.
Hours after the attack was reported, Ukrainian authorities said on the Telegram messaging service that explosions had struck Odesa, Ukraine's largest port which lies on the Black Sea, as does Sevastopol. They urged residents to remain calm and said there is no danger to civilians.
Russia invaded on Feb. 24 with the goal, according to Western officials, of rapidly seizing Kyiv, toppling the government and installing a Moscow-friendly replacement. But the ground advance stalled in the face of strong Ukrainian resistance with the help of Western arms, and Russia has lost potentially thousands of fighters. The conflict has killed untold numbers of Ukrainian civilians and forced millions more to flee.
A U.N. task force warned that the war threatens to devastate the economies of many developing countries that are facing even higher food and energy costs and increasingly difficult financial conditions. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said 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 funding.
The war has also unsettled the post-Cold War balance in Europe - and particularly worried countries on NATO's eastern flank that fear they could next come under attack. As a result, those nations have been some of Ukraine's staunchest supporters.
The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia traveled Wednesday to war-ravaged areas in Ukraine and demanded accountability for what they called war crimes. They met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and visited Borodyanka, one of the towns near Kyiv where evidence of atrocities was found after Russian troops withdrew to focus on the country's east.
"There are no doubts that they committed war crimes. And for that, they should be accountable," Latvian President Egils Levits said.
Nauseda of Lithuania called for tougher sanctions, including against Russian oil and gas shipments and all the country's banks.
In his nightly address, Zelenskyy noted that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court visited the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, which was controlled by Russian forces until recently and where evidence of mass killings and more than 400 bodies were found.
"It is inevitable that the Russian troops will be held responsible. We will drag everyone to a tribunal, and not only for what was done in Bucha," Zelenskyy said late Wednesday.
He also said work was continuing to clear tens of thousands of unexploded shells, mines and trip wires left in northern Ukraine by the departing Russians. He urged people returning to homes to be wary of any unfamiliar objects and report them to police.
___
Associated Press writer Robert Burns in Washington, and AP journalists around the world contributed to this report.
Biden approveds $800 million in new military assistance for Ukraine
By ADAM SCHRECK | https://abc11.com/ukraine-russia-volodymyr-zelenskyy-news/11746999/ | 2022-04-14T11:14:52 | 0 | https://abc11.com/ukraine-russia-volodymyr-zelenskyy-news/11746999/ |
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Local | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/latest-forecast-from-storm-team-4-4003/3645611/ | 2022-04-14T11:14:52 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/latest-forecast-from-storm-team-4-4003/3645611/ |
Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter, just days after the Tesla CEO said he would no longer be joining the social media company’s board of directors.
Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Musk, who currently owns slightly more than 9% of its stock and is the company's biggest shareholder, provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn't already own. Musk offered $54.20 per share of Twitter's stock.
He called that price his best and final offer, although the billionaire provided no details on financing.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk says in the filing. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
The buyout offer from Musk is just the latest development in his relationship with Twitter. The billionaire revealed in regulatory filings over recent weeks that he'd been buying shares in almost daily batches starting Jan. 31. Only Vanguard Group’s suite of mutual funds and ETFs controls more Twitter shares.
Musk has been a vocal critic of Twitter in recent weeks, mostly over his belief that it falls short on free speech principles. The social media platform has angered followers of Donald Trump and other far-right political figures who’ve had their accounts suspended for violating its content standards on violence, hate or harmful misinformation. Musk also has a history of his own tweets causing legal problems.
Musk said last week that he informed Twitter he wouldn’t be joining its board of directors five days after he was invited. He didn’t explain why, but the decision coincided with a barrage of now-deleted tweets from Musk proposing major changes to the company, such as dropping ads — its chief source of revenue — and transforming its San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter. Musk left a few clues on Twitter about his thinking, such as by “liking” a tweet that summarized the events as Musk going from “largest shareholder for Free Speech” to being “told to play nice and not speak freely.”
After Musk announced his stake, Twitter quickly gave Musk a seat on its board on the condition that he not own more than 14.9% of the company’s outstanding stock, according to a filing. But Musk backed out of the deal.
Musk’s 81 million Twitter followers make him one of the most popular figures on the platform, rivaling pop stars like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. But his prolific tweeting has sometimes gotten him into trouble with the SEC and others.
Musk and Tesla in 2018 agreed to pay $40 million in civil fines and for Musk to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share. That didn’t happen but the tweet caused Tesla’s stock price to jump. Musk’s latest trouble with the SEC could be his delay in notifying regulators of his growing stake in Twitter.
Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has said he doesn’t think Twitter is living up to free speech principles — an opinion shared by followers of Donald Trump and a number of other right-wing political figures who’ve had their accounts suspended for violating Twitter content rules.
Shares of Twitter jumped 11% before the market open. The stock is still down from its 52-week high of about $73. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/elon-musk-offers-to-buy-twitter-says-company-needs-to-be-transformed/3645747/ | 2022-04-14T11:14:59 | 1 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/elon-musk-offers-to-buy-twitter-says-company-needs-to-be-transformed/3645747/ |
The Justice Department is improving language access to its programs to help people with limited English proficiency better report crimes. The Interior Department is providing technical assistance to Native American tribes to help them apply for grants. The Energy Department is helping low-income households access programs to weatherize their homes and save energy.
Those efforts are among hundreds of strategies and commitments the Biden administration was announcing Thursday. They are the product of an executive order that President Joe Biden signed hours after taking office with the goal of advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities across the federal government.
The order was the first of its kind by a president, said Chiraag Bains, deputy assistant to the president for racial justice and equity.
“We set the mission and the mandate for every agency, the entire federal government, to center equity in all that we do,” Bains told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
After more than a year of review, more than 90 federal agencies, including all major Cabinet departments, were releasing their “equity action plans” on Thursday.
The plans outline more than 300 strategies and commitments that aim to make federal policies fairer for everyone, including poorer communities and communities of color; tribal, rural and LGBTQ communities; and people with disabilities and women and girls.
More Joe Biden Coverage
They were to be discussed at a White House event hosted Thursday by domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, budget director Shalanda Young and members of the Cabinet. Biden, a Democrat, has one of the most diverse Cabinets, with Black and Hispanic people leading major departments, including Defense, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Some of the equity plans have been announced, such as work by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to close the racial gap in homeownership, address disproportionate rates of homelessness among underserved communities and reduce bias in home appraisals.
Others strategies are being made public for the first time, such as Defense Department efforts to promote the use of artificial intelligence technology to reduce algorithmic bias by investing in the development of a more diverse AI workforce. That work includes partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities.
Equity action teams at every agency led the reviews. Bains said that, taken together, the strategies “will advance equity and justice so that everybody can thrive in America.” | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/biden-administration-unveils-steps-to-boost-racial-equity-government/3645715/ | 2022-04-14T11:15:06 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/biden-administration-unveils-steps-to-boost-racial-equity-government/3645715/ |
Administration unveils steps to boost racial equity in govt
(AP) - The Justice Department is improving language access to its programs to help people with limited English proficiency better report crimes. The Interior Department is providing technical assistance to Native American tribes to help them apply for grants. The Energy Department is helping low-income households access programs to weatherize their homes and save energy.
Those efforts are among hundreds of strategies and commitments the Biden administration was announcing Thursday. They are the product of an executive order that President Joe Biden signed hours after taking office with the goal of advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities across the federal government.
The order was the first of its kind by a president, said Chiraag Bains, deputy assistant to the president for racial justice and equity.
“We set the mission and the mandate for every agency, the entire federal government, to center equity in all that we do,” Bains told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
After more than a year of review, more than 90 federal agencies, including all major Cabinet departments, were releasing their “equity action plans” on Thursday.
The plans outline more than 300 strategies and commitments that aim to make federal policies fairer for everyone, including poorer communities and communities of color; tribal, rural and LGBTQ communities; and people with disabilities and women and girls.
They were to be discussed at a White House event hosted Thursday by domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, budget director Shalanda Young and members of the Cabinet. Biden, a Democrat, has one of the most diverse Cabinets, with Black and Hispanic people leading major departments, including Defense, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Some of the equity plans have been announced, such as work by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to close the racial gap in homeownership, address disproportionate rates of homelessness among underserved communities and reduce bias in home appraisals.
Others strategies are being made public for the first time, such as Defense Department efforts to promote the use of artificial intelligence technology to reduce algorithmic bias by investing in the development of a more diverse AI workforce. That work includes partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities.
Equity action teams at every agency led the reviews. Bains said that, taken together, the strategies “will advance equity and justice so that everybody can thrive in America.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/04/14/administration-unveils-steps-boost-racial-equity-govt/ | 2022-04-14T11:17:56 | 0 | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/04/14/administration-unveils-steps-boost-racial-equity-govt/ |
Tesla CEO Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter in cash deal
NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter, just days after the Tesla CEO said he would no longer be joining the social media company’s board of directors.
Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Musk, who currently owns slightly more than 9% of its stock and is the company’s biggest shareholder, provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn’t already own. Musk offered $54.20 per share of Twitter’s stock.
He called that price his best and final offer, although the billionaire provided no details on financing. The offer is non-binding and subject to financing and other conditions.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk says in the filing. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
The buyout offer from Musk is just the latest development in his relationship with Twitter. The billionaire revealed in regulatory filings over recent weeks that he’d been buying shares in almost daily batches starting Jan. 31. Only Vanguard Group’s suite of mutual funds and ETFs controls more Twitter shares.
Musk has been a vocal critic of of Twitter in recent weeks, mostly over his belief that it falls short on free speech principles. The social media platform has angered followers of Donald Trump and other far-right political figures who’ve had their accounts suspended for violating its content standards on violence, hate or harmful misinformation. Musk also has a history of his own tweets causing legal problems.
Musk said last week that he informed Twitter he wouldn’t be joining its board of directors five days after he was invited. He didn’t explain why, but the decision coincided with a barrage of now-deleted tweets from Musk proposing major changes to the company, such as dropping ads — its chief source of revenue — and transforming its San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter. Musk left a few clues on Twitter about his thinking, such as by “liking” a tweet that summarized the events as Musk going from “largest shareholder for Free Speech” to being “told to play nice and not speak freely.”
After Musk announced his stake, Twitter quickly gave Musk a seat on its board on the condition that he not own more than 14.9% of the company’s outstanding stock, according to a filing. But Musk backed out of the deal.
Musk’s 81 million Twitter followers make him one of the most popular figures on the platform, rivaling pop stars like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. But his prolific tweeting has sometimes gotten him into trouble with the SEC and others.
Musk and Tesla in 2018 agreed to pay $40 million in civil fines and for Musk to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share. That didn’t happen but the tweet caused Tesla’s stock price to jump. Musk’s latest trouble with the SEC could be his delay in notifying regulators of his growing stake in Twitter.
Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has said he doesn’t think Twitter is living up to free speech principles — an opinion shared by followers of Donald Trump and a number of other right-wing political figures who’ve had their accounts suspended for violating Twitter content rules.
Shares of Twitter jumped 11% before the market open. The stock is still down from its 52-week high of about $73. Shares of Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer that Musk heads, slipped about 0.9%.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/04/14/elon-musk-offers-buy-twitter/ | 2022-04-14T11:18:03 | 0 | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/04/14/elon-musk-offers-buy-twitter/ |
Pfizer to seek COVID booster for healthy 5- to 11-year-olds
(AP) - Pfizer said Thursday it wants to expand its COVID-19 booster shots to healthy elementary-age kids.
U.S. health authorities already urge everyone 12 and older to get one booster dose for the best protection against the newest variants -- and recently gave the option of a second booster to those 50 and older.
Now Pfizer says new data shows healthy 5- to 11-year-olds could benefit from another kid-sized shot.
In a small study, 140 youngsters who’d already gotten two shots were given a booster six months later, and researchers found the extra shot generally revved up their immune response. But a closer look at 30 of the children found a 36-fold increase in virus-fighting antibodies, levels high enough to fight the super-contagious omicron variant, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said in a press release.
The data has not been published or vetted by independent experts.
Pfizer tested the kid booster while omicron was surging this winter. While COVID-19 cases now are at much lower levels in the U.S., in recent weeks an even more contagious version of omicron, called BA.2, has become the dominant type locally and around the world.
In the coming days, the companies plan to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize a booster for healthy 5- to 11-year-olds. They also plan to share the data with European and other regulators.
Vaccinations are generally less effective against the omicron variant than earlier versions of the coronavirus -- but they do still offer strong protection against severe disease. While COVID-19 is a bigger threat to adults, youngsters can get seriously ill. But regulators will have to decide if healthy elementary-age kids really need a booster, and if so, when.
The Pfizer shots are the only vaccine available to U.S. children. Those ages 5 to 11 receive one-third of the dose given to everyone 12 and older. Just over a quarter in the younger age group have gotten two doses since vaccination opened to them in November, shortly before omicron struck.
The U.S. hasn’t yet allowed vaccinations for children under 5. But certain 5- to 11-year-olds -- those with severely weakened immune systems -- already are supposed to get three doses, to give that high-risk group a better chance of responding.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/04/14/pfizer-seek-covid-booster-healthy-5-11-year-olds/ | 2022-04-14T11:18:09 | 1 | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/04/14/pfizer-seek-covid-booster-healthy-5-11-year-olds/ |
Pope marks Holy Thursday ahead of prison feet-washing ritual
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark Holy Thursday, hours before he was expected at an Italian prison to perform a foot-washing ritual for a dozen inmates in a gesture of humility.
Attending the Mass were some 1,800 priests. Francis in his homily advised priests not to focus on worldly concerns such as power, planning and bureaucracy. He exhorted them to “serve, with a clear conscience, the holy and faithful people of God.”
Francis made no reference to decades of scandals involving priests who sexually abused children and were often transferred from parish to parish by bishops who tried to avoid embarrassment rather than protect minors.
In the afternoon, the 85-year-old Francis is expected at a prison in Civitavecchia, a port town 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Rome, for the foot-washing ceremony which recalls Jesus’ gesture of humility for his apostles.
Francis has made paying attention to those on society’s margins — including refugees, migrants and people in prisons — a hallmark of his papacy. On Holy Thursday in past years, he has gone to prisons in or near Rome.
This year finds him struggling with mobility issues. Francis suffers pain from a knee ligament problem and for years has been plagued by sciatica, a nerve inflammation affecting the legs and back.
During the Holy Thursday Mass, large urns of oil are blessed for use in ceremonies in churches in the Rome area. When Francis went to bless the oil by breathing into it, an aide helped him rise from his chair and walk toward the silver urn. At the end of the ceremony, Francis descended the steps down from the altar clinging to an aide’s arm, and even while assisted limped his way out of the basilica.
Holy Week, which draws hundreds of thousands of faithful to the Vatican, began with Palm Sunday Mass on April 10 in St. Peter’s Square.
This year, the Good Friday torch-lit Way of the Cross procession returns to its traditional venue at the ancient Colosseum after a two-year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Vatican has invited a Russian woman and a Ukrainian woman, who work together at a Rome hospital, to carry a cross together during the procession. That has angered some Ukrainians, including Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See and the archbishop of Kyiv. Their objections center on whether such a gesture, implying reconciliation, is suitable, given Russia’s invasion of its neighbor Ukraine and ongoing war against the country’s people.
The Vatican is still going ahead with the procession’s lineup of participants, who take turns carrying a lightweight cross during the procession, which is presided over by the pontiff and recalls Jesus’ death by crucifixion.
Holy Week culminates on Easter Sunday.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/04/14/pope-marks-holy-thursday-ahead-prison-feet-washing-ritual/ | 2022-04-14T11:18:16 | 1 | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/04/14/pope-marks-holy-thursday-ahead-prison-feet-washing-ritual/ |
Teen says gaming headset saved him from stray bullet
LOS ANGELES (KCAL/KCBS) - A family counts itself fortunate. They still don’t know where a bullet that struck an 18-year-old came from, but they now realize how close they came to tragedy.
A gaming headset is credited with saving the life of Jonathan Gonzalez.
“You can see the damage. It actually bent this piece of metal here and went through,” said Gonzalez, an active gamer.
He was on his PlayStation the morning of April 1 just after midnight listening to music and chatting with friends when he felt something hit his head.
“It felt like if you’re wearing a bike helmet, and someone just smacks the top of your head,” Gonzalez said.
He looked up and found the bullet hole in his bedroom window. The gunshot ripped his curtains down.
After it struck him in the head, the bullet ricocheted against the wall and landed in his bed.
“If it wasn’t for these on my head, it probably would’ve went through,” Gonzalez said.
He ran to his parents’ room shouting he thought he’d been shot.
Nearly two weeks later, his family is still trying to process this close call.
“It’s still a trigger for me to process the thought that I could’ve lost my son. We were asleep, and if it did hurt him, we would not have known until we woke up hours later,” said Janet Popoca, the teen’s mother.
When the Los Angeles Police Department responded, officers could not find the shooter. They don’t believe the gun was fired at close range.
Gonzalez’s mom says even officers couldn’t believe what happened. “They were just shocked,” she said.
Gonzalez said he keeps thinking about how an inch in either direction could’ve changed things drastically.
“Minding my own business in my own room, and I could’ve been gone. Just thinking about it for the first week made me sick,” he said.
Razor, the company that makes the headphones, sent him a replacement.
Gonzalez said he still loves to game, but he’s now leery of what’s happening outside his window.
Police are still investigating the shooting.
Gonzalez’s family said they hope for an arrest, but they are learning to appreciate life a lot more.
Copyright 2022 KCAL/KCBS via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/04/14/teen-says-gaming-headset-saved-him-stray-bullet/ | 2022-04-14T11:18:22 | 1 | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/04/14/teen-says-gaming-headset-saved-him-stray-bullet/ |
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.
___
Associated Press journalist Manuel Valdes in Seattle contributed to this report. | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/amazon-adds-5-fuel-and-inflation-surcharge-to-seller-fees/ | 2022-04-14T11:18:23 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/amazon-adds-5-fuel-and-inflation-surcharge-to-seller-fees/ |
Lucky was found on a church porch in Pennsylvania — he had escaped from his family three earlier. The family knew Lucky was theirs when he started whistling the theme to The Andy Griffith Show.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Lucky was found on a church porch in Pennsylvania — he had escaped from his family three earlier. The family knew Lucky was theirs when he started whistling the theme to The Andy Griffith Show.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.mainepublic.org/2022-04-14/missing-cockatiel-is-identified-with-the-help-of-a-tv-shows-theme-song | 2022-04-14T11:18:29 | 1 | https://www.mainepublic.org/2022-04-14/missing-cockatiel-is-identified-with-the-help-of-a-tv-shows-theme-song |
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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/bed-bath-beyond-snared-by-ongoing-supply-issues/ | 2022-04-14T11:18:29 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/bed-bath-beyond-snared-by-ongoing-supply-issues/ |
Guinness World Records has declared them the tallest family in the world. The family has five members. The shortest is 6 feet, 3 inches and the tallest is 7 feet, 3 inches.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Guinness World Records has declared them the tallest family in the world. The family has five members. The shortest is 6 feet, 3 inches and the tallest is 7 feet, 3 inches.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.mainepublic.org/2022-04-14/the-renown-of-the-trapp-family-of-esko-minn-has-reached-new-heights | 2022-04-14T11:18:35 | 1 | https://www.mainepublic.org/2022-04-14/the-renown-of-the-trapp-family-of-esko-minn-has-reached-new-heights |
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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/bipartisan-push-on-mental-health-crisis-that-covid-worsened/ | 2022-04-14T11:18:36 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/bipartisan-push-on-mental-health-crisis-that-covid-worsened/ |
Most people know Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac as a romantic, swashbuckling classic, staged with swords and capes and a big prosthetic nose. But a new production opening Wednesday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with film star James McAvoy as Cyrano, dispenses with all that.
Instead, there's beatboxing, a multiracial cast in modern dress and Scottish actor McAvoy with his own regular-sized nose, rapping about how very large it is. Cyrano tells the story of a romantic triangle — the poetic soldier Cyrano loves the beautiful and witty Roxane, who in turn loves the handsome, but tongue-tied Christian. So, Cyrano helps the young man win Roxane by providing him with the words he doesn't have.
"This is about three people who are objectified and who suffer because of their objectification," says McAvoy. "Whether they're objectified because they are beautiful or ugly or not. It's about the feeling. And I think that not having the nose allows us to see all their pain." And wit. And passion.
The spartan staging, where actors frequently speak into microphones and sit looking directly at the audience, instead of each other, provides a feeling of closeness. "From an acting point of view, it makes eye contact feel so intimate," says Evelyn Miller, whose Roxane is portrayed as a college student wearing a denim jumpsuit. "To turn and look [at another actor], after doing a five-minute scene where you haven't looked at them at all — you've just been listening profoundly and intensely — to suddenly turn and make eye contact feels so intimate."
Listening to the language profoundly and intensely in this contemporary adaptation is what director Jamie Lloyd is after — not just for the actors, but for the audience. "We paint on the back wall ... a particular sentence that Cyrano says: 'I love words. That's all,'" he says. "And in a way, that became the kind of defining idea of the entire production; it was only about the words, in a play that features characters that are obsessed with language."
He says they use language in ways that can be wonderful or damaging. At one point, Cyrano wins a duel, purely with his linguistic gifts. You don't need to see a sword to know that he's cut his opponent to the quick.
Lloyd commissioned playwright Martin Crimp to write the adaptation. Since Crimp is fluent in French, he read the Rostand in the original. "The thing that I responded to most strongly as a writer is the language, is the virtuosic display," Crimp says. "One rule [for me] was that the rhyming couplets were really important. If I got rid of those, I'd be throwing out the baby with the bathwater."
Lloyd highlights the language in different ways: Because the actors talk directly into their microphones, they can speak softly and everyone in the theater can hear them. "In many ways, it's more like screen acting than stage acting," he says. "And, in fact, even more than that, it's more like radio acting."
For McAvoy, the style of this nose-less Cyrano, which has played in Glasgow and won an Olivier for Best Revival in London, forces audiences to lean in. "I've never experienced silences in the audience like this," the actor says. "I've experienced pauses and things like that. But the silence in the audience is unbelievable."
It's a response McAvoy hopes Cyrano gets from Brooklyn audiences, as well.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/2022-04-14/a-stripped-down-cyrano-a-london-import-is-all-about-language | 2022-04-14T11:18:41 | 0 | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/2022-04-14/a-stripped-down-cyrano-a-london-import-is-all-about-language |
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.
___
Associated Press journalist Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed. | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/california-plan-aims-to-triple-sale-of-electric-cars-by-2026/ | 2022-04-14T11:18:43 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/california-plan-aims-to-triple-sale-of-electric-cars-by-2026/ |
Chick Corea is known as one of the most powerful pianists, composers, and bandleaders in the history of jazz. He earned 27 Grammy awards and blazed trails across bebop, straight-ahead, free jazz, fusion and Latin jazz over the course of nearly 6 decades.
When he died unexpectedly last February from a rare form of cancer, he left dozens of musicians heartbroken. On Apr. 15, Jazz at Lincoln Center will celebrate Corea's legacy with a concert of his music performed by band members from every phase of his long career.
"His creative power, and his force, was so strong that you couldn't help but get swept up with it when you played with him. And it was exciting," says concert director and bassist John Patitucci. He played with Corea on hundreds of gigs since 1985.
"He was so prolific. He wrote so many pieces. So many tunes. We used to joke with him: If we gave him a half-hour, he would write a Suite of music, not just a tune. And he was able to combine so many elements, and retain an original sound, and a voice."
Corea's touch on the piano --the way his fingers bounced off the keys—made his sound unique.
A Defining Touch
Armando "Chick" Corea was born in 1941 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. His father was a bebop trumpet player. His grandparents on both sides were Italian immigrants. Yet in high school, he gravitated to Latin music when he joined a dance band.
"And the Conga player was one who really introduced me to Latin music, Corea told NPR during a 2016 interview. "So I connected with the Latinos right away, and the music and the rhythm of it."
When Corea moved to New York in the 1960s, that connection deepened. "Because the Puerto Ricans and Cubans were in New York. Eddie Palmieri was there. Tito Puente's band was there. My first major gig was with Mongo Santamaria."
In the late 1960s, Corea joined Miles Davis's band where he helped pioneer a sound that came to be known as "Jazz-Rock Fusion." He went on to form his own fusion group, Return to Forever, which sold hundreds of thousands of records. By the time bassist Christian McBride met him in 1993, he says Corea was already a living legend.
"And someone who we were just in awe of."
McBride went on to play with Corea on and off for 26 years. He says Corea was always kind, open, and genuinely interested in other people.
"If you met Chick on the street, you would not think that this man has been responsible for so much incredible genius music that the world loved so much. Just a regular dude. And I will miss that about Chick. A beautiful, beautiful man."
Chick Corea kept churning out new music until his death last February at age 79. He said his collaborations meant everything to him.
"Working with other musicians is what music is to me. If there were not other musicians, it would be some kind of abstractness of loneliness, out sitting on a cloud somewhere. And the particular music that I love is not just casual interaction with other musicians, but actually creative interactions with other musicians. That's what keeps me going man. I just love to create."
Celebrating Chick Corea takes place Apr. 15-16 at the Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/2022-04-14/how-the-late-jazz-great-chick-corea-is-being-remembered-in-concert | 2022-04-14T11:18:47 | 1 | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/2022-04-14/how-the-late-jazz-great-chick-corea-is-being-remembered-in-concert |
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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/california-state-lawyer-suing-activision-blizzard-is-fired/ | 2022-04-14T11:18:50 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/california-state-lawyer-suing-activision-blizzard-is-fired/ |
Wild turkeys seem to be everywhere. Reintroduced to Maine in 1977, they are now widespread, and many see them as a nuisance. And now, it's mating season for wild turkeys in Maine–a period of dramatic strutting and gobbling. We'll learn about North America's largest upland game birds, including efforts to manage their population in Maine, behaviors and characteristics, threats to wild turkeys, as well as harms they cause.
Panelists:
Kelsey Sullivan, wildlife biologist, Migratory and Upland Game Bird Program, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
Erik Blomberg, associate professor and chair, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology, University of Maine
VIP Caller:
V. Paul Reynolds, writer, editor, Northwoods Sporting Journal; longtime outdoorsman | https://www.mainepublic.org/show/maine-calling/2022-04-14/maines-wild-turkeys-behavior-traits-population-health-and-hunting | 2022-04-14T11:18:53 | 1 | https://www.mainepublic.org/show/maine-calling/2022-04-14/maines-wild-turkeys-behavior-traits-population-health-and-hunting |
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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/cities-ask-netflix-hulu-stream-services-to-pay-cable-fees/ | 2022-04-14T11:18:57 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/cities-ask-netflix-hulu-stream-services-to-pay-cable-fees/ |
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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/dutch-abn-amro-bank-apologizes-for-historic-links-to-slavery/ | 2022-04-14T11:19:04 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/finland-sweden-move-ahead-toward-possible-nato-membership/ | 2022-04-14T11:19:10 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/flight-attendants-settle-frontier-discrimination-suit/ | 2022-04-14T11:19:17 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/frances-le-pen-warns-against-sending-weapons-to-ukraine/ | 2022-04-14T11:19:24 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/frustration-grows-over-truck-backlogs-at-texas-mexico-border-2/ | 2022-04-14T11:19:31 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/frustration-grows-over-truck-backlogs-at-texas-mexico-border-2/ |
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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/germany-irritated-by-ukraines-snub-of-a-presidential-visit/ | 2022-04-14T11:19:38 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/homebuyers-stymied-by-fewer-homes-high-prices-rising-rates/ | 2022-04-14T11:19:46 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/japanese-e-vehicle-battery-company-to-build-kentucky-plant/ | 2022-04-14T11:19:53 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/jpmorgan-profits-drop-42-bank-writes-off-russian-assets/ | 2022-04-14T11:20:00 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/producer-prices-surge-11-2-in-march-on-higher-energy-costs/ | 2022-04-14T11:20:07 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/producer-prices-surge-11-2-in-march-on-higher-energy-costs/ |
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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/ukraines-detention-of-oligarch-close-to-putin-angers-moscow/ | 2022-04-14T11:20:14 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/un-says-ukraine-war-threatens-to-devastate-many-poor-nations/ | 2022-04-14T11:20:20 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/us-agencies-industrial-control-system-malware-discovered/ | 2022-04-14T11:20:26 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/us-agencies-industrial-control-system-malware-discovered/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday urged China to use its “special relationship with Russia” to persuade Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
Beijing “cannot expect the global community to respect its appeals to the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity in the future if it does not respect these principles now,” Yellen said at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan think tank.
Yellen’s speech at the Atlantic Council comes a week before the world’s finance ministers and central bank governors convene in Washington for the International Monetary Fund-World Bank Group Spring Meetings. Her direct appeal to China underscores an increasing frustration that the United States and its allies have with a country that has only deepened its ties with Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
“The world’s attitude towards China and its willingness to embrace further economic integration may well be affected by China’s reaction to our call for resolute action on Russia,” she said.
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. Also of concern is India, which has taken a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and recently made a major purchase of Russian oil, a source of tension with the U.S. as it tries to cut off Moscow’s energy income.
Yellen said that countries that undermine the sanctions the U.S. 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 said.
Yellen, leaving open the question of what the consequences for flouting the sanctions could be, said Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has “redrawn the contours” of the global economy, which includes “our conception of international cooperation going forward.”
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.
Yellen, answering a question about how the prospect of worldwide food shortages and rising inflation could affect political unrest globally, said “this will be an urgent concern for us next week, to try to think about how we can stave off starvation around the world.”
Roughly 155 million people in 55 countries faced acute hunger in 2020, an increase of 20 million people from the year before, according to the World Food Program.
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 said 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.wric.com/business/us-world-business/yellen-nations-flouting-russia-sanctions-face-consequences/ | 2022-04-14T11:20:32 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/yellen-nations-flouting-russia-sanctions-face-consequences/ |
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.wric.com/entertainment-news/actor-cuba-gooding-jr-pleads-guilty-to-forcible-touching/ | 2022-04-14T11:20:40 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/actor-cuba-gooding-jr-pleads-guilty-to-forcible-touching/ |
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.wric.com/entertainment-news/amazon-imdb-tv-will-be-renamed-amazon-freevee/ | 2022-04-14T11:20:46 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/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.wric.com/entertainment-news/brandon-taylors-filthy-animals-wins-20000-story-prize/ | 2022-04-14T11:20:53 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/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.wric.com/entertainment-news/dogs-owned-by-iditarod-vet-reality-tv-star-kill-family-pet/ | 2022-04-14T11:21:00 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/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.wric.com/entertainment-news/eudora-welty-letters-released-2-decades-after-authors-death/ | 2022-04-14T11:21:06 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/eudora-welty-letters-released-2-decades-after-authors-death/ |
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.wric.com/entertainment-news/jennifer-lopez-doc-halftime-to-open-tribeca-festival/ | 2022-04-14T11:21:13 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/entertainment-news/jennifer-lopez-doc-halftime-to-open-tribeca-festival/ |
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.wric.com/health/facing-hunger-perus-poor-band-together-with-common-pots/ | 2022-04-14T11:21:20 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/health/facing-hunger-perus-poor-band-together-with-common-pots/ |
LONDON (AP) — Scientists are investigating a puzzling spike in liver disease in children across the United Kingdom, including the cause and whether there are any links between the affected youngsters.
The U.K. Health Security Agency said this week that public health personnel are looking into 74 cases of hepatitis, or liver inflammation, detected in children since January.
The usual viruses that cause infectious hepatitis were not found in the cases, and scientists and doctors are considering other possible causes, including COVID-19, other viruses and environmental factors.
While some types of hepatitis are mild and don’t require treatment, other forms of the disease can become chronic and be fatal.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said doctors in other countries should also report potential infections in case the outbreak is not limited to Britain. It said doctors should be on the lookout for children with jaundice and symptoms including vomiting and stomach problems.
The European agency said most cases involved children ages 2 to 5. It said some children had suffered acute liver failure and a “small number have required liver transplantation.” It said there were no travel links between the affected children.
British officials said none of the affected children were vaccinated against the coronavirus, and they ruled out any links to COVID-19 vaccines.
“One of the possible causes that we are investigating is that this is linked to adenovirus infection,” said Dr. Meera Chand, director of clinical and emerging Infections at the U.K. Health Security Agency.
Adenoviruses are common viruses that cause problems like pink eye, a sore throat or diarrhea. They are often spread between people and by touching contaminated surfaces.
“The current crop of cases of hepatitis in children under the age of 10 years is very unusual,” Will Irving, a professor of virology at the University of Nottingham, said in a statement.
Adults are much more prone to suffer severe disease from hepatitis, and children are not usually affected, he said.
The public health investigation will likely focus on studying patient samples and trying to find potential toxins or viruses that might be responsible, Irving said. | https://www.wric.com/health/uk-investigating-puzzling-spike-in-liver-disease-in-children/ | 2022-04-14T11:21:26 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/health/uk-investigating-puzzling-spike-in-liver-disease-in-children/ |
LONDON (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization has slammed the global community for its focus on the war in Ukraine, arguing that crises elsewhere, including in his home country of Ethiopia, are not being given equal consideration, possibly because those suffering are not white.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus questioned “if the world really gives equal attention to Black and white lives,” given that the ongoing emergencies in Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria have garnered only a “fraction” of the global concern for Ukraine. He was speaking in a virtual press briefing from Geneva on Wednesday.
Last month, Tedros said there is ”nowhere on earth where the health of millions of people is more under threat” than Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
Since a truce was declared in Tigray three weeks ago, about 2,000 trucks should have been able to bring food, medicines and other essentials to the conflict-ridden area, he said. Instead, only about 20 trucks have arrived, said Tedros, a former minister of health in Ethiopia and an ethnic Tigrayan.
“As we speak, people are dying of starvation,” he said. “This is one of the longest and worst sieges by both Eritrean and Ethiopian forces in modern history.”
Tedros acknowledged that the war in Ukraine is globally significant, but asked if other crises are being accorded enough attention.
“I need to be blunt and honest that the world is not treating the human race the same way,” he said. “Some are more equal than others.”
Tedros described the situation in Tigray as “tragic” and said he “hopes the world comes back to its senses and treats all human life equally.” He also critiqued the press for its failure to document the ongoing atrocities in Ethiopia, noting that people had been burned alive in the region. “I don’t even know if that was taken seriously by the media.”
Earlier this year, the government of Ethiopia sent a letterto the World Health Organization, accusing Tedros of “misconduct” after his sharp criticism of the war and humanitarian crisis in the country.
The Ethiopian government said Tedros was using his office “to advance his political interest at the expense of Ethiopia” and said he continues to be an active member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front; Tedros was Ethiopia’s foreign minister and health minister when the TPLF dominated the country’s ruling coalition. | https://www.wric.com/health/who-chief-focus-on-ukraine-shows-bias-against-black-lives/ | 2022-04-14T11:21:33 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/health/who-chief-focus-on-ukraine-shows-bias-against-black-lives/ |
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.
Separately, the Biden administration also extended for 90 days a public health emergency that has been in effect since early 2020. That allows temporary continuation of a range of public health measures that do have broad support, from more generous Medicaid coverage to flexibility around telehealth.
The mask requirement for travelers was the target of months of lobbying from the airlines, who sought to kill it. The carriers argued 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.
As for the broader public health emergency just extended by the Department of Health and Human Services, the administration has promised to give states 60 days’ notice before ending it.
Winding down the emergency declaration could force an estimated 15 million Medicaid recipients to find new sources of coverage, require congressional action to preserve broad telehealth access for Medicare enrollees, and scramble special COVID-19 rules and payment policies for hospitals, doctors and insurers. There are also questions about how emergency use approvals for COVID-19 treatments will be handled.
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David Koenig reported from Dallas. AP Health Writer Mike Stobbe in New York and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this report. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-source-cdc-to-extend-travel-mask-requirement-for-2-weeks/ | 2022-04-14T11:21:40 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-source-cdc-to-extend-travel-mask-requirement-for-2-weeks/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — In anticipation of a new Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, President Joe Biden on Wednesday approved an $800 million package of military assistance, including additional helicopters and the first provision of American artillery.
The Ukrainians also will receive armored personnel carriers, armored Humvees, naval drone vessels used in coastal defense, and gear and equipment used to protect soldiers in chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological attacks.
“This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine,” Biden said in a statement.
“The steady supply of weapons the United States and its allies and partners have provided to Ukraine has been critical in sustaining its fight against the Russian invasion,” Biden added. “It has helped ensure that (Russia President Vladimir) Putin failed in his initial war aims to conquer and control Ukraine. We cannot rest now.”
Biden announced the aid after a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It is the latest in a series of U.S. security assistance packages valued at a combined $2.6 billion that has been committed to Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. The weaponry and support material has played an important role in Ukraine’s successful defense thus far.
Biden is under pressure from members of both parties in Congress to expand and accelerate U.S. aid.
Robert Gates, a former CIA director and defense secretary, said Wednesday he believes the administration needs to push hard for weapon donations by NATO members in Eastern Europe, whose arsenals include Soviet-era tanks and other weaponry and equipment that could help Ukraine immediately.
“The United States ought to be acting, 24/7 — how do we mobilize the equipment and how do we get it into Ukraine and into the hands of the Ukrainians,” Gates said in an online forum sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“It’s critically important and critically urgent, and we ought to be sort of ransacking the arsenals of those states, and I think they would be cooperative, particularly” if they are given assurances that the Pentagon will provide American replacements for the donated weapons.
The Pentagon said the $800 million package announced by Biden includes weapons and equipment that will require some training for a Ukrainian military not fully accustomed to American military technology. U.S. and allied forces had been present inside Ukraine to provide training for eight years before pulling out in advance of the Russia’s latest invasion.
The new arms package includes 18 of the U.S. Army’s 155mm howitzers and 40,000 artillery rounds, two air surveillance radars, 300 Switchblade “kamikaze” armed drones, and 500 Javelin missiles designed to knock out tanks and other armor. Also included are 10 counter-artillery radars used to track incoming artillery and other projectiles to determine their point of origin for counter attacks.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said delivery of the material will be expedited, but he offered no specific timetable.
“This list came directly out of multiple conversations with Ukrainians in the last few days as we began to see the Russians now start to reprioritize the Donbas fight,” he said, referring to Russia’s shift from a failed offensive in Ukraine’s north aimed at Kyiv, the capital, to a force buildup in the country’s eastern Donbas region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014.
Ukrainian military personnel will need training on the radars as well as the howitzers and the Switchblade drones, Kirby said. He said the training may be done by U.S. soldiers in Europe and the arrangements are being worked out.
“These are not highly complex systems,” Kirby said, and so extensive training will not likely be required.
Among the other items in the package are 11 Soviet-era Mi-17 helicopters that the United States had planned to provide to Afghanistan before Biden last year decided to fully withdraw from the country. They are transport helicopters that also can function in an attack role. The Pentagon previously had sent five Mi-17s to Ukraine, Kirby said. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/biden-approves-800m-in-artillery-helicopters-for-ukraine/ | 2022-04-14T11:21:46 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/biden-approves-800m-in-artillery-helicopters-for-ukraine/ |
An Ohio man charged with storming the U.S. Capitol and stealing a coat rack testified Wednesday that he joined thousands of protesters in ransacking the building last year on what he thought were orders from the president, Donald Trump.
Dustin Byron Thompson, 38, of Columbus, Ohio, said he took to websites and the internet after being laid off from his exterminator job in March 2020 and in his pandemic doldrums fell under Trump’s sway as he bought into conspiracy theories and “went down the rabbit hole on the internet.”
On trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, Thompson testified that the claim that the election was stolen seemed credible to him because it was coming from the president. His defense team is the first to argue that Trump and those connected to him were responsible for the actions of the mob that day.
“It seems like everyone was attacking him (Trump). He needed someone to stand up for him, and I was trying to do that,” Thompson said.
Under questioning by the prosecution, Thompson acknowledged that he ignored signs he shouldn’t be at the Capitol — broken glass, alarms, chemical irritants in the air — and said he stole the coat rack to keep others from using it as a weapon. He also said he witnessed fierce fighting between police and rioters outside the building, and later ran away from officers. He said he realized weeks later that what he had done was wrong and now feels shame for his actions.
Thompson’s jury trial is the third among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions. The first two ended with jurors convicting both defendants on all counts. Thompson’s defense team is the first to argue that Trump and those connected to him were responsible for the actions of the mob that day.
“If the president is giving you almost an order to do something, I felt obligated to do that,” Thompson testified.
Thompson’s lawyer sought subpoenas to call Trump and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as witnesses, but U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton rejected that request. Jurors on Wednesday began listening to recordings of speeches that Trump and Giuliani delivered at a rally before the riot. They were expected to finish listening to recordings Thursday morning and begin deliberations later in the day.
Thompson’s wife, Sarah Thompson, testified that she voted for Democrat Joe Biden, as well as Democratic presidential nominees Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. She said her husband’s views were more moderate then but shifted during the Trump years as he started encountering conspiracy theories. She said she did not share his views but helped arrange his travel to Washington for the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House because he had a right to protest and she enjoyed having a quiet house.
Much of the prosecution’s case was built around testimony from several Capitol Police officers placing Thompson at the scene, wearing a bulletproof vest that he said he found, and carrying a coat rack he took from the Senate Parliamentarian’s Office.
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Over 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Thompson is the fifth person to be tried on riot-related charges.
On Monday, a jury convicted a former Virginia police officer, Thomas Robertson, of storming the Capitol with another off-duty officer to obstruct Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. Last month, a jury convicted a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun.
A judge hearing testimony without a jury decided cases against two other Capitol riot defendants at separate bench trials. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden acquitted one of them of all charges and partially acquitted the other.
Thompson is charged with six counts: obstructing Congress’ joint session to certify the Electoral College vote, theft of government property, entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
A co-defendant, Robert Lyon, 27, pleaded guilty in March to theft of government property and disorderly conduct. Both counts are misdemeanors punishable by a maximum of one year imprisonment. Walton is scheduled to sentence Lyon on June 3. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/capitol-riot-defendant-i-was-following-trumps-instructions/ | 2022-04-14T11:21:53 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/capitol-riot-defendant-i-was-following-trumps-instructions/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The criminal prosecution of a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer charged with lying to the FBI during the Trump-Russia investigation can move forward, a judge ruled Wednesday in denying a defense bid to dismiss the case.
The ruling means Michael Sussmann, charged last year by special counsel John Durham, remains set for trial on May 16 in Washington’s federal court.
Sussmann ischarged with lying to the FBI during a September 2016meeting in which he relayed concerns from cybersecurity researchers about a potential secret back channel of communications between servers of the Trump Organization and Russia-based Alfa Bank. The FBI investigated the matter but ultimately found no such suspicious links.
Prosecutors allege that Sussmann misled the FBI’s then-general counsel by saying that he was not attending the meeting on behalf of a particular client when he was actually presenting the information on behalf of the Clinton campaign and a technology executive with whom he had worked.
In order to prosecute someone for a false statement, the Justice Department must prove that the statement was not only fictitious but also “material” — that is, capable of influencing a government agency’s decision-making or functions.
In this case, Durham’s team says that had the FBI known Sussmann was representing the interests of the Clinton campaign at the meeting, it would have done more to examine his motives and the reliability of his information as it considered whether to open an investigation based on the tip he provided.
Sussmann’s lawyers have argued that his ties to the Clinton campaign were already well-known to the FBI, and have rejected the idea that the full disclosure of that relationship could have meaningfully influenced the FBI’s decision to investigate or act on his tip.
U.S. District Judge Christopher “Casey” Cooper said in a six-page ruling Wednesday that the dispute was ultimately up to a jury to decide.
“The battle lines thus are drawn, but the Court cannot resolve this standoff prior to trial,” Cooper wrote.
Durham, a former U.S. attorney in Connecticut, was appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General William Barr to look for government misconduct during the investigation into Russian election interference in 2016 and possible ties to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Sussmann is one of three people charged so far. The other two are Kevin Clinesmith, a former FBI lawyer who pleaded guiltyto altering an emailand received probation, and Igor Danchenko, a Russian analyst and source of information for Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence operative who assembled a dossier of anti-Trump research. Danchenko was charged in Novemberwith lying to the FBI during a 2017 interview.
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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/case-against-clinton-lawyer-in-counsels-probe-can-proceed/ | 2022-04-14T11:21:59 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/case-against-clinton-lawyer-in-counsels-probe-can-proceed/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden declares Russia’s Ukraine war“genocide,” it isn’t just another strong word.
Calling a campaign that’s aimed at wiping out a targeted group “genocide” not only increases pressure on a country to act, it can oblige it to. That’s partly because of a genocide treaty approved by the U.N. General Assembly after World War II, signed by the United States and more than 150 other nations.
The convention was the work of, among others, a Polish Jew whose family was murdered by Nazi Germany and its accomplices. The advocates pushed for something that would make the world not just condemn but actually prevent and ensure prosecution for future genocides.
In comments Tuesday,Biden accused Russian President Vladimir Putinof trying to “wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.” Other world leaders have not gone as far. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said Russia’s behavior in Ukraine “doesn’t look far short of genocide,” but the U.K. has not officially used the term, saying only a court can make such a designation.
A look at what’s involved in that decision, and what it means when a world leader declares a genocide:
WHAT DOES ‘GENOCIDE’ MEAN?
It’s a surprisingly modern word for an ancient crime. A Jewish lawyer from Poland, Raphael Lemkin, coined it at the height of World War II and the Holocaust. Lemkin wanted a word to describe what Nazi Germany was then doing to Europe’s Jews, and what Turkey had done to Armenians in the 1910s: killing members of a targeted group of people, and ruthlessly working to eradicate their cultures.
Lemkin paired “geno,” a Greek word meaning race, and “cide,” a Latin word meaning kill. Lemkin dedicated his life to having genocide recognized and criminalized.
In 1948, after Adolf Hitler and his accomplices systematically murdered 6 million Jews in Europe, the U.N. General Assembly approved the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
WHAT’S THE LEGAL DEFINITION?
Under the genocide convention, the crime is trying to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in part or in whole.
That includes mass killings, but also actions including forced sterilization, abuse that inflicts serious harm or mental suffering, or wrenching children of a targeted group away to be raised by others.
IS RUSSIA COMMITTING GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE?
The case may hang in part on Putin’s own words.
Russian forces are widely accused of carrying out wholesale abuses of Ukraine’s civilians, including mass killings.
Those would be war crimes. But do they amount to genocide?
It’s all about intent, argues Bohdan Vitvitsky, a former U.S. federal prosecutor and former special adviser to Ukraine’s prosecutor general.
“Any attempt to determine whether the crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine are driven by genocidal intent must necessarily focus on the statements of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Vitvisky wrote for the Atlantic Council think tank this week.
Putin long has denied any standing for Ukraine to exist as a separate nation, or Ukrainians as a separate people. He cites history, when Ukraine was part of the Russian empire, and later of the Soviet Union.
In a long essay last year, “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” Putin made clear the depth of his determination on the matter. He called the modern border dividing Russia and Ukraine “our great common misfortune and tragedy.”
Putin and Russian state media falsely call Ukrainian leaders “Nazis” and “drug addicts.” Putin has called his military campaign in Ukraine one of de-Nazification.
Gissou Nia, a human-rights lawyer who worked on war crime trials at the Hague, points to two alleged acts by Russia in Ukraine as also possibly showing intent of genocide: Reports of deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, and an account, from Ukraine’s government, of Russian soldiers telling 25 detained women and girls in Bucha that the Russians aimed to rape them to the point that they never bear any Ukrainian children.
WHY DOES IT MATTER IF WORLD LEADERS USE “GENOCIDE” TO DESCRIBE RUSSIA’S ACTIONS?
Embedded in the genocide convention is an obligation that the U.S. and other signers of the treaty have treated warily —if they acknowledge a genocide is occurring, they’re committed to ensuring investigation and prosecution, at the least.
People and countries committing genocide “shall be punished,” the treaty declares, seeking to crush any wiggle room.
U.S. leaders for decades dodged using the word “genocide” to avoid increasing the pressure on them to act as mass killings targeted classes of people or ethnic groups in Cambodia, Bosnia, Iraq, Rwanda and elsewhere.
Regretting his failure to do more to stop the killing of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda in 1994, Bill Clinton in June 1999 became the first U.S. president to recognize an act of genocide as it was playing out, saying Serb forces carrying out a deadly campaign against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo were attempting genocide.
NATO intervened, lobbing 78 days of airstrikes that forced Serbian fighters’ withdrawal from Kosovo. An international tribunal charged Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic with war crimes, although Milosevic died before his trial concluded.
Starting in 2005, world also leaders embraced – in principle – responsibility for collective action to stop genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Atrocities and targeted campaigns against groups continue around the world, however, and the so-called responsibility to protect is seldom invoked.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THE U.S. DOES DECLARE RUSSIAN ACTIONS TO BE GENOCIDE?
U.S. leaders long have feared that acknowledging genocide would require them to intervene, even to send in troops, with all the risks, costs and political backlash that would entail. It’s been a main reason leaders limit themselves to angry statements and humanitarian aid.
Biden is adamant the U.S. will not use its own military to confront Russian forces on behalf of Ukraine. Doing so would risk World War III, he says.
He and allies in Europe and elsewhere already are intervening by sanctioning Russia and by sending weapons and other support to Ukraine for its defense.
Biden and other Western leaders also have called for war crimes trials. The International Criminal Court already has started an investigation. But longstanding U.S. opposition to the International Criminal Court, over worries that U.S. troops could face prosecution there one day, complicates such prosecutions. So can Russia’s veto power on the U.N. Security Council. And practically speaking, bringing Putin before a court is a long shot.
In the past, Americans’ opposition to entanglement in foreign wars also has helped discourage U.S. leaders from doing more to stop possible acts of genocide.
But Russia’s invasion of a neighboring country and brutality against Ukraine’s people have angered Americans in a way that genocidal campaigns in Cambodia, Kurdish areas of Iraq and elsewhere did not.
A recent poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 40% of people in America believe the U.S. should have a “major role” in ending Russia’s invasion. Just 13% think the U.S. shouldn’t be involved at all. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/explainer-why-does-it-matter-if-us-calls-ukraine-genocide/ | 2022-04-14T11:22:06 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/explainer-why-does-it-matter-if-us-calls-ukraine-genocide/ |