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WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly three dozen House Democrats are pushing the administration to get tougher with Saudi Arabia, calling it a bad strategic partner after it has refused to help ease the world’s oil supply crunch during Russia’s Ukraine invasion.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat and senior member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Committee on Rules, led lawmakers in a letter asking Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a “recalibration” of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Joe Biden started out his presidency freezing out the kingdom’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, over Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen and abuses including the killing of American-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Tight oil supply and rising oil prices that are driving inflation have led the Biden administration to try to improve its relationship with Saudi rulers since then, however.
Blinken and other U.S. diplomats and military leaders have called on Saudi officials, dialed back public criticism of Saudi imprisonment of dissidents, and emphasized U.S. defensive support for the kingdom against cross-border missile attacks on Saudi oil sites and other targets by Houthi rebels in Yemen.
There are no signs the U.S. overtures have assuaged affronted Saudi rulers, and the kingdom has refused to make the drastic increases in oil pumping that the U.S. hopes for.
The House Democrats’ letter noted the kingdom’s ongoing harsh treatment of rights advocates and the 2018 killing of Khashoggi, which the U.S. intelligence community concluded Prince Mohammed ordered.
And currently, the Democrats wrote, Saudi Arabia is doing nothing to help the West as it tries to freeze out Russia for its war in Ukraine. Russia is a top global oil and gas producer, and the conflict has worsened an already tight global oil supply.
“Instead of accepting appeals from our government to produce more oil, an initial step that would immediately lower prices for Americans across the country,” Saudi rulers are reportedly talking with China about pricing part of its oil sales in the Chinese yuan, a move that could weaken the U.S. dollar, the Democrats wrote.
“Governments that have formed genuine, ironclad alliances with the United States, forged in shared values of democratic norms and respect for human rights, have answered the call to action in the wake of unprovoked invasion. Unfortunately, our long-standing relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not produced a similar response,” Democrats wrote.
“Saudi Arabia’s inability to stand up for international law exemplifies the short- and long-term risks associated with maintaining uncritical U.S. support for the Saudi regime,” the letter added. It asked Blinken to rebalance U.S. dealings with Saudi Arabia accordingly.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington separately said Wednesday it would provide up to $10 million in support for Ukrainian refugees.
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Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/house-democrats-ask-biden-to-get-tougher-with-saudi-arabia/ | 2022-04-14T11:22:13 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/house-democrats-ask-biden-to-get-tougher-with-saudi-arabia/ |
ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s political action committee has given $500,000 to a group that is running attack ads in Georgia against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
The spending appears aimed at boosting former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, whom Trump has endorsed in the GOP gubernatorial primary, but the ad never mentions Perdue by name.
It’s the first major outlay from Trump’s Save America PAC, underlining Trump’s continuing obsession with beating Kemp. Trump views Kemp as disloyal for refusing to help overturn his defeat in the state’s 2020 presidential election.
The ad criticizes Kemp for not doing enough to combat voter fraud, citing discredited claims that a Georgia law enforcement agency examined and dismissed.
The Save America PAC entered the year with $120 million in cash. But until now, the former president has been reluctant to spend that money beyond small contributions to candidates and money spent on rallies he is now holding almost every week.
Federal campaign records show the donation went to a group called Get Georgia Right PAC in March, as first reported by Politico.
The ad began airing earlier this month, according to Kantar Media. The Associated Press also obtained a copy of a text message the group sent urging people to watch the ad.
The spending comes at a time that Perdue is trailing in the polls and is being outspent by Kemp. Perdue, who’s worth $50 million, has suggested he could kick in some of his own money.
“We’re going to make sure this thing is well funded,” Perdue told reporters in March. “We’re going to get our message out.”
Kemp remains dismissive of Trump, with spokesperson Cody Hall attacking Perdue about remarks the challenger made Tuesday criticizing Kemp’s stewardship of the state police.
“David Perdue is going to need a lot more than $500,000 to distract from his unhinged rant attacking the Georgia State Patrol,” Hall said.
A Perdue loss in Georgia in the state’s May 24 primary could be particularly embarrassing for Trump, who recruited Perdue to challenge Kemp and pressed another Republican — Vernon Jones — to exit the governor’s race and run for Congress instead. Trump has also endorsed an extensive slate of other Republicans in Georgia running for statewide and congressional offices.
Trump called Kemp a “turncoat,” a “coward” and “a complete and total disaster” at a rally in Commerce, Georgia, last month. But the former president was noncommittal in an April 6 interview with conservative radio host John Fredericks about whether he would do an additional rally for Perdue. He told Fredericks that it’s “not easy to beat a sitting governor, just remember that,” adding that “it’s a close race and we’ll see what happens.”
Perdue has parroted Trump’s lies in his own attacks against Kemp, declaring at the Commerce rally that “our elections in 2020 were absolutely stolen.”
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report from New York. | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/trump-pac-gives-500000-to-attack-georgias-brian-kemp/ | 2022-04-14T11:22:20 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/trump-pac-gives-500000-to-attack-georgias-brian-kemp/ |
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Boston lures workers back downtown with DJs, food trucks and — free Dunks
If you hand out free coffee, will they come? Boston thinks it's worth a try.
On Wednesday, the city offered free Dunkin' coffee — both hot and iced — as part of a new effort to lure remote workers and visitors back downtown.
The city is working with the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District to hold a series of block parties on Wednesdays through the summer to help revitalize the city's core. In addition to free coffee, the city also plans to offer beer gardens, food trucks, music performances and even historical re-enactors.
"We’re just trying to make sure people understand downtown Boston is clean, safe and welcoming," said George Comeau, marketing and brand manager for the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District.
Boston has lifted all its pandemic restrictions on businesses — but many office workers have yet to return downtown, making it hard for many local vendors to survive.
"I hope people will think about all the things they did love about downtown Boston, and decide to come back," Comeau said.
About 13% of downtown offices are now vacant, more than double the figure before the pandemic. And foot traffic is less than half of what what it was in 2019, according to sensors operated by the Downtown Business Improvement District.
Some office workers like Ellie Dieter said they appreciated the effort to revive the neighborhood.
"I like feeling a little bit like a person again, rather than just rolling out of bed and walking five feet to my desk," said Dieter, as she waited in line for free coffee at the mobile Dunkin'.
Dieter said she started working in person at her downtown office again in February. But she thinks it will take more than free coffee and other perks to draw all the people back.
She said companies need to establish health and safety precautions so employees can "feel good about coming back in."
Brian Appelman, a real estate agent who works in the area, said some of his favorite local restaurants still feel mostly empty.
"We go to lunch all the time around here, and it’s been a bummer to see some of the places struggling where you’re usually seeing lines out the door," he said.
Just around the corner, the smell of fruit and yeast floated out of Democracy Brewing.
Democracy was once a popular spot for drinks after work. But co-founder James Razsa said the office workers have yet to come back in large numbers. Instead, they’ve mostly seen tourists and other visitors.
Still, Razsa said he finally feels like his brewery is on solid footing again after struggling through the lockdowns.
"We definitely thought the game was up a few times, for sure," he said. "And we felt like we could hang on, things would get better."
Razsa said he’s also happy for all the bars, cafes and restaurants that have managed to survive so far.
"The more that we can have downtown rebound and be exciting again, the more people are going to want to come visit and pop around and get drinks here, and go to a show, and get dinner there," he said. "I think it’s really starting to come back and it’s super exciting for us."
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Theater workers Lucille Ferragamo and Karen Kosko said they’ve been putting on shows in person since venues reopened last summer.
"We went right back to work," Ferragamo said. "Once they opened the doors, put the curtain up, we were there, in the aisles."
Kosko said the streets still felt largely empty a few months ago. But now visitors are starting to crowd the theaters. "They’re craving it, they need it," she said.
The foot traffic sensors back that up. Though down from 2019, foot traffic has surged 64% over the past year.
The city hopes to boost those numbers even further. So in coming months, they plan to keep trying to make downtown more attractive — with street performers, food trucks and, of course, free coffee.
This segment aired on April 14, 2022. Audio will be available soon. | https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/14/boston-block-parties-downtown-workers-offices | 2022-04-14T11:22:23 | 1 | https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/14/boston-block-parties-downtown-workers-offices |
WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s no such thing as a purely personal opinion from the Oval Office on policies that matter. Armchair quarterbacking when you’re the president is fraught when you’re the one with the ball.
Armies can move on your words; markets can convulse; diplomacy can unravel.
That has not stopped President Joe Biden from viscerally weighing in onthe Ukraine war— labeling Russia’s Vladimir Putin a war criminal, appearing to advocate an overthrow in Moscow, branding Russian war actions as genocide — then saying it’s all his personal, not presidential, opinion.
It’s sowing confusion in dangerous times.
America is no mere bystander in this conflict. The U.S. is Ukraine’s chief supplier of arms from the West, a key source of military intelligence for Kyiv and a driving force behind global sanctions against Russia. It has generations of experience in how to talk to and about its historic nuclear rival.
But on consequential superpower subjects, Biden these days is “speaking from his heart,” his aides have said repeatedly. Not unlike his predecessor, he is reacting at times to what he sees on TV. He’s not always to be taken literally, it is argued.
A declaration of genocide is history’s harshest judgment against a country, one that can bind the signers of a United Nations treaty to intervene. Concern about that obligation dissuaded the U.S. from recognizing the Rwandan Hutus’ killing of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis in 1994 as genocide. It took more than a century for a U.S. president, Biden last year, to recognize the Armenian genocide.
But in remarks in Iowa on Tuesday, Biden equated Russia’s mass killings of Ukrainian civilians to genocide and stuck with that position on his way back to Washington: “Yes, I called it genocide,” he affirmed. Lawyers will decide if Russia’s conduct met the international standard, the president added, but “it sure seems that way to me.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Biden’s remarks. “True words of a true leader,” he tweeted. “Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil.”
But as the war unfolds in Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron warned, “I’m not sure if the escalation of words serves our cause.”
“I am prudent with terms today,” Macron said. “Genocide has a meaning. … It’s madness what’s happening today. It’s unbelievable brutality and a return to war in Europe. But at the same time I look at the facts, and I want to continue to try the utmost to be able to stop the war and restore peace.”
At the White House last month, Biden said of Putin, “I think he is a war criminal,” in response to a shouted question as he walked out of an unrelated bill-signing reception. He said the same again when visiting U.S. troops in Poland.
The White House hastened to say that did not necessarily signal U.S. policy.
“He was speaking from his heart and speaking from what he’s seen on television, which is barbaric actions by a brutal dictator, through his invasion of a foreign country,” said press secretary Jen Psaki.
Psaki on Wednesday dismissed the notion that anyone was confused by the idea of Biden’s personal comments not reflecting federal policy. She said Biden ran for office promising “he would shoot from the shoulder, is his phrase that he often uses, and tell it to them straight. And his comments yesterday, not once but twice, and on war crimes are an exact reflection of that.”
As well, after meeting Ukrainian children torn from their families in the war, Biden sent his staff scrambling to explain his apparent endorsement of Moscow regime change when he said of Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
Again, not U.S. policy.
“I was expressing the moral outrage that I felt toward this man,” Biden said days later. “I wasn’t articulating a policy change.”
It was Donald Trump who jettisoned the idea of a scripted presidency every way he could, with his multitude of tweets leading the way. Some reflected policy. Some just mirrored what was in his head at the moment.
“We made a dramatic transition during the Trump presidency” in coming to realize that a president may not be speaking for the government or the country at times, but only for himself, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She credits the Biden White House with being quick to set the record straight when that happens.
In Jamieson’s academic world of political rhetoric, some public figures like Barack Obama are considered self-monitors — they hear what they are saying as they say it and catch themselves in progress when they go adrift. Biden, she says, lacks this filter.
“Obama was a high self monitor,” she said. “Biden is not. The distance between thought and expression for Biden is not very wide.”
Along with longtime foreign-policy credentials and a deep knowledge of how government works, Biden has a history of loose lips and letting his emoting get the better of him.
That caused occasional friction when he was Obama’s vice president, as when Biden endorsed same-sex marriage rights in a 2012 TV interview before his boss was quite ready to do so. Biden “probably got out a little bit over his skis, but out of generosity of spirit,” Obama said at the time, adding that he would have “preferred to have done this in my own way, on my own terms.”
White House aides say Biden’s pronouncements reflect that he’s never been one to hold his tongue through his five decades in Washington, even when it gets him into trouble.
They see Biden’s declarations, separate from his government’s policies, as reactions not just to the horrifying scenes in Ukraine, but also to political pressure at home to say and do more in response to Russia’s invasion.
To David Axelrod, former adviser to the ever-cautious Obama, Biden’s remark that Putin “cannot remain in power” illustrated the Washington adage that “everyone’s strength is their weakness.”
Biden’s strength is his empathy and authenticity, Axelrod said on his recent podcast, and that can also be a weakness when a president says the wrong thing in a time of crisis.
The risk from off-the-cuff remarks is hardly new with Biden. In 2016, Axelrod foresaw a similar concern from Trump’s capacity for highly contentious comments.
“You can’t, when you’re president of the United States, just shoot first and think about it later in terms of what you say,” he said then, “because people can actually start shooting based on what you say.” | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/when-biden-speaking-from-his-heart-doesnt-speak-for-us/ | 2022-04-14T11:22:27 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/politics/when-biden-speaking-from-his-heart-doesnt-speak-for-us/ |
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As COVID numbers increase again, here's what to expect
COVID metrics in Massachusetts are ticking upward — both in the number of cases an in the wastewater sampled in the metro Boston area.
Health experts say they are not expecting a "wave" like omicron, but rather what they call a "swell."
WBUR's Gabrielle Emanuel joins Morning Edition to explain what that means.
This segment aired on April 14, 2022. Audio will be available soon. | https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/14/covid-numbers-increase-expect | 2022-04-14T11:22:29 | 0 | https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/14/covid-numbers-increase-expect |
SALADO, Texas (AP) — Nearly two dozen people were injured when tornadoes swept through central Texas as part of a storm system that was expected to spawn more twisters and damaging winds Wednesday.
The storms caused widespread damage Tuesday in Salado, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Austin. Bell County Judge David Blackburn said 23 people were injured, one of them critically. Twelve of the injured were taken to hospitals, Blackburn said.
“There’s not much left,” said Blackburn, the county’s top elected official. “Large trees are uprooted and overturned and stripped. Buildings really reduced to rubble. … Power lines, power poles, are scattered all over the place. It’s pretty devastating.”
Photos on social media showed grapefruit-size hail associated with that storm.
Tornadoes were also spotted Tuesday in Iowa, but there were no reports of serious injuries. In Lincoln, Nebraska, powerful wind gusts knocked down tree limbs and caused some roof damage. A possible tornado also caused damage in the small southern Minnesota town of Taopi near the state’s border with Iowa.
Mower County Sheriff Steve Sandvik said dispatchers began getting calls from residents trapped in their damaged homes not long after a tornado warning siren sounded at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. There were no reports of serious injuries. Weather service crews were assessing damage in the area Wednesday.
More tornadoes were in the forecast Wednesday for parts of the mid-South and in the Mississippi River Valley, the Storm Prediction Center said.
Hurricane-force winds, intense tornadoes and large hail were possible in Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Mississippi, Indiana, Louisiana and Alabama, forecasters said. Little Rock, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee, were among the cities that could see the worst weather Wednesday, the Storm Prediction Center said.
Elsewhere, the North Dakota Capitol, schools, government offices and interstates remained closed Wednesday as a blizzard continued to bear down on the state.
A blizzard warning issued by the National Weather Service remained in effect through Thursday for most of western and central North Dakota where up to 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow was expected. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/23-injured-in-texas-storms-more-tornadoes-forecast-in-us/ | 2022-04-14T11:22:35 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/23-injured-in-texas-storms-more-tornadoes-forecast-in-us/ |
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As companies vow to sever ties in Russia, a clean break proves complicated
Breaking up with Russia can be hard to do – quite a bit harder, it turns out, than corporate America wants to admit to the public.
From Wall Street banks and consulting giants to life-science companies and public pensions, outrage has been pouring out in press releases since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, along with commitments to cut ties there. But in reality, many businesses in Massachusetts and across the country have yet to fully abandon their investments or physical presence in Russia. Some have employees, plants or customers there; others have significant investments in startups, or securities in limbo until they can be sold.
And there are still other companies staying quiet because they haven’t figured out what to do. Ominously, there’s silence in some quarters, executives and Russia experts said, to protect workers from being persecuted by the Russian government.
“It's not simple on many levels, and the difficulties are different for different kinds of businesses,” said Philip Nichols, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania who studies Russia and other emerging economies. Over time, he said, staying in Russia “will be costlier and costlier in terms of reputation.”
Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm with offices around the globe, on March 4 released a statement from its chief executive, Christoph Schweizer, saying it was “horrifying to witness the impact of the escalating war,” and that he was personally “heartbroken.”
The company has done business in Russia since 1990, advising on such projects as how to make Moscow more appealing to tourists, in a 48-page report that notes the language barrier, image problems and unpleasant border checkpoint experiences. The company says it had about 400 employees in Moscow at the time of the invasion.
In its March statement, BCG said it would stop taking new work from Russian clients and would “wind down work where possible,” but honor existing obligations. More than a month later, the company declined to provide any update on the wind-down or what it entails.
It’s just one example of how ensconced many U.S. companies are in Russia. A number of them declined to discuss their Russia plans when contacted by WBUR. While some have publicly said they’ve suspended business, they did not provide details or confirmation that they’ve actually paused or shut down.
Businesses Act In Response To Sanctions And Stakeholders
Western investment in Russia started ramping up shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with companies wading in through the 1990s and early 2000s. It was seen as a new day, and an opportunity to get a piece of an untapped market.
Russia’s military incursions and undemocratic activities created some bumps along the road. But even after Russia took over Crimea in 2014, many companies stayed.
“It’s a large economy, and it’s commodity-rich,” said Lee Ferridge, head of macro strategy at State Street Global Advisors in Boston. Russia today represents 2% of the global economy, he said. “For a company, why would you ignore 2% of the potential market out there?”
Boston-based General Electric Co. expanded in Russia a decade ago, announcing joint ventures in electricity-generating turbines and high-tech medical diagnostics. Russian leader Vladimir Putin himself was at the Sochi signing ceremony for the deals, which were forecasted to generate as much as $15 billion in new revenue.
Then in 2016, GE announced plans to double down, and invest $1 billion in oil and gas, power and transportation.
Some of those ventures have since been sold off, or didn't pan out, according to GE. The company says it currently has about 1,000 employees in Russia and that the country accounts for 1% to 2% of its total annual revenue of $74 billion. A March 8 tweet from GE said it was “suspending our operations” in Russia, but there were two notable exceptions – providing “essential medical equipment and supporting existing power services to the people in the region.”
As for what it’s actually stopped doing in Russia, GE said it suspended its aviation business, to comply with sanctions.
“Business is no longer an amoral actor in society."
Ranjay Gulati
Banks and financial companies must follow sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury and European regulators banning financial transactions with large Russian institutions and wealthy oligarchs connected to Putin. But other companies are reacting to the Ukraine invasion based on pressure from customers, investors and other stakeholders. They have to manage the short- and long-term reputation risk in continuing to do business there.
“Business is no longer an amoral actor in society,” said Ranjay Gulati, a professor at the Harvard Business School who studies how organizations thrive. Deciding to stay in Russia or leave, he said, is not just about bottom-line costs. “Demonstrating a moral position also earns you goodwill and trust,” Gulati said, helping business in the long run.
It’s Not, ‘Flip A Switch, We’re Gone,' Experts Say
Drug makers are among those wrangling with ethical and financial calls in Russia. Novartis, a Swiss company with a Cambridge presence, has a manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, where it makes drugs for the local population. Cambridge-based Biogen also is providing medicines in Russia. Both companies said they would continue existing drug trials in Russia, but would not enroll new participants or initiate new trials.
IPG Photonics Corp. of Oxford has close to 2,000 employees in Russia, working in production and research for its high-power laser products. The company said in a press release it’s now looking to shift some of that work to Germany and the U.S. But the Russian operation is significant, sending about $100 million of product to the Chinese market last year. Sales in Russia were $30 million.
Some companies are managing the conflict from multiple locations. Bain Consulting in a LinkedIn post on March 7 said it was helping its employees in Kyiv stockpile gas, food and water before the invasion. The Boston-based firm also has deep ties in Russia; it says it ceased work in 2020 with the government, including those in military and intelligence.
In its March statement, Bain said it would no longer work with any Russian business, whether state-owned (and therefore likely barred by U.S. sanctions) or private. But its Moscow office will remain open “for now.”
Retailers and sellers of consumer products have been the quickest to say they’ll leave Russia or stop shipments there – McDonald’s, New Balance sneakers, Coca-Cola. For others, it’s more complex. Big financial players, such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JP Morgan Chase & Co., have said they’re winding down their operations. But it’s unclear how long that might take – and whether they’ll actually go entirely.
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Citigroup and Bank of America are so far staying open. In a March 14 release, Citi said it was “moving with urgency to complete our assessment” of Russia operations, but warned that it will take time to execute. Bank of America has about 50 employees there, mainly to provide corporate finance services to non-Russian clients that do business in the country.
“It’s not just, ‘Flip a switch, we’re gone,’ ” said Nichols, the Wharton professor. “There are a lot of difficult decisions and a lot of logistical things that have to happen.”
If there’s more than the usual amount of secrecy around some of these corporate moves, Nichols said, there’s reason for it. The Russian government in some cases will target the local workforce if a company leaves, even threatening arrest or launching investigations of individuals, he said.
“It’s hardball over there,” Nichols said.
A number of Massachusetts companies do business in Russia but have not made public statements about their plans, including Bruker Corp., a publicly traded life-science instruments maker in Billerica. The company has had a presence in Russia for 40 years, and currently has a sales force and customer support in Moscow, according to public records.
Company representatives did not return requests for comment. In its annual report filed with securities regulators in February, Bruker said, “As a result of economic sanctions on Russia we may face disruptions to our operations.”
In the investing world, addressing the Russia situation is complicated in other ways.
Consider the $104 billion Massachusetts state pension fund for teachers and other public employees. The Legislature just passed a measure requiring it to divest of Russian securities — “subject to market availability.” That means dumping stocks like energy giants Gazprom and Lukoil, held in emerging markets funds.
Those Russia holdings were worth about $250 million at the start of the year, according to the pension fund. That’s less than a quarter-percent of the total fund, but it was still real money – worth less than $10 million now, according to pension officials, because Russian markets are closed to foreigners.
No matter how much the pension fund’s managers might like to unload those holdings, no one is buying Russian stocks right now. As investors with a duty to the commonwealth’s retirees, they’d rather make money selling those stocks than take a loss. For now, they’re parked on the sidelines, waiting for a moment to sell.
Multiply this scenario out across the country, and there are holdings formerly worth billions of dollars stuck in Russian securities, with nowhere to go.
Harvard University, in response to student demands, said it has no “direct” investments there. The school’s $53 billion endowment declined to disclose any holdings in Russian securities, claiming officials don’t know for certain what’s in the emerging markets funds run by outside managers.
Endowments and pension funds also have holdings in private equity and venture capital funds with Russia exposure. Bain Capital and Advent International are two large Boston-based private equity firms with investments in several companies that do business in Russia. Both firms said Russia accounts for less than 1% of revenue in most of those cases. One pharmaceutical company Bain invests in, Stada Arzneimittel, has operations in Russia and Ukraine.
If these initial weeks of Russia’s war on Ukraine have caused turmoil for companies, business specialists predict the pressures to leave will only grow.
“In the beginning, it was temporary,” said Gulati, the Harvard Business School professor. “But now, when there's documentary evidence of atrocity, now comes the uncomfortable question – is ‘temporary’ going to be permanent?”
This segment aired on April 14, 2022. Audio will be available soon. | https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/14/russian-companies-massachusetts-sanctions-war-ukraine | 2022-04-14T11:22:35 | 1 | https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/14/russian-companies-massachusetts-sanctions-war-ukraine |
NEW YORK (AP) — The shooting this week of 10 people by a man who deployed smoke grenades and fired at least 33 shots in a commuter-packed Brooklyn subway car was hardly the first time New Yorkers have grappled with an act of violence.
Over the past 40 years, New York has endured multiple subway and train shootings, bombing attempts, a vehicular attack on pedestrians and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
The suspect in the latest assault was taken into custody Wednesday, about 30 hours after the shooting. The attack left five victims in critical condition and put residents of the nation’s most populous city on edge
A look at some of the attacks in the city over the past four decades:
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1984 SUBWAY SHOOTING
Thirty-eight years ago, a man shot four Black teenson the 2 train in Manhattan at a time of widespread crime in the city, sparking a nationwide debate on racism, gun control, and safety.
Bernhard Goetz said he shot the teens because they were attempting to rob him. The teens had sharpened screwdrivers and asked Goetz for $5. Goetz was charged with attempting to murder the four teens with an unlicensed firearm.
In 1987, Goetz was cleared of the attempted murder charge and spent less than a year in jail for a weapons conviction.
Darrell Cabey, one of the young men shot on the subway, was left paralyzed and suffered brain damage after the shooting. Several years later, he was awarded $43 million in a lawsuit against Goetz. The other three victims recovered from their wounds.
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LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD SHOOTING
In 1993, a man opened fire on the Long Island Rail Road, killing six people and injuring 19 others.
Passengers charged at shooter Colin Ferguson and held him down as the train pulled into a station.
Ferguson refused an insanity plea and represented himself at his 1995 trial. Under cross-examination, witnesses answered Ferguson’s questions by implicating him, telling Ferguson, “I saw you shoot me.”
Ferguson was convicted on six murder charges and 19 attempted murder charges. He was acquitted of 25 counts of civil rights violations on charges that accused Ferguson, who was Black, of targeting the victims based on their race. The people killed and injured were of multiple races.
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CHELSEA BOMBING
In 2016, a pressure cooker device connected to a cellphone exploded in a Manhattan neighborhood, injuring 30 people. The Chelsea bombing triggered a two-day manhunt that came to a head in a shootout in New Jersey. Theconvicted bomber,Ahmad Khan Rahimi, is now serving a life sentence.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio said the attack was “an intentional act” and initially called it terrorist-related. During Rahimi’s trial, prosecutors said he attempted to radicalize prisoners after his arrest with terrorist propaganda from speeches and lectures by al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric who inspired attacks on America and was killed in a U.S. airstrike in September 2011.
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TIMES SQUARE SUBWAY BOMBING
In 2017, a man used Christmas lights, matches and a nine-volt battery toignite a pipe bomb under a Times Square subway station. But the bomb, which was strapped to the bomber’s chest, failed to launch. It injured three people and severely burned the bomber.
Akayed Ullah was sentenced to life in prison. Ullah said he was not motivated by religious extremism, but by anger sparked by former President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric. Authorities said Ullah was radicalized online by Islamic State group extremists.
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BIKE PATH KILLINGS
In 2017, a New Jersey man allegedly drove a truck on Halloween down a bicycle path along the Hudson River in Manhattan, killing eight people and injuring numerous others.
The truck driver, Sayfullo Saipov, was shot and wounded by police after he reportedly smashed into a school bus and then ran down the highway with a paintball gun while shouting “Allahu akbar.”
He was charged with terrorism and the murder of eight civilians.
Saipov is currently in jail awaiting trial, which has been delayed since 2019.
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FAKE BOMBS IN FULTON STREET STATION
In 2019, a West Virginia man allegedly traveled to the cityto plant two pressure-cooker type devices in lower Manhattan’s Fulton Street subway station, triggering an evacuation in one of the city’s busiest stations and affecting thousands of commuters.
New York City police opened another investigation after a third device was found in the nearby Chelsea neighborhood.
Larry Kenton Griffin was arrested and charged with placing a false bomb. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/a-look-at-acts-of-public-violence-in-nyc-over-past-40-years/ | 2022-04-14T11:22:41 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/a-look-at-acts-of-public-violence-in-nyc-over-past-40-years/ |
BEIRUT (AP) — The chilling scenes from Syria of victims twitching and gasping for air after chlorine cylinders were dropped from helicopters in towns and villages were broadcast over and over in the course of country’s civil war.
Legal and moral taboos were shattered. Hundreds were killed, including many children, in dozens of poison gas attacks widely blamed on President Bashar Assad’s forces under the protection of his chief ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Several years later, concerns are growing that such weapons could be used in Ukraine, where Russian forces have been waging a devastating war for weeks.
As the conflict drags on, Western officials and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have warned that Putin could deploy chemical agents.
“The world must react now,” Zelenskyy said.
Officials say they are investigatingan unconfirmed claim by a far-right Ukrainian regiment that a poisonous substance was dropped in the besieged city of Mariupol this week. The claim could not be confirmed by independent sources, and Ukrainian officials say it could have been phosphorus munitions – which cause horrendous burns but are not classed as chemical weapons.
LOWERING THE THRESHOLD
Putin has threatened to broaden the Ukraine war into a nuclear conflict, but it is unclear if chemical agents will be used to support his military operations. Analysts say the Syria war set a horrific precedent in terms of deploying chlorine, sulfur and the nerve agent sarin, completely disregarding international norms and with no accountability.
“From what we’re seeing now, it seems that Russia has drawn the conclusion that it’s safe to continue this modus operandi from Syria in the Ukrainian context as well,” said Aida Samani, legal adviser with Civil Rights Defenders, a Sweden-based group.
“Of course, that undermines the international regulations that we have in place and lowers the threshold for the use of such weapons,” Samani added.
She has joined with other nongovernmental organizations to file a criminal complaint on behalf of a group of Syrians living in Sweden against the Syrian government for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to its use of chemical weapons.
Western officials say Russia may be looking to borrow from the Syria playbook, where Assad’s forces tested the international community’s resolve by gradually ramping up the brutality of attacks and methods.
Part of the equation in Syria was the difficulty of proving anything in the aftermath of such attacks, largely due to the lack of immediate access. Assad, with Russia’s backing, consistently cast a cloud of confusion, accusing the opposition of fabricating evidence or deploying poison gas themselves to try to frame him.
An investigative mechanism set up by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons blamed Syrian government forces for multiple chemical attacks in Syria, including the use of chlorine and sarin in an attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017 that killed about 100 people. At least one mustard gas attack was blamed on the Islamic State group, which held territory in Syria and Iraq for several years during the war that killed half a million people.
In comments reminiscent of Syria, Russia accused Ukraine of running chemical and biological labswith U.S. support, leading to accusations Moscow was seeking to stage a false-flag incident. Ukraine does have a network of biological labs that have gotten funding and research support from the U.S. — but they are part of a program seeking to reduce the likelihood of deadly outbreaks by pathogens, whether natural or manmade. The U.S. efforts date to the 1990s to dismantle the former Soviet Union’s program for weapons of mass destruction.
RED LINES
The assault early on the morning of Aug. 21, 2013, on the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus known as Ghouta shocked a world that had grown largely numb to the carnage of Syria’s civil war.
Fueling the international outrage were dozens of online videos showing victims in spasms, gasping for breath and foaming at the mouth. The attack crossed what then-U.S. President Barack Obama had called a “red line” for possible military intervention in the Arab country.
Obama came close to ordering U.S.-led military strikes but abruptly backed down after failing to secure the necessary support from the U.S. Congress and instead struck a deal with Moscow to eliminate Syria’s chemical arsenal.
By August 2014, Assad’s government declared that the destruction of its chemical weapons was completed. But Syria’s initial declaration to the OPCW has remained in dispute, and the attacks continued.
In 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump launched several dozen cruise missiles at a Syrian air base in retaliation for a suspected nerve gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib province that killed about 100 people. Experts from the U.N. and the chemical weapons watchdog blamed the Syrian government for the attack.
As Moscow pushes its offensive in Ukraine, world leaders and policymakers are grappling with how the West should respond to a Russian battlefield use of chemical or biological weapons. Members of Congress said the Biden administration and its allies will not stand by if that happens.
Unlike Syria, however, Russia is a nuclear power. Any reaction risks triggering a nuclear confrontation, which Putin has already alluded to.
ACHIEVING JUSTICE
Samani, of Civil Rights Defenders, faults the international community for not making a real effort to seek accountability for the chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
“There hasn’t really been any political appetite to explore how, for example, a special tribunal could be set up for Syria,” she said.
Last week, she and a group of NGOs presented new information relevant to the sarin gas attacks on Khan Sheikhun in 2017 and Ghouta in 2013 to investigative authorities in Germany, France and Sweden.
But justice appears to be a long way off.
“Holding the perpetrators of these crimes accountable for the use of illegal weapons is the first deterrent to ensure that they do not recur,” said Haneen Haddad, project leader for the Syrian Archive, a Syrian-led project that documents human rights violations and other crimes committed in Syria.
“Without meaningful accountability, cruel actors and their enablers think that they can do terrible things without real consequence from the international community.”
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/chemical-weapons-use-from-syrian-war-stokes-ukraines-fears/ | 2022-04-14T11:22:49 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/chemical-weapons-use-from-syrian-war-stokes-ukraines-fears/ |
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Flooding in South Africa’s Durban area has taken at least 259 lives and is a “catastrophe of enormous proportions,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said Wednesday.
“This disaster is part of climate change. It is telling us that climate change is serious, it is here,” said Ramaphosa, visiting flooded areas of Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area.
“We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change,” he said.
The death toll is expected to continue rising as search and rescue operations continue in KwaZulu-Natal province, officials said. The province is about to be declared a disaster area by the national government, said Ramaphosa.
“KwaZulu-Natal is going to be declared a provincial area of disaster, so that we are able to do things quickly. The bridges have collapsed, the roads have collapsed, people have died and people are injured,” said Ramaphosa.
He said one family had lost 10 members in the devastating floods.
Residents have had to flee their homes as they were swept away, buildings collapsed and road infrastructure severely damaged. Durban port was flooded and shipping containers were swept away into a jumbled heap.
Authorities were also seeking to restore electricity to large parts of the province after heavy flooding at various power stations.
Rescue efforts by the South African National Defense Force were delayed as the military’s air wing was also affected by the floods, Gen. Rudzani Maphwanya said. The military was able to deploy personnel and helicopters around the province on Wednesday, he said.
The South Africa Weather Services has warned of continued winds and rains and the risk of continued flooding in Kwazulu-Natal and other provinces over the upcoming Easter weekend. South Africa’s Eastern Cape, Free State and North West provinces could be affected, it said. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/flooding-continues-in-south-africas-durban-area-259-dead/ | 2022-04-14T11:22:56 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/flooding-continues-in-south-africas-durban-area-259-dead/ |
GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — A former Franciscan friar was convicted Wednesday of sexually abusing a grade school student during the 1990s at a Mississippi Catholic school.
A Leflore County jury deliberated less than an hour before finding Paul West, 62, guilty of one count of sexual battery and one count of gratification of lust, the Greenwood Commonwealth reported.
West was accused of sexually abusing La Jarvis Love, now 39. Circuit Judge Ashley Hines sentenced West to 30 years on the first count and 15 years on the second count, to be served consecutively.
Love began crying when the verdict was read.
“I want to thank the state. I want to thank everybody that represented us,” Love said. “I just want to thank God, the provider, the creator. He restored my faith today. I really appreciate him, and I believe again.”
Gaunt and relying on a walker, West made no comment when escorted by deputies from the Leflore County Civic Center, where the two-day trial was held.
As first reported by The Associated Press in 2019, La Jarvis Love and his cousin, Joshua Love, now 38, had accused West of numerous instances of sexual abuse while they were students at St. Francis of Assisi School in Greenwood.
Both Loves testified Tuesday of repeated abuse by West beginning when they were in the fourth grade. They testified the abuse occurred both at the school and on trips to New York and to Wisconsin, where the Franciscan Friars of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary are based. West was a member of the religious order.
West was also charged with two counts of abusing Joshua Love. It was not immediately clear why the jury did not act on those charges.
A third man, Joshua Love’s younger brother, Raphael Love, also alleged that West sexually abused him. He reported the abuse to church authorities in 1998, after which West returned to Wisconsin and left the order.
Mark Belenchia, volunteer state coordinator for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said church officials should have taken more decisive action after learning of Rafael Love’s allegations.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Belenchia said. “This should have happened 20 years ago.”
West has been held in Mississippi’s Leflore County Jail since September 2020, when he was extradited from his home state of Wisconsin to face two counts of sexual battery and two counts of gratification of lust. He pleaded not guilty.
La Jarvis Love now lives in Senatobia, Mississippi, with his wife and four children. He identified West in the courtroom as his abuser and said this was the first time he had seen him in person in more than 20 years.
La Jarvis Love testified that he was in third grade when he first encountered West, who was his physical education teacher. West later became principal of the school, Love said, and received permission from Love’s grandmother to use corporal punishment, such as paddling.
La Jarvis Love said the sexual abuse began when he was in fourth grade, with touching, groping, and what he called “extra friendly” physical activity. The abuse lasted until eighth grade, he said. He also said West began calling him to his office, showing him pornography on West’s computer, and fondling him. La Jarvis Love testified that the abuse included oral sex and anal penetration.
La Jarvis Love said his grandmother allowed him to work various jobs at the school, which he said gave West more opportunities to abuse him. He said the only person he told about the abuse was his grandmother, who confronted West but was told nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
He said the abuse has left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
When asked by West’s attorney, Wallie Stuckey, why he didn’t tell anyone, La Jarvis Love said he feared West.
“When you’re being groomed, you think everything is OK,” La Jarvis Love said.
Joshua Love, who lives in Greenwood, testified that West set himself up as a mentor and began abusing him when he was in fourth grade. He also said that his grandmother granted West permission to paddle him and said this began in 1996.
Joshua Love said the first instance of abuse he could remember happened in the school cafeteria, where West was going to paddle him for misbehaving. He said West excused the cafeteria workers before taking him to a back room to fondle him.
Joshua Love said the abuse included oral sex, anal penetration and showing him pornography. He also said West attempted to have him and La Jarvis Love perform sex acts on each other during a trip to New York.
Both cousins testified they never spoke to each other about the abuse at the time.
Joshua Love alleged that West threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the abuse. He said he did not know La Jarvis Love had been abused until he told church officials about five years ago.
After Joshua’s testimony, the prosecution rested its case. The defense declined to call witnesses, and West declined to testify. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/former-franciscan-friar-convicted-of-1990s-child-sex-abuse/ | 2022-04-14T11:23:03 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/former-franciscan-friar-convicted-of-1990s-child-sex-abuse/ |
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Interior Ministry said Wednesday it has authorized raising the rainbow flag at federal government buildings on some occasions, a move meant to end discussions about unclear rules and signal acceptance of diversity.
The ministry said that flying the rainbow flag “must be related to a concrete date,” such as Pride marches or the June 28 anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprisings in New York that helped propel a global LGBTQ movement. There are some national holidays and other days when it won’t be allowed.
The ministry said that, until now, there had been no rule formally allowing the flag, “which in the past has frequently led to discussions.”
“We are a modern and diverse country,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement. “It is high time that we as state institutions also show that more clearly.”
“We want discrimination against people because of their sexual identity to end in all areas of society,” she added. “We want to show solidarity with all those who still experience exclusion.”
Faeser’s decision comes as Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition of three socially liberal parties, which took office in December, pursues an agenda of social reforms.
The government has launched a drive to remove from the country’s criminal code aban on doctors “advertising” abortion services. Among other things, it also wants to legalize the sale of cannabis for recreational purposes, ease the path to German citizenship and lift restrictions on dual citizenship.
The government also wants to scrap 40-year-old legislation that requires transsexual people to get a psychological assessment and a court decision before officially changing gender, a process that often involves intimate questions. It is to be replaced with a new “self-determination law.” | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/germany-oks-raising-rainbow-flag-at-government-buildings/ | 2022-04-14T11:23:09 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/germany-oks-raising-rainbow-flag-at-government-buildings/ |
A longtime friend and next-door neighbor of Johnny Depp testified Wednesday that Depp’s ex-wife, Amber Heard, had told him the movie star threw a phone at her and hit her inside the couple’s Los Angeles penthouse.
But Isaac Baruch said he never noticed any evidence of abuse on Heard’s face, both when he first saw her in the hallway or the next day in the sunlit lobby of their art deco-style building.
“She’s got her face out like this to show me, and I’m looking, and I inspect her face,” Baruch said of the encounter in May 2016. “And I don’t see anything. … I don’t see a cut, a bruise, swelling, redness.”
Baruch is the second witness called in the trial over Depp’s allegations that Heard falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuser. Depp says that an opinion piece Heard wrote for The Washington Post in 2018 indirectly defamed him.
Heard refers to herself in the article as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” It doesn’t name Depp. But his attorneys argue that it clearly referenced a restraining order that Heard sought in May 2016, right after Depp told her he wanted a divorce.
Depp denies abusing Heard.
Baruch, a painter, has been friends with Depp since 1980. He also worked at the Viper Room when the “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor partly owned the famed Los Angeles club. Baruch said Depp has financially supported him, providing him with places to live and giving him about $100,000 over the years.
Baruch testified that he noticed no makeup on Heard’s face when she said Depp hit her. But during cross-examination, Baruch conceded he didn’t know if Heard — who worked with cosmetics giant L’Oreal — had applied any concealer, foundation, powder or tint.
At one point, Baruch got emotional, stating that Heard needs to “take responsibility and move on.”
He said he never saw violence from Depp.
“His family has been completely wrecked by all of this stuff, and it’s not fair,” Baruch said. “It’s not right, what she did. … It’s insane.”
Baruch also testified that he saw security video showing Heard’s sister Whitney throwing a fake punch at Heard’s face while the two waited for an elevator in the building where he and Depp and Heard lived.
“And then they start laughing,” Baruch said.
Depp’s attorneys argue that the sisters were practicing for a real punch to to feign abuse from Depp.
But Heard’s lawyers have said the evidence will show that Depp physically and sexually assaulted Heard on multiple occasions. And they’ve argued that Depp’s denials lack credibility because he frequently drank and used drugs to the point of blacking out and failing to remember anything he did.
The first witness called for the trial was Depp’s older sister, Christi Dembrowski, who faced a barrage of questions from Heard’s lawyers about Depp’s alcohol and drug use.
When she took the stand Tuesday, Dembrowski said she and her brother endured a difficult childhood in which Depp learned to hide from an abusive mother. Dembrowski, who also worked as Depp’s personal manager, said she saw the same pattern in Depp’s relationship with Heard, adding that she would book an extra hotel room for Depp if Heard started a fight.
But Dembrowski struggled on cross-examination when asked why she sent texts to Depp in February 2014 that said, “Stop drinking. Stop coke. Stop pills.”
Heard’s lawyers asked similar questions Wednesday, zeroing in on a text exchange between Heard and Dembrowski in February 2014.
“Ms. Heard says, ‘JD is on a bender,’ and your response is, ‘Where are the kids?’ — correct?” J. Benjamin Rottenborn asked.
Dembrowski said that was correct. She also confirmed a 2014 email exchange she had with a doctor who treated Depp’s addiction to pain medication.
“You believe that your brother needed help with drugs and alcohol?” Rottenborn asked.
Dembrowski responded that she was concerned about Depp’s use of one medication but didn’t believe that he had a problem with drugs or alcohol overall, or that he romanticized drug culture.
Both Depp and Heard are expected to testify at the trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court, scheduled for six weeks, along with actors Paul Bettany and James Franco and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Heard’s lawyers had sought to have the case tried in California, where the actors reside. But a judge ruled that Depp was within his rights to bring the case in Virginia because The Washington Post’s computer servers for its online edition are located in the county. Depp’s lawyers have said they brought the case in Virginia in part because the laws here are more favorable to their case. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/heard-lawyers-zero-in-on-depps-drug-and-alcohol-use/ | 2022-04-14T11:23:16 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/heard-lawyers-zero-in-on-depps-drug-and-alcohol-use/ |
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Patients at the flagship hospital in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region are dying amid shortages of life-saving drugs and oxygen, according to health officials.
At least 60 patients with kidney disease have died since July, the result of a lack of supplies needed for regular dialysis, a doctor at Ayder Hospital in Mekele, Tigray’s capital, told the Associated Press.
Another 81 patients have died “directly because of a lack of oxygen” since the conflict between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, erupted in Nov. 2020, the doctor said.
The doctor spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, has been cut off from the rest of the country since the TPLF recaptured most of the region in late June. Its road networks, banking services and phone lines are all severed, a situation the United Nations has described as a “de facto blockade” imposed by Ethiopia’s federal government.
Ethiopian authorities didn’t respond to a request for comment on dwindling supplies at Mekele’s Ayder Hospital. The institution is a federal teaching hospital, meaning the education ministry in Addis Ababa, the federal capital is responsible for allocating its budget.
The hospital’s 3,600 staff have not been paid for months and many do not have enough money to buy food, hospital officials said, highlighting challenges that reflect a wider humanitarian crisis in the region.
More than 90% of Tigray’s 6 million people require humanitarian assistance, including 115,000 children who are severely malnourished, according to U.N. figures.
Some shortages have been alleviated by aid flights operated by the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which have flown in 438 metric tonnes (482 tons) of medical and nutrition supplies since late January.
But these supplies represent just 4% of what’s required, according to experts.
As a result, staff at Ayder Hospital say they have resorted to washing and reusing surgical gloves and treating patients with expired medicines. They are also recycling plastic breathing tubes and items used for dialysis.
“This is really risky for the patients; they can die of infections and other complications,” said the doctor. “Doctors elsewhere in the world would be shocked to hear we are doing this.”
The hospital also has been forced to cancel surgeries because of power cuts and a lack of supplies. Some services have been forced to close altogether, including the cancer center, which has treated 1,769 patients since Nov. 2020 but has now run out of drugs for chemotherapy.
“Since July we received no chemotherapy drugs at all,” he said. “We just tell the cancer patients to go back home and they die. There is nothing we can do for them.”
A surgeon at the hospital, who also asked not to be named for safety reasons, said the stock of intravenous fluids has run so low that colleagues have resorted to making their own using “different chemicals” from the hospital’s store.
“It is not ideal,” the surgeon said. “It means when patients go into shock, you can’t resuscitate them. It is so frustrating. You need to insert an IV line and give fluids, but there are no fluids.”
He said shortages are so dire that some patients’ relatives must personally buy medicines from private pharmacies at inflated prices and bring them to the hospital before their family members can be treated.
Patients with kidney disease are currently receiving dialysis once a week, down from three times a week before the war, while the hospital is unable to admit new patients with kidney disease due to a lack of supplies, the doctor said.
Ethiopian authorities declared an immediate humanitarian truce on March 24, a move they said would allow aid to enter Tigray. But since then just one convoy of 20 aid trucks and one fuel tanker have entered Tigray, far short of the 100 trucks the U.N. says must enter every day to meet the region’s needs.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war, according to estimates by international aid groups.
But there is little hope for peace talks as Ethiopian authorities have outlawed the TPLF, effectively making its leaders fugitives on the run. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/hospital-in-ethiopias-tigray-struggles-to-treat-patients/ | 2022-04-14T11:23:23 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/hospital-in-ethiopias-tigray-struggles-to-treat-patients/ |
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.
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Associated Press writers Sam Metz in Salt Lake City contributed to this report. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/in-drought-stricken-west-officials-weigh-emergency-actions/ | 2022-04-14T11:23:30 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/in-drought-stricken-west-officials-weigh-emergency-actions/ |
ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — A military drone that apparently flew all the way from the Ukrainian war zone over three European NATO member states before crashing in the Croatian capital was armed with an explosive device, Croatian crash investigators said Wednesday.
The 6-ton Soviet-era aircraft apparently drifted uncontrolled out of Ukraine, crossed into Romania and Hungary before entering Croatia, slamming into a field near a student dormitory early morning on March 10 in Zagreb. About 40 parked cars were damaged in the large explosion, but no one was injured.
Members of the Croatian investigative team told reporters Wednesday that fragments of the drone found at the crash site showed that the device carried an “improvised aircraft bomb” that was filled with unknown type of explosives.
“It was unequivocally established that these were fragments of the OFAB 100-120 air bomb,” said Maj. Mile Tomic. “Both the bomb and its trigger were made in the former USSR.”
The investigators said that they have not yet conclusively determined which side in the war in Ukraine launched the TU-141 drone that was originally used in surveillance missions. But they indicated that the Ukrainians are more like to be behind the launch as “fresh” paint traces of their blue and yellow flag were found on the pieces of the wreckage that also included a red star, the Russian air force marking.
Both Russia and Ukraine have denied launching it.
NATO officials have refused to comment on the incident until an investigation is completed, but the alliance had increased its surveillance flights over countries near the war zone and a pair of US Air Force F-16s were deployed from Aviano Air Base, Italy, to Croatia on March 16, taking part in exercises and bolstering NATO’s southeastern flank.
Croatian officials had criticized NATO for what they called a slow reaction to a very serious incident and called into question the readiness of the military alliance’s member states to respond to a possible attack.
NATO said the alliance’s integrated air and missile defense had tracked the object’s flight path. But Croatian officials said the country’s authorities weren’t informed and that NATO reacted only after questions were posed by journalists.
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AP writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/investigators-drone-that-crashed-in-croatia-carried-a-bomb/ | 2022-04-14T11:23:37 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/investigators-drone-that-crashed-in-croatia-carried-a-bomb/ |
LONDON (AP) — An Islamic State supporter was given a whole-life sentence Wednesday for stabbing a British lawmaker to death in revenge for his voting in support for airstrikes on Syria.
Ali Harbi Ali, 26, was convicted Monday of murdering Conservative lawmaker David Amess and preparing terrorist acts. A jury deliberated for just 18 minutes before finding him guilty.
“The defendant has no remorse or shame for what he has done — quite the reverse,” Justice Nigel Sweeney told the court. “This is a murder that struck at the heart of democracy.”
Ali stabbed Amess with a carving knife multiple times on Oct.15 while he was meeting with voters at a church hall in the town of Leigh-on-Sea in eastern England. Ali, a London man with Somali heritage, said he targeted Amess because he backed voting for airstrikes on Syria in 2014 and 2015.
The whole-life sentence means Ali will never be eligible for parole, and will likely spend the rest of his days in prison.
Amess’s family said “there is no elation” following the sentencing and described the crime as “beyond evil.”
“We will wake each day and immediately feel our loss. We will struggle through each day for the rest of our lives,” the family said in a statement. “It breaks our heart to know that our husband and father would have greeted the murderer with a smile of friendship and would have been anxious to help.”
Prosecutors described Ali as a committed, fanatical terrorist and said he spent years plotting an attack on British politicians. Counter-terrorism officers at the Metropolitan Police said they had evidence that he carried out reconnaissance around the Parliament building in London weeks before the murder.
During the trial, Ali told the court he took action in the U.K. to help Muslims in Syria because he couldn’t travel to join the Islamic State group. He also said he did not think he did anything wrong.
He added he had expected to be shot and die at the scene, but decided to drop his knife after seeing that the first police to arrive were not armed with guns.
Amess, 69, had been a member of Parliament since 1983. He was pronounced dead at the scene after the stabbing.
The slaying of Amess shook the nation and prompted questions about security protection for lawmakers because they often meet directly with the public. It came five years after Labour Party lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death by a far-right extremist. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/is-supporter-given-life-sentence-for-murdering-uk-lawmaker/ | 2022-04-14T11:23:44 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/is-supporter-given-life-sentence-for-murdering-uk-lawmaker/ |
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces on Wednesday shot and killed three Palestinians, including a teenage boy, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as Israeli troops continued a days-long operation in the occupied West Bank in response to a spate of deadly attacks.
The three deaths, all in separate incidents, were the latest in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has erupted as Muslims mark the holy month of Ramadan.
In two cases, the Israeli military said its troops fired at suspects who threw firebombs at soldiers during West Bank operations.
But Palestinian officials said one of the two, lawyer Mohammed Assaf, 34, just happened to inadvertently drive into a battle zone in the northern West Bank town of Beita.
The other was a 14-year-old, killed by Israeli army fire in Husan, a village near Bethlehem, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The teen’s death is likely to draw international criticism of Israeli military tactics. Earlier this week, the fatal shooting of an unarmed Palestinian woman drew accusations from European officials that the military was using excessive force.
Murad Shtaiwe, a Fatah party spokesman, said Assaf, the lawyer, was driving relatives to school. They passed through an area where clashes were taking place and Assaf was fatally shot, Shtaiwe said.
“What happened today is a new crime,” he said.
Also, the Israeli police said that in a joint security operation with the army and Shin Bet intelligence agency, troops arrested four suspects in the town of Silwad, near Ramallah. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 20-year-old Omar Muhammad Alyan was killed after he was shot in the chest during the Israeli arrest raid.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said at least 18 others were injured as a result of the Israeli military’s activities. The military said one soldier was lightly wounded in the clashes and that it arrested 15 people in its raids Wednesday.
Israel has sent troops to comb through Palestinians cities and villages in recent days, looking for suspects or accomplices tied to recent Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Last week, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a packed Tel Aviv bar, killing three and fleeing the scene, sparking an hours-long manhunt that culminated in his killing by police.
That assault, as well as three other attacks elsewhere in Israel in recent weeks, have killed 14 people, the deadliest outburst of bloodshed against Israelis in years.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s office accused Israel of destabilizing the West Bank, saying the situation “has become dangerous and sensitive and is rapidly deteriorating.”
On Wednesday, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said the Arab state strongly condemned Israel’s West Bank operations and what he called excessive force against Palestinians. Hafez urged in a statement for “containing such growing and accelerating developments,” which could lead to further escalation and mutual violence.
The tensions have escalated as Muslims mark Ramadan, which this year converges with major Jewish and Christian holidays. In the coming week as Passover and Easter commence, tens of thousands from the three faiths are expected to stream into Jerusalem’s Old City, the emotional heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a frequent flashpoint for violence.
Unrest in Jerusalem during last year’s Ramadan escalated into an 11-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militant groups called on Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Israel to camp out at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque this weekend.
After a meeting with Hamas’s Gaza leader Yehiyeh Sinwar, the factions called for mass protests to break the Israeli restrictions recently imposed on the city of Jenin and said militants in Gaza were on alert “and ready to take the necessary decisions to protect our land, people, and holy sites.”
Israel’s government has sought to lower the flames by moving ahead on its plan to ease restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the holy month. But, with two of the attackers in the recent violence from Jenin and the surrounding area, Israel has tightened restrictions on movement in and out of the city.
Jenin is considered a stronghold of Palestinian militants. Israeli forces often come under fire when operating in the area. Even the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and coordinates with Israel on security matters, appears to have little control.
Israel had made numerous arrests in recent days, and in some cases, Palestinians have protested against the raids. Several Palestinians have been killed in the raids or in response to attacks or attempted attacks.
Late Saturday, Palestinian protesters set fire to a West Bank shrine revered by Jews and smashed part of the the tomb inside. On Wednesday, Israel carried out repairs to the site, known to Jews as Joseph’s Tomb, and a day earlier the military said it arrested a suspect linked to the arson. The military said clashes also broke out nearby as the repairs were underway.
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Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/israeli-forces-kill-3-palestinians-in-raids-in-west-bank/ | 2022-04-14T11:23:52 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/israeli-forces-kill-3-palestinians-in-raids-in-west-bank/ |
TOKYO (AP) — U.S. and Japanese warships, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, are conducting their joint naval exercise in waters between Japan and the Korean Peninsula for the first time in five years, in a show of their close military alliance amid growing speculation of North Korea’s missile or nuclear testing later this week.
The U.S. 7th Fleet and Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force said Wednesday they conducted a joint naval exercise at the Sea of Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was the first time the U.S. aircraft carrier held the exercise in the area since 2017 and is seen as an apparent attempt to deter North Korea’s provocation.
Defense experts have warned that North Korea may launch another missile or even conduct a nuclear test as early as this week when Pyongyang marks the birth anniversary of its founding leader Kim Il Sung. Tension is rising in the region ahead of an annual joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea.
Japan has also stepped up joint military exercises with its closest ally, the United States, as well as regional partners in recent years amid rising concern over China’s increasingly assertive military actions in the regional seas.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that the ongoing joint exercise is “aimed at strengthening military cooperation between Japan and the United States, and is not keeping in mind a specific country. … We will continue to strengthen deterrence and response capability of the Japan-U.S. alliance and to do utmost for the defense of our country.”
Details of the exercise will be released by the Japanese Defense Ministry “when the situation allows a disclosure.”
Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force said its destroyer JS Kongo and JS Inazuma, as well as Japanese F-2 fighters joined USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group “in order to strengthen the capability of Japan-US alliance for effective deterrence and response.”
“Our works contribute to the regional peace and stability,” the Japanese navy tweeted.
A Japanese Maritime Self-Defense official said they cannot provide specific dates and locations of the ongoing joint exercise until it’s finished.
Tension has risen in the area over North Korea’s spate of missile tests this year, including its first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in more than four years.
Some experts say the North’s recent missile tests were meant to perfect its weapons technology, boost its leverage in future negotiations with the U.S. and secure stronger internal loyalty. They say North Korea could soon conduct another ICBM launch, a launch of a satellite-carrying rocket or a test of a nuclear device in coming weeks. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/japan-us-hold-navy-drills-off-koreas-amid-nuke-test-worry/ | 2022-04-14T11:23:59 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/japan-us-hold-navy-drills-off-koreas-amid-nuke-test-worry/ |
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.”
___
Gillispie reported from Cleveland. AP Correspondent Felicia Fonseca contributed to this report from Flagstaff, Arizona. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/lots-of-broadband-money-but-us-expansion-finds-speed-bumps/ | 2022-04-14T11:24:06 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/lots-of-broadband-money-but-us-expansion-finds-speed-bumps/ |
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Migrants in South Africa are living in fear of attacks and even death, Amnesty International said Wednesday, days after a Zimbabwean man was burned to death amid renewed violence against foreigners in some poor neighborhoods of Johannesburg.
Zimbabweans, who make up the largest number of migrants in Africa’s most advanced economy, are mostly targeted, according to the human rights group.
Amnesty International accused South African authorities of “inaction” and “a lack of political will” to stem the wave of anti-migrant violence witnessed in recent weeks.
The violence is driven by vigilante groups who blame foreigners from poorer African countries for South Africa’s rampant unemployment, said the report.
South Africa’s unemployment rate has reached 35%, according to figures released this month by StatsSA. The jobless rate for youths is more than 60%, according to the statistics.
A gang in Johannesburg’s poor Diepsloot township stoned and then burned to death Elvis Nyathi, a Zimbabwean, last week when he failed to produce identity documents showing that he was in the country legally, causing outrage in both South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Nyathi was one of seven people — two foreigners and five South Africans — who lost their lives “after attacks and counter-attacks by non-state actors” in the past week, said Amnesty International’s report, describing the deaths as “easily preventable.”
Migrants interviewed in the township by Amnesty said they are living in “constant fear” and “feel unsafe” due to constant harassment from both the police and anti-migrant gangs that move around demanding identity documents from migrants, said the group.
“These attacks represent just the latest wave in a rising tide of violence against migrants in South Africa,” said Amnesty, adding that the assaults are not isolated as they “mirror the heavily-orchestrated, anti-migrant attacks” witnessed in other poor townships in Johannesburg in recent months.
A group calling itself Operation Dudula has held anti-foreigner demonstrations in several South African cities in recent weeks.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa this week criticized the violence.
“We have seen people being attacked, hurt and even killed because of how they looked or because they have a particular accent,” he said in his weekly letter to the nation, appealing for restraint.
In Zimbabwe, authorities say they are engaging the South African government “at all levels,” while the country’s Parliamentarians called for an end to the attacks.
Once one of Africa’s most prosperous economies, Zimbabwe has battled a debilitating economic downturn over the past two decades that critics attribute to economic mismanagement, corruption and poor governance. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government blames Western-imposed sanctions.
South Africa has said it will no longer renew special permits that allow Zimbabwean migrants to live and work in that country and gave about 250,000 holders of those permits until December this year to apply for regular permits.
It is estimated that as many as 3 million Zimbabweans live in South Africa without proper legal documentation.
Zimbabweans say it is difficult to return home because unemployment is even higher than in South Africa at more than 80%, according to some economists.
“The attacks are deplorable, but they can easily be solved if Zimbabwe fixes its economy,” opposition leader Nelson Chamisa told The Associated Press Wednesday.
“Zimbabweans are forced to run away from their country and live wretched lives elsewhere because they have no future in their own country,” Chamisa said.
Despite the threat of violence in South Africa, many Zimbabweans are still willing to risk sneaking across the border without documentation to try their luck in South Africa to escape the biting conditions at home.
“There is nothing for me here,” said Jonathan Sibanda 21, an unemployed resident of the capital, Harare. “I am willing to take that chance rather than die a slow death here in Zimbabwe.” | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/migrants-to-south-africa-face-threats-says-amnesty-report/ | 2022-04-14T11:24:14 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/migrants-to-south-africa-face-threats-says-amnesty-report/ |
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Armed gangs attacking remote communities in Nigeria’s troubled northwest are now working with extremist rebels who have waged a decade-long insurgency in the country’s northeast, a top government official said Wednesday.
The gunmen and the Islamist rebels are in “an unholy handshake,” Nigeria’s Minister of Information Lai Mohammed told reporters, for the first time confirming a collaboration that security analysts have warned of.
The result of the alliance is the recent deadly train attack near Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, said the minister. Explosives were used to blow up the rail track in that attack in which eight passengers were killed and more than 100 were abducted and remain missing.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with 206 million people, has been battling violence in its troubled north and an alliance between the two groups could worsen the crisis, analysts told The Associated Press.
The security crisis is dominated by two groups: bandits many of whom are formerly herdsmen now carrying arms and Islamic extremist rebels of the Boko Haram group and its breakaway faction the Islamic State in West Africa Province.
The partnership between the groups “might drive further attacks on innocent civilians and state infrastructure,” said Oluwole Ojewale of the Africa-focused Institute of Security Studies, as the extremists move their insurgency beyond the northeast where they had been largely restricted for many years.
With the military already fighting factions of the extremists, Nigeria’s security situation is already “dangerous enough,” said Confidence MacHarry with the Lagos-based SBM Intelligence security firm.
“Adding Boko Haram to the terror problem in the northwest would greatly stretch the security forces to more than its capacity,” said MacHarry.
Nigeria’s security crisis continued Wednesday with the abduction of four female students by an armed gang that attacked their school in northwest Zamfara state and the killing of 23 persons in northcentral Benue state, local authorities said.
“It is becoming increasingly glaring every day that my people are now an endangered species and so we can no longer wait for help from anywhere,” Benue governor Samuel Ortom said, repeating his appeal for residents to be allowed to bear arms to “defend themselves.”
The persistent violence, including the killing of more than 100 villagers in the northcentral Plateau state during the weekend, has raised further doubts about the Nigerian government’s ability to restore peace in volatile areas despite having declared the armed gangs as terrorist organizations.
The major problem, though, is “the political will and the will to act,” said security analyst MacHarry. “Boosting the capacity of security services to respond to security crisis is one thing, but actually responding to the crisis is another,” he said.
Responding to such criticisms, Nigeria’s Minister of Defence Bashir Magashi said the government is still in control.
“We are really on top of the situation,” Magashi said. “We are planning hard and we will get it out as soon as possible.” | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/nigeria-says-armed-gangs-in-north-are-working-with-militants/ | 2022-04-14T11:24:21 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/nigeria-says-armed-gangs-in-north-are-working-with-militants/ |
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In Ukraine, allegations mount of sexual violence against women by Russian soldiers. In northern Ethiopia, a woman taken to an Eritrean Defense Forces camp was raped by 27 soldiers and contracted AIDS. In Central African Republic the bodies of a woman and two girls were found days after their kidnapping and rape by armed fighters. And in Iraq, 2,800 Yazidi woman and children have been captives of the Islamic State extremist group for eight years, many subjected to sexual violence.
These are some of the examples raised at a U.N. Security Council meeting Wednesday on accountability for such acts in conflicts by Pramila Patten, the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, a member of Iraq’s Yazidi religious minority forced into sexual slavery in 2014 who escaped her Islamic State captors.
Patten’s opening words were aimed squarely at the U.N.’s most powerful body, which has approved five resolutions that focus on preventing and addressing conflict-related sexual violence. What do those resolutions mean right now, she asked, for a woman in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Myanmar or Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region?
At this time of “great global turbulence marked by multiple crises,” she said, the world has seen “increased militarization, including an epidemic of coups, which have turned back the clock on women’s rights.” And every new war has seen human tragedies “including new waves of war’s oldest, most silences, and least-condemned crime” — sexual violence and rape in those countries and others whose victims “cry out for justice and redress.”
Patten said the gap between commitments by the Security Council, and compliance and reality is evident: The latest U.N. report covering conflicts in 18 countries documents 3,293 U.N.-verified cases of sexual violence committed in 2021, a significant increase of 800 cases compared to 2020. Again, she said, the highest number — 1,016 — were recorded in Congo.
Patten also cited examples in other conflict areas: two women from the Rohingya minority in Myanmar’s Chin state gang-raped by government soldiers resulting in unwanted pregnancies; a woman allegedly raped at gunpoint by Puntland police officer in Somalia where she said “abduction, rape and forced marriage are rampant;” documented cases in Colombia of sexual violence against women ex-combatants and their families; and the torture and killing of a female police officer who was eight months pregnant in Afghanistan’s Ghor province.
The U.N. special representative said the few cases of courts convicting perpetrators “are still the exception that prove the rule of justice denied.” Justice must be delivered in communities as well as courtrooms, and victims must receive reparations to rebuild their shattered lives, she said, stressing that “justice, peace and security are inextricably linked.”
Murad said at moments of global instability — like today’s world shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, a climate crisis and war — issues like conflict-related sexual violence “tend to be pushed aside as though they are somehow secondary to the real issues.” But she said “the truth is these are precisely the moment when protecting, supporting and investing in women and girls should be urgent priorities.”
History shows that when conflict erupts brutality comes to the fore, and “we are seeing this in Ukraine as we speak, with reports of sexual violence that should alarm us.” Later, she told reporters, “my heart is with the people of Ukraine, especially the women and girls out there that are facing this brutality.”
“Sexual violence is not a side effect of conflict,” Murad said. “It is a tactic of war as old as time.”
Last year, a German court convicted an Islamic State member of genocide in a Yazidi girl’s death in a historic verdict, she said. But despite reams of evidence documenting atrocities IS committed against women and girls, she said the extremist perpetrators have faced few, if any, consequences.
Murad said survivors need “more than moral outrage” and urged the Security Council to vote to refer the Islamic State extremist group to the International Criminal Court to be tried for genocide and sexual violence. against Yazidis. In the meantime, she urged other countries to follow Germany’s example and use the principle of universal jurisdiction to try alleged perpetrators for war crimes.
“If you want to establish deterrence, if you want to assure Yazidi women and survivors everywhere that you stand with us, do not delay justice anymore,” she said.
Britain’s Minister of State Lord Tariq Ahmad, who chaired the meeting, joined her in launching “The Murad Code” which aims to tell investigators, journalists and others in the international community how to support survivors of sexual violence by reducing the burden on them and ensuring that their experiences are recorded safely and strengthen the pursuit of justice.
“The pathway to justice must have obstacles removed,” he said. “So ultimately, it’s all about survivors, that they know what their options are. … They have to be the center of our response.” | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/nobel-laureate-demands-justice-for-sexual-violence-victims/ | 2022-04-14T11:24:28 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/nobel-laureate-demands-justice-for-sexual-violence-victims/ |
MIAMI (AP) — Police in Miami arrested a 41-year-old woman in the deaths of her two children, aged 3 and 5, after officers responded to repeated hang-up 911 calls from her apartment where they found their tied-up bodies.
“Come get them, I don’t want them anymore,” Odette Lysse Joassaint told officers who responded to the scene on Tuesday night, according to the arrest report. Police said she appeared to be irrational.
The officers entered the apartment and found a 3-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl. The children were lying in a prone position on the bed with their arms, legs and neck tied, a police report said.
They tried to resuscitate the children until a Miami Fire Rescue crew arrived and pronounced them dead. The woman has been charged with two counts of murder.
Police have not said how many calls were made to 911 or whether she spoke to a dispatcher.
No other details were immediately released. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/police-find-2-dead-kids-in-miami-apartment-mother-arrested/ | 2022-04-14T11:24:35 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/police-find-2-dead-kids-in-miami-apartment-mother-arrested/ |
VICTORVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California shoe store owner opened fire at two shoplifters, police said, but mistakenly shot a 9-year-old girl about to get her picture with a mall Easter bunny. The store owner fled the state and was arrested in Nevada, authorities said Wednesday.
Marqel Cockrell, 20, was chasing the shoplifters out of the store Tuesday evening at the Mall of Victor Valley in the small city of Victorville when he “fired multiple shots at the shoplifters,” Victorville police said in a statement.
“Cockrell’s shots missed the shoplifters and instead hit the 9-year-old female victim,” the statement said.
The girl, identified by family members as Ava Chruniak, had been getting ready for pictures with the Easter bunny in the mall when the shots were fired, said her grandmother, Robin Moraga-Saldarelli. The girl was left with three gunshot wounds, including two in her arm, Moraga-Saldarelli said.
One bullet fractured a bone.
“And it’s the kind of fracture they can’t surgically fix. She’s going to have to wear a special brace for it, and it’s going to take a lot longer to heal,” she told Fox 11 TV in Los Angeles.
“It’ll be awhile before the bone heals and then we will see the extent of the nerve damage, but she’s a trooper. She really is a tough little kid,” Moraga-Saldarelli told KNBC-TV.
Deputies responding to the reports of gunfire found Ava wounded at about 6:30 p.m., the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.
She was airlifted to a hospital in stable condition, officials said. The mall’s stores were locked down and customers sheltered inside as deputies searched for the shooter.
Cockrell, a co-owner of the shoe store Sole Addicts, was arrested in his car at about 9 p.m. in Clark County by the Nevada Highway Patrol, Victorville police said.
He was being held Wednesday for lack of $1 million bail at the Clark County Detention Center “on an extraditable warrant, for attempted murder,” Victorville police said. An extradition hearing was scheduled for Thursday and jail and court records did not indicate whether Cockrell had an attorney representing him who could comment on his behalf.
“I’m glad they caught him and he will definitely pay for this. I really hope they throw the book at him,” Moraga-Saldarelli told KNBC-TV.
The mall was closed Tuesday after the shooting and reopened on Wednesday. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/police-girl-shot-as-california-shop-owner-fires-at-thieves/ | 2022-04-14T11:24:41 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/police-girl-shot-as-california-shop-owner-fires-at-thieves/ |
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.wric.com/news/u-s-world/project-veritas-says-us-seized-staffer-info-as-part-of-probe/ | 2022-04-14T11:24:48 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/project-veritas-says-us-seized-staffer-info-as-part-of-probe/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Frank James posted dozens of videos ranting about race, violence and his struggles with mental illness. One stands out for its relative calm: A silent shot of a packed New York City subway car in which he raises his finger to point out passengers, one by one.
Even as police arrested James on Wednesday in the Brooklyn subway shooting that wounded 10 people, they were still searching for a motive from a flood of details about the 62-year-old Black man’s life.
An erratic work history. Arrests for a string of mostly low-level crimes. A storage locker with more ammo. And hours of rambling, bigoted, profanity-laced videos on his YouTube channel that point to a deep, simmering anger.
“This nation was born in violence, it’s kept alive by violence or the threat thereof, and it’s going to die a violent death,” says James in a video where he takes on the moniker “Prophet of Doom.”
After a 30-hour manhunt, James was arrested without incident after a tipster — thought by police to be James himself — said he could be found near a McDonald’s on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Mayor Eric Adams triumphantly proclaimed “We got him!” Police said their top priority was getting the suspect, now charged with a federal terrorism offense, off the streets as they investigate their biggest unanswered question: Why?
A prime trove of evidence, they said, is his YouTube videos. He seems to have opinions about nearly everything — racism in America, New York City’s new mayor, the state of mental health services, 9/11, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Black women.
A federal criminal complaint cited one in which James ranted about too many homeless people on the subway and put the blame on New York City’s mayor.
“What are you doing, brother?” he said in the video posted March 27. “Every car I went to was loaded with homeless people. It was so bad, I couldn’t even stand.”
James then railed about the treatment of Black people in an April 6 video cited in the complaint, saying, “And so the message to me is: I should have gotten a gun, and just started shooting.”
In a video posted a day before the attack, James criticizes crime against Black people and says things would only change if certain people were “stomped, kicked and tortured” out of their “comfort zone.”
Surveillance cameras spotted James entering the subway system turnstiles Tuesday morning, dressed as a maintenance or construction worker in a yellow hard hat and orange working jacket with reflective tape.
Police say fellow riders heard him say only “oops” as he set off one smoke grenade in a crowded subway car as it rolled into a station. He then set off a second smoke grenade and started firing, police said. In the smoke and chaos that ensued, police say James made his getaway by slipping into a R-train going the opposite direction and exited after the first stop.
Left behind at the scene was the gun, extended magazines, a hatchet, detonated and undetonated smoke grenades, a black garbage can, a rolling cart, gasoline and the key to a U-Haul van, police said.
That key led investigators to James, and clues to a life of setbacks and anger as he bounced among factory and maintenance jobs, got fired at least twice, moved among Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.
Investigators said James had 12 prior arrests in New York and New Jersey from 1990 to 2007, including for possession of burglary tools, criminal sex act, trespassing, larceny and disorderly conduct.
James had no felony convictions and was not prohibited from purchasing or owning a firearm. Police said the gun used in the attack was legally purchased at an Ohio pawn shop in 2011. A search of James’ Philadelphia storage unit and apartment turned up at least two types of ammunition, including the kind used with an AR-15 assault-style rifle, a taser and a blue smoke cannister.
Police said James was born and raised in New York City. In his videos, he said he finished a machine shop course in 1983 then worked as a gear machinist at Curtiss-Wright, an aerospace manufacturer in New Jersey, until 1991 when he was he was hit by a one-two punch of bad news: He was fired from his job and, soon after, his father whom he had lived with in New Jersey died.
Records show James filed a complaint against the aerospace company in federal court soon after he lost his job alleging racial discrimination, but it was dismissed a year later by a judge. He says in one video, without offering specifics, that he “couldn’t get any justice for what I went through.”
A spokesperson for Curtiss-Wright didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
James describes going in and out of several mental health facilities, including two in the Bronx borough of New York City in the 1970s.
“Mr. Mayor, let me say to you I’m a victim of your mental health program in New York City,” James says in a video earlier this year, adding he is “full of hate, full anger and bitterness.”
James says he later was a patient at Bridgeway House, a mental health facility in New Jersey, although that could not be immediately confirmed. Messages left with the facility were not returned.
“My goal at Bridgeway in 1997 was to get off Social Security and go back to f—— work,” he says in a video, adding that he enrolled in a college and took a course in computer-aided design and manufacturing.
James says he eventually got a job at telecommunications giant Lucent Technologies in Parsippany, New Jersey, but says he ended up getting fired and returned to Bridgeway House, this time not as a patient but as an employee on the maintenance staff. A message seeking comment was sent to Lucent Technologies.
“I just want to work. I want to be a person that’s productive,” he said.
Touches of that earnest, struggling man showed up after James’ parked car was hit in Milwaukee. Eugene Yarbrough, pastor of Mt. Zion Wings of Glory Church of God in Christ next door to James’ apartment, said James was impressed that the pastor owned up to hitting the car. Neither James nor anyone else was there to see the accident. And James called him up to say so.
“I just couldn’t believe it would be him,” Yarbrough said. “But who knows what people will do?”
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AP reporters Michael Balsamo in Washington, Deepti Hajela in New York, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia, Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin and Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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On Twitter follow Bernard Condon at twitter.com/bernardfcondon, Michael Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak and Michael Kunzelman at twitter.com/Kunzelman75 and send confidential news tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/prophet-of-doom-subway-suspect-left-ranting-video-clues/ | 2022-04-14T11:24:55 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/prophet-of-doom-subway-suspect-left-ranting-video-clues/ |
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — The deployment of South Africa’s military in northern Mozambique has been extended while its role has shifted from aggressively fighting Islamic extremist rebels to a peacekeeping effort, a top general said Wednesday.
About 600 members of the South African National Defence Force have been in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province since October last year and have captured and destroyed several of the extremists’ bases, the chief of the South African mission to Mozambique, Gen. Rudzani Maphwanya said Wednesday.
The South African troops are part of a joint regional force of about 1,000 troops sent by the 16-nation Southern African Development Community to support Mozambique in its battle against the rebels. Other countries contributing troops include Angola, Botswana, Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.
Rwanda has also deployed about 2,000 troops as part of a bilateral agreement with Mozambique.
Addressing the media in Pretoria on Wednesday, Gen. Maphwanya said the offensive by the regional force inflicted “massive losses” against the insurgents. The operation destroyed several bases and recovered weapons including grenade launchers, machine guns, AK-47 rifles, vehicles and technological devices, he said.
“During this operation, the SAMIM (SADC Mission in Mozambique) forces faced a strong resistance from the terrorists but were able to inflict fatal casualties and disrupt as well as continue to dominate and pursue the terrorists in the operational area,” said Maphwanya.
Many of the rebels have been forced out of their bases, according to South African National Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Lindile Yam.
“A lot has been done to dislodge them,” said Yam, adding that the insurgents are trying to get local residents to join their effort to establish Islamic Shariah law in northern Mozambique. “They are even recruiting children as young as five years old,” he said.
Since 2017, the insurgency in Mozambique has been blamed for more than 3,000 deaths, with more than 800,000 people displaced and more than 1 million in need of food aid, according to the U.N. World Food Program.
A summit of leaders of southern African countries on Tuesday approved the transition of the regional force to a more stabilization role, after its more combative offensive against the rebels. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/south-african-army-extends-mission-against-mozambique-rebels/ | 2022-04-14T11:25:02 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/south-african-army-extends-mission-against-mozambique-rebels/ |
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The rival leaders of ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday kicked off an initiative to give women an equal say in any renewed push to reunify the eastern Mediterranean island nation.
Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots, Ersin Tatar, inaugurated the plan at a United Nations compound off the defunct Nicosia airport, which is inside a buffer zone that runs for 180 kilometers (120 miles) across the island.
The meeting didn’t appear to go well. Anastasiades said after the event that he was “sincerely saddened” by Tatar’s “steady intransigence” after repeating his demand for recognition of the breakaway north as a sovereign state on par with the internationally recognized Cyprus government before peace talks can resume.
The hard-right Tatar upended a decades-long, U.N.-endorsed understanding between the two sides that any deal would be on the basis of a federation by insisting on a two-state peace deal. Greek Cypriots say they would never accept any arrangement that would formalize the island’s forced partition.
Anastasiades also said Tatar sidestepped his appeal to curb the steady stream of migrants who arrive in the north and cross the porous buffer zone to apply for asylum and European Union protection in the south.
Efforts to reunify Cyprus and potentially unlock the speedy exploitation of natural gas deposits off the island’s southern coastline to European markets have remained stalled since 2017, when the most recent top-level unity negotiations collapsed amid mutual recriminations as to who was to blame.
Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Turkey and Turkish Cypriots accuse the Greek Cypriots of being unwilling to share power in an envisioned federation. On the other hand, Greek Cypriots fear a bid by Turkey to place the entire island under its control through Ankara’s demands for a permanent troop presence, military intervention rights and a Turkish Cypriot veto at all decision-making levels.
The initiative is hoped to be embraced as a small, but notable step forward in helping revive peace talks. It was set in motion following a U.N. Security Council resolution last year calling for the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in the peace process.
According to a U.N. statement, a committee made up of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots has been given the job of bolstering gender equality will reach out to women’s organizations, youth groups and others for their views on including gender perspectives in a renewed peace drive. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/split-cyprus-seeks-equal-say-for-women-in-future-peace-talks/ | 2022-04-14T11:25:09 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/split-cyprus-seeks-equal-say-for-women-in-future-peace-talks/ |
If nations do all that they’ve promised to fight climate change, the world can still meet one of two internationally agreed upon goals for limiting warming. But the planet is blowing past the other threshold that scientists say will protect Earth more, a new study finds.
The world is potentially on track to keep global warming at, or a shade below, 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than pre-industrial times, a goal that once seemed out of reach, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
That will only happen if countries not only fulfill their specific pledged national targets for curbing carbon emissions by 2030, but also come through on more distant promises of reaching net zero carbon emissions by mid-century, the study says.
This 2 degree warmer world still represents what scientists characterize as a profoundly disrupted climate with fiercer storms, higher seas, animal and plant extinctions, disappearing coral, melting ice and more people dying from heat, smog and infectious disease. It’s not the goal that world leaders say they really want: 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. The world will blast past that more prominent and promoted goal unless dramatic new emission cuts are promised and achieved this decade and probably within the next three years, study authors said.
Both goals of 1.5-degrees and 2-degrees are part of the 2015 Paris climate pact and the 2021 Glasgow follow-up agreement. The 2-degree goal goes back years earlier.
“For the first time we can possibly keep warming below the symbolic 2-degree mark with the promises on the table. That assumes of course that the countries follow through on the promises,” said study lead author Malte Meinshausen, a University of Melbourne climate scientist.
That’s a big if, outside climate scientists and the authors, say. It means political leaders actually doing what they promise
The study “examines only this optimistic scenario. It does not check whether governments are making efforts to implement their long-term targets and whether they are credible,” said Niklas Hohne of Germany, a New Climate Institute scientist who analyzes pledges for Climate Action Tracker and wasn’t part of this study. “We know that governments are far from implementing their long-term targets.”
Hohne’s team and others who track pledges have similarly found that limiting warming to 2 degrees is still possible, as Meinshausen’s team has. The difference is that Meinshausen’s study is the first to be peer-reviewed and published in a scientific journal.
Sure, the 2-degree world requires countries to do what they promise. But cheaper wind and solar have shown carbon emissions cuts can come faster than thought and some countries will exceed their promised cuts, Meinshausen said. He also said the way climate action works is starting with promises and then policies, so it’s not unreasonable to take countries at their word.
Mostly, he said, limiting warming to 2 degrees is still a big improvement compared to just five or ten years ago, when “everybody laughed like ‘ha we’ll never see targets on the table that bring us closer to 2 degrees’,” Meinshausen said. “Targets and implemented policies actually can turn the needle on future temperatures. I think that optimism is important for countries to see. Yes, there is hope.”
About 20% to 30% of that hope is due to the Paris climate agreement, but the rest is due to earlier investments by countries that made green energy technologies cheaper than dirty fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, Meinshausen said.
Yet, even if that’s good news, it’s not all good, he said.
“Neither do we have a margin of error (on barely limiting to 2 degrees) nor do the pledges put us on a path close to 1.5 degrees,” Meinshausen said.
In 2018 the United Nations’ scientific expert team studied the differences between the 1.5- and 2-degree thresholds and found considerably worse and more extensive damages to Earth at 2 degrees of warming. So the world has recently tried to make the 1.5 degrees goal possible.
Earth has already warmed at least 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, often considered the late 1800s, so 2 degrees of warming really means another 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.6 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than now.
Meinshausen’s analysis “looks good and solid, but there are always assumptions that could be important,” said Glen Peters, a climate scientist who tracks emissions with Global Carbon Project.
The biggest assumption is that nations somehow get to promised net zero carbon emissions, most of them by 2050 but a decade or two later for China and India, said Peters, research director of the Cicero Center for International Climate Research in Oslo, Norway.
“Making pledges for 2050 is cheap, backing them up with necessary short-term action is hard,” he said, noting that for most countries, there will be five or six elections between now and 2050.
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Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate
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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/study-keeping-climate-pledges-limits-warming-to-2-degrees/ | 2022-04-14T11:25:17 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/study-keeping-climate-pledges-limits-warming-to-2-degrees/ |
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has refused to resign after being fined for breaking his government’s pandemic lockdown rules, saying he would instead redouble his efforts to strengthen the economy and combat Russian aggression in Ukraine.
London police fined Johnson and other people Tuesday for attending a birthday party thrown for the prime minister at his Downing Street offices on June 19, 2020. The penalty made Johnson the first British prime minister ever found to have broken the law while in office.
Gatherings of more than two people were banned in Britain at the time of the birthday party to curb the spread of COVID-19.
“I understand the anger that many will feel that I, myself, fell short when it came to observing the very rules which the government I lead had introduced to protect the public. And I accept in all sincerity that people had the right to expect better,” Johnson said late Tuesday. “And now I feel an even greater sense of obligation to deliver on the priorities of the British people.”
The fine followed a police investigation and months of questions about lockdown-breaking parties at government offices, which Johnson had tried to bat away by saying there were no parties and that he believed no rules were broken.
Opposition lawmakers demanded Johnson’s resignation, arguing the fines given to him and Treasury chief Rishi Sunak were evidence of “criminality” at the heart of government. The opposition argued that the Downing Street gathering demonstrated that Johnson and his supporters believed the rules don’t apply to them.
On Wednesday, a Conservative member of the House of Lords resigned from his role as justice minister, criticizing “repeated rule-breaking and breaches of criminal law in Downing Street.”
“It is not just a question of what happened in Downing Street, or your own conduct,” David Wolfson wrote in a letter to Johnson. “It is also, and perhaps more so, the official response to what took place.”
While the “partygate” scandal poses a threat to Johnson’s government, the world has changed tremendously since the first reports of the parties surfaced late last year.
Johnson has been a leading figure in marshaling international opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Britain is facing its worst cost-of-living crisis since the 1950s. His supporters are already arguing that whatever the prime minister may have done wrong, now is not time for a leadership contest.
That his Treasury chief also received an undermining fine helps Johnson, since Sunak had been seen as the leading Conservative candidate to succeed Johnson.
But Johnson still faces the possibility of additional fines. He is reported to have attended three other gatherings that the Metropolitan Police Service is still investigating.
He will also have to answer questions about whether he knowingly misled Parliament with his previous statements about the parties, said Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government in London.
“Governments have to realize that they can’t just make laws and then skirt around them and rationalize themselves that it’s all OK because they’re very important people working at the center of government,” Rutter said.
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Follow all AP stories on the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/uks-johnson-rejects-calls-to-resign-amid-partygate-fine/ | 2022-04-14T11:25:24 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/uks-johnson-rejects-calls-to-resign-amid-partygate-fine/ |
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Black man face-down on the ground was fatally shot in the back of the head by a Michigan police officer, the violent climax of a traffic stop, brief foot chase and struggle over a stun gun, according to videos of the April 4 incident released Wednesday.
Patrick Lyoya, 26, was killed outside a house in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The white officer repeatedly ordered Lyoya to “let go” of his Taser, at one point demanding: “Drop the Taser!”
Citing a need for transparency, the city’s new police chief, Eric Winstrom, released four videos, including critical footage of the shooting recorded by a passenger in Lyoya’s car on that rainy morning.
“I view it as a tragedy. … It was a progression of sadness for me,” said Winstrom, a former high-ranking Chicago police commander who became Grand Rapids chief in March. The city of about 200,000 people is about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Detroit.
Video shows Lyoya running from the officer who stopped him for driving with a license plate that didn’t belong to the vehicle. They struggled in front of several homes while Lyoya’s passenger got out and watched.
Winstrom said the fight over the Taser lasted about 90 seconds. In the final moments, the officer was on top of Lyoya, kneeling on his back at times to subdue him.
“From my view of the video, Taser was deployed twice. Taser did not make contact,” Winstrom told reporters. “And Mr. Lyoya was shot in the head. However, that’s the only information that I have.”
State police are investigating the shooting. Kent County’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Stephen Cohle, said he completed the autopsy but toxicology tests haven’t been finished.
The traffic stop was tense from the start. Video shows Lyoya, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, getting out of the car before the officer approached. He ordered Lyoya to get back in the vehicle but the man declined.
The officer asked him if he spoke English and demanded his driver’s license. The foot chase began soon after, video shows.
Winstrom didn’t identify the officer, a seven-year veteran who is on paid leave during the investigation.
“Me being from Chicago for the last 20 years, I’ve handled many police shootings myself, so I do have a lot of experience in this,” the chief said. “I was hoping to never have to utilize that experience here.”
Video was collected from Lyoya’s passenger, the officer’s body-worn camera, the officer’s patrol car and a doorbell camera. Prosecutor Chris Becker, who will decide whether any charges are warranted, objected to the release but said Winstrom could act on his own.
Becker said the public shouldn’t expect a quick decision.
“While the videos released today are an important piece of evidence, they are not all of the evidence,” he said.
City Manager Mark Washington warned that the videos would lead to “expressions of shock, of anger and of pain.” Some downtown businesses boarded up their storefronts, and concrete barricades surrounded police headquarters.
Lyoya had two young daughters and five siblings, said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who spoke to his family.
“He arrived in the United States as a refugee with his family fleeing violence. He had his whole life ahead of him,” Whitmer, a Democrat, said.
Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, speaking on behalf Lyoya’s family, on Wednesday called for the officer in the shooting to be fired and prosecuted.
“The video clearly shows that this was an unnecessary, excessive, and fatal use of force against an unarmed Black man who was confused by the encounter and terrified for his life,” Crump said in a release.
Crump and Lyoya’s family are expected to hold a news conference Thursday afternoon.
More than 100 people marched to Grand Rapids City Hallbefore a City Commission meeting Tuesday night, chanting “Black lives matter” and “No justice, no peace.”
On Wednesday, several hundred protesters gathered outside the Grand Rapids Police Department following the release of the videos with some cursing and shouting from behind barricades. The group demanded that officials make public the name of the officer in the shooting.
Some businesses cut their hours short Wednesday, closing early. Some boarded up windows. But the demonstration remained non-violent with protesters demanding justice for Lyoya and other Black lives lost in shootings involving police.
Winstrom last week said he met Lyoya’s father, Peter Lyoya, and that they both cried.
“I get it as a father. … It’s just heart-wrenching,” the chief told WOOD-TV.
As in many U.S. cities, Grand Rapids police have been occasionally criticized over the use of force, particularly against Black people, who make up 18% of the population.
In November, the Michigan Supreme Court heard arguments in a lawsuit over the practice of photographing and fingerprinting people who were never charged with a crime. Grand Rapids said the policy changed in 2015.
A downtown street has been designated Breonna Taylor Way, named for the Black woman and Grand Rapids native who was killed by police in Louisville, Kentucky, during a botched drug raid in 2020.
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White reported from Detroit. AP reporters Corey Williams in West Bloomfield, Michigan; David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; and John Flesher in Traverse City, Michigan, contributed to this story. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/video-michigan-cop-on-black-mans-back-fatally-shot-him/ | 2022-04-14T11:25:31 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/video-michigan-cop-on-black-mans-back-fatally-shot-him/ |
Firefighters scouted the drought-stricken mountainsides around a New Mexico village on Wednesday as they looked for opportunities to slow a wind-driven wildfire that a day earlier had burned at least 150 homes and other structures while displacing thousands of residents and forcing the evacuation of two schools.
Homes were among the structures that had burned, but officials did not have a count of how many were destroyed in the blaze that torched at least 6.4 square miles (16.6 square kilometers) of forest, brush and grass on the east side of the community of Ruidoso, said Laura Rabon, spokesperson for the Lincoln National Forest.
Rabon announced emergency evacuations of a more densely populated area during a briefing Wednesday afternoon as the fire jumped a road where crews were trying to hold the line. She told people to get in their cars and go.
So far, no deaths or injuries were reported from the fire, which has been fanned by strong winds.
The winds prevented forced a suspension of the aerial attack on the flames and kept authorities from getting a better estimate of how large the fire has grown. But some planes returned to the air as winds subsided late in the day, and seven airtankers and two helicopters have now been assigned to the fire, Forest Service officials said Wednesday evening.
While the cause of the blaze was under investigation, fire officials and forecasters warned Wednesday that persistent dry and windy conditions had prompted red flag warnings for a wide swath that included almost all of New Mexico, half of Texas and parts of Colorado and the Midwest.
Five new large fires were reported Tuesday, and nearly 1,600 wildland firefighters and support personnel were assigned to large fires in the southwestern, southern and Rocky Mountain areas, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Hotter and drier weather weather coupled with decades of fire suppression have contributed to an increase in the number of acres burned by wildfires, fire scientists say. And the problem is exacerbated by a more than 20-year Western megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change. The fire season has become year-round given changing conditions that include earlier snowmelt and rain coming later in the fall.
In Ruidoso, officials declared a state of emergency and said school classes were canceled Wednesday as the village — about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northeast of El Paso, Texas — coped with power outages due to down power lines.
The residences that burned were mostly a mix of trailers and single-family homes, and close to 4,000 people were displaced by evacuations that were ordered Tuesday. That number was expected to grow with the latest call for residents to leave.
Village spokeswoman Kerry Gladden said authorities spent part of Wednesday surveying as much damage as possible before the winds kicked up again. Air tankers also were able to drop a few loads of slurry, and more air support was expected Thursday.
“Right now, everybody is just rallying around those who had to be evacuated,” Gladden said. “We’re just trying to reach out to make sure everyone has places to stay.”
Donations were pouring in from other communities in southern New Mexico. State officials said emergency grants have been approved that will provide resources to firefighters and for other emergency efforts.
Ruidoso in 2012 was hit by one of the most destructive wildfires in New Mexico history, when a lightning-sparked blaze destroyed more than 240 homes and burned nearly 70 square miles (181 square kilometers).
Rabon said Wednesday that no precipitation was in the forecast and humidity levels remained in the single digits, which would make stopping the flames more difficult.
“Those extremely dry conditions are not in our favor,” she said.
Another wildfire in the Lincoln National Forest northwest of Ruidoso burned at least 400 acres (1.6 square kilometers) after it was sparked Tuesday by power lines downed by high winds. Crews confirmed Wednesday that 10 structures there were lost.
Elsewhere in New Mexico, wildfires were burning along the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque, in mountains northwest of the community of Las Vegas and in grasslands along the Pecos River near the town of Roswell.
In Colorado, crews were battling wind-whipped grass fires that had destroyed two homes and forced temporary evacuations.
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Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Davenport from Phoenix. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/wind-whips-destructive-wildfires-in-new-mexico-colorado/ | 2022-04-14T11:25:39 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/wind-whips-destructive-wildfires-in-new-mexico-colorado/ |
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A Florida man linked to dozens of motorized golf cart thefts in the Upper Midwest was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison.
The FBI began investigating Nathan Rodney Nelson in July 2019 after the Cass County Sheriff’s Office in Fargo, North Dakota, asked for help in solving a series of golf cart thefts starting in 2017 in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Nelson, a former Minnesota resident living in Apollo Beach, Florida, was eventually arrested in June 2020 while he was caught trying to steal golf carts from a dealer in Donalsonville, Georgia. He also was carrying pre-printed serial number labels and burglary tools, according to court documents.
Investigators say he stole at least 63 golf carts in seven states, worth at least $283,500.
Nelson would typically steal carts in pairs from rural Midwestern golf courses, usually at night. He sold many of the carts under the alias Mason Weber, at a cost of about $2,500 each, court documents show.
Defense attorney Lorelle Moeckel said in a sentencing memorandum that her client was not able to keep his business going and pay his bills. He came up with the idea to steal golf carts to solve his financial problems and “from there it became easier and easier for him to stray from his long held moral compass.”
Nelson pleaded guilty in December to interstate transportation of stolen property. His sentencing calls for him to serve three years of supervised release and pay back about $14,000. | https://www.wric.com/news/weird-news/man-gets-2-years-for-multistate-motorized-golf-cart-thefts/ | 2022-04-14T11:25:46 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/weird-news/man-gets-2-years-for-multistate-motorized-golf-cart-thefts/ |
Why Dolby Atmos-enabled sound bars are still a good choice
While sound bars are better than integrated TV speakers, they haven’t always lived up to their reputation. With Dolby Atmos becoming increasingly common, it’s worth revisiting sound bars to see how much better they are than they used to be. A lot of them are on sale right now, so now’s a great time to get one.
We sat down with resident tech expert Jaime Vazquez to get his thoughts on how and why a Dolby Atmos sound bar is a good investment right now with the current discounts.
What is Dolby Atmos?
Dolby Atmos is a proprietary audio protocol designed for use with home theater systems, such as 7.1-channel surround sound. The protocol separates an audio track into separate streams similar to traditional surround sound. It also adds height channels and data that tells each stream which direction it’s supposed to come from.
Typically, you need satellite speakers mounted above viewers’ heads to take advantage of Dolby Atmos. As Vazquez noted, “The speaker knows where all the other speakers are. You have a much more customized experience because you’re getting things relative to your listening space, as opposed to hoping that the soundtrack matches your room.”
Instead of overhead speakers, Atmos-enabled sound bars leverage multiple drivers pointed in different directions to simulate spatial audio. Vazquez continued, “The big deal with sound bars now is that they got a lot better at bouncing sound around a room. They now are really good at faking surround sound.”
Why Dolby Atmos is worth it
For a few years, Dolby Atmos seemed like more of a marketing stunt than a useful home theater technology. This was largely because media, such as movies and TV shows, must be specifically mastered to support the protocol.
According to Vazquez, “It used to be that Atmos was a feature that was primarily found on Blu-ray discs and the Apple TV. But, the deal is now that if you have the gear, you can log into your Netflix, HBO Max or Paramount+ and give you the surround-sound experience.”
Previously, Dolby Atmos was more for early adopter tech enthusiasts. Now, it’s more worthwhile to be able to play back Dolby Atmos content because of the streaming services that support it. There’s not a single, specific reason why Dolby Atmos sound bars are priced so well right now. Overall, manufacturers are taking advantage of the standard’s increased adoption and offering a wider range of Dolby Atmos sound bars, and they are putting older and more basic models on sale.
How Dolby Atmos sound bars work
Affordable sound bars usually have just two or three full-range speakers, while a quality Dolby Atmos-enabled model will have more. “Typically, a Dolby Atmos sound bar has speakers firing in all directions to mimic the surround-sound effect. Whereas if you’re looking at a 2.1- or a 3.1-channel model, that’s just stereo, not surround,” Vazquez said.
Additionally, acoustic refinements and increased driver efficiency have led to better sound quality, especially in the low end. To sum it up, Vazquez said, “sound bars have hit the sweet spot of reliably being able to produce quality surround effects at an affordable price.”
How to pick a Dolby Atmos sound bar
Vazquez recommends a sound bar that comes with additional satellite speakers. At the top of the line, sound bar setups like the Samsung HW-Q950A boast several drivers in the front in addition to full-range satellites and a powerful subwoofer. The Vizio M512a-H6 costs considerably less, is outfitted with 11 speakers in total and approaches full-on surround sound systems in performance.
However, Vazquez advises caution when looking for an especially affordable solution. “There’s a big gap between budget-friendly and high-quality sound bars,” he said, “and some budget models give the whole category a bad name.” There are exceptions. The TCL Alto 8i delivers decent simulated spatial audio at a low price.
Sound bar features to consider
- Number of inputs: “If you’re a gamer or have multiple devices to plug in, you’ll need more than one input into the sound bar,” Vazquez noted.
- Audio/video connections: Many sound bars let you route the audio and video connection directly through the unit itself, but not all of them do. For some, you’ll need to use the audio return channel function to drive the sound bar. Make sure that your TV supports ARC or eARC before buying a sound bar that doesn’t allow for direct audio input.
- HDR pass-through: If your sound bar does accept direct connections, make sure it supports HDR10 or, ideally, Dolby Vision pass-through to take advantage of modern dynamic contrast.
- Wireless subwoofer: You can’t get a cinematic experience without a dedicated sub.
- Built-in apps: Premium sound bars often include features that tailor the output to the shape of the room, while others have built-in streaming platforms. The former is a great way to improve the audio experience, but most users won’t need the latter.
Best Dolby Atmos sound bars
It’s a high-end sound bar that sounds better than many full-featured surround-sound systems. Sold by Amazon
With two satellites, a subwoofer and consistently accurate sound, this midrange Vizio model is the perfect blend of price and performance. Sold by Amazon
There aren’t any other sound bars in its price range that perform as well. Sold by Amazon
It is more affordable than most and offers particularly impressive bass, although it doesn’t have much in the way of sound enhancement or room correction features. Sold by Amazon
Seven internal drivers help this moderately priced option deliver powerful simulated surround sound without the inconvenience of installing satellite speakers. Sold by Amazon
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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.wric.com/reviews/as-dolby-atmos-sound-bars-are-placed-on-deep-discount-is-it-worth-getting-one-now/ | 2022-04-14T11:25:53 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/as-dolby-atmos-sound-bars-are-placed-on-deep-discount-is-it-worth-getting-one-now/ |
Which electric tiller is best?
Tilling the soil of your new garden doesn’t have to be as labor-intensive as it used to be, nor does it take an emissions-spewing, gas-powered tiller to get the job done. Electric tillers are just as capable and quieter to boot. Some are even cordless so you can till a garden anywhere you’d like.
The best electric tiller is the Greenworks Cordless Tiller. The lithium-ion battery operates at full power even when nearly empty, and it can till widths of up to 10 inches.
What to know before you buy an electric tiller
Pros and cons of an electric tiller
Electric tillers have a set of pros and cons compared to their gas-powered counterparts.
Pros: Electric tillers are easier to use and much more cost-effective than gas-powered models. They also require less maintenance and operate with less noise.
Cons: The most powerful electric tiller is still outclassed by an above-average gas-powered tiller. Large and tough grounds are possible to till with an electric model but are handled easier and faster by a gas-powered model.
Corded vs. cordless
Some electric tillers run on a battery, while others need to be plugged in.
- Battery-powered models can be used anywhere and you don’t have to worry about cords. However, their batteries only provide enough power to equal an above-average corded model. They’re also more expensive.
- Corded models need access to a power source, and you need to make sure your cord is kept out of the tiller’s way. Any extension cord you use should be thick enough not to melt or restrict power to your tiller. Using extra-long extension cords or chaining cords together is dangerous and power-restricting, so you should consider a battery- or gas-powered model instead if you find yourself far from your power source.
What to look for in a quality electric tiller
Power
Electric tiller manufacturers relate power using one or a combination of methods, all of which have their own ranges.
- Amps: Look for anything 6 amps and above minimum but preferably 10 and above.
- Watts: Look for anything with at least 500 amps.
- Volts: 20 volts is enough for a budget tiller, but anything 36 volts and above is better. If they give amp hours, look for anything with 4 Ah and above.
- Horsepower: Look for anything with at least half a horsepower.
Tines
Tines have shape, number and speed to consider.
- Shape: Most manufacturers use either an L-shaped tine or tines with a slight variation.
- Number: Electric tillers have two to six tines, with more being better.
Speed
Most electric tillers have only one speed, but others have variable speeds to better handle specific soils.
How much you can expect to spend on an electric tiller
Electric tillers typically cost $100-$300, with most costing no more than $200. For anything over $200, you’ll get more power and likely won’t have to deal with a cord.
Electric tiller FAQ
What’s the difference between an electric tiller and an electric cultivator?
A. They’re similar enough that many manufacturers use the terms interchangeably or claim that one tool can do both jobs. In reality, an electric tiller is more powerful than an electric cultivator. Both can chew up and maintain most ground types and hardnesses, but an electric tiller can have enough power to process new ground, which is usually too hard for a cultivator to process.
Are electric tillers powerful enough to till new, hard sod?
A. Depending on the model, yes. Many electric tillers struggle to till new, hard soil, but the best and strongest should be able to manage it, albeit slowly. Comparatively, gas-powered models are more powerful across the board and you rarely need to worry about if they can handle new ground — they’re able to till new ground faster than even the strongest electric tiller.
What’s the difference between front- and rear-line tillers?
A. All electric tillers use front-line tillers, meaning the tines are placed in front of the wheels and pull the tiller forward. Some gas-powered tillers use rear-line tillers, which are placed behind the motor and dragged forward by its power.
What’s the best electric tiller to buy?
Top electric tiller
Greenworks 40-Volt Cordless Tiller
What you need to know: With a tilling depth of up to 5 inches, this powerful model can till almost anything.
What you’ll love: The 40-volt lithium-ion battery provides enough power (and doesn’t wane as it empties) to till anything except the hardest ground. It features a width of 8.25-10 inches with up to 2,000 strikes per minute.
What you should consider: It’s on the pricey side. The battery only lasts for roughly 40 minutes, and a few consumers had issues with the battery not charging as it ages.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top electric tiller for the money
Black and Decker 20-Volt MAX Cordless Tiller
What you need to know: This quality model from a trusted brand is perfect for small jobs.
What you’ll love: It runs on a MAX lithium-ion battery that can till up to 325 square feet of ground on a full charge, and its counter-oscillating tines prevent roots from tangling in the head. It’s Energy Star-certified and has a two-year limited warranty.
What you should consider: The small head is not efficient for anything larger than a small flowerbed or garden. The batteries can take up to eight hours to charge.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Home Depot
Worth checking out
Sun Joe Electric 13.5-Amp Garden Tiller
What you need to know: This corded model is powerful with an extra-wide head.
What you’ll love: It has a tilling depth of up to 8 inches and a tilling width of up to 16 inches with six durable steel angled tines for chewing through almost anything. The handles fold up for space-saving storage and the wheels can be adjusted into three positions.
What you should consider: A few users felt the handles were uncomfortable to use for long periods, and a handful received tillers with missing parts.
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.wric.com/reviews/best-electric-tiller/ | 2022-04-14T11:25:59 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/best-electric-tiller/ |
Which ‘Star Wars’ model kit is best?
“Star Wars” is among the most loved film franchises, spanning 12 feature-length productions across 45 years. Including several television show additions and spin-offs, the trademark is worth an estimated $70 billion.
With such an illustrious history, there is plenty of merchandise for fans to collect. Action figures and memorabilia might top the most-wanted list, but for those who want to get their hands dirty, there are model kits to build. For a real challenge, the amazing Lego “Star Wars” Ultimate Millennium Falcon is sure to keep you busy for hours.
What to know before you buy a ‘Star Wars’ model kit
Different kinds of model kits
“Star Wars” model kits are no different from others, like airplanes, ships or submarines. They are available in different kinds of builds, giving you the option of working in your preferred medium. Lego fans might opt to put together an officially licensed “Star Wars” Lego set, while there are paper-based kits for easier builds and 3D wood puzzles that can be painted when you are done.
The skill level will determine the complexity
Just as the models are available in different build types, so too are the skill level needed for completing them. Generally, the skill level will be indicated on the model’s packaging and should give you a rough indication of how difficult or easy it will be. But the skill level shouldn’t be seen as a deterrent. You might find it more enjoyable to tackle something complex than a build that only consists of a few pieces.
Consider the scale of the model
Inexperienced model builders often don’t realize how large model kits can be. The regular scale measurement won’t mean much to you if it’s based on a fictional object. Since there is no real-world reference point, the kits often indicate the measurements of the completed object. Keep this in mind if you want to display the model or if you have limited space where you live.
What to look for in a quality ‘Star Wars’ model kit
Highly detailed and accurate
Any model kit, no matter if it is “Star Wars” or World War II airplanes, must be highly-detailed to get the full enjoyment from finalizing the construction. The overall shape might be accurate, but it’s the smaller details that will bring a smile to your face. Look for a good-quality model kit that includes finer elements like trimmings, customizable parts and accurate color schemes.
Robust construction materials
It would be terribly unfortunate if you spent countless hours putting the model together, just for it to crumble to the floor from a slight breeze. A good-quality model kit will be made from robust construction materials which won’t fall apart easily. Most sturdy models are made from wood or plastic. Builds made out of paper are relatively stable, but extra needs to be taken to protect them from damage.
Officially licensed product
To ensure that you get the most accurate and high-quality model kits, you must look for kits that are officially licensed by Disney — which owns the “Star Wars” brand. If you buy a product that isn’t officially part of the merchandise, there would be no guarantee as to the authenticity of the detail or quality. Knockoff kits can be much cheaper than licensed items, but it isn’t worth the risk.
How much you can expect to spend on a ‘Star Wars’ model kit
The average price of a “Star Wars” model kit will depend on the medium and the intricacy of the build. An entry-level kit that consists of wood or paper can retail for $20-$40. Highly detailed, larger kits with thousands of pieces can retail for $800-$1,300.
‘Star Wars’ model kit FAQ
Do you need special tools to put the kit together?
A. While there might be some kits that require tools, the majority of model kits these days don’t. That is because the technology behind model kits has evolved to feature click-in or snap-together designs. For Lego builds, the pieces easily stay together.
How long does it take to build a ‘Star Wars’ model kit?
A. That will depend on the complexity of the build and how nimble your fingers are. Larger builds can take around 10-12 hours to complete, while smaller kits should only take a few hours.
What’s the best ‘Star Wars’ model kit to buy?
Top ‘Star Wars’ model kit
Lego “Star Wars” Ultimate Millennium Falcon
What you need to know: It’s going to take more than a few hours and a bunch of friends to complete this massive 7,541-piece kit. With intricate details and seven classic “Star Wars” minifigures, this Millennium Falcon will be the star attraction in any house.
What you’ll love: Any “Star Wars” fan will grab at the chance to tackle this enormous build, that measures 8 inches high, 33 inches long and 22 inches wide. It includes the smallest details to accurately replicate the famous Millennium Falcon, and it comes with minifigures of Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, C-3PO, an older Han Solo, Rey and Finn. On the inside of the ship, you can put together the seating area, the Dejarik holographic game and the engine room with hyperdrive and console.
What you should consider: This kit is best suited for adults with lots of patience or expert builders.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top ‘Star Wars’ model kit for the money
“Star Wars” Tie Fighter 3D Wood Puzzle and Model Figure Kit
What you need to know: Made from sturdy wood, this iconic Tie Fighter kit can be painted with any colors that you want.
What you’ll love: The puzzle is made from 63 interlocking pieces to create a free-standing model. It comes with step-by-step instructions for assembly and the accompanying booklet delves deep into the history of Tie Fighters, the different variants and notable battles.
What you should consider: The assembled build is relatively small, standing 4.5 inches tall and 3.3 inches wide.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
“Star Wars” Imperial Star Destroyer Paper Model Kit
What you need to know: You’re going to need a delicate touch and steady hands to complete this paper-based model of the infamous Imperial Star Destroyer. It comprises 342 pieces, all held together with the included craft glue.
What you’ll love: Included in the build are step-by-step instructions and a display stand. But the set doesn’t just feature the Star Destroyer, as it also comes with smaller paper models of two Tie Fighters and an Imperial Shuttle.
What you should consider: You’ll need some extra room to display this build, as the Star Destroyer measures 30 inches long, 15.1 inches high and 16.5 inches wide.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Charlie Fripp 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.wric.com/reviews/best-star-wars-model-kit/ | 2022-04-14T11:26:06 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/best-star-wars-model-kit/ |
Which steering wheel lock is best?
People tend to feel a close bond to their cars. If your car is damaged or destroyed in an accident, you may feel a great deal of frustration or loss. However, if someone steals your car, it’s far worse. It can feel like a violation, and people who have their car stolen tend to notice they don’t feel as safe or comfortable as before. Luckily, there are ways to deter thieves from targeting your car.
One popular theft deterrent is a steering wheel lock. One of the top steering wheel locks is The Club 1103 LX Series Steering Wheel Lock. It has a universal fit for most steering wheels and is safe against sawing, prying and hammering.
What to know before you buy a steering wheel lock
How a steering wheel lock works
There are a few different steering wheel lock designs available, but they all keep your steering wheel in place and deter thieves from trying to steal your car. Some use telescoping rods, while others lock the entire wheel in place completely. A few designs cover up the wheel entirely or press down on the clutch or brake for extra security.
Locks and keys
Steering wheel locks don’t use a normal lock and key, which experienced thieves can pick open easily. Instead, they use a variety of specialty locks and keys that are difficult or impossible to pick and equally challenging to copy. Most locks include two or three keys. If you need more, you can order them from the manufacturer.
Construction
Most steering wheel locks are made of some kind of steel, though you can also find ones with titanium elements. Many locks have a plastic coating too, which has a few uses. The plastic keeps your steering wheel scratch-free, and the bright color stands out to discourage thieves.
What to look for in a quality steering wheel lock
Size
The size of a steering wheel lock will determine how big of a steering wheel it can fit. It will also dictate how easy it is to store the lock when not in use. Telescoping rod locks are a great choice since they can lock all sizes of steering wheels while still being compact and storable.
Design
Manufacturers typically design steering wheel locks to look intimidating to thieves. The bare steel or bright colors will catch the attention of a potential thief and hopefully stop them from breaking through the door or window.
Hardened points
Some steering wheel locks have a hardened tip on one end, which functions as a window breaker in case of emergencies. Some may include a cap to prevent this tip from breaking or tearing something on accident. If this is a feature you’d like to have, be sure to check the product description for more information.
How much you can expect to spend on a steering wheel lock
Most steering wheel locks cost roughly $30-$50. Some cost as little as $20. The best and most intricate locks usually cost around $60 and can exceed $100.
Steering wheel lock FAQ
Can I make extra keys for my steering wheel lock?
A. Generally speaking, no. Most steering wheel locks use specialty-shaped keys that are either difficult or impossible to copy, even by the best locksmiths. Most manufacturers can send you extras if you request them, but you’ll need to provide information that confirms you are the owner. You’ll likely need to at least pay for the shipping and handling of extra keys.
How secure is a steering wheel lock?
A. It depends on the lock, but they’re usually incredibly secure. Most locks resist common workarounds, such as sawing, hammering or prying with a crowbar. Check reviews to see how others feel about their experience, and check the brand of the product to learn more about their reputation.
What’s the best steering wheel lock to buy?
Top steering wheel lock
The Club 1103 LX Series Steering Wheel Lock
What you need to know: This is an effective steering wheel lock at an affordable price.
What you’ll love: You can secure the lock with one tug. It comes with three laser encrypted keys that locksmiths can’t duplicate. It adjusts easily to fit any wheel and resists common breaking methods, including hammering and Freon combinations. It weighs 4.2 pounds and comes in three colors.
What you should consider: Some consumers complained of a sticky substance coating the lock. Others received units where the lock would not completely lock.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top steering wheel lock for the money
What you need to know: This budget theft deterrent is ideal for light security.
What you’ll love: The steel construction is thick enough to prevent sawing, and installation only takes seconds. It uses a crescent lock cylinder and includes two computer-coded keys. The black and yellow design stands out to thieves, and it only weighs 1.72 pounds.
What you should consider: The design doesn’t prevent airbag theft. It may not fit depending on your car’s combination of wheel size and dashboard height.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Tevlaphee Steering Wheel Lock for Cars
What you need to know: This steering wheel lock resists most breaking methods, including freon and hammer attacks.
What you’ll love: It fits steering wheel inner diameters between 6.6 and 12.5 inches. The inner hook is padded to prevent damage to the wheel. It includes a hardened window-breaking tip and comes in three colors.
What you should consider: Some consumers had issues with the key becoming stuck in the lock. There are rare reports of the keys failing to unlock the device.
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.wric.com/reviews/best-steering-wheel-lock/ | 2022-04-14T11:26:13 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/best-steering-wheel-lock/ |
Which dog food is better: Blue Buffalo or Purina Pro Plan?
Your dog’s diet makes a huge impact on their health and well-being, so choosing the right dog food is important. If you’re stuck between Blue Buffalo dog food and Purina Pro Plan dog food, you might be wondering which is the best option.
As with most things in life, there isn’t a simple answer, so you’ll have to delve deeper and examine the pros and cons. Also, remember that all dogs are different, so the best food for one dog isn’t always the best for another.
Blue Buffalo dog food
Blue Buffalo dog food is touted as a healthy and holistic brand. It contains high-quality ingredients without unnecessary additives. Complete and balanced, it contains all the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that your dog needs to stay healthy. It’s made in the USA, though from globally sourced ingredients.
You can buy both wet and dry dog food from Blue Buffalo, as well as dog treats. Bags of dry food cost roughly $15-$75, depending on the size and variety, while wet food costs roughly $2-$3 a can.
Blue Buffalo dog food pros
- Blue Buffalo dog food lists meat as the first ingredient, plus it often includes healthy whole grains and vegetables.
- It doesn’t contain any artificial flavors or preservatives and stays away from poultry by-product meal, corn, soy and other filler ingredients.
- You can choose from a range of varieties, including senior dog foods, small breed dog foods and limited ingredient dog foods for dogs with food allergies or sensitivities.
- Most dogs find Blue Buffalo foods palatable and you can select from a wide range of formulas or flavors to appeal to picky eaters.
Blue Buffalo dog food cons
- The company sells a range of grain -free dog food, but studies suggest a link between grain-free diets and canine heart disease, so you should avoid them unless your dog has a legitimate grain allergy, which is extremely rare.
- Blue Buffalo has had five dog food recalls, but only three posed a serious risk.
- It doesn’t offer quite as many specialist options as Purina Pro Plan, such as high-performance and sensitive skin formulas.
Best Blue Buffalo dog food
Blue Buffalo Wilderness High Protein Dog Food
An excellent choice for active dogs, this food is high in protein to give them the energy they need to keep going. Pick one of the versions with healthy whole grains as grain-free formulas may be detrimental to heart health.
Sold by Amazon
Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Adult Dry Dog Food
The perfect kibble for an average dog, you can choose from several formulas to best suit your dog. Options include small bite for dogs who like smaller pieces of kibble and healthy weight for dogs who need to lose eight or who gain weight easily.
Blue Buffalo Homestyle Recipe Wet Dog Food
This tasty wet food can be fed alone or mixed with kibble. Meat is the first ingredient and it also contains a blend of nutrient-rich veggies.
Purina Pro Plan dog food
Purina Pro Plan dog food is just one kind of dog food from Purina. It’s Purina’s high-end offering, containing better quality ingredients than its other foods. For the most part, it contains quality ingredients, though it does contain some fillers and by-products in some of its lines.
Buyers can choose from a range of formulas, some that suit most dogs and others tailored to need specific needs. It’s at a similar price point to Blue Buffalo, with bags of dry food priced from $15-$70 and cans of wet food around $1.50-$3 each.
Purina Pro Plan dog food pros
- All Purina Pro Plan dry foods and most wet foods contain heart-healthy whole grains.
- This food is made at a facility in the USA, though with ingredients sourced from around the globe.
- There’s only been one recall of Purina Pro Plan food, which suggests the company’s quality control is good.
- You can choose from a wide range of formulas to suit your dog, including small breed, large breed and performance.
Purina Pro Plan dog food cons
- Some formulas contain questionable ingredients, such as poultry by-product meal.
- You’re more likely to find fillers, such as corn gluten meal, in Purina Pro Plan foods compared to Blue Buffalo.
- Purina is owned by Nestle, a company known for unethical practices and which some buyers prefer to avoid.
Best Purina Pro Plan dog food
Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Dry Dog Food
A solid all-rounder of a dry food that suits most adult dogs. It has a chicken and rice flavor and comes in a range of bag sizes.
Sold by Amazon, Chewy and PetSmart
Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach Dry Dog Food
This carefully formulated food is made using easily digestible ingredients and excludes common allergens, making it perfect for dogs with sensitive skin or stomachs. It contains a prebiotic formula to help digestion.
Sold by Amazon, Chewy and PetSmart
Purina Pro Plan Sport Wet Dog Food
Due to its high protein content, this wet food is suitable for very active dogs and working dogs. It also supports hydration, which is important for dogs who are always on the go.
Should you get Blue Buffalo dog food or Purina Pro Plan dog food?
There’s no clear winner between Blue Buffalo and Purina Pro Plan. Blue Buffalo has more consistently high-quality ingredients, but Purina Pro Plan only contains a small handful of questionable ingredients and not in all its formulas.
Purina has a slightly wider range of options tailored to the specific needs of dogs, but then again, most dogs are fine with a standard adult dog food — plus Blue Buffalo some tailored formulas, such as senior, small breed and large breed foods.
Ultimately, go with whichever option you think will best suit your dog and don’t be afraid to change your mind if your canine companion isn’t thriving on their new food after a reasonable transition period.
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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.wric.com/reviews/blue-buffalo-dog-food-vs-purina-pro-plan-dog-food/ | 2022-04-14T11:26:21 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/blue-buffalo-dog-food-vs-purina-pro-plan-dog-food/ |
Which women’s hooded bathrobe is best?
Stepping out of the shower or bath on even a warm day is a chilly experience. No matter how little time it takes to dry off with your towel and put your clothes on, you still get a little cold. With a hooded bathrobe, you can skip both steps and go directly into a warm, soft shell that can also dry your hair.
The best one is the Arus Women’s Hooded Bathrobe. It’s made of cotton from the Aegean region of Turkey for a premium feel.
What to know before you buy a women’s hooded bathrobe
Size and length
Hooded bathrobes typically use the same nomenclature as other clothing — small, medium, large, etc. — but most manufacturers use their own sizing charts. This means one “small” robe may be larger than a different “small” robe, so compare your prospective robe’s chart to your measurements.
You also need to consider the length. Most robes are cut to end just above the knee, at mid-calf or around the ankle. However, length and size don’t always match up, so the arms and width may be sized right for your upper body but your height makes a robe fall outside its intended place. You may need to shop around for a while until you find the right size and length.
Fastening
Most women’s hooded bathrobes are secured with exterior waist ties. Some robes use other methods, such as buttons, zippers or interior waist ties. A few use a combination of methods.
What to look for in a quality women’s hooded bathrobe
Material
Women’s hooded bathrobes are typically made of terry cloth or various types of cotton or synthetics.
- Terry cloth is the same material towels are made from. Bathrobes made this way have all the softness and absorbency of your favorite towels and can be comfortably warm. However, it does lose softness over time.
- Cotton bathrobes are made from a variety of cotton types using a variety of weaves. Some are thin and lightweight, while others are thick and heavy, and they’re available at every price point.
- Synthetic bathrobes are typically made of microfiber polyester. It’s soft, reasonably absorbent and affordable.
Hood
A quality hood on a bathrobe is large enough to fully drape over the head while having the length to not pull down tightly on the head. It should also have enough give so you can ruffle it comfortably across your head to dry your hair.
Pockets
A bathrobe should be comfortable enough for you to want to wear it all over your home. As you move around, you’ll likely want to keep your phone and other items on you. Choose a robe with at least one pocket for this purpose so you can have your hands free for moving a glass of wine and a tray of snacks to the couch.
How much you can expect to spend on a women’s hooded bathrobe
They typically cost $20-$100. Low-cost options cost no more than $20 while most cost $30-$50. The best cost $50-$100, though some luxury designer brands can cost several hundred dollars.
Women’s hooded bathrobe FAQ
How do I wash a women’s hooded bathrobe?
A. That mostly depends on the material. Most are machine-washable, though the tags have specific care instructions. Those that are machine washable can’t always be put in the dryer, so double-check before you accidentally damage your new robe. If you’re truly concerned about damaging it, you can usually have it dry-cleaned.
Can I customize a women’s hooded bathrobe?
A. Yes, though few offer customization and personalization during the order process. Instead, you’ll need to take it to a tailor or even personalize it yourself. Any material can be taken in or let out, but some materials are easier than others to personalize, such as fleece. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a complex material personalized, you just might have to pay extra for it.
What’s the best women’s hooded bathrobe to buy?
Top women’s hooded bathrobe
What you need to know: It feels as premium as its cost. It’s made of Turkish terry cotton for premium softness, breathability and durability.
What you’ll love: The hood is large enough to drape comfortably and not pull on your head, and it has two deep pockets on either side. It’s available in three sizes and eight colors.
What you should consider: It’s among the priciest bathrobes. Some consumers found it a little thin.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Macy’s
Top women’s hooded bathrobe for the money
U2Skiin Short Women’s Hooded Bathrobe
What you need to know: Made of polyester fleece for a soft, lightweight feel, it’s short for hot summer days.
What you’ll love: Its hood is loose enough not to tug, and it has a small pocket on either side of the front. It comes in three sizes and 21 designs. It uses an outer and inner tying system.
What you should consider: The short length doesn’t provide enough coverage for chilly nights. A few reviewers had issues finding a size that fit appropriately.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
iCreat Women’s Long Hooded Bathrobe
What you need to know: This soft, quality robe is extra-long for freezing winter nights.
What you’ll love: It uses an outer-belt tie system. It has two small pockets on the front and the hood is just large enough not to be too tight. It comes in three sizes and four colors and is made of polyester fleece for warmth and softness.
What you should consider: It’s too long and thick for any climate other than a cold one. It isn’t long enough to be floor length for taller consumers.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Egg prices have risen to more than $2.80 per dozen, on average, which is over double their price in March. This doesn’t bode well for Easter celebrations if you normally use painted eggs for decoration or egg hunts.
Instead, consider plastic eggs, which are reusable, save a lot of time and effort and are a vegan-friendly alternative to real eggs.
Why are egg prices rising?
Several factors have combined to lead to the sharply rising cost of eggs. A serious bird flu outbreak has led to the death of many hens. On top of that, the war in Ukraine has resulted in a significant rise in the price of grain used as feed for laying birds — a cost that farmers must pass on to avoid taking a loss. To a smaller degree, pandemic-related supply chain issues are still causing some price increases across the board.
What types of plastic eggs are available?
You’ll find a variety of plastic eggs available. The three main types are fillable, one-piece and realistic.
- Fillable plastic eggs: Most plastic eggs come in two parts that fit together, so you can fill them with small toys or candy. However, some come in one piece, which is the obvious choice if you don’t want to fill them.
- One-piece plastic eggs: These eggs come in one piece, so you can’t fill them. They’re a good choice for decoration or if you want to stick to the same egg hunt rules as you had with real eggs.
- Realistic plastic eggs: Realistic eggs are made to look like chicken eggs and come in white and brown varieties. These are great if you want to decorate them yourself or if you usually don’t paint or dye eggs at Easter.
Are there alternatives to plastic eggs?
If you’re not sold on plastic eggs, you can also buy wooden eggs as a more eco-friendly choice. These either come painted or plain so you can paint or decorate them yourself. This is a great choice if part of your Easter tradition is decorating eggs.
You can also find squishy faux eggs made from a squeezable foam material much like stress balls. These are great for any kids in a throwing phase who can’t be trusted not to launch hard plastic or wooden eggs at other kids or adults.
Best reusable Easter eggs
Prextex Bulk Plastic Easter Eggs
These solid-colored fillable Easter eggs come in a bulk pack of 100, which is ideal for Easter events or anyone planning a large family egg hunt. They’re hinged so the top and bottom parts won’t get separated when kids rip them open to see what’s inside.
Sold by Amazon
Joyin Plastic Printed Bright Easter Eggs
Featuring a printed exterior that resembles hand-painted designs, this is a great choice for anyone who prefers painting eggs rather than dying them. They are fillable, and you get 48 in a pack.
Sold by Amazon
Double Couple White Plastic Eggs
At first glance, these look like white chicken eggs, so they’re a great choice for anyone who would buy real eggs if it weren’t for the price hike. They are paintable and can be used year after year.
Sold by Amazon
Importer AM Pysanky Hand-Painted Polish Wooden Easter Eggs
These beautiful hand-painted wooden eggs are part of a Polish Easter tradition, but you don’t have to be Polish to appreciate their incredible design. They’re on the pricey side, but they’ll last for decades, and you’ll be proud to display them every Easter.
Sold by Amazon
Ufunga Slow Rising Squishy Easter Eggs
Made to look like painted eggs, these delightfully squishy Easter eggs are great alternatives to plastic or wooden eggs. You can choose from packs of 12 or 24.
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.
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Which electric nail file for thick toenails is best?
Electric nail files, also known as electric nail drills, are the machines most frequently used in salons on both fingernails and toenails. For thick toenails, whether they’re naturally thick or coated in thick polish, you’ll need an electric file with enough power behind it. You should also look for one that includes plenty of bits.
The best electric nail file for thick toenails is the Makartt Electric Nail File. It has more than enough power to handle anything thick and comes with a variety of bits.
What to know before you buy an electric nail file for thick toenails
Power
An electric nail file’s power is measured in revolutions per minute. Most electric files have maximum RPMs between 10,000-30,000, though a few can go faster. Most natural nails can be comfortably filed with 15,000 rpm, but thick natural nails might be better served with 20,000 rpm. If you’re planning to file nails thick from acrylic polish, you’ll need 25,000-30,000 RPMs.
Bits
In order to focus the power of your electric nail file, you’ll need drill bits. Most electric files include a handful to get you started, but you can always buy any bit you may need separately — just be aware that not all bits fit all files. For simple filing, all you need is a bit that holds disposable sanding bands. For trimming and shaping, you’ll need natural-nail and carbide bits for natural and acrylic-coated nails, respectively. Under-nail and pedicure bits are also good choices.
Noise
Drills make noise, but that doesn’t mean an electric nail file has to make too much. Cheap drills have no noise-dampening and can be quite loud. This may not bother you if you’re trimming your own nails. However, if you need to trim clients’ nails, it’s best for their experience if you choose a noise-dampened drill.
What to look for in a quality electric nail file for thick toenails
Hands-free control
If you’re setting out to file your friend’s or client’s toenails, a hands-free control system will make it much easier and faster to finish the task. These typically take the form of foot pedals that can turn the bit off and on and change the direction the drill spins. Most still require hands-on action to alter the speed.
Vibration dampening
When setting out to file thick toenails, you don’t just file one. You file all 10. Cheap electric nail file motors cause the drill to noticeably vibrate, which can make long trimming sessions deeply uncomfortable. Look for a file with a vibration-dampened motor to avoid this issue.
How much you can expect to spend on an electric nail file for thick toenails
Electric nail files for thick toenails need a little more power behind them, so you’ll likely need to spend at least $20-$30. Better options with more bits usually cost $50-$100, while the best options cost $100-$200.
Electric nail file for thick toenails FAQ
Are electric nail files for thick toenails safe?
A. Yes, though the power electric nail files for thick toenails need to have can easily cause damage if you use the file improperly. The first step is to carefully read all use and safety instructions. Then, start cleaning your toenails or fingernails using the lowest possible speed until you feel comfortable using it. Keep increasing the speed little by little in order to get the hang of each speed setting.
How do I maintain an electric nail file for thick toenails?
A. You need to maintain the drill and the bits using separate processes. The drill shouldn’t come in contact with any water. To clean the drill, you’ll need to brush it off or blast it with a can of compressed air. The bits will need to be disinfected, not just cleaned. Start by scrubbing them while in warm soapy water, then let them soak in a metal-safe disinfecting solution for at least 20 minutes. Once done, dry them thoroughly before storing.
What’s the best electric nail file for thick toenails to buy?
Top electric nail file for thick toenails
What you need to know: This is powerful and reasonably priced.
What you’ll love: It has speeds that can reach up to 30,000 rpm, which is powerful enough to file away even tough acrylic nails. Additionally, it has forward and reverse spin modes. It has a hands-free foot switch and includes several drill bits and 30 sanding bands.
What you should consider: A few consumers had issues with overheating — in rare cases, it became hot enough to melt. Others had issues with the motor giving out in a few months.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top electric nail file for thick toenails for the money
What you need to know: This has just enough power for occasional toenail maintenance.
What you’ll love: It comes packed with accessories, including six drill bits, 30 sanding belts and a pair of nail clippers. The drill has speeds that can reach up to 20,000 rpm and can rotate forward or backward. It comes in silver and green.
What you should consider: A few consumers didn’t receive all the pieces it’s supposed to include. The 20,000 rpm maximum speed setting can’t handle acrylic-covered toenails.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Imene Portable Professional Nail Drill
What you need to know: This drill is perfect for professional use but may be too strong for at-home pedicures.
What you’ll love: It has a brushless vibration- and noise-dampened motor with variable speeds that can spin in either direction and can reach up to 35,000 rpm. It’s surprisingly small and rechargeable, making it easy to take on the go. It includes six drill bits and six sanding bands.
What you should consider: It’s expensive — too expensive for only occasional use. A few consumers had difficulty understanding the instructions. Few third-party drill bits are compatible.
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.wric.com/reviews/br/beauty-personal-care-br/foot-care-br/best-electric-nail-file-for-thick-toenails/ | 2022-04-14T11:26:42 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/beauty-personal-care-br/foot-care-br/best-electric-nail-file-for-thick-toenails/ |
Which Valentino perfume is best?
Valentino has been one of the preferred fashion and fragrance brands of the rich and famous for more than a few decades. Their perfume is known for exuding elegance and opulence. Introduced for the first time in 1978, Valentino’s perfume line has grown to include numerous enticing concoctions that encompass a variety of fragrance profiles, from sweet and spicy to fruity and sour.
A good place to start is by checking out Valentino Donna Born In Roma Eau de Parfum, a pretty floral fragrance with notes of jasmine, blackcurrant and bourbon vanilla.
What to know before you buy a bottle of Valentino perfume
Perfume concentration
Valentino makes three concentrations of perfume: eau de toilette, eau de parfum and parfum.
- Eau de toilette: This is the weakest of the three but it still carries quite a bit of scent. With 10%-15% pure perfume oils, a high-quality eau de toilette can be intense and last all day.
- Eau de parfum: This is a stronger, longer-lasting fragrance, containing 15%-20% pure perfume oils.
- Parfum: This is the strongest concentration, with between 20%-40% perfume oils. Parfum is also the most expensive because perfume oil is the priciest ingredient in any fragrance.
What to look for in a quality Valentino perfume
Uniqueness
Valentino womenswear, which includes their perfumes, is designed around the philosophy that a “woman must cause heads to turn when she enters a room.” A clear indicator that a perfume adheres to this principle is the extent to which it smells completely one of a kind. The best Valentino perfume will excite your nose and leave a memorable impression on all those around you. This uniqueness is exactly why Valentino fragrances are prized by so many perfume connoisseurs.
Bottle design
Valentino’s partner, both in business and life, Giancarlo Giammetti, was a professional Italian architect at the time of their meeting. Because of this, Valentino perfume bottles have an especially provocative architectural feel and design. Be on the lookout for eye-catching bottles that feature Valentino’s signature three-dimensional spike or subtly tinted glass. These details allow each perfume bottle to serve as a display piece all on its own — even after the perfume is gone.
How much you can expect to spend on Valentino perfume
Expect to spend between $50-$90 for small- and medium-sized bottles of Valentino perfume and between $120-$150 for larger bottles.
Valentino perfume FAQ
Where should I apply my new Valentino perfume?
A. Where you choose to apply your perfume is really a matter of preference. However, there are certain areas you can spray that will naturally increase or decrease the intensity and longevity of your perfume. If you want your scent to smell more intense and last longer, spray it onto areas that are naturally warm and experience friction, such as the inner elbows, neck and the backs of your knees.
Can Valentino perfume expire?
A. Yes, once a bottle of perfume has been opened, it can last an average of two years, sometimes longer if you keep it in a cool area out of direct sunlight. You can tell that the perfume has gone bad if it no longer smells as it should or appears discolored.
What’s the best Valentino perfume to buy?
Top Valentino perfume
Valentino Donna Born In Roma Eau De Parfum
What you need to know: Encapsulated in a stunning studded bottle, this pink perfume has rich floral notes and an invitingly feminine scent profile.
What you’ll love: This scent is sophisticated, boasting top notes of bergamot and jasmine that enliven the senses, middle notes of Bulgarian rose and blackcurrant and base notes of warm vanilla and beechwood. This versatile perfume is bold and sensual and was inspired by the edgy yet elegant style of the nightlife scene in Rome.
What you should consider: Although this is an Eau de parfum, the sweetness of the initial scent doesn’t last as long as some wearers would have liked.
Where to buy: Sold by Sephora, Kohl’s and Ulta Beauty
Top Valentino perfume for the money
Valentino Voce Viva Eau De Parfum
What you need to know: If you’re in the market for a subtle yet long-lasting perfume with a unique scent profile and premium ingredients, look no further than Voce Viva.
What you’ll love: The initial scent profile contains robust top notes of bergamot, mandarin and orange blossom, which lend this perfume a distinct sense of citrus-powered awareness. These top notes eventually give way to heart notes gardenia and crystal moss accord, which is a rare ingredient that gives this perfume a sweet subtlety. Finally, the heart notes fade and the base notes of vanilla and tonka bean settle in.
What you should consider: Some wearers feel that the unique combination of ingredients give it a polarizing scent profile.
Where to buy: Sold by Sephora, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Amazon and Ulta Beauty
Worth checking out
Valentino Donna Yellow Dream Eau De Parfum
What you need to know: One of Valentino’s most popular scents, Donna Yellow Dream has a luxurious scent profile that includes complementary contrasts, such as vibrant florals and sweet musk.
What you’ll love: Introduced in 2021, this is one of Valentino’s newest additions to its perfume line, and as such, it’s properly modern. With top notes of Italian lemon, middle notes of luscious rose petal and base notes of white musk, this perfume is both light and breezy as well as mysterious and sensual.
What you should consider: Some wearers report that this perfume isn’t strong enough given the fact that it’s an Eau de parfum.
Where to buy: Sold by Sephora, Kohl’s and Ulta Beauty
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William Briskin 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.wric.com/reviews/br/beauty-personal-care-br/fragrance-br/the-best-valentino-perfume/ | 2022-04-14T11:26:49 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/beauty-personal-care-br/fragrance-br/the-best-valentino-perfume/ |
Which peach shower curtain is best?
Interior designers are in love with pastels right now — and for good reason. These softened tones open decorators up to the full color spectrum with just about every pastel hue being easy on the eyes. Chief among these is peach, the color of sunsets and fresh pitted fruit.
If you’re looking to add warmth and light to your bathroom, a peach shower curtain is the perfect mood booster. Which you choose comes down to the size of your bathtub and your bathroom’s decor, but you can’t go wrong with the delightful print of the Lifeel Peach Shower Curtain.
What to know before you buy a peach shower curtain
Psychology of peach
Peach is a warm mixture of red and yellow. Its properties put people at ease, projecting calm and contentment. This makes it an excellent color for your bathing routine, imbuing your shower or tub with positive and rejuvenating energy.
Colors that go with peach
As a pastel, peach plays well with other colors. The trick is matching the tone to its opposite and tertiary colors. Peach goes great with soft greens such as turquoise and teal and muted yellows such as ocher. It also pairs well with warm grays and light purples such as mauve. If you don’t want pastel overload, try using peach as an accent by pitting it against rich red backdrops.
Styling a peach shower curtain
Because it’s a bright and happy color, peach thrives when surrounded by open, minimal and natural interiors. Warm, raw woods match the energy of this color, as do rose-tinted metals.
If your decor is inspired by vintage aesthetics, you might find yourself struggling to match the color to luscious and saturated hues. In these scenarios, peach can integrate with the darker browns of antique furniture by using mid-tones to work the eye up to the brighter color. As for the severe black of modern interiors, gold, copper and brass are all great ways to guide your space in a warm direction so peach feels at home.
Solid color vs. patterned
Shower curtains are underappreciated canvases that offer excellent color-blocking potential, but that doesn’t mean you have to go peach all the way. A patterned curtain presents decorators with additional versatility. By opting for a peach motif, you can introduce a neutral backdrop that balances the color out and opens your bathroom’s palette up to further color exploration.
What to look for in a quality peach shower curtain
Material
Shower curtains come in three different materials that determine their look, feel and durability:
- Cotton: Soft, hefty and luxurious, cotton is a premium option that comes at a significant cost compared to other materials. It lasts the longest and can be machine-washed; just be prepared to use a liner to protect it from mold and mildew.
- Vinyl: The budget option, vinyl is completely waterproof but has a plasticky sheen and smell. These curtains are also available in non-toxic, eco-friendly PEVA and EVA.
- Polyester: These synthetic fibers offer a waterproof yet textured curtain material halfway between cotton and vinyl. They’re typically more affordable than cotton, and their durability makes them an attractive substitute, though they don’t last quite as long.
Size
- Standard: At 72 by 72 inches, the standard shower curtain is sized to cover one long edge of your typical bathtub.
- Extra-wide: For everything from claw-foots to basins, extra-wide shower curtains offer the additional coverage necessary to prevent water damage. Sized from 108-180 inches wide, these are designed to wrap around any tub with more than one exposed side.
- Extra-long: High ceilings and tall shower curtain rods leave standard curtains coming up short. Extra-long curtains add 1-2 more feet in length to block spillage and ensure your shower doesn’t look like it’s squeezing into a hand-me-down curtain.
- Narrow: Small bathrooms come with small showers, and excess curtain fabric can bunch up, consuming precious space. Narrow curtains are half the width of standard curtains to cover stalls and other diminutive showers.
Installation
Sewn into the top of your shower curtain are small, plastic- or metal-reinforced holes called grommets. If they’re big enough, you can slide the curtain rod directly through these grommets to install your shower curtain. While this method is the easiest, grommets make it harder to pull your curtain back and forth.
If you want to pull your curtain back with ease without any bunching or if your grommets are too small, you need to use hooks. These require a little more finesse to install but also present a fun decorative opportunity.
How much you can expect to spend on a peach shower curtain
Vinyl shower curtains typically cost $5-$20. Polyester can range from $15-$50, and high-quality cotton can be as much as $60-$120.
Peach shower curtain FAQ
Do I need to use a curtain liner?
A. Shower curtain liners act as a barrier that blocks soap scum, mold and mildew from penetrating your curtain. Cotton shower curtains aren’t waterproof and need these for protection. Neither vinyl nor polyester require a liner, but it can help boost their longevity and makes cleanup a lot easier.
How do I clean my shower curtain?
A. All three materials can be put through the wash; you should do this once a month. Vinyl can also be wiped down with household cleaner and paper towels. Just stay away from bleach, as this can damage the dyes and inks.
What’s the best peach shower curtain to buy?
Top peach shower curtain
What you need to know: This one may be a little on the nose, but the all-over peach motif has a beautiful, summery vibe.
What you’ll love: With a vintage-graphic quality, this curtain is ripe with color. It’s made from polyester and weighted at the bottom so you don’t have to worry about it fluttering about in a draft. It comes with 12 hooks to make installation easy.
What you should consider: You can only get this in a standard size.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top peach shower curtain for the money
Elaine Karen Vinyl Shower Curtain Liner with Metal Grommets
What you need to know: This vibrant peach liner makes for a great shower curtain on a budget.
What you’ll love: Because it’s made from vinyl, you don’t have to worry about waterproofing with this durable curtain. It’s dyed with a light peach color that can brighten up gloomy bathrooms. The magnets sewn into the bottom help prevent spills and billowing.
What you should consider: This curtain doesn’t come with hooks.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
August Grove Andes Solid Single Shower Curtain
What you need to know: This curtain adds a touch of texture to your bathroom decor with its ruffled design.
What you’ll love: The boho-chic frills of this peach curtain feel like the stuff of royalty. Made from polyester, it retains the fabric qualities of cotton without the risk of water damage. The grommets are subtle, reinforced by a hem rather than plastic or metal.
What you should consider: This is only available in standard sizing.
Where to buy: Sold by Wayfair
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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.wric.com/reviews/br/bed-bath-br/shower-accessories-br/best-peach-shower-curtain/ | 2022-04-14T11:26:55 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/bed-bath-br/shower-accessories-br/best-peach-shower-curtain/ |
Which online web design class is best?
In today’s world, web design is a highly useful skill that can lead to professional growth. If you’re interested in applying your creative skills in a way that’s lucrative and versatile, an online web design course is for you. Many of these courses teach certain aspects of web development as well, which is also profitable.
Udemy’s Web Design for Beginners: Real World Coding in HTML & CSS course is great for anyone starting out.
What to know before you buy an online web design class
Front-end development
Many online courses teach both web development and web design, since they often go hand in hand. Even if you choose to go with a beginner-friendly class, most still include basic development.
Web design is the overall setup and appearance of a website across any device, including mobile phones, tablets and computers. It includes the layout, interface design, graphics or other visuals and overall content of the site. When combined, these elements add to a comprehensive, user-friendly look and feel.
Many online web design classes teach both web design and front-end development, which is ideal for freelancers or anyone else looking to grow professionally. Even though front-end development doesn’t focus on the design aspect as much, it does affect how well the site runs. That’s why it’s a good idea to learn at least the basics, specifically coding and programming languages such as JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
Coding
In the past, if you wanted to learn how to design a website, you also had to understand web development; even the artwork and positioning of the text required some knowledge of coding. Today, most popular content management sites, including WordPress, handle the development aspect.
Although it’s possible to design websites without knowing coding or programming, many online web design courses still touch on the basics. For example, one course could teach CSS, which is useful for WordPress since it affects how content is displayed on the site. If the online course only covers the basics, you can also take a supplemental online course, such as JavaScript, to learn more.
Website builders
Many website builders, including Wix and Squarespace, use a drag and drop function that makes it much easier to design a website, even if you don’t have a background in the field. More complex builders, such as WordPress, boast features that offer much more customization and let you use certain coding knowledge.
Certain web design classes teach you how to use specific website builders, while others focus mostly on concepts such as layout or coding. Typically, the ones that focus on website builders don’t cover coding.
What to look for in a quality online web design class
Topics covered
Online web design courses usually focus on the following topics:
- Search engine optimization
- Typography
- Composition
- Graphic design software such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
- Responsive design
- CSS3 and HTML
Courses that also emphasize web development go more in-depth into coding, programming and front-end and back-end development.
Level
Web design courses are multilayered, so choose a level suited to your current skill level. For instance, if you’re new to the subject, select a beginner class that teaches the basics such as layout and color theory. Just remember that one course might consider a topic introductory, while another could view it as intermediate.
Some online courses build upon each other, especially when taught by the same instructor. In this case, it’s a good idea to start with the first class and follow along in order unless you already have a solid understanding of the previous topics.
Course breakdown
Online classes usually come with a syllabus that outlines the course breakdown, including overarching modules and smaller lessons that reinforce key concepts.
For example, a beginner class could have a module on the general structure of websites with related subsections on how to code and use images. Meanwhile, a course made for WordPress design could cover everything from setting up pages and customizing post templates to installing and using plugins.
Many courses also feature assignments, quizzes and other supplemental materials you can download or complete as you learn.
Duration
Udemy, Coursera and similar online education sites list how long it will take to complete a class. The total duration usually includes the readings and videos, but not any assignments that are done outside of class. Most online web design classes are nine to 22 hours.
Certificate
Some courses offer a certificate you can display on LinkedIn, your resume or your new website. To receive a certificate, you might need to purchase the full course or have an active subscription to the platform it’s on.
How much you can expect to spend on an online web design class
A subscription to Coursera costs $59 a month, but you can also get a free seven-day trial. As for Udemy, web design and development courses usually cost $90-$140. Udemy also offers a free seven-day trial followed by a subscription service that costs $29.99 a month. Once you purchase the course, you receive lifetime access to it.
Online web design classes FAQ
Is web design difficult to learn?
A. Web design is a complex subject, but it can be easy to learn if you follow a class that’s laid out well. However, many classes teach you about the different technologies and methods that go along with website design and development. If you’re not technologically savvy, it can be challenging to learn some of the more complex components such as coding and back-end development.
What other skills should I know to be a web designer?
A. Enhance your skills by learning Adobe design software and studying user experience. Also, continue building upon your front-end and back-end development expertise.
What’s the best online web design class to buy?
Top web design class for you to take online
Web Design for Beginners: Real World Coding in HTML & CSS
What you need to know: This is an introductory course that teaches you the basics of design and development.
What you’ll love: It covers the essentials of web design, including HTML and CSS coding, responsive design and SaaS. Plus, it teaches you how to add media to web pages.
What you should consider: The course focuses a lot on back-end development, which can be overwhelming for complete beginners.
Where to buy: Sold by Udemy
Top web design class for you to take online for the money
Introduction to Web Development
What you need to know: Available for free on a trial basis or with a monthly subscription, this course teaches everything from the basics of web design to development.
What you’ll love: This course features 22 hours of content spread across six weeks. It includes several readings, videos and quizzes. It teaches you how to design a site from beginning to end using HTML.
What you should consider: There’s a lot of focus on web development.
Where to buy: Sold by Coursera
Worth checking out
WordPress for Beginners — Master WordPress Quickly
What you need to know: This course is great for anyone who wants to create a website using WordPress.
What you’ll love: It teaches you how to configure a WordPress site to create pages and posts. It is comprised of 107 lectures and has nine hours of content. There’s no coding experience necessary.
What you should consider: WordPress is a robust system, so the course might take longer to complete than listed.
Where to buy: Sold by Udemy
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Angela Watson writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which USB-C hub adapter is best?
As laptops get smaller, thinner and more powerful, they tend to lose some of their functionalities. Where built-in USB 3.0 connections were once a common sight, it’s now unusual to see them on the side of a laptop.
If your USB-C laptop only has one or two connections, this is where a USB-C hub adapter can prove useful. Through a device such as the Hiearcool USB-C Dongle for MacBook Pro, you can connect multiple devices to your computer.
What to know before you buy a USB-C hub adapter
It could drain your laptop’s battery faster
Connecting several devices or accessories to your laptop through a hub comes at a price. While some adapters require an independent power source, others don’t — they use power from your laptop. This can cause your device to run flat much faster than usual if it’s not plugged into a charger.
Robust construction materials
A USB-C is incredibly important if you rely on one connection for all your portability needs. If it gets damaged, you could lose the ability to access vital devices or accessories. Keep in mind the construction materials of the hub, and try to get one that’s made from hardened plastic or aluminum.
Compatibility with your device
While USB-C is now a common connection type, not all devices are the same. Ensure that the hub you’re interested in is compatible with your device. For example, Apple’s Thunderbolt is a type of USB-C but is only compatible with certain gadgets. Similarly, Nintendo’s Switch console also uses USB-C, but the type used isn’t compatible with certain hubs or cables. The way to determine compatibility is to check with the manufacturer of the device.
What to look for in a quality USB-C hub adapter
USB-C Power Delivery
A key aspect to look for when deciding on an adapter is Power Delivery technology. This lets you use your laptop to charge other devices that are connected to the hub. The amount of power delivered to the connected device can vary, but the most common is around 100 watts.
Lengthy cable (or no cable at all)
You don’t want to struggle to get devices connected to your laptop, which is why a lengthy USB-C cable can be handy. The length also lets you move the adapter around to minimize any electromagnetic interference. On the other hand, there are adapters that have no cables at all. These sit flush with your laptop and are a great option if you have limited space.
Multiple connections
The purpose of an adapter is so you can connect multiple devices of different connections to your laptop. For that reason, it’s imperative that the adapter has as many as possible, which should include USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI connection and an SD card slot.
How much you can expect to spend on a USB-C hub adapter
The average cost of a USB-C adapter or hub depends on the number of ports and connections it has. An entry-level hub with a few slots can cost $15-$20, while a feature-packed adapter can go for $25-$35.
USB-C hub adapter FAQ
Can you connect a mouse and keyboard to an adapter?
A. Yes, you can, but you should keep in mind that due to their limited design, users often complain that the mouse is less responsive when an additional monitor is also connected.
What’s the difference between USB-C and Lightning?
A. The Lightning connection is the proprietary connection method for many Apple products and isn’t interchangeable with other devices. However, Apple’s Thunderbolt is a type of USB-C connection that can be used with other USB-C products or adapters.
What’s the best USB-C hub adapter to buy?
Top USB-C hub adapter
Hiearcool USB-C Dongle For MacBook Pro
What you need to know: This adapter has all the ports and connections that you could ever need. It features two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port for an external display and an SD card slot.
What you’ll love: You can recharge your laptop through the Power Delivery function, and it’s capable of displaying 4K content at 30 frames per second. The outer case is made from aluminum alloy, weighs only 2.4 ounces and is available in six colors.
What you should consider: The adapter isn’t compatible with Samsung’s DeX software, which lets you cast your device’s screen to a bigger monitor such as a TV. Unlike other hubs, this one is compatible with Nintendo Switch.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top USB-C hub adapter for the money
AorZ USB-C 7-in-1 Dongle Adapter
What you need to know: Not only does this hub have seven different connections, it can also power your laptop through USB-C Power Delivery technology.
What you’ll love: This hub features an HDMI connection, which lets you display content on an external monitor at 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second, or 4K resolution at 30 frames per second. It has three USB 3.0 ports, which is handy if you want to connect a keyboard or mouse. There’s also an SD card slot for transferring content such as photos from a camera.
What you should consider: This hub isn’t compatible with the Apple iPad Pro 11-inch or 21.9-inch before 2018.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: If you need to add a variety of useful connection ports to your laptop, this hub is a perfect choice.
What you’ll love: Its best feature is that it can handle an HDMI connection to an external monitor at a 4K resolution at 30 frames per second. In addition, this hub sports one connection for each of the most popular ports, so you’ll always have a way of connecting external devices. It has an SD card slot, USB-C input, USB-C data port and two USB 3.0 slots. It features USB-C Power Delivery so you can simultaneously charge your laptop.
What you should consider: This USB-C hub is only compatible with Apple’s MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and the Pixelbook. It isn’t compatible with the Nintendo Switch, even though it uses USB-C.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Charlie Fripp writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Best headphones for camping
Getting back to nature can be an amazing way to de-stress. Spending time in the forests of a national park or hiking the Midwestern plains can make you forget about your worries as you take in the sights.
While some prefer to wake up with the call of the mountain chickadee, others center themselves through music. It might seem counterproductive to listen to created sounds rather than nature’s own, but the two go surprisingly well together — if you have the right headphones for camping, that is.
Best wireless headphones
If you’re looking for a great pair of headphones that fit over your ears, this model from Sony is a perfect option. They use some of the best noise-canceling technology available, and through the Edge-AI system, they regulate and change the equalizer according to the music. They’re perfect for camping or hiking as they have a 30-hour battery life, and you can receive calls through the connected Bluetooth function.
Sold by Amazon
SoundCore by Anker Life Q30 Hybrid
To remove the sounds of people talking around you or when you just want to be alone, SoundCore Life Q30 headphones use Anker’s hybrid noise-canceling system that includes dual microphones to block up to 95% of ambient sounds. With large 40-millimeter audio drivers, this pair has a battery life of 40 hours and comes with a 3.5-millimeter cable, even though they’re capable of wireless connectivity.
Sold by Amazon
For Apple loyalists who enjoy camping, there are no better headphones to pack in your bag than the AirPods Max. Available in five colors, they feature active noise cancellation, respond to Siri through voice and provide up to 20 hours of listening time. As they’re wireless, they connect to your device through Bluetooth. No matter what you’re listening to, the Adaptive EQ changes the equalizer depending on the musical style and quality.
Sold by Amazon
Best headphones for running
Beats Powerbeats Pro Wireless Earbuds
If you want to stay in shape while on a camping trip, then you’re probably going to want to get in a run. To listen to music while doing so, you need a great pair of earbuds, and Powerbeats are a good option. They provide you with nine hours of battery life and are completely wireless. The ear hooks are adjustable to ensure a snug fit and they’re reinforced to protect against sweat and water. While they use Apple’s H1 internal chip, they’re compatible with iOS and Android devices.
Sold by Amazon
Available in several colors, these JBudsPRO earbuds stay put no matter how fast you’re running. The Cush Fins at the top of the earbuds fit comfortably into the ear, while three different size silicone tips provide added grip. For sound production, the audio drivers are 11 millimeters and use high-performance titanium for better quality. JBudsPRO have an in-line microphone so you can take and make hands-free calls while camping.
Sold by Amazon
The best choice for Apple fans who want a subtle listening experience, AirPods Pro come with active noise cancellation while still having transparency mode for when you need to hear what’s going on around you. Adaptive EQ automatically tunes the music, while spatial audio with dynamic head tracking makes it sound like the music is all around you. The tips are available in three different sizes and they’re sweat- and water-resistant.
Sold by Amazon
Best affordable headphones
When you go camping, you don’t always want to take the best or most expensive headphones with you. There are plenty of affordable headphones that are perfect for throwing in a backpack and hitting the trail, such as Riff Wireless. They connect to your mobile device through Bluetooth (a wired version is available too), give you 12 hours of battery life and provide two hours of listening from a 10-minute charge. They’re available in four colors and come with a built-in microphone, volume and track control and charge through a USB cable.
Sold by Amazon
Retailing for under $10, these headphones are perfect for camping if you aren’t too concerned about them getting dirty, wet or possibly damaged. The audio drivers measure 33 millimeters and sit inside swiveling ear cups that are covered with soft foam. These headphones aren’t wireless but connect to your mobile device with a 3.5-millimeter jack. If you have an iPhone, don’t forget to pack your Lightning 3.5-millimeter adapter.
Sold by Amazon
For a grab-and-go pair of earbuds, Pro from Philips get the job done. Whether you’re camping or on a hike, the 8.6-millimeter audio drivers produce clear music with no distortion. They feature passive noise cancellation to block out any ambient sounds and connect to your mobile device through a 3.5-millimeter connection. With the in-line microphone and volume controls, you can make and receive phone calls.
Sold by Amazon
With a tangle-free flat cable and foldable ear cups, the Tune 500 are a great pair of headphones to take on a camping trip. Their compact design makes them easy to throw into a backpack or keep around your neck. The 32-millimeter audio drivers incorporate JBL’s Pure Bass technology for crystal-clear sounds, and the padded headband reduces discomfort if you wear them for a long time. They feature an in-line microphone and volume controls that can also be used to activate Google Assistant or Siri.
Sold by Amazon
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Which Ethernet switch is best?
If you’re running several devices with wired Ethernet connections, it’s useful to have a switch. Having an Ethernet switch lets users maintain and modify a home internet network using multiple devices that use a LAN or Ethernet cable to connect to the internet. They can also offer performance benefits such as faster speeds and better overall traffic management.
The TrendNet Ethernet Switch offers five Ethernet ports, operation lights and 10 Gbps on file transfers.
What to know before you buy an Ethernet switch
Needs
Ethernet switches are used to connect to devices using a wired local area network, also called LAN and Ethernet cables. If you want a basic switch for optimizing traffic flow across devices, just about any switch will do, so long as it has the number of ports you want. But specific Ethernet switches may work better than others, depending on your data needs. Some come with upgrade features, including added security, faster speeds or additional power.
Unmanaged vs. managed
The most common type of Ethernet switch is an unmanaged switch. These offer basic traffic flow maintenance and don’t require users to set up parameters. While basic Ethernet switches work for most households, you can also buy upgraded or managed switches for adding a virtual LAN network or Quality of Service controls for managing data bottlenecks. These may be more useful for those using a switch in commercial or professional settings.
Power over Ethernet
Certain devices, such as security cameras, require power and can use the Ethernet cable to get it, rather than a separate power cable or a battery. This is where Power over Ethernet systems come into play. Another upgrade feature found on high-end switches, PoE lets you power devices and connect to the internet through the Ethernet cable. Other devices that often work with PoE switches include printers and media streaming devices.
What to look for in a quality Ethernet switch
Speed
The increased speed across devices offered by an Ethernet switch is the primary selling point for most users. Ethernet switches can support cumulative data speeds across devices of either 10, 100 or 1,000 Mbps, which equals 1 Gbps. Today’s vast majority of switches offer what they call “Gigabit” speeds, or speeds up to 1 Gbps. These can still work with lower-speed devices, and they offer faster speeds from one device to the next than if you just use a router.
Ports
The number of ports on an Ethernet switch determines how many wired connections you can use it to make. While most include around five Ethernet ports, you can also find some with just a few ports, or those with nine or more. Make sure any switch you choose has enough ports to support all the devices you want to use simultaneously.
Lights
While they don’t affect functionality on an Ethernet switch, many buyers prefer those with lights that indicate when certain LAN ports are operational, connected or working at full speed. Those without lights can be significantly more confusing to set up, making it harder to know when devices are active — which can be a total pain when troubleshooting issues.
How much you can expect to spend on an Ethernet switch
A cheap Ethernet switch costs as little as $10. However, most midrange switches run $15-$40, while high-end Ethernet switches for use in professional settings cost $50-$500.
Ethernet switch FAQ
Are Ethernet switches secure?
A. On their own, they aren’t particularly secure. However, there are steps you can take to lock your network down from outsiders. These include creating access passwords and implementing a Secure Shell or other encrypting protocols.
Can Ethernet switches be daisy-chained?
A. Yes, so long as you have fewer than three switches daisy-chained, though it isn’t usually recommended. Some do this to create multiple networks alongside each other, using the same switches. However, it’s almost always best to run Ethernet cables separately, using separate switch chains.
What’s the best Ethernet switch to buy?
Top Ethernet switch
TrendNet Five-Port Unmanaged Gigabit Desktop Ethernet Switch
What you need to know: This powerful five-port Ethernet switch comes at a fair price and offers up to 10 Gbps of data traffic across devices.
What you’ll love: This switch features GreenNet power consumption-reducing hardware and a standby mode for when devices aren’t in use. It also includes lights for when activity is detected, and it has a fan-less design for minimal noise.
What you should consider: Some buyers didn’t find this switch durable.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Ethernet switch for the money
Tenda Five-Port Unmanaged Gigabit Ethernet Switch
What you need to know: This is a simple, affordable switch with activity lights and all the basics you need to distribute data speeds across multiple devices.
What you’ll love: This unmanaged switch works great for household use, offering up to 1,000 Mbps of data transfer speeds. You can also buy this brand in eight- and nine-port varieties.
What you should consider: This switch stopped working after a short period of use for a few buyers.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
TP-Link TL-SG105 Five-Port Unmanaged Gigabit Ethernet Switch
What you need to know: This five-port gigabit switch is powerful and mountable, offering upgrade functionality at a reasonable price.
What you’ll love: This switch lets users choose between VLAN and Quality of Service functions. It also has shielded ports, automatic traffic optimization and a fan-less design for low noise levels while active.
What you should consider: Some buyers had trouble keeping the power cable in.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Peter McGuthrie writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which Canon printer is best?
Even if you don’t use your printer on a daily basis, it’s important to have one at home. Many feel they don’t need a printer since documents are available online, and you can sign and return them quickly through the internet. Even though printers have become somewhat less popular over the years, you’ll undoubtedly want to have one.
Canon is a trusted brand that offers a wide range of printers that are excellent for basic printing needs as well as scanning photos or making copies. If you want a functional printer that will save you money on ink, take a look at the Canon Maxify GX6020 All-in-One Wireless Supertank Printer.
What to know before you buy a Canon printer
The purpose of the printer
People typically use Canon printers to print documents onto paper, scan documents or photos, send emails and more. Decide what you think you’ll use your printer for the most to help you decide which model works best for your needs. If you only print black-and-white documents, there is no need to buy an expensive device that produces photo-quality images.
Inkjet vs. laser printer
Canon printers are generally available in inkjet or laser design, which refers to the different methods of printing out images or text. For example, inkjet printers use several tiny nozzles to deposit ink drops on the page. They tend to be cheaper, but the nozzles are prone to clogging, and the ink is expensive. On the other hand, laser printers use heat to melt the ink powder onto a page. While they are more costly, they last a long time, which helps even out the costs over time.
Types of Canon printers
Canon has different printers that cater to various needs. Here are some of the options you’ll come across.
Pixma printers are perfect for everyday use at home or in a small office. The inkjet design offers terrific print quality and speed. The Pixma line includes both all-in-one printers that can print, copy and scan as well as photo printers that can create first-rate prints of your favorite memories.
Selphy printers are small enough to fit in a backpack and feature an attractive design. They allow you to print quality photos from your smartphone or tablet even on the go.
Maxify printers are known for their power and efficiency. These multifunction, wireless inkjet printers provide quality prints at a reasonable price per page. They’re ideal for use at home or in small offices.
ImageClass color printers are ideal when your work demands high-quality prints in rich, bold hues (note that some models only print in black and white). These laser printers feature a touch screen that lets you customize the settings to suit your needs, and they’re fast.
Printing resolution
Canon printers produce images or text at a set resolution, measured in dots per inch (dpi). The more dots there are in a square inch, the better the quality will be. It’s best to find a dpi that goes hand in hand with what you plan on using the printer for. For example, black-and-white documents are perfect at a dpi of 400-600. But for high-quality images, you ideally want a dpi of 1,000-1,200.
What to look for in a quality Canon printer
Printing cost per page
Printer ink is notoriously expensive, so you need to factor in how much it costs you to print a page. This will vary depending on the printer, but black-and-white pages should only cost a couple of cents. Color prints are more costly, but even then, they shouldn’t cost more than 15 cents per page. Take time to figure out the cost-per-page for your printer, so you don’t spend a fortune on ink.
Wireless connectivity
While you can connect a Canon printer to a computer or laptop with a USB cable, the best option is to use a wireless connection. A good-quality printer can connect to your home’s Wi-Fi network, allowing anybody to access it. In addition, some printers connect through Bluetooth technology, which is a great option when printing from a mobile device.
Printing speed
The days of standing by the printer waiting for your pages to pop out are long gone. But with that said, some printers are faster than others. Look for a Canon printer that can produce high-quality prints in a few seconds. For example, a good-quality Canon printer can produce around 45 black-and-white pages per minute.
How much you can expect to spend on a Canon printer
The average cost of a Canon printer depends on the model and what printing technology it uses. Entry-level printers cost $250-$350, while high-quality devices that produce excellent photos are around $500-$700.
Canon printer FAQ
Why is printer ink so expensive?
A. Printer ink is expensive because the printers themselves are cheap to make. Manufacturers still need to profit, and they know that you can’t operate a printer without ink. So they tend to increase the cost of the ink to make a profit.
Can a Canon printer do double-sided printing?
A. Yes, several models can create double-sided prints. Some Canon printers even do this automatically, so you don’t have to turn over the page yourself.
What’s the best Canon printer to buy?
Top Canon printer
Canon Maxify GX6020 All-in-One Wireless Supertank Printer
What you need to know: Not only does this printer deliver high-quality photos, but it can also produce double-sided prints automatically.
What you’ll love: This printer features a 2.7-inch LCD touchscreen, making it easy to select the functions and get it set up. It can print 24 black and white pages per minute and displays the ink levels on the front panel, so you always know how much ink is left. It connects to devices through Wi-Fi or USB and can print glossy photos and labels.
What you should consider: It is best suited for a small office, as the initial cost can be a bit pricey for a home user.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Canon printer for the money
Canon ImageClass D1620 Multifunction Printer
What you need to know: This all-in-one laser printer is perfect for a small or at-home office.
What you’ll love: One of the fastest Canon printers, it produces 45 black-and-white pages per minute. It can print, scan and copy, and has a paper tray that can hold up to 2,300 pages.
What you should consider: It’s a monochrome printer, so it won’t print in color.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Canon Wireless Pixma TR4520 Inkjet All-in-one Printer
What you need to know: The Pixma is a powerful printer in a small package, making it the best choice for everyday home use.
What you’ll love: This inkjet printer has a resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, making it perfect for printing photos or high-quality images for school projects. It has wireless connectivity and comes with an extra set of ink cartridges.
What you should consider: There is no mechanism to stop the paper from falling on the floor once printing is complete.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Charlie Fripp writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which TV mount is best?
Swapping a bulky entertainment center for a slim TV wall mount frees up floor space and lightens the look of any room. It also gives your TV tilt and swivel functionality for multiple viewing angles.
Choosing the right wall mount comes down to compatibility, materials and size. If you’re looking for an affordable and versatile TV wall mount, the Mounting Dream MD2268-LK TV Mount is easy to use and supports most TV sizes.
What to know before you buy a TV mount
Along with the wall material, the wall mount and TV screen size impact which TV mount will work best for your space.
Types of wall mounts
There are three main types of TV mounts: the tilt and swivel mount, the tilt-only mount and the fixed mount.
- The tilt and swivel mount is the most versatile, offering a customizable viewing experience. You can tilt these mounts up or down and swivel left and right. These mounts are typically more expensive with such a flexible range of motion.
- The tiltable TV mount is ideal if you only need to adjust the screen a few degrees downward to avoid glare.
- A fixed mount remains in one position after it’s attached to the wall. These mounts are cheaper and easier to install, and they’re ideal if you don’t need to adjust the TV.
Wall material
For a safe and secure mount, attach the mounting bracket to wooden studs. Plain drywall will not hold the TV’s weight for long, and it’s not a safe surface to use for your brackets. Use a stud finder to find studs and locate drywall screws. Keep in mind that the location of your studs will dictate the general location of your TV, even if it means your TV is slightly off-center.
If you want to attach your mounting bracket to brick, stone or concrete, use concrete anchors. If you’re not sure how to mount your TV safely, you may want to hire a professional to help.
Screen size
Your TV’s screen size will determine what kind of mounts you can use. While it’s best to use the manufacturer’s measurements, you can estimate by measuring diagonally across your TV with a measuring tape.
What to look for in a quality TV mount
High-quality TV mounts use strong materials and allow you to easily access the cables either from the back or the side.
Materials
TV mounts are often either plastic, aluminum, steel or a combination of materials. Plastic mounts are cheaper and lighter, but they aren’t as sturdy. An all-steel mount will be heavier, but it will offer the strongest support.
Some mounts use aluminum or combined materials to create a sturdy, midweight option. If the mount is mostly plastic, it’s best to pair it with a lightweight TV.
Compatibility
Make sure your TV mount is compatible with your TV’s make, model and size. Look for a TV mount approved by the Video Electronics Standards Association, and find out what sizes your mount supports on their website. Then, cross-check the VESA size with the size of your TV to confirm they will work together. Only use a VESA-compliant mount that matches the size of your TV.
Cable hookups
When you use a TV mount, you have a few options for cable management. Instead of letting cables dangle from your TV mount, use a cable organizer to hide them against the wall or floor. You can even find paintable covers, so you can paint them to match your walls.
How much you can expect to spend on a TV mount
Pricing for TV wall mounts varies and can cost between $20-$500. The pricing depends on the size, brand and materials. Adjustable mounts are at the higher end of the price range.
TV mount FAQ
Why do I need a VESA-compliant TV mount?
A. Every TV mount comes with a VESA size. The rating refers to the screw hole pattern on the mounting bracket and TV. This rating determines if you can safely use the mount with your TV. It also ensures the screw holes on the mount and your TV will align properly.
How do I know if the mount will support my TV’s weight?
A. The most important part of choosing a TV mount is making sure it’s compatible with your TV. The mount manufacturer should list what TVs it is compatible with, as will your TV’s manual. Cross-reference these lists to ensure both pieces are compatible, and mount the bracket as instructed for the safest, sturdiest TV display.
What’s the best TV mount to buy?
Top TV mount
Mounting Dream MD2268-LK TV Mount
What you need to know: This mount works with several TV brands and sizes. It also has a high weight capacity.
What you’ll love: You can install this mount on 16- to 24-inch stud measurements, and it holds TVs up to 132 pounds. The 1.5-inch profile is slim and sleek, and it has the ability to tilt forward to reduce glare.
What you should consider: You should use your own level instead of the one provided in the mounting kit. Additionally, it’s best to plug in your cords before mounting the brackets.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top TV mount for the money
VideoSecu ML531BE2 TV Wall Mount Kit
What you need to know: This versatile mount tilts and swivels for easy viewing.
What you’ll love: The mount holds a decent range of TV models and offers 20 inches of swivel extension for an excellent range of motion. The mounting kit includes a level, a 6-foot long HDMI cable and a magnetic stud finder.
What you should consider: The weight limit is 88 pounds, and you have to install it on a stud or another solid surface, such as brick concrete or stone.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
AENTGIU Studless TV Wall Mount
What you need to know: This TV wall mount doesn’t require any studs or power tools to install.
What you’ll love: The mount is compatible with most TVs between 16 and 55 inches. It is made of heavy-duty steel and can support up to 110 pounds if installed in wood or concrete.
What you should consider: You may need to use larger nails than what’s included in the mounting kit to add stability.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Katy Palmer 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.wric.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/tv-video-br/best-tv-mount/ | 2022-04-14T11:27:36 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/tv-video-br/best-tv-mount/ |
Which Wonder Woman jewelry is best?
Looking to channel your inner Wonder Woman? Maybe you want a pair of earrings that show off the heroine’s signature “W” logo or a bracelet that channels her iconic gauntlets? There are great options when it comes to choosing the jewelry for celebrating Diana, Princess of the Amazons, a.k.a. Wonder Woman.
For a ring that can’t be beat, check out the Alari Design Wonder Woman Crown Ring, which has a timeless design that honors the spirit of Wonder Woman.
What to know before you buy Wonder Woman jewelry
Choosing a style era
While some Wonder Woman jewelry universally represents the superhero, it’s helpful to know which incarnation you’re looking to channel. There are stylistic differences between vintage and contemporary designs, particularly when it comes to comparing the original logo from the 1940s DC comic books to popular Wonder Woman toys and the Gal Gadot films of 2017 and 2020.
The first version of Wonder Woman’s logo was a yellow eagle against a red backdrop, though over the years the eagle has evolved into a golden W against several backdrops, including a red one and a gray one.
Replicas and costume-inspired jewelry
Are you looking for jewelry that celebrates Wonder Woman or emulates her? Jewelry that celebrates Wonder Woman features her logo, color scheme or other recognizable flourishes. Jewelry that emulates Wonder Woman is designed to look like jewelry or armor she wear in the comics or films. Such pieces include Wonder Woman’s golden tiara and extra-strong “gauntlets” that serve as matching bracelets on her wrists or forearms.
Fashion jewelry vs. fine jewelry
Fashion jewelry is not made from precious metals and is less expensive, while fine jewelry uses precious metals like gold, silver or platinum. Fine jewelry costs more and is designed to last longer. There’s lot of both kind of Wonder Woman jewelry, so consider which style and price best suits your needs.
What to look for in quality Wonder Woman jewelry
Signature color scheme
An excellent piece of Wonder Woman jewelry pays close attention to detail, and that means working the superhero’s signature colors into the design. Gold, red and blue are the original colors, though silver is sometimes added.
Recognizable symbols
There are several symbols closely associated with the hero, from the logo on her costume to the star in her tiara. When you look at these symbols, you recognize them immediately.
- Eagle: If you’re going for a more vintage look, the original 1941 Wonder Woman logo was an eagle. Since that logo has evolved over the years, however, this is probably the type of design only a die-hard Wonder Woman fan will notice.
- W: The contemporary W logo, based on the eagle design, is the most easily recognized symbol associated with Wonder Woman. You can still see traces of that eagle in the emblem’s wing-like edges.
- Star: A number of Wonder Woman designs feature a red star in the center of her tiara, and the symbol has been incorporated into a lot of jewelry designed to honor her.
- Tiara point: The triangular point of Wonder Woman’s tiara has become popular in ring designs based on the character and is usually accompanied by a star.
Strong materials
Most Wonder Woman jewelry involves metal, and since she is one of the most indestructible comic characters, you’ll want jewelry that lives up to that standard. Quality metals won’t chip or turn green over time. Gold, silver and stainless steel are especially known for their durability. Silver does tarnish, but can be polished. If metal isn’t the primary material, then the cord is made from something reliable like leather, wax or nylon.
How much you can expect to spend on Wonder Woman jewelry
Wonder Woman fashion jewelry costs $10-$40, while fine jewelry with the same theme costs $50-$1,000.
Wonder Woman jewelry FAQ
Which metals tarnish?
A. Brass, copper, aluminum and silver are more likely to tarnish. Gold can tarnish but does so less noticeably. Cobalt and platinum do not tarnish.
What is an alloy metal?
A. An alloy metal is a material that combines at least one metallic base other non-metallic elements. Alloy metals tend to be strong, affordable and resistant to corrosion. Most fine jewelry is made of alloys rather than pure metal, because pure gold and silver are too soft to stand alone.
What’s the best Wonder Woman jewelry to buy?
Top Wonder Woman jewelry
Alari Design Wonder Woman Crown Ring
What you need to know: This tiara-shaped ring is handmade in sterling silver with a deeply cut star engraved at the top.
What you’ll love: It’s well-crafted with a simple but elegant design. It comes in a wide variety of sizes. It can be engraved on the inside or outside for an additional fee and can be made in other metals, such as gold or bronze, upon request.
What you should consider: The thickest portion of the band is a little under half an inch.
Where to buy: Sold by Etsy
Top Wonder Woman jewelry for the money
Fandom Emporium Design Wonder Woman Charm Necklace Or Anklet
What you need to know: This necklace or ankle bracelet features a dozen colorful charms with iconic Wonder Woman imagery.
What you’ll love: The charms include Wonder Woman’s shield, sword, lasso, gauntlets and more. There are a wide array of necklace and anklet lengths. It’s made of alloy metals that are nickel-free.
What you should consider: It cannot be returned.
Where to buy: Sold by Etsy
Worth checking out
Alex and Ani Wonder Woman Expandable Bangle Bracelet
What you need to know: This gold-toned bangle bracelet is 2.4 inches in diameter and a little under an inch in width, with the Wonder Woman “W” logo etched across the surface.
What you’ll love: The details are beautiful and pair well with the metal’s golden shine. The cuff style is a fun callback to Diana’s gauntlets and the size is adjustable.
What you should consider: It might be too big for thinner wrists.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Emily Verona writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/fashion-accessories-br/jewelry-br/best-wonder-woman-jewelry/ | 2022-04-14T11:27:42 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/fashion-accessories-br/jewelry-br/best-wonder-woman-jewelry/ |
Which back massager for knots is best?
Muscle knots always seem to appear in the most difficult locations to reach, with the back being one of the worst. Massaging them away is usually the best solution, but you can’t reach the knots with just your hands. There are a huge variety of tools you can use instead, including guns, chairs and simple balls.
The best back massager for knots is TheraGun Pro Massage Gun. It includes several massage heads for targeting your back and everywhere else, but can be a challenge to use alone.
What to know before you buy a back massager for knots
Back massager types
There are four types of back massagers that can target knots.
- Manual massagers are good for traveling as they require no power source and are usually small to medium in size. They commonly take the form of balls or tubes but can be nearly any shape. For targeting knots, you need to place the massager on the ground or against a wall and press yourself into it in order to feel the benefits.
- Handheld massagers also take a few forms. Many look like showerheads or guns. These models usually have the widest range of features, such as heating and variable vibration strength. Some are easy to target knots on your own, though others may require another pair of hands to target the knot for you.
- Pillow massagers aren’t the best at targeting specific knots — instead, they target a small area of the back and soothe that area.
- Seat massagers come in a wide range of qualities. Some cheap models just vibrate the whole back, while better ones use multiple rolling balls to target your back area of choice, including a specific knot. Many also massage your neck while they’re at it.
Power source
Back massagers are either battery-powered or plug into an outlet.
- Battery-powered massagers are the easiest to operate since they have no cord to deal with. However, the quality of the battery varies greatly. Some can take hours to charge and only operate for 15 minutes, while others chew through disposable batteries. The best use rechargeable batteries that last for at least 30 minutes.
- Outlet-powered massagers don’t ever die in the middle of a session, but if the cord is short or oddly placed, it can be difficult to wield.
What to look for in a quality back massager for knots
Heat
Better back massagers have heat settings to soothe knots away while they’re targeted, with some including variable heat settings.
Timer
Over-massaging a knot is just as bad for it as ignoring it, so some back massagers have programmable timers to prevent such a thing from happening.
Variable vibration
Quality back massagers are able to decrease or increase their vibration power to treat knots of varying sizes and intensities.
How much you can expect to spend on a back massager for knots
Back massagers for knots can cost anywhere from $10-$1,000, and sometimes more. Basic manual massagers typically cost $50 or less, while the average powered massager usually costs $50-$150. The best massagers cost $150-plus.
Back massager for knots FAQ
Should I use a back massager on bare skin or over my clothes?
A. Most back massagers can be used on either bare skin or clothing with minimal changes in effect and operation. That said, it’s always best to wear thin clothing or none at all when using a back massager so your muscles can be better targeted. Some consumers have issues with their clothing causing chafing if they use a back massager. Others find skin-to-massager contact uncomfortable. Experiment to see which is most comfortable for you.
Can I use a back massager after back surgery?
A. Yes, but you need to give your doctor precise details of your back massager and how you intend to use it so they can tell you whether it’s safe. Without your doctor’s approval, never use a back massager after surgery.
Which type of back massager is easiest to aim?
A. Most back massagers are more than capable of targeting any stretch of your back. However, manual massagers can be tricky to properly place, and gun massagers can require someone else to aim it to hit certain spots. Seat massagers are the easiest to use solo, but most cover the whole back or a small zone rather than pinpointing one knot.
What’s the best back massager for knots to buy?
Top back massager for knots
What you need to know: This massager is powerful and treats any knot, not just those in your back.
What you’ll love: It’s among the most powerful massage guns, and it includes six swappable heads designed to target specific areas all over the body. The arm can rotate 90 degrees to more easily target specific areas, and it uses rechargeable batteries that can last for up to five hours.
What you should consider: It’s expensive. Some settings and head combinations are powerful enough to cause damage if used incorrectly. You may need help to treat your back.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Therabody
Top back massager for knots for the money
4Kor Fitness Ultimate Massage Ball
What you need to know: This manual massager is good for working out the occasional knot.
What you’ll love: It’s among the largest massage balls, with a 4.75-inch diameter. It’s made of thermoplastic rubber for durability and has a unique tread pattern to better grip your skin and clothing for increased control, and provide increased deep tissue massage performance.
What you should consider: A few consumers thought the ball was too hard and caused more pain rather than relieving it. It takes some effort to press it into your back.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Snailax Shiatsu Neck & Back Massager with Heat
What you need to know: This seat covers your entire back and neck at once.
What you’ll love: It can be placed into almost any chair to turn it into a massage chair, and it can also be used on couches. It can be set to target either the upper or lower back, entire back or a specific target area.
What you should consider: It’s a little pricey. Shorter people will need to add cushions in order to be positioned properly for full coverage.
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.wric.com/reviews/br/health-wellness-br/massage-relaxation-br/best-back-massager-for-knots/ | 2022-04-14T11:27:49 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/health-wellness-br/massage-relaxation-br/best-back-massager-for-knots/ |
Which blood pressure monitor with extra-large cuff is best?
If you need to monitor your blood pressure, it’s imperative to have the proper equipment to measure accurately. Not having a cuff that fits appropriately will lead to inaccurate results, which can be life-threatening. Some blood pressure monitors can use extra-large cuffs purchased after the fact, but buying the monitor and cuff together is simpler and more cost-effective.
The best combination is the Life Source Upper-Arm Blood Pressure Monitor With Extra-Large Cuff. It fits biceps up to 23.6 inches in circumference.
What to know before you buy a blood pressure monitor with extra-large cuff
Automatic vs. manual
Most blood pressure monitors outside of a doctor’s office are automatic, constricting and taking readings at the touch of a button. This is because it’s surprisingly complex to get an accurate reading using a manual monitor. They take more accurate readings, but it takes significant training and practice for medical staff to be able to use them correctly. Unless you have the training, always choose an automatic monitor.
Cuff size
Most cuffs included with a blood pressure monitor are one-size-fits-all, which is typically too small for those with extra-large arms. Most product descriptions state the circumferences the included cuff is sized for — simply measure your bicep and compare.
Extra-large cuffs usually fit biceps up to 17-18 inches in circumference, though some go as large as 24 inches. If your arm is larger than this , you may need to search harder for specialty medical gear.
What to look for in a quality blood pressure monitor with extra-large cuff
Speed
Taking a blood pressure reading can be uncomfortable, which is why searching for one that requires less time is preferred. The best typically need 20 seconds or less to get a reading while the worst can take more than a minute.
Alerts
It can be difficult to understand what all the numbers mean on a blood pressure monitor. That’s why some include alert systems that explicitly tell you if your blood pressure is too high or low. More advanced monitors also check your heartbeat and alert you if they detect an irregular beat. Don’t rely solely on your monitor, though — if it gives you an alert, always double-check with your doctor as soon as possible.
Multi-user
Some blood pressure monitors can save and track the results of more than one user at once.
How much you can expect to spend on a blood pressure monitor with extra-large cuff
Basic blood pressure monitors with extra-large cuffs can cost as little as $20-$40, though most cost $50-$80. More feature-rich models can cost $100 or more.
Blood pressure monitor with extra-large cuff FAQ
What are the best practices for getting accurate readings?
A. Here’s what to do:
- Read and carefully follow your monitor’s instructions.
- Sit in a backed chair with your feet firmly on the ground and your arms by your side.
- Don’t exercise or consume cigarettes or coffee within 30 minutes of your planned reading.
- Take your readings as close to the same time as possible each day.
- Take three readings one minute apart from the others for an average.
Are at-home blood pressure monitors less reliable than those found in doctors’ offices?
A. It’s difficult to generalize as there are so many blood pressure monitors. The best way to gauge reliability is by comparing a reading from your at-home monitor to a reading taken by your doctor. At-home and doctors’ office monitors both need to be calibrated every few years to ensure they’re still giving accurate results, meaning both have the opportunity to be unreliable.
What’s the best blood pressure monitor with extra-large cuff to buy?
Top blood pressure monitor with extra-large cuff
Life Source Upper Arm Blood Pressure Monitor With Extra-Large Cuff
What you need to know: This has one of the largest included cuffs.
What you’ll love: Its cuff fits bicep circumferences of 16.5-23.6 inches and its accuracy has been clinically validated. It can store up to 60 readings and has a five-year warranty on the monitor and a two-year warranty on the cuff.
What you should consider: It doesn’t read and display as many data points as other monitors. Amazon doesn’t allow returns of this monitor, so make sure your arm and the cuff sizes line up.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Staples
Top blood pressure monitor with extra-large cuff for the money
Yuwell Blood Pressure Monitor With Extra-Large Upper Arm Cuff
What you need to know: This is good for those who need to keep a more casual eye on their blood pressure.
What you’ll love: The included cuff fits bicep circumferences of 8.8-17.7 inches. It takes a huge variety of readings and reads them out with an American-accent voice. It can store up to 99 readings and is certified by the Food and Drug Administration.
What you should consider: A few consumers had issues with readings that were higher than they should be, with follow-up readings showing a more accurate result.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This is easy to use and packed with data points.
What you’ll love: The included cuff fits bicep circumferences of 8-17 inches. The large LCD screen is backlit for easy reading in any light and it only takes 30 seconds for a reading to be taken. It can also store separate readings for two people.
What you should consider: A few consumers reported readings that were slightly higher than what was accurate. Others had issues with the buttons not responding on occasion.
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.wric.com/reviews/br/health-wellness-br/medical-supplies-equipment-br/best-blood-pressure-monitor-with-extra-large-cuff/ | 2022-04-14T11:27:56 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/health-wellness-br/medical-supplies-equipment-br/best-blood-pressure-monitor-with-extra-large-cuff/ |
Which pergola is best?
A pergola is similar to a gazebo, except that the roof has open slats rather than being fully covered. Good pergolas still provide plenty of shade, but they offer a design some consider more attractive. It’s important to purchase pergolas with durable materials that can outlast the wind, sun and rain, as they’re too expensive to keep replacing.
The best pergola is the Vita Avalon Vinyl Pergola. Its slats are adjustable so you’re always sitting in shade, and the vinyl is highly weather-resistant.
What to know before you buy a pergola
Roof designs
Pergolas have one of three roof designs: traditional, gabled and pitched.
- Traditional roofs are flat, with slats that are usually in a lattice pattern.
- Gabled roofs are triangular, like most modern American housing.
- Pitched roofs are flat, but one end is higher than the other. They are usually installed flush with your home rather than further out into your yard.
Coverings
Some pergolas, either in addition to or instead of slats, use coverings hung underneath the roof to protect you from sun and rain. Many are adjustable. Cloth is the most common material, with plastic, PVC and steel also available.
Size
Most pergolas are sized between 7 by 7 and 12 by 12 feet, with heights from 7-10 feet.
Shape
Pergolas are typically square or rectangular, though some can be found in circular or octagonal shapes. Other shapes are possible, but you’ll likely need to have it custom-made rather than find it available to order.
What to look for in a quality pergola
Material
In order of general quality, pergolas are typically made of metal, vinyl or wood.
- Metal pergolas are typically made of aluminum or steel. Freestanding aluminum is the most affordable, but also can be dented or bent, and is the most likely to be blown away by heavy wind. Metal pergolas are available in the widest range of colors and provide a more modern aesthetic. However, If the metal isn’t treated properly, you need to worry about rusting.
- Vinyl pergolas are the most durable, requiring little to no maintenance compared to metal and wood. They are naturally resistant to most weather, including water, wind and ultraviolet rays. They aren’t the most expensive, either. However, they have two major negatives. First, they are rarely any color but a shade of white — it’s possible to paint them with acrylic paint, but you’ll need to keep reapplying as it fades away. Second, their plasticky looks are rarely thought aesthetically pleasing.
- Wood pergolas are the most common. They’re expensive, but wood is easy to stain or paint to match your home, and there are many varieties of wood to choose from. Generally, they can be divided between softwoods and hardwoods, with softwoods less expensive, a bit less durable and a little lighter than hardwoods.
Warranty
The best pergolas tend to have the best warranties, as manufacturers will stand by their best products. Twenty-year warranties are the best, but 10-year ones are acceptable. Some pergolas have different warranties for certain parts.
How much you can expect to spend on a pergola
Depending on their size and material, pergolas can cost less than $500 or more than $4,000. Metal pergolas are typically the most affordable, followed by vinyl and then wood.
Pergola FAQ
Do I need a permit to install a pergola?
A. It’s possible, depending on your state and local laws as well as the size of the pergola. Your municipal building department should be able to answer this question.
Are pergolas accepted by homeowners associations?
A. That depends on your homeowners’ association. Always check with yours, if you have one, before making any large changes to your home.
Should wood pergolas be stained before or after assembly?
A. Neither method is better than the other. Staining it before means you have easier access to all the materials, but you’ll need to stain in two rounds to make sure every piece is properly covered. Staining it afterward means you only need to stain the surfaces you can see, but you need to go up and down a ladder.
What’s the best pergola to buy?
Top pergola
What you need to know: This quality option is gorgeous, durable and has adjustable shading.
What you’ll love: The vinyl construction is resistant to water, wind, UV rays and other causes of rot, and it includes a 20-year warranty for the pergola and a 5-year warranty for the louvers. It measures 10 by 10 by 8.67 feet.
What you should consider: A few consumers felt the louvers were difficult to adjust. Others had issues with missing parts or no-show installers.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Wayfair
Top pergola for the money
Coolaroo Aurora Patio Shade Pergola
What you need to know: It’s money-saving without sacrificing function or style.
What you’ll love: It can be built and left freestanding — there’s no need to anchor it to the ground — and it has a weather-resistant and light-filtering retractable canopy that comes in three colors. It measures 9.84 by 9.84 by 7.17 feet.
What you should consider: If you want to mount or anchor it, you need to purchase a separate kit. The installation instructions can be difficult to understand and a few people received damaged parts.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Wayfair
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This is perfect for those who need large coverage.
What you’ll love: The vinyl construction is fully weather-resistant — it can even be safely cleaned by spraying it with your hose. It can be safely installed to most materials, including wooden and concrete patios. It measures 12 by 12 by 8.84 feet.
What you should consider: It doesn’t include a mounting or anchoring kit. Most reviewers needed a second set of hands to assemble it, though the instructions are easy to follow.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Home Depot
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Which fonio flour is best?
Fonio is the gluten-free super grain native to Africa that you didn’t know you needed. These cultivated grains are related to millet and are a staple of North African cuisine. They come in either white or black varieties. Fonio is prized for its deeply nutritious value and often served at celebratory events. When the whole grain is milled, the resulting flour is an excellent flour substitute for baked goods and savory dishes alike.
On its own, this “seed of the universe” has a mild nutty taste and adds a punch of nutrition to your food. Yolele Fonio Flour has a fine texture and is a great place to start exploring this versatile baking ingredient.
What to know before you buy fonio flour
Intended use
If you want to find a gluten-free flour substitute that is high in protein but works in a variety of applications, fonio is a great choice. For baked goods, make sure that the flour is light and easy to blend. This will help keep textures correct as you substitute it for traditional flours. For thickening, and for cooking that requires less finesse, a coarser blend works well.
Correct substitutions
Fonio flour is heavier than some other traditional gluten-free flour substitutes, such as rice flour or tapioca starch. It works best in place of heavier flours such as wheat or buckwheat.
Keep in mind that the final product of recipes that only use fonio flour may have a denser texture than you are used to.
Nutritional benefits
Fonio flour has a low glycemic index and works in paleo, vegan and keto diet plans. It is high in fiber and protein; this may aid in weight loss as it keeps you feeling full for a longer period of time.
What to look for in quality fonio flour
Non-GMO
The flour you buy should be made from non-GMO grains. This ensures that organic growing and harvesting practices are followed.
Finely milled
The last thing you want is a gritty texture in your exquisite baked goods. Look for flour that is finely milled to reduce grit in the final product.
No fillers
Look for an ingredient list with just one ingredient. Your flour should not include any fillers, binders or other unnecessary ingredients.
How to use fonio flour
- Origin: Seek out products sourced in Africa. Even if the grain is milled in the U.S., this is how you know the flour is authentic and of high quality.
- Measurement: Measure flour with the fluff-scoop-level technique. Use a spoon to fluff it, then scoop it into your measuring cup and use a knife to level.
- Grind it: Consider purchasing whole fonio grains and using a mortar and pestle (or heavy-duty food processor) to make your own fresh flour. This also lets you control its texture — very fine for lighter applications such as pastry, and coarse for muffins or quick bread.
- Cook it: If you want to experiment with the fonio grain itself, cook as you would rice, using a 2-to-1 ratio of water to fonio.
How much you can expect to spend on fonio flour
The harvesting process is labor-intensive, and fonio flour can be expensive. Expect to spend $10-$20 per pound.
Fonio flour FAQ
What is the difference between white and black fonio?
A. White fonio is also known as “hungry rice” across Europe. It is the most common variety found outside of Africa and is often used to efficiently feed populations at risk of starvation.
Black fonio is grown in Benin, Nigeria and Togo, and is less commonly exported to other regions. It has a nutritional profile similar to that of white fonio.
How do you use fonio flour?
A. For people who are avoiding gluten or who simply want to add more nutrition to their diet, fonio flour is a great option. The grain can be used in the same way as you would use quinoa or rice, but the flour is great for thickening soups and sauces. It’s perfect in:
- Breads
- Pancakes
- Waffles
- Muffins
- Cookies
- Cakes
- Smoothies
Substitute fonio for a heavier flour such as wheat or buckwheat when baking, or use a 1-to-1 ratio of fat to fonio flour to create a thickening roux or slurry for soups, stews and sauces.
What’s the best fonio flour to buy?
Top fonio flour
What you need to know: The mild flavor is perfect for those just starting to explore this ancient grain.
What you’ll love: It is fine-milled and has a mild, slightly sweet taste. It’s made from non-GMO fonio harvested in Africa. It has no fillers and is packed with protein, fiber and healthy amino acids. It’s vegan.
What you should consider: For gluten-free baking, adding too much fonio flour can result in very dry baked goods. Be sure to increase hydration accordingly.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top fonio flour for the money
Shipetaukin Multipurpose Fonio Flour
What you need to know: This protein-packed flour is mild and light — good for baking, especially.
What you’ll love: It’s non-GMO and free of all fillers or additional ingredients. Each quarter cup has 2 grams of protein. It is sourced in West Africa but packed in the U.S.
What you should consider: Although it is the cheapest option per pound, it’s a hefty price tag to try a new product.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: Adventurous cooks will appreciate the opportunity to try three new flours at once.
What you’ll love: This bundle includes fonio flour, plus cassava and tapioca. Each is made only from their respective grains, and all are kosher, vegan and gluten-free.
What you should consider: If you just want to try fonio, pass this by. But at the price it’s a great way to expand your cooking repertoire.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Suzannah Kolbeck writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which convection microwave is best?
Most microwaves can’t effectively cook much more than a mug cake. Instead, they reheat leftovers or quickly melt foods, such as butter for your current recipe. A convection microwave changes this. It can be used to bake and broil foods just like a full-sized oven. Some of the more feature-rich models can even air-fry foods.
The best convection microwave is the Panasonic HomeChef 4-in-1 Microwave Oven. It can perform any task you need it to and it has a spacious interior and 1,000 watts of power.
What to know before you buy a convection microwave
Size and capacity
Convection microwaves have two dimensions to consider: exterior size and interior capacity. More often than not, one of these being larger doesn’t mean the other will be large too.
- Size: The size you can or should purchase is only limited by your counter space. When measuring your countertop to find your limitations, remember to add a few inches to the back and sides for proper ventilation space. Keep enough space in front for the swinging door.
- Capacity: Capacity restricts how much food you can cook at once. Most convection microwaves have higher capacities than standard microwaves, and those measurements are given in cubic feet. The smallest is rarely less than 1 cubic foot, and the biggest usually top out at 1.5 cubic feet — though there are always rare exceptions.
Wattage
A convection microwave’s power is given in watts, just like standard microwaves. Lower wattages will cook food slower and less evenly, so you should prioritize a microwave with at least 1,000 watts. Most convection microwaves have wattages between 700 and 1,500. Better microwaves will let you adjust how much wattage you can use for cooking smaller or more sensitive food.
What to look for in a quality convection microwave
Presets
Presets are the easiest way to cook the most commonly microwaved foods. They make it so you don’t have to Google how much power and time a given food needs, and you won’t have to manually punch in that power and time. The most common presets are popcorn and pizza, but many convection microwaves also have presets for baked potatoes and roast chicken or vegetables.
Cooking modes
The best convection microwaves include more cooking modes than just microwave, convection and microwave/convection. The most common additional modes are air frying and broiling, but some are also able to grill. It’s important to note that you’ll need appropriate accessories for air frying and grilling — a wire basket and grilling rack, respectively — but most microwaves with these cooking modes include them.
Humidity sensor
Humidity sensors take some of the guesswork out of cooking by adding or subtracting to the total cooking time based on the moisture in the food and the oven, preventing accidental overcooking.
How much you can expect to spend on a convection microwave
Convection microwaves are more expensive than standard microwaves, typically starting around $100-$150 with basic models topping out around $250. The best countertop models can reach $500, while built-in models can cost more than $1,500.
Convection microwave FAQ
Can I use metal in a convection microwave?
A. Possibly. It depends on if the microwave has a convection-only setting. This setting only uses heating elements, just like a standard oven, so aluminum takeout containers and metal baking trays are safe to use. Some convection microwaves use microwave and convection heating simultaneously with no way to turn off the microwave portion. These are just as incompatible with metal as a standard microwave. A quick way to tell if a convection microwave is safe for metal is if it includes metal accessories, such as a wire air fryer rack. If so, you’re good to go.
Do recipes intended for a standard oven need to be adapted for use in a convection microwave?
A. Typically yes, though not by much. Despite having less power than a standard oven, convection microwaves have drastically less space to heat. This makes their heating more focused on the food rather than the air around it. As such, many recipes need to drop their heat and timing requirements. Heat usually drops no more than 25 to 50 degrees, but timing doesn’t have an easy generalization, so you’ll need to keep a close eye on your recipe.
What’s the best convection microwave to buy?
Top convection microwave
Panasonic HomeChef 4-in-1 Microwave Oven
What you need to know: This model can do it all.
What you’ll love: The four functions are standard and convection microwaving, air frying and broiling. It has a 1.2-cubic-foot capacity and an easy-to-clean interior. It includes the accessories you need to cook, such as a wire rack, an air fryer basket and an enamel drip tray.
What you should consider: If the start button is accidentally pressed, it will begin sensor cooking mode, even if there’s nothing inside for it to cook.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top convection microwave for the money
Toshiba Countertop Microwave Oven with Convection
What you need to know: This model is basic but excellent and affordable.
What you’ll love: It has a variety of special features, such as a power-saving ECO mode, smart cooking sensors, child safety locks and sound off/on for late-night snacks. It has a large 1.5-cubic-foot capacity and 1,000 watts of power.
What you should consider: A few consumers had issues with the upper heating element not functioning as it should. It takes up a large amount of counter space.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Cuisinart 1.2-Cubic-Foot Convection Microwave Oven
What you need to know: This model is perfect for convection grilling, thanks to an included grill rack.
What you’ll love: It’s packed with preset cooking modes, including popcorn, roast chicken, baked potato, cake and pizza. It can also keep foods warm at low settings and has a memory mode to save time on repetitive tasks. It is BPA-free and includes a recipe book.
What you should consider: Extended use of the convection setting causes the exterior to become hot. A few consumers had issues with their microwave breaking down within a few months.
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.wric.com/reviews/br/kitchen-br/microwaves-br/best-convection-microwave/ | 2022-04-14T11:28:16 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/kitchen-br/microwaves-br/best-convection-microwave/ |
Comparing lump charcoal and briquettes
One of the most heated debates in all of grilling is whether to use lump charcoal or briquettes. There are die-hard proponents on both sides, which makes sense since each has its benefits and drawbacks. Lump charcoal is carbonized wood without any impurities, which is why purists love it. Briquettes are often made with additives that let them burn longer and more consistently, making them easier for the average home griller.
Lump charcoal
Lump charcoal is wood that has been burned down to its purest form. It goes through a carbonization process called charring where it is burned in a low-oxygen environment to get rid of moisture, sap and other impurities. What’s left is pure carbon, ideal for grilling and barbecuing foods without imparting any unwanted flavors.
Lump charcoal pros
There are many things to like about lump charcoal.
- Quick lighting: It lights easily, without the need for lighter fluid, and burns hot and fast. This makes it perfect for meats you want to cook at very high heats or get a heavy sear on.
- No chemical flavor: The lack of impurities means that it will impart a nice smoky flavor to your foods without giving it any kind of chemical taste. This also results in it burning cleanly and leaving behind minimal ash in your charcoal grill.
- Responds fast: Lump charcoal fires respond quickly to added oxygen, so you can easily control the temperature if your grill has adjustable air vents. (Be careful not to give it too much oxygen, as it can quickly get so hot it burns your food.)
Lump charcoal cons
If you have never cooked with lump charcoal before, it can take some getting used to. It burns much quicker than briquettes, so you’ll need to periodically add more charcoal if cooking food for a long period. It also tends to be more expensive, so it may not be the right choice for those on a tight budget.
Best lump charcoal
Fogo Super Premium Oak Restaurant-Quality Lump Charcoal
This is designed to bridge the gap between the cooking times of lump charcoal and briquettes. It consists of pieces 4 inches or longer, so it burns longer than many other charcoals, yet still lights easily and can reach high temperatures for heavy searing.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Kohl’s
Best lump charcoal for the money
Jealous Devil All-Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal
It’s made from dense South American hardwoods so it can burn hotter and longer than many other lump charcoals. This makes it a good choice for both high-temperature searing and low, slow barbecuing. It burns with little popping and sparks and leaves behind only a small amount of ash.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Briquettes
If you go to your neighborhood store and buy the first bag of charcoal you see, more than likely briquettes are what you will get. These small, squarish blocks are what come to mind when most people picture charcoal.
Briquettes are often made from a combination of sawdust and other wood byproducts, compressed together with additives to help them maintain their shape, light easier and burn longer and more consistently. The move to purer forms of fuel has carried over into the briquette world, though, and now you also can find some made from carbonized wood and little else.
Briquette pros
One of the main advantages briquettes offer over lump charcoal is consistency. A company’s briquettes always come in the same shape and size, so you know exactly how long they will burn. This also makes them easy to stack when making your fire.
Briquettes tend to burn longer than lump charcoal, which makes them ideal for large cuts of meat that require low, slow cooking. They also are more affordable.
Briquette cons
There are some downsides to briquettes you should consider before reaching for a bag.
They can be difficult to light without a charcoal chimney or lighter fluid. Because of that, many manufacturers sell some briquettes pre-infused with a chemical that helps them light quicker and easier. It is important to wait until these briquettes are entirely gray before you start cooking your food, or they can impart a noticeably chemical taste.
Their additives mean they don’t burn as cleanly, either. Most leave behind a large pile of ash, so expect more cleanup than when using lump charcoal.
Best briquettes
Kingsford Professional Competition Briquettes
Grill masters know to turn to Kingsford’s competition briquettes when they need fuel that will burn at a consistent temperature for a long time. They are ready to grill on after about 10 minutes, so you won’t have to wait long before you can start cooking, and they are made using one of Kingsford’s lowest-ash formulas.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Best briquettes for the money
Royal Oak Natural Organic Premium Hardwood Charcoal Briquettes
This is popular because it is both sustainably sourced and organic, so you can feel good about using it for a couple of reasons. That it’s affordably priced and gives food a nice smoky flavor are just bonuses.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Kohl’s
Should you buy lump charcoal or briquettes
The answer depends entirely on what you feel is most important. If you want the purest smoky flavor from your food and nothing else, and you don’t mind the learning curve that comes along with achieving a consistent fire with lump charcoal, it is probably the right option.
On the other hand, if you want something affordable, consistent, and easy to use, and you don’t mind not being able to create as heavy a sear on your foods, briquettes are the way to go.
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Brett Dvoretz 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.wric.com/reviews/br/patio-br/grilling-outdoor-cooking-br/lump-charcoal-vs-briquettes-which-is-better/ | 2022-04-14T11:28:23 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/patio-br/grilling-outdoor-cooking-br/lump-charcoal-vs-briquettes-which-is-better/ |
Which puppy diaper is best?
Everyone loves a new puppy, but bringing one into your home and potty training it can be difficult and time-consuming. While it learns where and when to go to the bathroom, one method of keeping your house clean is to employ puppy diapers. Technically, there aren’t diapers meant specifically for puppies. That said, any standard dog diaper will work, as long as it’s the right size and fits your puppy’s sex.
The best puppy diapers are Paw Inspired Ultra Protection Disposable Female Dog Diapers. They’re soft and effective but may not work for male puppies.
What to know before you buy a puppy diaper
Your puppy’s gender
Puppy diapers are designed differently for females and males.
- Female diapers look just like human diapers, only they have a hole for the tail. These diapers work just fine for puppies of either sex, as male puppies’ penises have yet to grow large enough to need to switch to male diapers.
- Male diapers take the form of wraps that leave your puppy’s posterior open but cover their penis. Puppies are a little more likely to wiggle out of male diapers, plus the open back is counterintuitive to using a puppy diaper while you house train them.
Reusable vs. disposable
Most puppy diapers are disposable, and for good reason. Puppies grow fast, just like children, so purchasing a reusable diaper — which can’t be donated once used — may be better for the environment, but you’ll only be able to use it for a short time. However, some dog breeds don’t grow much bigger than their puppy stages. In these cases, it’s wise to go with a reusable diaper. Besides the environmental benefits, it saves money and you’ll still have a usable diaper if you need to travel long distances or they become incontinent years down the line.
What to look for in a quality puppy diaper
Elastic
The best puppy diapers have elastic in the hems. This lets the diaper seal around the edges to prevent even the smallest leak and also gives your puppy full range of motion without painful pinching or chafing. Elastic around the tail hole is particularly important for keeping any solids from slipping out.
Adjustability
Most puppy diapers use Velcro straps to close around your puppy. This lets you fit your diaper precisely to your puppy, and you can let more space out as it grows. Some disposable female puppy diapers use alternate methods for securing, including snap closures and the same sticky tabs as disposable baby diapers. These aren’t quite as freely adjustable, though they’re still secure enough to prevent leaks.
How much you can expect to spend on a puppy diaper
Puppy diaper packs usually cost $10-$30, though there are exceptions on either end. The quality of diapers and how many you get greatly vary within this price range, but most are still found within it.
Puppy diaper FAQ
How often should I change my puppy’s diaper?
A. As soon as you notice it’s soiled. Some disposable puppy diapers can be removed when you take the puppy outside for potty training and reattached if they haven’t been soiled. Reusable diapers have the same functionality.
My puppy’s diaper fits but still leaks. How do I fix it?
A. First, double-check that it still fits. Dogs, puppy or no, have a tendency to wiggle loose from diapers you were sure fit perfectly. Oftentimes, a diaper seems to fit perfectly but is in fact just loose enough around the edges to allow for some leakage. If it does indeed fit, you may be using diapers with poor absorbency — there’s nothing to do in this situation but try a new brand of puppy diaper.
What should I do with leftover disposable diapers my puppy has outgrown?
A. Donate them. Search for your nearest animal shelter and drop them off. Keep in mind that almost any pet-related leftovers you have, including food, toys and bowls, can also be taken to your local animal shelter. You can write the value off as a donation on your taxes. If you aren’t sure if they’ll accept something, just give them a call beforehand to check and potentially save yourself a trip.
What’s the best puppy diaper to buy?
Top puppy diaper
Paw Inspired Ultra Protection Disposable Female Dog Diapers
What you need to know: These are designed for females but can work for male puppies, too.
What you’ll love: These diapers have multiple urine-handling features, including converting it into gel immediately on contact and using leakproof edges that absorb urine before it can leak out. The fasteners are fur-resistant and can be repositioned for a custom fit and the interior uses soft quilting for comfort.
What you should consider: A few consumers had issues with waste getting loose through the tail hole. Hyperactive puppies may shimmy out of them over time.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Chewy
Top puppy diaper for the money
Out! Pet Care Disposable Male Dog Wraps
What you need to know: These are great male-focused diaper wraps.
What you’ll love: These wraps are secured using Velcro, which makes their fit adjustable and means the wrap can be removed and reused if it hasn’t yet been soiled. They have a wetness indicator, so there’s no need to spot-check for soiling.
What you should consider: There’s no protection from poo, only urine. More hyperactive puppies may be able to wiggle out of them.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Chewy
Worth checking out
Simple Solution Washable Female Dog Diapers
What you need to know: These reusable diapers make a good environmentally conscious choice.
What you’ll love: These can be machine-washed and become softer and more absorbent the more you wash them. They’re also compatible with most disposable liners if you still desire some disposable aspect. They use a large Velcro strap across the back for fine-tuning the fit as your puppy grows.
What you should consider: Depending on the breed, your puppy may outgrow these before you get sufficient use out of them. They don’t handle poo well.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Chewy
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.wric.com/reviews/br/tools-br/best-meat-slicer/ | 2022-04-14T11:28:58 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/tools-br/best-meat-slicer/ |
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.wric.com/reviews/br/toys-games-br/theme-toys-br/best-funko-pop-bobblehead/ | 2022-04-14T11:29:05 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/reviews/br/toys-games-br/theme-toys-br/best-funko-pop-bobblehead/ |
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.
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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.
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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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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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BOSTON (AP) — Boston College coach Jerry York, the Hockey Hall of Famer who won five NCAA championships and the most games in college hockey history, said Wednesday that he is retiring.
York, 76, told his coaches and players that it seemed to be the right time after 28 years in Chestnut Hill and 50 in coaching overall. He said he is ready to spend more time traveling with his wife, Bobbie, and watch his grandchildren’s hockey, lacrosse, and soccer games.
“I leave knowing that it is the right time to go,” York said in a statement. “The book hasn’t closed, but it is time for me to start a new chapter.”
After arriving in Chestnut Hill in 1994 from Bowling Green, where he led the Falcons to the 1984 NCAA title, York guided BC to national championships in 2001, ’08, ’10 and ’12. His 1,123 overall victories and 41 in the NCAA tournament are the most ever.
York was a five-time Hockey East coach of the year, most recently in 2021, and won the national award in 1977. He coached four Hobey Baker Award winners, 17 NHL first-round draft picks and 12 Stanley Cup champions.
“It is difficult to put into words all that Jerry York means to Boston College,” athletic director Pat Kraft said. “His record as the winningest coach in NCAA men’s ice hockey and BC hockey speak for themselves, but it is his humility, decency, unwavering commitment to his players, fellow coaches, and all of us in the BC family, and the quiet ways in which he contributes to this community that make him so beloved. He is a legend and one of the classiest individuals to ever coach in college sports.”
A native of nearby Watertown, York went to Boston College High School and then played for coach John “Snooks” Kelley at BC, where in 1965 he led the Eagles to the Beanpot title and the national championship game. In 1967, he was a first-team All-American and won the Walter Brown Award as the top American-born player in New England.
In all, he scored 84 goals with 70 assists while leading the Eagles to a 60-29 record.
York went into coaching and began at Clarkson at the age of 27, leading the Golden Knights from 1972-79 before moving to Bowling Green. He won his first national championship in 1984, then came to Boston College in 1994 and soon became one of three coaches in NCAA history to win championships at two different schools.
In 2012, York surpassed Michigan State’s Ron Mason as the winningest coach in college hockey. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2019. | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/bc-coach-jerry-york-retires-most-ncaa-hockey-wins-ever/ | 2022-04-14T11:29:40 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/bc-coach-jerry-york-retires-most-ncaa-hockey-wins-ever/ |
ATLANTA (AP) — The Charlotte Hornets were delayed getting to the arena Wednesday for their NBA play-in game against the Atlanta Hawks.
By a freight train, of all things.
Tracks run all around State Farm Arena, a remnant of a time when the area was the site of the city’s two major passenger stations. Both stations were torn down decades ago, but many of the tracks that remain are still frequented by freight trains running near the heart of downtown Atlanta.
One of those trains stopped on a crossing before the game, blocking the Hornets’ chartered buses from reaching the players’ entrance on the bottom level of the arena.
The buses were forced to turn around and find an alternate route to the arena. They were delayed about 15 minutes.
“I’ve never seen that,” Hornets coach James Borrego said. “I’ve been coming to this arena for 20 years, and I’ve never seen a train stop before the game.”
He seemed to imply that the Hawks had something to do with the freight train stopping at the crossing.
“Somebody figure it out. I have no idea,” Borrego said. “But our guys noticed.”
He said the delay fired up the 10th-seeded Hornets, who were looking to earn their way into the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
“It’s good fuel for us,” Borrego said.
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/choo-choo-hornets-play-in-arrival-blocked-by-freight-train/ | 2022-04-14T11:29:49 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/choo-choo-hornets-play-in-arrival-blocked-by-freight-train/ |
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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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.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/coaches-richardson-shildt-clear-the-air-after-confrontation/ | 2022-04-14T11:30:03 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/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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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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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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LONDON (AP) — It’s a weekend warrior’s nightmare. You’re playing hoops in the driveway and go up for a lay-up. You land and hear a pop: you’ve torn your Achilles tendon. Do you have surgery or hope it heals with just a cast and rehab? New research says both options led to similar outcomes about a year later.
The Achilles tendon, which connects the muscles in the back of the calf to the heel bone, is the most commonly torn tendon in the body. Most tears are due to trauma or accident while playing sports; men are much more prone to the injury than women.
In the biggest-ever study investigating which treatment is best, scientists in Norway tracked 526 patients — mostly men with an average age of 39 — who ripped their Achilles tendon. They either had minimally invasive surgery, a standard surgery or non-surgical treatment, a brace to immobilize the affected foot and physical therapy. All patients got rehab therapy and were told to avoid risky activities for six months.
There were only slight differences in how everyone had recovered about a year later. There were more people who re-injured their Achilles tendon among those who didn’t have surgery — 6.2% versus 0.6% of those who had an operation. And there were more nerve injuries reported in those who had surgery. About 5% of those who had the minimally invasive surgery reported nerve injuries afterward, compared to 2.8% of those who had the standard surgery and 0.6% of those who skipped surgery. The study was published online Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“For the average person, who is not a high-performance athlete, there is no need to have surgery,” said Dr. Matthew Costa, a professor of orthopedic trauma surgery at the University of Oxford and not part of the study. Costas said the only benefit to an operation might be to avoid the chance of a repeat injury, but said the chances of that were similar to the risk of a standard complication from surgery, like a wound infection.
He also said surgery could be helpful in other cases, including for people who don’t realize they’ve torn the tendon until long after the injury. In those cases, the tendon may not have been able to heal properly.
Dr. William Levine, chair of orthopedic surgery at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, said patients should talk through their options with their doctor to explore if surgery is appropriate.
“If you tear a tendon, there is a natural healing process in the body that occurs,” Levine explained. “But it may heal in a position that’s not ideal, and surgeons are able to fix it more precisely.”
Dr. Stale Myhrvold, the study’s lead author, said that for people to successfully skip surgery, patients need to have their affected foot in a brace early — within the first three days.
“Most acute Achilles tendon ruptures in adults can be treated non-operatively,” he said in an email. “Most of my patients choose non-operative treatments after receiving this information.”
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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the last name of an expert quoted in the story. It is Dr. Matthew Costa, not Costas.
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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. | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/heal-thyself-most-who-tear-achilles-tendon-can-skip-surgery/ | 2022-04-14T11:30:30 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/heal-thyself-most-who-tear-achilles-tendon-can-skip-surgery/ |
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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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/jays-guerrero-hits-2nd-hr-of-game-after-hand-bloodied-at-1b/ | 2022-04-14T11:30:37 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/jays-guerrero-hits-2nd-hr-of-game-after-hand-bloodied-at-1b/ |
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.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/kershaw-pulled-after-7-with-perfect-game-dodgers-top-twins/ | 2022-04-14T11:30:44 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/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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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/tag/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/leading-off-vlad-takes-his-cuts-braves-hit-the-road/ | 2022-04-14T11:30:51 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/leading-off-vlad-takes-his-cuts-braves-hit-the-road/ |
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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More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/mason-takes-over-at-saint-peters-needing-to-settle-roster/ | 2022-04-14T11:30:58 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/mason-takes-over-at-saint-peters-needing-to-settle-roster/ |
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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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/ramirez-miller-lead-guardians-over-reds-kwan-goes-hitless/ | 2022-04-14T11:31:05 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/ramirez-miller-lead-guardians-over-reds-kwan-goes-hitless/ |
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.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/saban-current-state-of-college-football-not-sustainable/ | 2022-04-14T11:31:13 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/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.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/scherzer-cruises-alonso-drives-in-5-as-mets-beat-phillies/ | 2022-04-14T11:31:20 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/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.”
___
More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/sorry-not-sorry-heat-arent-fazed-by-the-lack-of-believers/ | 2022-04-14T11:31:27 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/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.
___
Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pnewberry1963
___
More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/young-hunter-lead-hawks-to-132-103-play-in-rout-of-hornets/ | 2022-04-14T11:31:35 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/sports/sports-headlines/young-hunter-lead-hawks-to-132-103-play-in-rout-of-hornets/ |
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Police were called to the intersection of Fairfax Avenue and East 18th Street for a report of a shooting early Thursday morning.
Once on scene, the found two men with gunshot wounds. Both were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Anyone with any information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000. | https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/two-men-shot-on-richmonds-southside/ | 2022-04-14T11:35:47 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/two-men-shot-on-richmonds-southside/ |
(The Hill) — New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that more Americans died in 2021 than in any other year in the nation’s history, as the coronavirus pandemic raged and death rates attributed to cancer, diabetes and strokes rose..
The data published through the end of the third quarter of the year shows a death rate of 1,058.8 per 100,000 Americans, a nearly 10 percent increase over the 12-month period the prior year and a 21 percent jump from 2019.
The rising-rate meant nearly 3.5 million Americans died in the 12 months that ended in September 2021, the highest number of deaths ever recorded in the U.S. in a single year.
Much of the rising death toll was caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which cost 415,000 American lives in 2021, a higher figure than during the first year of the outbreak, even though vaccines were widely available for most of the year. The coronavirus was responsible for more than 1 in 10 deaths in the U.S. last year, the CDC data shows.
Other causes of mortality rose slightly. Chronic liver disease claimed more lives, while deaths from diabetes, heart disease and strokes increased.
The data is not complete, but early signs suggest that deaths related to drug overdoses spiked substantially as well. Provisional data shows more than 105,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, up more than 10 percent from the year before.
The unprecedented death toll has meant the average life expectancy for an American likely continued to decline in the last year, a string of decreases not seen since the Spanish Flu pandemic more than a century ago.
A study by researchers at the Urban Institute, the University of Colorado and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) estimated that the U.S. life expectancy dropped last year to 76.6 years, down more than two years from the rate in 2019. At the same time, life expectancy rates in other wealthy countries increased between 2020 and 2021, after registering a smaller decrease the year before.
“While other high-income countries saw their life expectancy increase in 2021, recovering about half their losses, U.S. life expectancy continued to fall,” VCU sociologist Steven Woolf, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement. “This speaks volumes about the life consequences of how the U.S. handled the pandemic, and in a country where the U.S. Constitution and the 10th Amendment grant public health authority to the states, I believe the U.S. catastrophe speaks volumes about the policies and behaviors of U.S. governors — at least some of them.”
Life expectancy has dropped the most in recent years among Hispanic and Black populations, which researchers attributed to “the legacy of systemic racism and inadequacies in the U.S. handling of the pandemic.”
Ryan Masters, a sociologist at the University of Colorado and the study’s lead author, said high rates of obesity and heart disease made the U.S. population more vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic than populations in other wealthy countries. | https://www.wric.com/health/2021-was-americas-deadliest-year-ever-cdc/ | 2022-04-14T11:35:53 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/health/2021-was-americas-deadliest-year-ever-cdc/ |
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Richmond Public Schools are in need of 10 more volunteers this morning to drive school supplies from one location to another.
At 9 a.m., you will meet at St. James Episcopal Church in The Fan neighborhood, then drive the supplies 10 minutes to the Norrell School on Fendall Avenue.
They are asking for volunteers to use their own cars. | https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/richmond-public-schools-in-need-of-volunteers-this-morning-for-supply-drop-off/ | 2022-04-14T11:35:59 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/richmond-public-schools-in-need-of-volunteers-this-morning-for-supply-drop-off/ |
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — 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. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ukraine-says-it-damaged-russian-flagship-in-missile-strike-crew-evacuates/ | 2022-04-14T11:36:05 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ukraine-says-it-damaged-russian-flagship-in-missile-strike-crew-evacuates/ |
(The Hill) – Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told activists on Wednesday that President Biden and his senior advisers are warming up to the idea of forgiving student debt, insisting they are closer to pulling the trigger “than ever before.”
Schumer, who has repeatedly called for canceling up to $50,000 in student debt per borrower, predicted that’s where the president and his administration will ultimately land.
“I have talked personally to the president on this issue a whole bunch of times. I have told him that this is more important than just about anything else that he can do on his own,” he told the State of Student Debt Summit in a virtual event Wednesday.
“We’re making progress folks. We are making progress. The White House seems more open to it than ever before,” he said.
The Department of Education announced last week that it would extend the pause on federal student loan repayment, interest and collections through August.
But Schumer says that doesn’t go far enough and that that Biden is getting closer to agreeing with him.
“Don’t get me wrong, the pause is a good thing, but it ain’t enough. It ain’t close to enough,” he said.
He argued that families will face an average monthly student debt payment of $393 when the pause is lifted.
“That is so much money. How does anybody live knowing every month I got to pay this $400?” he said. “So the pause has stopped that, but make no mistake about it. This pause isn’t going to stay forever and the canceling of student debt is the way to go.”
Schumer said he has weighed in hard with Biden about the importance of canceling this type of debt.
“You get out of college and you have all this debt,” he said. “I have told the president this is one of the most important things he can do to help our economy. We all want the economy to grow. We all want people to have good lives, where you can provide for yourself and your family.”
Schumer signaled he would support canceling even more than $50,000 in student debt per borrower.
“We want our young people to realize that they can have a good future. One of the best, very best, top-of-the-list ways to do it is by canceling student debt, by getting rid of the $50,000, even going higher after that,” he said. McCarthy faces grumbles from right over Biden impeachment remarksVideos show what led up to police officer shooting dead Black man in Grand Rapids
Biden has said he’s willing to cancel up to $10,000 in student debt per borrower, but he wants Congress to pass legislation to do so, which he would then sign.
The administration said last month that it would forgive about $6 billion in student loans through changes made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
The administration has also forgiven the debts of students who say they were defrauded by for-profit colleges such as ITT Technical Institute and DeVry University. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/white-house-closer-to-canceling-student-debt-than-ever-before-schumer-says/ | 2022-04-14T11:36:11 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/white-house-closer-to-canceling-student-debt-than-ever-before-schumer-says/ |
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. | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-world/ukraine/russian-flagship-ukraine/507-4fa3d1ee-c250-4e8c-9347-1a0f72049512 | 2022-04-14T11:36:17 | 0 | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-world/ukraine/russian-flagship-ukraine/507-4fa3d1ee-c250-4e8c-9347-1a0f72049512 |
HICKMAN COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) – Deputies rescued a woman from an alleged kidnapping and domestic violence situation in Tennessee Sunday after a convenience store customer noticed her discreet signal for help, according to Hickman County Sheriff’s Office officials.
The woman ran into the Twice Daily store and gave a signal with her hand by crossing her thumb over her palm and repeatedly covering her thumb with her four other fingers, witnesses said. The hand signal was made famous on the social media platform TikTok and is reportedly used to signal the need for help during a domestic violence situation.
Deputies responded to the scene and found a pickup truck leaving the parking lot as they arrived. Witnesses told deputies to follow the truck and when the deputies did, a pursuit ensued.
The pursuit lasted for around 10-15 minutes before the truck crashed in neighboring Dickson County. The driver, identified as 31-year-old Jonathan Smith, got out of the vehicle and ran before being tased and taken into custody. The woman was not injured.
Twice Daily customer Eric Streeval recalled seeing the woman enter the store and look over at him, also mouthing the word “help.” Streeval is a part of a motorcycle group that helps women in domestic violence situations. He credited the woman for reaching out.
“If you see something, say something,” Streeval said. “Domestic violence is a bad thing here in Tennessee. The victims, a lot of times they’re too afraid to speak out. And I credit the young lady in this situation with having the world’s most courage of actually speaking out because who knows what would have happened.”
Streeval said he’s since reached out to the victim on social media and hopes to put her in touch with local resources.
“I would just tell her lean on family if she’s got family, [or] find a complete stranger. If someone’s willing to listen, talk to him. Don’t think everything bundled up inside. Reach out to somebody and just believe the good in somebody.”
Smith is currently charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated domestic assault, with more charges pending, according to investigators. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/woman-uses-hand-signal-popularized-on-tiktok-to-escape-kidnapping-officials-say/ | 2022-04-14T11:36:17 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/woman-uses-hand-signal-popularized-on-tiktok-to-escape-kidnapping-officials-say/ |
Dear Annie: My son is 53 years old -- a good person but an alcoholic. He followed me to Florida 10 years ago. I spent thousands of dollars to get him on his feet. I ended up broke trying to help him. He had gotten fired from three jobs.
I kicked him out five years ago. He managed to get his own place and survive but was then fired again, within three weeks of starting. He has been in and out of rehab and the hospital frequently. My question is, am I wrong to not let him move back in with me? I have told him that he cannot move back in and that I cannot afford to help him. I was not financially secure enough to have helped him in the first place.
There is a lot of guilt, but I know I did the right thing. Al-Anon helped. I will always worry about him, but enough already. -- Guilty but Exhausted
Dear Guilty but Exhausted: You are not wrong. Boundaries are important, especially with someone who takes more than they give. It will do neither of you any good if you are (SET ITAL) both (END ITAL) broke and miserable.
Instead of helping him with money, help him by expressing your unconditional love and encouraging him to keep going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It is encouraging to hear that you’ve found some solace through Al-Anon.
Dear Annie: Maybe this will help some of the many readers who have written in stricken with grief: “Grief never ends. But it changes. It’s a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith. It is the price of love.” My spouse gave this quote to me when our cat Buddy died. He wasn’t a human, but we were crushed with pain and grief for months. -- Coping
Dear Coping: What a beautiful perspective on the value of grief in all of our lives. Thank you.
Dear Annie: “Sad, Hurt and Frustrated” wrote about a friend who prefers that his birthday be ignored. “S, H & F” said, “I just want to show my appreciation.”
I suggest showing your appreciation on the first Sunday of August every year, which is National Friendship Day. Send a card telling your friend how glad you are that you’re friends, and specify a few of your friend’s qualities you appreciate the most. Keep it simple so it isn’t too much for your friend. Perhaps a bit of recognition on a different day will be just the thing for each of you. -- Finding a Middle Ground
Dear Finding a Middle Ground: This sounds like a lovely compromise. Celebrating National Friendship Day in such a manner allows the love that “Sad, Hurt and Frustrated” has for their friend to be expressed without the recipient feeling pressured or put on the spot.
View prior ‘Dear Annie’ columns
“How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner?” is out now! Annie Lane’s second anthology -- featuring favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation -- is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit Creators Publishing for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2022 CREATORS.COM | https://www.al.com/life/2022/04/dear-annie-im-no-longer-able-to-help-my-son-out-financially.html | 2022-04-14T11:39:46 | 1 | https://www.al.com/life/2022/04/dear-annie-im-no-longer-able-to-help-my-son-out-financially.html |
Severe weather swept through Alabama late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, leaving some without power and damaging homes.
In Greene County, three or four homes in the Branch Heights community sustained major damage but no injuries were reported, said county EMA director Hodges Smith.
Apartments there also sustained roof damage, according to the National Weather Service.
“We are focusing on finding places for people to go and keeping people safe from the powerlines,” Smith said Thursday morning.
As of 6 a.m. Thursday, there were about 165 power outages statewide, leaving 5,405 without electricity, according to Alabama Power.
According to the weather service, trees were downed by the storm in several counties. | https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/alabama-severe-weather-homes-damaged-in-greene-county-few-thousand-without-power.html | 2022-04-14T11:39:52 | 1 | https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/alabama-severe-weather-homes-damaged-in-greene-county-few-thousand-without-power.html |
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.al.com/news/2022/04/elon-musk-offers-to-buy-twitter-make-it-a-private-company.html | 2022-04-14T11:39:58 | 1 | https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/elon-musk-offers-to-buy-twitter-make-it-a-private-company.html |
From today’s Down in Alabama podcast:
If you follow the old Ronald Reagan 11th Commandment of “Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Any Fellow Republican,” then the 12th Commandment must be “Unless You Think He or She Doesn’t Like Donald Trump as Much as You Do.”
Former president Trump has loomed large in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race, both in name-dropping campaign ads and his endorsement and subsequent un-endorsement of Mo Brooks.
Another thing that’s possibly looming in that race: A televised debate ... but we’re still not sure whether all the main candidates will show.
Also on today’s news briefing: Some help for aging sewer and water systems, and the signing of the Nick Risner Act.
The “Down in Alabama” podcast is short and free. Listen to it by clicking on the player above or subscribe by looking for “Down in Alabama” on the device of your choosing. Get this and other AL.com newsletters here.
You can find “Down in Alabama” in these places: | https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/water-and-sewer-help-nick-risner-act-senate-race-down-in-alabama.html | 2022-04-14T11:40:04 | 1 | https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/water-and-sewer-help-nick-risner-act-senate-race-down-in-alabama.html |
A pair of new No. 1 teams highlight this week’s ASWA high school softball rankings.
Fairhope moved to the top of Class 7A and Class 1A Holy Spirit earned its first No. 1 ranking in school history.
The remainder of No. 1 teams were the same with Class 6A Athens, Class 5A Alexandria, Class 4A Curry, Class 3A Mobile Christian, Class 2A Pisgah and AISA Abbeville Christian.
Fairhope was last ranked No. 1 in 2019 — the Pirates were wire-to-wire No. 1 that season — and was favored to capture its second straight Class 7A title. Instead, Hewitt-Trussville won its first championship, coming from the elimination bracket to down Sparkman.
Holy Spirit has never been ranked higher than No. 3, holding that spot for two weeks starting March 31, 2021. Before that, the Saints were last ranked in 2010 and reached No. 5 in 2009.
Some of the top teams in the state are scheduled to play in Spanish Fort’s Berry Strong Invitational round-robin on Friday and Saturday at the Daphne Sports Complex.
One of the premiere matchups features last year’s Class 7A championship series contenders with newly ranked No. 1 Fairhope taking on No. 2 and defending champion Hewitt-Trussville. The top two teams in the class are scheduled to play on Saturday at 12:15 p.m.
Other teams participating include Class 3A top-ranked Mobile Christian and Class 2A second-ranked and defending state champion Orange Beach.
Mobile Christian’s scheduled games include Hewitt-Trussville and Class 6A No. 10 Baldwin County while Orange Beach also plays Hewitt-Trussville.
ASWA SOFTBALL RANKINGS
CLASS 7A
1. Fairhope (27-2-1)
2. Hewitt-Trussville (28-3-1)
3. Austin (34-5-1)
4. Bob Jones (21-5-1)
5. Thompson (24-4)
6. Spain Park (26-5-2)
7. Central-Phenix City (26-5)
8. Daphne (31-8-1)
9. Hoover (27-8)
10. Vestavia Hills (26-10)
Others nominated: Alma Bryant (24-6), Enterprise (20-8), Prattville (15-12), Sparkman (20-9).
CLASS 6A
1. Athens (24-4)
2. Hartselle (32-6-1)
3. Helena (25-3-3)
4. Hazel Green (25-5-1)
5. Wetumpka (29-8)
6. Mortimer Jordan (20-7-1)
7. Fort Payne (21-7)
8. Scottsboro (20-7-1)
9. Springville (24-7)
10. Baldwin County (14-4)
Others nominated: Buckhorn (12-15), Chelsea (10-13), Chilton County (15-17), Gardendale (17-12), Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa (20-11-1), Pell City (24-8-1), Spanish Fort (12-11-2).
CLASS 5A
1. Alexandria (33-7)
2. Tallassee (19-6)
3. Brewbaker Tech (24-2)
4. Satsuma (25-7)
5. Elmore County (24-9)
6. Rehobeth (20-6-1)
7. West Point (18-8)
8. Ardmore (17-6)
9. Douglas (23-4)
10. Moody (22-14-1)
Others nominated: Andalusia (19-13), Brewer (18-12), Charles Henderson (17-12), Corner (13-13), Russellville (12-15), Sardis (11-8).
CLASS 4A
1. Curry (25-8)
2. North Jackson (23-7)
3. Brooks (25-4)
4. Cleburne County (12-7)
5. White Plains (25-7)
6. Northside (20-10)
7. West Morgan (22-9-1)
8. Rogers (10-14)
9. Geneva (19-7)
10. Madison County (15-11-2)
Others nominated: American Christian (14-10), Bibb County (12-3), Dale County (21-15), Haleyville (10-12-3), Madison Academy (10-2), St. James (13-7).
CLASS 3A
1. Mobile Christian (35-3)
2. Beulah (29-5)
3. Plainview (24-4)
4. Wicksburg (24-8)
5. Houston Academy (25-7)
6. Prattville Christian (17-6)
7. Piedmont (14-10)
8. Geraldine (13-6)
9. Winfield (24-11-1)
10. Opp (18-8)
Others nominated: Carbon Hill (21-7), Flomaton (13-5), Glencoe (24-11), Hokes Bluff (16-12-1), Lauderdale County (17-14), Oakman (15-7-1), Pleasant Valley (20-13-1), T.R. Miller (19-14).
CLASS 2A
1. Pisgah (12-6)
2. Orange Beach (13-6)
3. Hatton (26-14)
4. Mars Hill Bible (21-4)
5. Leroy (27-5)
6. Spring Garden (13-6)
7. Ariton (19-9)
8. G.W. Long (13-6)
9. Sumiton Christian (16-17)
10. Randolph County (21-6)
Others nominated: B.B. Comer (13-11), Falkville (16-9), Fayetteville (13-10), Horseshoe Bend (9-9-1), Ider (16-8-1), Lamar County (17-15), Sand Rock (15-15), Vincent (10-5).
CLASS 1A
1. Holy Spirit (23-8)
2. Brantley (15-5)
3. Waterloo (14-5)
4. Skyline (11-9)
5. Athens Bible (11-7)
6. Appalachian (9-5)
7. South Lamar (13-14-2)
8. Sweet Water (15-10)
9. Belgreen (17-10)
10. Cedar Bluff (17-6-2)
Others nominated: Hackleburg (18-10), Millry (19-10), Ragland (10-13-2), Red Level (11-8), Woodland (10-12-1).
AISA
1. Abbeville Christian (21-3)
2. Glenwood (26-10)
3. Southern Academy (25-6)
4. Hooper Academy (28-7)
5. Clarke Prep (17-8)
6. Patrician Academy (23-7)
7. Macon East (19-17-1)
8. Chambers Academy (15-6)
9. Evangel Christian (21-6)
10. Bessemer Academy (16-10)
Others nominated: Fort Dale (13-12-2), Jackson Academy (8-5), Lowndes Academy (14-10). | https://www.al.com/sports/2022/04/aswa-high-school-softball-rankings-feature-2-new-no-1-teams.html | 2022-04-14T11:40:11 | 0 | https://www.al.com/sports/2022/04/aswa-high-school-softball-rankings-feature-2-new-no-1-teams.html |
During his three seasons as a starter at Alabama, Alex Leatherwood played right guard in 2018 and left tackle in 2019 and 2020, winning the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman in the latter season.
After joining Las Vegas as the 17th selection in the 2021 NFL Draft, Leatherwood started the first four games of his rookie season at right tackle, then lined up at right guard for the remainder of the campaign.
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“It’s a valuable experience that he’s went through because he’s had the opportunity to play different positions,” Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler said at the NFL annual meeting. “You learn things from going through that. When you’re used to playing on one side and you move to the other side, that’s another transition that you have to go through.
“Alex is a young, talented player. Got to play a lot of snaps last year, which was really valuable for him, and we’re excited to work with him and let him carve out his path and let him carve out what he does best and kind of see where it goes from there.”
After re-signing Brandon Parker last month, Las Vegas has the offensive line that started most of the 2021 season returning for 2022 – Kolton Miller at left tackle, John Simpson at left guard, Andre James at center, Leatherwood at right guard and Parker at right tackle.
The Raiders also re-signed Jermaine Eluemunor, who started three games at right guard before being benched for the Leatherwood-Parker combination on the right side. Denzelle Good is back, too. He was Las Vegas’ original right guard in 2021 but tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the season-opener and missed the rest of the campaign.
“Had great conversations with Alex so far,” said Josh McDaniels, the Raiders’ new coach. “He’s excited. He played a lot of football as a rookie. That counts for something. You can say it was this or that. I know this: His second year is going to feel like his second year, not his rookie year because he was in there a lot. He played a lot of snaps. He played tackle; he played guard. And we’re going to try to give him the opportunity earn a role that’s his best fit and is the best fit for the Raiders.
“Look, we know what he was drafted for, and we’re going to give him an opportunity to do such, but ultimately what we want to do at the end of the day is we’re going to put the best five guys out there, the best five guys we can put out there to protect the quarterback and run the football and be physical. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Leatherwood played every offensive snap in all but one of Las Vegas’ games as he took 1,105 of the Raiders’ 1,140 offensive snaps in 2021.
As a rookie, Leatherwood gave up eight sacks and was the culprit in 13 accepted penalties – seven false starts, four offensive holding, one illegal use of hands and one ineligible receiver downfield. Two more holding penalties against Leatherwood were declined, and one other was part of an offsetting-penalties pair. Only one player in the NFL drew more flags than Leatherwood’s 16 last season -- Dallas guard Connor Williams with 17.
Ziegler said the development of offensive linemen required patience.
“How they play the game at the college level and what offensive linemen are asked to do, there’s a lot of differences between that and the NFL game just in terms of whether it’s run schemes, whether it’s pass schemes, whether it’s spacing and splits,” Ziegler said. “There’s a lot of … differences, and so I think because of that, there’s also a lot of development that has to go into becoming an offensive lineman in the NFL. It’s just going to be different from what a lot of these guys are asked to do in college, so there’s definitely a development part of that.
“And then it’s such a technical position, when you’re talking about hand placement, you’re talking about fits in the run game, you’re talking about body positioning, steps, footwork in a confined space. It’s not like receiver where all that’s important, too, but you’re running a route 10, 15, 20 yards down the field. There’s a developmental aspect to that. This is close combat, and you have to be very precise and quick right off the jump, and so tough position.
“And then there’s the aspect of run calls, pass-protection calls, adjustments, the front changes – there’s a highly, I’d say, football IQ part of playing offensive line. You have to be intelligent to do that job. That’s a lot of different transitions you have to go through going from college to the pros, so it is a developmental position because of all of those things.”
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1. | https://www.al.com/sports/2022/04/raiders-to-let-alex-leatherwood-carve-out-his-role.html | 2022-04-14T11:40:17 | 0 | https://www.al.com/sports/2022/04/raiders-to-let-alex-leatherwood-carve-out-his-role.html |
SAN FRANCISCO -- 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%.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter in cash deal
"Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company," Musk said. | https://abc11.com/elon-musk-buying-twitter-board-of-directors-twitters-largest-shareholder/11747043/ | 2022-04-14T11:40:57 | 0 | https://abc11.com/elon-musk-buying-twitter-board-of-directors-twitters-largest-shareholder/11747043/ |
The trip comes just after a recent Consumer Price Index report which showed inflation increased to 8.5% over the past twelve months, with energy costs accounting for the bulk of the totals.
Still, Biden is arguing that despite inflation numbers the economy in general is strong. To defend that assertion he points to the fact that there are now 7.9 million more jobs in America than when he took office--that accounts for the largest job increase in the first 14 months of any presidency. Employee wages and the stock market are also pushing higher than ever before.
Despite those metrics, Biden's approval rating is at an all-time low. That's undoubtedly playing a role in why the president is going on the road to drum up support for his economic plan.
The president is scheduled to arrive in Greensboro at North Carolina A&T on Thursday afternoon.
He chose Greensboro because it is an example of a "regional manufacturing ecosystem" that Biden wants to emulate across the country. He said Greensboro specifically has a good cohesion of a skilled workforce, high-quality research and extensive public-private partnerships.
He will also praise NCA&T for it's success in training the area's workforce. The nation's largest HBCU enrolls more than 13,000 students and plays a huge role in pushing Greensboro forward. The school also annually graduates the most Black engineers of any university in the country.
Biden will use that information to promote his Bipartisan Innovation Act. That act is designed to help improve and diversify STEM education across the country as well as increase funding for manufacturing and development.
A bulk of the president's speech will address rising energy costs.
"The president has been laser-focused on the energy sector, and what we can be doing to lower costs at the gas pump. Just yesterday he was in Iowa talking about making gasoline that's 15% ethanol available to Americans across the country. That's going to reduce prices by making it more accessible. That's on top of a historic release of the strategic petroleum reserve that the president announced a couple weeks back. A million barrels a day for the next six months as a war-time bridge during the Ukraine-Russia war. We hope and expect those cost savings are also passed on to the consumer when they're going to the gas pumps," White House Deputy Press Secretary Chris Meagher told ABC11.
Both supply chain issues and increasing gas prices are being felt in several other countries, with Meagher noting ongoing conversations with world leaders to attempt to ease challenges.
"One of the things that he did was work with the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach where a lot of our goods enter the country to get them up and running 24/7, so we're getting goods from the sup to the shelve even faster, moving containers even more quickly through those ports. After he announced the historic release from the strategic petroleum reserve a couple months ago, many countries followed suit and announced releases of their own when it comes to oil," said Meagher.
Meagher pointed to the impact the ongoing war in Ukraine has had on the oil sector, with gas prices increasing by 18.3% between February and March. Crude oil prices have been choppy over the past five weeks, spiking to more than $123 a barrel on March 8th, before falling to $95 a barrel just eight days later; as of Wednesday, the price was $104 a barrel. Since the beginning of the invasion, crude oil prices are up about 9%, though they had been increasing prior to then. Part of the rising costs are also tied to people returning to the office and traveling more often. While unemployment levels have returned to pre-pandemic levels, wages have not kept up with inflation.
"Certainly (President Biden is) going to try and emphasize that he's doing everything he can about it. I suspect he'll try to emphasize the limits of what he can do about it. One of the interesting things here from a political science perspective, presidents get too much blame for the economy when things are bad, and too much credit when things are good. So the reality he's probably getting too much credit for unemployment and too much blame for inflation," said Dr. Steven Greene, a political science professor at NC State.
Republicans have consistently highlighted rising inflation, a point of focus during former president Donald Trump's visit to Selma Saturday night, where he appeared alongside a number of election officials. During his hourlong address, Trump emphasized a number of endorsements ahead of next month's primaries.
Historically, the party out of power -- in this case, Republicans - performs strongly in midterms, though Greene noted a lot can change between now and November.
Thursday will mark Biden's first visit to North Carolina since November when he met with troops at Fort Bragg prior to Thanksgiving. North Carolina, which has emerged as one of the most competitive states in the country, will likely draw increased national attention as midterms near.
"We should absolutely expect prominent national figures from both political parties campaigning hard for this Senate seat coming up, and certainly (in) 2024, we're going to be right in the thick of things," Greene explained. | https://abc11.com/president-joe-biden-in-nc-visit-greensboro/11746976/ | 2022-04-14T11:41:04 | 1 | https://abc11.com/president-joe-biden-in-nc-visit-greensboro/11746976/ |
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Raleigh hotel has been named as one of the 100 best new hotels in the world.
Travel and Leisure Magazine's It List 2022 looked at newly built hotels and major renovations to pick some perfect vacation spots for travelers.
The Heights House Hotel in the Boylan Heights neighborhood made the list!
Sarah and Jeff Shepherd bought and remodeled Montfort Hall, which was one of the few mansions in Raleigh dating all the way back to before the Civil War. The house was built in 1858 for William Montfort Boylan and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Now the home has nine guest rooms with 15-foot ceilings and 10 fireplaces. Rooms start at $225 per night. Click here for more details. | https://abc11.com/heights-house-top-raleigh-hotel-hotels-in-travel-and-leisure/11747082/ | 2022-04-14T11:49:39 | 0 | https://abc11.com/heights-house-top-raleigh-hotel-hotels-in-travel-and-leisure/11747082/ |