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OPELIKA, Ala. (WRBL) — It was an extremely close call for an Alabama man who said his SUV was crushed by a fallen billboard in Opelika, while he was sitting inside of it.
The driver told Nexstar’s WRBL he was sitting in the vehicle early Thursday morning when the billboard came crashing down, crushing the vehicle. The owner says he was able to climb out of a window, and suffered minor injuries in the incident. The owner of the vehicle believes a gust of wind toppled the sign.
The Lee County EMA confirms the scene is still being processed in front of the Circle K along Columbus Parkway. They are trying to see if strong winds toppled the massive sign.
Opelika police say the scene has been barricaded off. We will update you with any further information. | https://www.wfla.com/news/national/falling-billboard-nearly-crushes-man-sitting-in-car/ | 2022-04-14T16:05:59 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/news/national/falling-billboard-nearly-crushes-man-sitting-in-car/ |
The Biz Buzz Facebook group is an active community where I share the latest business news and answer questions from readers. Here is a sampling of recent questions I've answered.
What's being built next to Outback in Tupelo?
Just Love Coffee, which we told you about last fall, is well underway next to Outback Steakhouse and Jiffy Lube. According to the company, it is expected to open in August.
Get the latest local and national business news from Daily Journal Business Editor Dennis Seid in this exclusive Facebook group.
Just Love Coffee is bassed in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and the Tupelo store will be its first Mississippi location.
The franchise has been named a finalist in Roast magazine’s Roaster of the Year competition in 2014, 2015 and 2017.
Just Love says it buys sustainable coffees from around the world and sells bags of its hand-roasted beans in Whole Foods, Fresh Market and others. All of Just Coffee's coffee blends are roasted by hand at its facility in Murfreesboro.
Just Love also offers wraps, sandwiches, salads and a grab-and-go selection.
What's being built next to Chipotle?
It's a Tidal Wave Auto Spa Express Car Wash.
Yep, it's right down the street from Shine Time Super Wash, within spitting distance from it. We don't have a construction timeline for it just yet however. When we do, we'll let you know.
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So what do we know about them? They're based in Georgia, with locations throughout the Southeast and Midwest.
What do you know about the taco place next to Brooks Grocery?
Loco Taco is opening on one end of the Brooks Grocery shopping plaza, next to K Nails & Spa.
We don't know a lot about the place, but we can tell you that its cousins are D'Casa and Cantina Del Sol. However, we've been told that this is a completely different concept than its stablemates. They hope to make it the flagship of a future chain of locations.
Meanwhile, Westside Pharmacy and Gifts will anchor the other end of the Brooks plaza, built in the new addition recently completed
We don't know the opening dates of either Loco Taco and Westside Pharmacy yet.
When is Raising Cane's in Tupelo opening?
April 19 at 9 a.m.
Additionally Raising Cane’s will accept entries between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. for its “Lucky 20” drawing, awarding 20 customers ages 13 and older free Cane’s for a year. Winners will be notified on April 20. In addition, the first 100 dine-in customers to order a combo meal will receive a commemorative Cane’s t-shirt and The Box Combo gift card to use on their next visit. | https://www.djournal.com/news/business/whats-being-built-next-to-outback-just-love/article_5ee529e4-624c-53ae-bd80-83df8425b05e.html | 2022-04-14T16:06:52 | 0 | https://www.djournal.com/news/business/whats-being-built-next-to-outback-just-love/article_5ee529e4-624c-53ae-bd80-83df8425b05e.html |
TODAY'S OBITUARIES
Teresa Joyce Freeman, Tupelo
James M. Harris, Saltillo
Thomas "Tom" Hathcock, Booneville
Joseph "Dirt" Williams, Jericho Community
Larry Wheeler Wilson, Hamilton
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MEMO, PHOTO, AGNEW LOGO
Teresa Joyce Freeman
TUPELO - Teresa J. Freeman 62, was born On November 28, 1959 unto George Freeman Sr. and Emma Sue Freeman. She transitioned from this life to her Heavenly home on April 9, 2022 at the Diversicare Rehab. in Tupelo, MS. She confessed Jesus Christ as her Lord and savior at an early age and remained faithful to her faith until the Lord called her home. She was a spontaneous, feisty firecracker that lit up her surroundings when she was present. She was a very generous person that would give you the shirt off of her back if needed. She lived life to the fullest. She was preceded in death by her parents and one brother, George Freeman Jr. She leaves to mourn her passing: three sisters, Mary Pittman (Clint), Mary Gates Freeman and Sharon Freeman; her nieces, Tisha Freeman, Empress Freeman, Kayla Clark and Maisha Freeman; nephews, Kortez Freeman and Leonta Gates and a host of great nieces, nephews, cousins and friends; a caregiver and cousin Jan Adams. Service will be Saturday April 16, 2022 @11:00A,M. @ Red Oak M. B. Church in Tupelo, MS Visitation will be from 3-5p.m. Friday April 15, 2022 at Agnew & Sons Funeral Home in Verona. Family and friends may sign the guestbook at www.agnew and sons.com
MEMO
James M. Harris
SALTILLO - James M. Harris, 86, passed away Friday, April 8, 2022, at Tupelo in North MS Medical Center. Services will be on Saturday, April 16, 2022 @ 2:00p.m. at Temple of Compassion and Deliverance. Visitation will be on Friday, April 15, 2022 5-7 p.m. at Agnew & Sons Funeral Home.
MEMO, PHOTO
Larry Wheeler Wilson
HAMILTON - Larry Wheeler Wilson, 75, of Hamilton passed away on April 12, 2022 at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Columbus, surrounded by his girls, after an extended battle with cancer. Visitation will be held on Saturday, April 16, 2022 at Hamilton United Methodist Church from 11:30 A.M. until service at 1:30 P.M. followed by burial in Center Hill Baptist Church Cemetery.
Larry was a lifelong resident of Hamilton. He raised his children on the farm his parents built and he enjoyed being an active participant in the local community. He was a proud graduate of Hamilton High School and Mississippi State University. The dawgs finally won it all in Omaha last year- just in time. Mr. Wilson was a member of Hamilton United Methodist Church. He was a veteran of the United States Army Reserve.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert Earl and Candis Fairchild Wilson; his daughter, Crystal Wilson Smith; and his sister, Daree Winstead.
He is survived by his loving wife of 34 years, Charlotte Wilson of Hamilton; his two daughters, Candis Wilson Crigler (Coleman) of Petal, MS and Maxie Wilson Orr (John) of Massachusetts; his granddaughter, Breely Smith; his three grandsons, Banks Smith, Merritt Crigler, Sam Crigler; his two brothers, John Wilson (Patsy) of Franklin, TN and Martin Wilson (Jean) of Hamilton; and many nieces and nephews.
Pallbearers will be Rob Wilson, Glenn Wilson, Daniel Wilson, Joseph Wilson, Tracey Cockerham, and Evan Hawkins; with honorary bearers, Banks Smith, Tommie Keaton, Roy Tucker, Jr, Sam Crawford, Bill Tabor, Sammy Smith, and his brothers in Farmhouse Fraternity.
MEMO
Thomas "Tom" Hathcock
BOONEVILLE - Thomas "Tom" Hathcock, 64, passed away Tuesday, April 12, 2022, at Home in Booneville. Services will be on Saturday, April 16, 2022, at 2:00 PM at Booneville Funeral Home. Visitation will be on Friday evening from 5:00 until 8:00 PM at Booneville Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Mt. Olive Church of God Cemetery.
MEMO
Joseph "Dirt" Williams
JERICHO COMMUNITY - Joseph "Dirt" Williams, 37, passed away Sunday, April 3, 2022, at his home in Jericho Community. Services will be on Friday, April 15, 2022 at 11 am at Kesler Funeral Home - Baldwyn Chapel. Visitation will be on Friday from 9-11 am at Kesler Funeral Home - Baldwyn Chapel. Burial will follow at Pleasant Ridge Cemetery. Condolences to the family may be made online at www.keslerfuneralhome.com. | https://www.djournal.com/obituaries/obits-friday-april-15-2022/article_33e779af-60cf-5e25-81ad-4abaf0ca68f6.html | 2022-04-14T16:06:58 | 1 | https://www.djournal.com/obituaries/obits-friday-april-15-2022/article_33e779af-60cf-5e25-81ad-4abaf0ca68f6.html |
Eugene man sentenced to nearly 11 years for shooting at police during 12-hour standoff
A man who barricaded himself during a 12-hour standoff with police in south Eugene two years ago that ended with him being shot by two Eugene officers was sentenced to almost 11 years in prison on Monday.
Scott Edward Gardner, 55, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful use of a firearm and was found guilty of two counts of first-degree attempted assault for attempting to shoot two Eugene police SWAT members. The charges stem from the standoff on April 13, 2020 at a townhouse in the 100 block of Westbrook Way.
Gardner also waived his rights to a trial on two charges of attempted assault involving his juvenile son and was found guilty of two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment on Monday.
He was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in prison and then three years of supervised release.
On April 12, 2020, Eugene police officers responded to a suicidal subject call involving Gardner. He was in his mother's townhouse, reportedly armed with a shotgun, according to District Attorney Patricia Perlow in her summary of the incident released May 4.
When police contacted him, Gardner told officers he would not leave his location and that he wanted to speak with an attorney first, Perlow said. Police left with the intent of trying to contact Gardner again the next day.
Police returned around noon April 13. They reached him over the phone at about 5:20 p.m. and advised him to come out and that he was under arrest. Gardner wouldn't come out and he fired shot inside the home. Police unsuccessfully tried breach the front door around 8:45 p.m.
Negotiations continued, and at 11:46 p.m. police surveillance robot footage showed Gardner coming down the stairs with a semi-automatic rifle, Perlow said. Two Eugene officers, Tyler Richards and Aaron Johns, fired one shot each at Gardner after he stepped into the open front door and allegedly started to shoulder his rifle, according to Perlow.
Gardner was transported to PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield with significant lower abdomen injuries from the two shots to his torso, and has since recovered. Perlow ruled that the two officers were lawful in using deadly force "in defense of their own lives and the lives of others" by shooting Gardner.
An email to Gardner's lawyer Rebecca Davis seeking comment was not returned Tuesday. Senior prosecutor Erik Hasselman, who represented the state, told The Register-Guard his office is pleased with the outcome.
"Although Mr. Gardner suffered an immediate, severe consequence exiting the residence with a semi-automatic rifle in hand he had been using that night to terrorize the neighborhood and police, we are pleased the judge agreed that he also should serve a significant time in prison for his crimes," he said. | https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/2022/04/14/eugene-man-scott-gardner-sentenced-11-years-for-shooting-at-police-during-standoff/65349886007/ | 2022-04-14T16:09:57 | 0 | https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/2022/04/14/eugene-man-scott-gardner-sentenced-11-years-for-shooting-at-police-during-standoff/65349886007/ |
1 person shot in Daytona Beach, suspect in custody, police say
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - FOX 35 is working to learn more after someone was shot in Daytona Beach.
Daytona Beach police say this happened at 1215 S. Beach Street around 9 a.m. at an apartment complex.
One person is reportedly in custody.
Check back for updates.
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Artemis 1 launch: NASA aiming for wet dress rehearsal on Thursday
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The countdown clock for the wet dress rehearsal for Artemis I has resumed and is now planned for Thursday, April 14.
The time is now set for 3:57 p.m. EDT from Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
After the wet dress rehearsal, NASA says the rocket will be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for preparations for an actual launch.
The purpose of the wet dress rehearsal is to give Artemis 1 a practice run using a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will eventually send an Orion capsule on a journey around the moon. Launch managers will conduct all steps in the countdown except the liftoff.
If this test goes well, NASA managers are expected to announce a launch date for the Artemis-1 mission. That test mission will send the rocket and Orion without astronauts on board on a journey to orbit the moon, ending with an Orion splashdown.
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Click here for the latest Central Florida news, Florida stories, and local headlines.
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Bartow County man charged with raping, impregnating 12-year-old girl
ADAIRSVILLE, Ga. - After a months-long investigation, police in Adairsville have charged a man with molesting, raping, and impregnating a 12-year-old girl.
Officials say the investigation began after the victim was discovered to be pregnant in November. According to police, the girl went to the doctor for what was believed to be an unknown illness and turned out to be a pregnancy.
Through an investigation and DNA test, officials say they determined that 32-year-old Courtney Spears was the father of the child.
Wednesday, officers arrested Spears and charged him with two counts of incest, two counts of rape, and two counts of child molestation.
Spears is now in custody at the Bartow County Jail.
Advertisement | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/bartow-county-man-charged-with-raping-impregnating-young-girl | 2022-04-14T16:11:25 | 0 | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/bartow-county-man-charged-with-raping-impregnating-young-girl |
Capitol riot defendant: I was following Trump's instructions
An Ohio man charged with storming the U.S. Capitol and stealing a coat rack testified that he joined thousands of protesters in ransacking the building last year on what he thought were orders from the president, Donald Trump.
Dustin Byron Thompson, 38, of Columbus, Ohio, said Wednesday he took to websites after being laid off from his exterminator job in March 2020 and in his pandemic doldrums fell under Trump’s sway as he bought into conspiracy theories and "went down the rabbit hole on the internet."
On trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, Thompson testified that the claim that the election was stolen seemed credible to him because it was coming from the president. His defense team is the first to argue that Trump and those connected to him were responsible for the actions of the mob that day.
"It seems like everyone was attacking him (Trump). He needed someone to stand up for him, and I was trying to do that," Thompson said.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a "Save America Rally" near the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Under questioning by the prosecution, Thompson acknowledged that he ignored signs he shouldn’t be at the Capitol — broken glass, alarms, chemical irritants in the air — and said he stole the coat rack to keep others from using it as a weapon. He also said he witnessed fierce fighting between police and rioters outside the building, and later ran away from officers. He said he realized weeks later that what he had done was wrong and now feels shame for his actions.
Thompson’s jury trial is the third among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions. The first two ended with jurors convicting both defendants on all counts. Thompson's defense team is the first to argue that Trump and those connected to him were responsible for the actions of the mob that day.
RELATED: Trump says he tried to march with supporters Jan. 6, blames Pelosi for Capitol violence: report
"If the president is giving you almost an order to do something, I felt obligated to do that," Thompson testified.
Thompson’s lawyer sought subpoenas to call Trump and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as witnesses, but U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton rejected that request. Jurors on Wednesday began listening to recordings of speeches that Trump and Giuliani delivered at a rally before the riot. They were expected to finish listening to recordings Thursday morning and begin deliberations later in the day.
Thompson’s wife, Sarah Thompson, testified that she voted for Democrat Joe Biden, as well as Democratic presidential nominees Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. She said her husband’s views were more moderate then but shifted during the Trump years as he started encountering conspiracy theories. She said she did not share his views but helped arrange his travel to Washington for the "Stop the Steal" rally near the White House because he had a right to protest and she enjoyed having a quiet house.
RELATED: More officers needed to fully reopen Capitol, police chief says
Much of the prosecution's case was built around testimony from several Capitol Police officers placing Thompson at the scene, wearing a bulletproof vest that he said he found, and carrying a coat rack he took from the Senate Parliamentarian’s Office.
FILE - Tear gas is fired at supporters of President Trump who stormed the United States Capitol building on Jan. 6. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Over 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Thompson is the fifth person to be tried on riot-related charges.
On Monday, a jury convicted a former Virginia police officer, Thomas Robertson, of storming the Capitol with another off-duty officer to obstruct Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. Last month, a jury convicted a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun.
A judge hearing testimony without a jury decided cases against two other Capitol riot defendants at separate bench trials. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden acquitted one of them of all charges and partially acquitted the other.
RELATED: Ivanka Trump testifies before House panel investigating Jan. 6 attack
Thompson is charged with six counts: obstructing Congress' joint session to certify the Electoral College vote, theft of government property, entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
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A co-defendant, Robert Lyon, 27, pleaded guilty in March to theft of government property and disorderly conduct. Both counts are misdemeanors punishable by a maximum of one year imprisonment. Walton is scheduled to sentence Lyon on June 3. | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/capitol-riot-defendant-i-was-following-trumps-instructions | 2022-04-14T16:11:32 | 0 | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/capitol-riot-defendant-i-was-following-trumps-instructions |
Gov. DeSantis signs 15-week abortion ban into Florida law
KISSIMMEE, Fla. - A Florida bill that prohibits doctors from performing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Thursday, the Florida governor signed the bill from Nacion de Fe, a church in Kissimmee. It was one of the most bitterly disputed issues of the 2022 legislative session.
"We are here today to protect life. We are here to defend those who can’t defend themselves," DeSantis said at the beginning of his press conference. "It’s a statement of our values that every life is important."
While the HB-5 was making its way through the state legislature, dozens of people testified against it.
"These are babies. It’s an individual inside that woman that has a separate DNA, a separate body, a separate person," Senate bill sponsor Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, said. "And the question we’re asking ourself is, when does that baby in the womb have the same rights as the mother that’s carrying it with that right to be able to live and to thrive and to grow?"
Critics slammed the proposal for not including an exception to the 15-week limit for victims of rape or incest. Republicans rejected a proposed change that would have created an exception for pregnancies that are the result of rape, incest, or human trafficking.
PREVIOUS: Florida Senate passes 15-week abortion limit, bill now heads to governor's desk
Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Plantation, filed the proposed change and said she was appealing to senators’ "basic human dignity."
"Should this bill pass in its current form, I am deeply, deeply concerned about what it will mean for women and girls across this state who may become pregnant as a result of rape, incest or human trafficking. We need to give women options all of the time," Book said.
The backdrop of the stage inside the Florida church, Nacion de Fe, before Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the 15-week abortion bill into law. (FOX 13 / File)
Lawmakers and other people on both sides of the issue also are closely watching a U.S. Supreme Court case about the constitutionality of Mississippi law that similarly restricts abortions to 15 weeks.
The case is widely seen as a challenge to the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion rights. Justices on the conservative-dominated Supreme Court heard arguments in December.
Stargel said that the Supreme Court’s weighing of the Mississippi law was a factor in the decision to propose the 15-week restriction, adding that "the baby feels pain at 15 weeks." Roe v. Wade generally has protected abortion rights until about 24 weeks of pregnancy.
MORE: Florida judge tosses challenge to state's abortion waiting period
Rep. Will Robinson, R-Bradenton, said he would like to see Florida join the legal fight, as the Supreme Court case could determine whether the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights is scaled back or overturned.
"I disagree with some of my colleagues. That actually, if this bill becomes law, I want to see Florida join Mississippi and the Dobbs (Mississippi) decision to allow the Supreme Court to readdress, in my view, the arbitrary viability standard in Roe," Robinson said.
The bill would provide an exception to the 15-week limit for instances of a "fatal fetal abnormality." The bill defines such abnormalities as a "terminal condition that, in reasonable medical judgment, regardless of the provision of life-saving medical treatment, is incompatible with" survival outside the womb.
Two physicians would be required to certify that such an abnormality exists under the bill. Democrats criticized that proposed requirement as "onerous" and argued it could put an undue burden particularly on Floridians living in rural areas.
"Obviously you don’t have two OB-GYNs in your rolodex. You’re not a patient of two of them. So, by definition of this bill, you have to find a new doctor," said Sen. Tina Polsky D-Boca Raton, adding that the wait for an appointment with a new physician can take weeks.
The state Agency for Health Care Administration in early January posted statistics about abortions in 2021 in Florida:
— 74,756: Total abortions in 2021.
— 112: Decrease in abortions from 2020.
— 70,265: Abortions in the first trimester.
— 4,491: Abortions in the second trimester.
— 0: Abortions in the third trimester.
—111: Reported abortions due to rape.
— 8: Reported abortions due to incest.
— 13,467: Abortions reported for residents of Miami-Dade County, the most in the state.
— 10,184: Abortions reported for residents of Broward County, the second-highest total.
— 3: Counties (Glades, Lafayette and Liberty) in which fewer than 20 residents had reported abortions.
The state defines the first trimester as through the 11th week of gestation; the second trimester as from the 12th week of gestation through the 23rd week; and the third trimester as after the 23rd week.
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Guinness names world's tallest family with average height of 6 feet, 8.03 inches
ESKO, Minn. - A family from a small town in Minnesota has been named the tallest in the world by Guinness World Records.
The Trapp family, which is made up of Scott, 57, Kristine, 52, Savanna, 27, Molly, 24, and Adam, 22, has an average height of 6 feet, 8.03 inches. Their combined height is equivalent to half the length of a tennis court, Guinness said.
All the Trapp children, who are from the town of Esko, played sports throughout their childhoods and were recruited by colleges for either basketball or volleyball.
"Coaches always said to us 'you can't teach height. You’re either tall or you’re not,'" Molly told Guinness World Records in a story about them shared this week.
The youngest member of the family is Adam, who towers over his siblings and parents at an astounding 7 feet, 3 inches tall. Savanna, who measures 6 feet, 8 inches, said her "super tall, little brother" was the inspiration to reach out to Guinness World Records about the possible title.
The family was confirmed as the tallest in the world back in December 2020 after visiting a local orthopedics doctor to be measured. Each family member had to be measured three times throughout the day, both standing up and lying down — and the average of those measurements was used to calculate their height, according to the official record keeper.
The family has now met all the criteria to qualify for a place in the record books — and were thrilled to learn that they had actually become the new titleholders.
"My sister called the family up to tell us that we officially got the record. Everyone was excited about it, and it was almost hard to believe," Adam said.
The recognition makes up for the downsides of being so tall, the Trapp family said. They noted physical growing pains, which Savanna described as "unreal," as well as always having to duck through doorways and having difficulties driving a car with such long legs.
The Trapp family has an average height of 6 feet, 8.03 inches. Photo Credit: Kevin Scott Ramos/Guinness World Records
There’s also been an emotional toll of always standing out among their peers. Scott, who stands at 6 feet, 8 inches, said he was taller than his teacher in the first grade.
The family also attracts attention wherever they go, but told Guinness World Records that they have learned to embrace their genetics and use their height as a way of engaging in conversations.
"Being able to meet new people when they come up and ask me questions about my height is something I like the most," Adam said.
The Trapp family said their unique characteristic has made them feel like a stronger unit.
"It’s nice to have a shoulder that’s tall enough for you to lean on," Molly said. "Who better to understand what you’re going through than the people who are even taller than you are?"
RELATED: Minneapolis teen takes another bite of Guinness World Record for biggest mouth
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This story was reported from Cincinnati. | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/guinness-names-worlds-tallest-family-with-average-height-of-6-feet-8-03-inches | 2022-04-14T16:11:44 | 0 | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/guinness-names-worlds-tallest-family-with-average-height-of-6-feet-8-03-inches |
Inflation woes: These price increases are hitting Americans the hardest
A 48% rise in gas prices. A staggering 35% jump in the cost of used vehicles. Inflation has climbed to its highest level in more than 40 years, and it’s hitting Americans hardest in areas where it’s difficult to make cuts: gas, food and utilities.
The Labor Department said this week that its consumer price index jumped 8.5% in March from 12 months earlier, the sharpest year-over-year increase since 1981.
Prices have been driven up by bottlenecked supply chains, strong consumer demand and disruptions to global food and energy markets worsened by Russia’s war against Ukraine. Even if you toss out food and energy prices — which are notoriously volatile and have driven much of the price spike — core inflation jumped 6.5%.
Here’s a look at some of the largest year-to-year increases reported by the Labor Department:
Gasoline: 48%
The March inflation numbers were the first to fully capture the surge in gasoline prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Moscow’s attacks have triggered far-reaching Western sanctions against the Russian economy and disrupted food and energy markets.
RELATED: Inflation: Is it close to peaking? Economists weigh in
The average price of a gallon of gas — $4.10 as of Tuesday — is up 43% from a year ago, though it's dipped in the past couple of weeks.
Food: 10%
In the face of supply and worker shortages, raw materials and labor costs have been rising throughout various industries, including food. So far, grocery stores and food producers, like most other industries, have passed along much of inflation’s impact to consumers.
Used Vehicles: 35%
The average price of a used vehicle in the United States in November, according to Edmunds.com, was $29,011. And for the first time that anyone can recall, more than half of America’s households have less income than is considered necessary to buy the average-priced used vehicle.
A used car dealership is seen in Laurel, Maryland on May 27, 2021, (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
It all goes back to the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Auto plants halted production to try to slow the virus’ spread. As sales of new vehicles sank, fewer people traded in used cars and trucks. At the same time, demand for laptops and monitors from people stuck at home led semiconductor makers to shift production from autos, which depend on such chips, to consumer electronics.
RELATED: Advocates fear higher inflation costs could leave senior citizens, elderly homeless
When a faster-than-expected economic rebound boosted demand for vehicles, auto plants tried to restore full production. But chip makers couldn’t respond fast enough. And rental car companies and other fleet buyers, unable to acquire new vehicles, stopped off-loading older ones, thereby compounding the shortage of used vehicles.
Although new vehicles didn’t skyrocket nearly as much as used, they’re still up 12.5% over a year ago.
Other big increases include:
- Electricity: 11%
- Utility gas services: 22%
- Clothing: 7%
- Eating out: 7%
- Airfare: 24%
- Hotel rooms: 29%
How long will inflation last?
Elevated consumer price inflation could last as long as companies struggle to keep up with consumers’ demand for goods and services. A recovering job market — employers added a record 6.7 million jobs last year and are adding 560,000 a month so far this year — means that Americans as a whole can continue to splurge on everything from lawn furniture to electronics.
BETHESDA, MARYLAND - APRIL 12: Washer and dryer units sit on display at a Bray and Scarff home appliance store on April 12, 2022 in Bethesda, Maryland. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Many economists foresee inflation staying well above the Fed’s 2% annual target this year. But relief from higher prices might be coming. Jammed-up supply chains are beginning to show some signs of improvement, at least in some industries.
The Fed’s pivot away from easy-money policies toward an anti-inflationary policy could eventually reduce consumer demand. There will be no repeat of last year’s COVID relief checks from Washington. Inflation itself is eroding purchasing power and might force some consumers to shave spending.
At the same time, new COVID variants could cloud the outlook — either by causing outbreaks that force factories and ports to close and disrupt supply chains even more or by keeping people home and reducing demand for goods.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/inflation-woes-these-price-increases-are-hitting-americans-the-hardest | 2022-04-14T16:11:50 | 1 | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/inflation-woes-these-price-increases-are-hitting-americans-the-hardest |
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Activate your digital account | https://www.registerguard.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.registerguard.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2F2022%2F04%2F14%2Feugene-school-district-making-headway-with-4j-bond-projects-after-coronavirus-delays%2F65346122007%2F | 2022-04-14T16:14:18 | 1 | https://www.registerguard.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.registerguard.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2F2022%2F04%2F14%2Feugene-school-district-making-headway-with-4j-bond-projects-after-coronavirus-delays%2F65346122007%2F |
- The IEA's latest update to its Sustainable Recovery Tracker cautions that regional imbalances, compounded by rising commodity prices, are a cause for concern.
- Emerging and developing economies, according to the IEA, have made plans for roughly $52 billion of "sustainable recovery spending" before the end of 2023.
- It says this is "well short" of what's required for the pathway to net zero emissions by the middle of this century.
The world's governments have pledged more than $710 billion to "sustainable recovery measures" by the year 2030 since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the International Energy Agency has said.
This is a 50% increase compared to the figure in Oct. 2021 and represents "the largest ever clean energy fiscal recovery effort," according to the IEA.
Despite this growth, the IEA's latest update to its Sustainable Recovery Tracker cautioned that regional imbalances, compounded by rising commodity prices following the Russia-Ukraine war, were a cause for concern.
In a statement earlier this week, the Paris-based organization said advanced economies were intending to spend over $370 billion before the end of 2023.
It described this as a "level of short-term government spending that would help keep the door open for the IEA's global pathway to net zero emissions by 2050."
Money Report
For other parts of the world, however, the story is different. Emerging and developing economies, according to the IEA, have made plans for roughly $52 billion of "sustainable recovery spending" before the end of 2023. It said this was "well short" of what was required for the pathway to net zero emissions by the middle of this century.
"The gap is unlikely to narrow in the near term," the IEA said, "as governments with already limited fiscal means now face the challenge of maintaining food and fuel affordability for their citizens amid the surge in commodity prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine."
The IEA's view of what constitutes "clean energy and sustainable recovery measures" is wide-ranging. It includes everything from investments in nuclear, wind, solar photovoltaic and hydro to retrofitting, electric vehicles, transit infrastructure and recycling.
Commodity concerns
Concerns related to both the energy transition and energy security have been thrown into sharp relief by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is a major supplier of oil and gas, and over the past few weeks a number of major economies have laid out plans to reduce their reliance on its hydrocarbons.
At the same time, recent months have also seen commodity prices jump. According to the UN, its Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Price Index in March averaged 159.3 points, a 12.6% increase compared to February.
In a statement last week, Qu Dongyu, the FAO's Director-General laid bare the challenges the world was facing. Food prices as measured by the index, he said, had "reached a new all-time high."
"Particularly, prices for staple foodstuffs such as wheat and vegetable oils have been soaring lately, imposing extraordinary costs on global consumers, particularly the poorest," Dongyu added, going on to state that the war in Ukraine had "made matters even worse."
A huge task
According to the UN, for global warming to be kept "to no more than 1.5°C … emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050."
The 1.5 figure refers to the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming "to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels" and was adopted in Dec. 2015.
The task is huge and the stakes are high, with the UN noting that 1.5 degrees Celsius is considered to be "the upper limit" when it comes to avoiding the worst consequences from climate change.
"Countries where clean energy is at the heart of recovery plans are keeping alive the possibility of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, but challenging financial and economic conditions have undermined public resources in much of the rest of the world," Fatih Birol, the IEA's executive director, said Tuesday.
Birol added that international cooperation would be "essential to change these clean energy investment trends, especially in emerging and developing economies where the need is greatest."
While the picture for advanced economies may seem rosier than emerging and developing ones, the IEA pointed to a number of potential issues going forward, stating that "some of the earmarked funds risk not reaching the market within their envisaged timelines."
Project pipelines, it claimed, had been "clogged" by delays in the establishment of government programs, financial uncertainty, labor shortages and continued supply chain disruptions.
On top of this, "consumer-facing measures" like incentives related to retrofits and electric vehicles were "struggling to reach a wider audience because of issues including red tape and lack of information."
Looking at the overall picture, the IEA said "public spending on sustainable energy" remained a "small proportion" of the $18.1 trillion in fiscal outflows focused on mitigating the economic effects of the pandemic. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/sustainable-recovery-spending-could-be-derailed-by-commodity-price-spikes-following-ukraine-war/3646494/ | 2022-04-14T16:14:52 | 1 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/sustainable-recovery-spending-could-be-derailed-by-commodity-price-spikes-following-ukraine-war/3646494/ |
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Together, we're for New York | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/community-top-stories/weather-kids-visits-ps-116-in-brooklyn/3646237/ | 2022-04-14T16:15:06 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/community-top-stories/weather-kids-visits-ps-116-in-brooklyn/3646237/ |
NORTH EAST, Md. — Maryland State Police have released the name of a woman found dead Tuesday on the side of I-95 just beyond the Cecil County line.
WMAR-2 has confirmed that 30-year-old Danielle Shanae Parnell is the biological mother of three-year-old My’royal Bennett, who was killed last Friday in a Baltimore City house fire.
RELATED: Baltimore Police reveal name of three-year-old girl murdered inside burning home Friday
Both deaths have since been ruled homicides, although official causes have yet to be determined.
So far no arrests have been made in either case, and police have revealed no potential motive.
We will continue working on this story and provide updates as they become available. | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/mother-killed-four-days-after-3-year-old-daughter-found-murdered-inside-burning-baltimore-home | 2022-04-14T16:15:34 | 0 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/mother-killed-four-days-after-3-year-old-daughter-found-murdered-inside-burning-baltimore-home |
NORTH PORT, Fla. — The family of Gabby Petito will get a jury trial in their suit against the parents of Brian Laundrie.
Documents filed in Sarasota County this week show a civil jury trial scheduled to begin Aug. 14, 2023. A preliminary hearing has been set for May.
The suit filed in March alleges the Laundrie family withheld information from police that would have helped the Petitos in the search for their daughter. Their suit also claims the Laundries helped Brian avoid police, and in doing so, inflicted intentional emotional stress.
The Laundries filed a motion to throw the case out, but a judge ruled in favor of the Petito family.
Gabby Petito went missing last summer while on a road trip with Brian Laundrie. She was found dead in a national park in Wyoming.
After a 30-day search for Laundrie, his body was discovered in the Myakkahatchee State Park. Investigators said he killed himself and left a note that said he also killed Petito.
This article was written by WFTX. | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/petito-family-to-get-jury-trial-against-laundrie-parents | 2022-04-14T16:15:40 | 1 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/petito-family-to-get-jury-trial-against-laundrie-parents |
For the first time since 2019, the White House will host the annual Easter Egg Roll. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will host children and their families on the White House South Lawn on Monday.
Each year, keepsake wooden eggs are given to children attending the Easter Egg Roll at the White House. The White House says more than 14,000 hard-boiled eggs are hand-dyed for use in the Easter Egg Roll and the egg hunt.
The White House receives nearly 50,000 submissions for a total of 200,000 tickets for the annual event. A portion of the tickets is reserved for local military families and public school students.
Visually-impaired youngsters can participate in the egg roll and egg hunt through the use of special “chirping eggs,” the White House said.
The first Easter Egg Roll was held in 1878 when President Rutherford Hayes opened the south lawn to children who had been chased off the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/annual-easter-egg-roll-returns-to-the-white-house-following-pandemic-hiatus | 2022-04-14T16:15:46 | 0 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/annual-easter-egg-roll-returns-to-the-white-house-following-pandemic-hiatus |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration says it will begin cracking down on e-cigarettes that have used synthetic nicotine to skirt oversight.
The companies behind those products sell vaping flavors that appeal to kids.
Previously, the agency could only regulate products that used nicotine derived from tobacco.
Under a new law taking effect Thursday, the FDA can regulate products using manmade nicotine.
The action specifically targets companies like Puff Bar.
In a statement, the agency said the change would allow the FDA "to protect the public health from the harms of tobacco products, regardless of the source of nicotine,” the Associated Press reported.
That company recently switched its formula to laboratory-made nicotine to avoid oversight.
Puff Bar is the most popular brand among teenagers, selling flavors like blueberry, strawberry banana and mango.
The agency said within 30 days companies must register with them and submit their products. | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/e-cigs-using-synthetic-nicotine-come-under-fda-oversight | 2022-04-14T16:15:52 | 1 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/e-cigs-using-synthetic-nicotine-come-under-fda-oversight |
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed an abortion ban into law.
The law bans abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The Republican governor signed the legislation at a news conference at a church in Kissimmee on Thursday.
The new law does allow an exception if two doctors certify in writing that an abortion is necessary to save the woman’s life or to "avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman other than a psychological condition."
It also allows exceptions if a doctor certifies that there is a fetal abnormality.
It does not allow for exemptions in cases where pregnancies were caused by rape, incest or human trafficking.
DeSantis referred to late-term abortions as "infanticide" and said being able to sign the bill was, "really meaningful."
The move comes amid a growing conservative push to restrict abortion ahead of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could limit access to the procedure nationwide.
The new law also marked a significant blow to abortion access in the South, where Florida has provided wider access to the procedure than its regional neighbors.
Under current law, Florida allows abortions up to 24 weeks. | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/florida-governor-signs-15-week-abortion-ban-into-state-law | 2022-04-14T16:15:58 | 1 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/florida-governor-signs-15-week-abortion-ban-into-state-law |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic ushered in what may be the most rapid rise in homeschooling the U.S. has ever seen.
Now, even with schools back open and vaccines available, many homeschooling families are sticking with it.
Data obtained by The Associated Press found homeschooling numbers this year dipped from last year’s all-time high, but are still significantly above pre-pandemic levels.
According to the National Home Education Research Institute, approximately 3.7 million students were homeschooled for the 2020-2021 school year. That's an increase from 2.5 million in the previous school year, according to the organization.
Families may have turned to homeschooling as an alternative to hastily assembled remote learning plans. But they say they're staying with it for many reasons, including continuing COVID health concerns, disagreements with school policies and a desire to keep what has worked for their children. | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/homeschooling-surge-continues-despite-schools-reopening | 2022-04-14T16:16:04 | 1 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/homeschooling-surge-continues-despite-schools-reopening |
Kentucky’s legislature overrode the governor’s veto on a broad abortion bill.
House bill 3 bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
It prohibits physicians from performing, inducing or attempting to perform an abortion at that point of a pregnancy, unless there is a medical emergency.
The bill does not allow exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
The bill also requires that the names of physicians who provide medication abortions be published.
A state-run complaint portal will be set up so people can anonymously report providers who break the law.
Democratic governor Andy Beshear vetoed the bill last week, saying it is “likely unconstitutional.”
However, this week, the Kentucky state House voted to override the veto, making the change immediately effective due to its emergency clause.
Kentucky’s bill is modeled after Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban.
The Supreme Court is currently reviewing Mississippi’s anti-abortion law and if it rules that it is constitutional, Roe v. Wade could be overturned or considered “weakened.”
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in June. | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/kentucky-legislature-overturns-veto-on-abortion-ban-making-abortions-nearly-impossible-to-obtain | 2022-04-14T16:16:10 | 1 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/kentucky-legislature-overturns-veto-on-abortion-ban-making-abortions-nearly-impossible-to-obtain |
PRINCETON, N.J. — We see movements at their apex.
We rarely see them when they’re a crayon in the hand of a cautious child.
“I was one of the only brown kids in my school," said Dr. Kani Ilangovan, a psychiatry specialist in Princeton, New Jersey. "And when I would draw pictures of myself, I would draw myself with a peach crayon because I didn’t want to emphasize my differences from other children.”
Decades later, Ilangovan saw those same peach-colored portraits at her child’s school. They inspired her to type an e-mail and start a movement.
“I wrote to the people in the central New Jersey Asian-American reading group I was in," she said, "to see if anyone wanted to work with me on getting AAPI curriculum in the New Jersey public schools. And five people responded. And that's how we started.”
The rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in the last two years has been widely reported. Nearly 11,000 incidents have been reported to the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate. We hear far less about what’s being done to stop it. Ilangovan sent her email in March 2021, the same month when a gunman in Atlanta walked into three Asian-American spas and killed eight people.
“I felt like an outsider," Ilangovan said. "Asian-Americans are treated like perpetual foreigners. And actually, we’ve helped build this country.”
What happened next is its own education on how change gets made.
Ilangovan and her reading group wrote an Open Letter for AAPI Studies in New Jersey Public Schools. They produced versions in multiple languages. In two months, they garnered 1,500 signatures.
“In New Jersey, we have 15% of Asian American students," said Ying Lu, who translated it into Chinese. "Fewer than 2% of school administrators and teachers are Asian-American. It’s not surprising you don’t see them show up in the public space. But on WeChat, I see many, many activities."
By year’s end, a community stereotyped for not speaking out was holding rallies and speaking with New Jersey legislators. Students at high schools recorded testimonials.
“People were telling us that it wasn’t going to pass this year," Ilangovan said. "They said, 'You’re going to have to wait a while, but that’s good. You got started.' But we were very insistent that it need to pass now because our kids were suffering now.”
This past January, New Jersey became the second state after Illinois to sign into law a K-12 requirement for AAPI curriculum.
Many who pushed for this curriculum fear it won’t be enforced. They envision a long, drawn-out effort to ensure it is. But they also envision other states taking notice. Already, advocates in New Jersey have heard from those in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and a handful of others. Seeds have been planted … just as they once were in a cautious child holding a peach-colored crayon.
"This is important," Ilangovan said. "This is us creating our belonging in this country.” | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/two-americas/advocates-built-a-movement-to-get-aapi-curriculum-into-schools | 2022-04-14T16:16:17 | 0 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/two-americas/advocates-built-a-movement-to-get-aapi-curriculum-into-schools |
The United Nations reported Thursday that 1,964 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine, but warned the number is likely much higher.
The U.N. Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said reports have been delayed or are pending in areas where there is intense fighting.
"This concerns, for example, Mariupol (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Popasna (Luhansk region), and Borodianka (Kyiv region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties," the organization said.
Most civilian casualties are the result of missiles and airstrikes, the U.N. said.
Among the dead are 72 children, according to the U.N.
The agency says more than 2,600 civilians have also been injured during the war. | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/un-reports-nearly-2-000-civilians-killed-in-ukraine | 2022-04-14T16:16:23 | 0 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/un-reports-nearly-2-000-civilians-killed-in-ukraine |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A decommissioned United States Navy Fletcher-class destroyer appears to be partially sinking at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park.
USS The Sullivans was seen listing heavily to its starboard side, and sitting lower in the water than usual on Thursday morning.
The ship was commissioned in 1943 and operated in the Pacific Theater during World War II. It is named after five brothers from Waterloo, Iowa. It is the only ship in the U.S. Navy to ever be named for more than one person. It was decommissioned in 1965 and has been in Buffalo, New York since 1977.
In 2018, the USS The Sullivans was sinking due to a crack in its hull. In 2019, a fundraising campaign was launched to repair the ship.
Last year, 4-year-old Arrow Swartwout started collecting pennies to repair the ship.
Earlier this month, Congressman Brian Higgins announced $490,000 in federal funding would be added to support preservation and repairs.
It is unclear whether the incident Thursday morning has caused any additional damage to the ship.
This story was originally reported by August Erbacher on wkbw.com. | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/uss-the-sullivans-appears-to-be-partially-sinking | 2022-04-14T16:16:29 | 1 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/uss-the-sullivans-appears-to-be-partially-sinking |
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – Police in Georgia searched the Chattahoochee River in their ongoing effort to find a missing Carmel mom.
Ciera Breland was reported missing in Carmel on Feb. 26. However, investigators with the Carmel Police Department don’t believe she ever returned from a family visit in Georgia.
Her husband, Xavier Breland, is considered a person of interest in her disappearance.
Johns Creek police said crews entered the Chattahoochee River to search for her. The search effort also included helicopters and drones, police said. They were unable to locate Breland.
Investigators said Breland was last seen at her mother-in-law’s home in on Feb. 24. The have surveillance video, although they declined to share it or disclose its contents.
Her husband remains in jail on charges in an unrelated case.
Family members maintained Breland wouldn’t have walked away from her family and her five-month-old son.
The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information in Breland’s disappearance.
Anyone with information should contact the Carmel Police Department at (317) 571-2500 or the Johns Creek Police tip line at (678) 474-1610.
Information can also be called in to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or at tips.fbi.gov. | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/helicopters-drones-search-georgia-river-for-missing-carmel-mom/ | 2022-04-14T16:27:17 | 0 | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/helicopters-drones-search-georgia-river-for-missing-carmel-mom/ |
Sheriff: 10 homes lost in Tuesday tornado strike
Published 9:14 am Thursday, April 14, 2022
Another four damaged
A wider picture of the damage leveled on Taopi from Tuesday night’s EF2 tornado is starting to become a little clearer Thursday.
According to Mower County Sheriff Steve Sandvik, of the 24 buildings in the community of over 60, 10 homes are a complete loss.
Another had major damage and three sustained minor damage, leaving only seven homes in Taopi largely undamaged.
“We’re continuing to meet with the residents,” Sandvik said. “The Emergency Management team is meeting with residents, working with the mayor and continuing with a plan for recovery.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, utility crews were still working to reestablish power to Taopi.
Resident Angie Smith said Wednesday morning that the power went out at around 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, just minutes after a tornado was issued for the area. Moments later the storm came rampaging through.
“It was roaring,” she said. “The moment we ran through to the basement we heard windows shattering. We were down in the basement for maybe a minute.”
The National Weather Service out of La Crosse, Wisconsin estimates winds from the tornado that struck Taopi peaked at around 130 mph and was on the ground for a little over seven miles.
Two people were injured and had to be rescued from the basement of their damaged home. They were taken to Mayo Clinic Health Systems-Austin Tuesday night for non-life threatening injuries.
Counting Taopi, the NWS’ survey of Tuesday totals five tornadoes in southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa. Another two reportedly touched down further south in Iowa. The four other confirmations in our area include:
- An EF1 set down near Spring Valley with max winds of 100 mph. It was on the ground for 2.3 miles.
- An EF1 set down near Brownville, Iowa with max winds of 110 mph. It was on the ground for 2.2 miles.
- An EF1 set down near Riceville, Iowa, with max winds of 100 mph. It was on the ground for 5.3 miles.
- An EF0 set down near Saratoga, Iowa, with max winds of 75 mph. It was on the ground for just under a quarter of a mile.
Sandvik said Wednesday afternoon that a majority of the damage in Mower County from Tuesday night was largely confined to Taopi itself.
“There wasn’t significant damage beyond the Taopi area,” he said. “There were still some limbs and trees down, but nothing like there was in Taopi.”
This round of storms comes almost exactly four months to the day that freak storms rolled through southeast Minnesota on Dec. 15, 2021, causing severe damage to the eastern part of the county, knocking out power in Austin and devastating the small community of Hartland, north of Albert Lea.
That system included a rash of tornadoes and wind gusts as high as 85 mph in places and caused over $500,000 in damage to the county. Many places that were damaged are still coping with the consequences.
It’s a sign for how long lasting the recovery could be for Taopi.
“It will take a long time for these families to recover and move back into their homes,” Sandvik said. | https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/sheriff-10-homes-lost-in-tuesday-tornado-strike/ | 2022-04-14T16:27:20 | 0 | https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/sheriff-10-homes-lost-in-tuesday-tornado-strike/ |
INDIANAPOLIS — Indy may not be one of the country’s top dining destinations just yet, but according to one major food publication — we are soo close.
Food & Wine has named Indianapolis as one of America’s “Next Great Food Cities.” The list features metro areas considered up-and-comers in the food travel sphere. Cincinnati (Ohio), Boise (Idaho), Omaha (Nebraska), Jersey City (New Jersey), Tucson (Arizona), and Charlotte (North Carolina) were also named.
So what makes Indianapolis so promising for foodie travelers?
Food & Wine pinpointed the city’s burgeoning bakery scene, the abundance of quality coffee shops, food halls like The Garage at Bottleworks and The AMP, plus the diversity of cuisines available throughout the Indy metro area.
The article namedropped several of the people that have cultivated the city’s evolving food climate like Bluebeard chef Abbi Merriss, chef Oya Woodruff of The Trap, and Patachou Inc. owner Martha Hoover.
Hoover and Woodruff were recognized specifically for “taking charge to reduce food insecurity.” Hoover’s PataSchool program works to create more rounded meals in school cafeterias, while Woodruff consistently donates trays of her boiled seafood to those in need.
Other can’t miss places mentioned by Food & Wine?
- Gallery Pastry Bar
- Amberson Coffee & Grocer
- The Commodore
- Amelia’s Bread
- Melon Kitchens (inside The AMP)
You can read the entire article here. | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/so-close-you-can-taste-it-indianapolis-named-one-of-the-countrys-next-great-food-cities/ | 2022-04-14T16:27:23 | 1 | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/so-close-you-can-taste-it-indianapolis-named-one-of-the-countrys-next-great-food-cities/ |
INDIANAPOLIS — Katy Mann of Indy with Kids fills us in on free Easter egg hunts in central Indiana this weekend, plus she shares creative ideas for spicing up your egg hunt at home.
Free events include:
- Noblesville First Easter Eggs-travaganza at Teter Organic Farm, Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Spring Fling Egg Hunt at Lawrence Community Park, Saturday at 10 a.m. (advance registration is required)
- Indy Eleven Zeke’s Halftime Egg Hunt, Saturday (must have a ticket to the 7 p.m. game; advance registration required for the egg hunt)
- Indiana Comic Convention Easter Egg Hunt, Sunday beginning at 3 p.m. (ticket to the event required; children 10 and younger get in free with the purchase of an adult ticket)
- Eggstravaganza Easter Trunk or Treat at Indianapolis Baptist Temple, Saturday at 1 p.m.
Find the complete list on the Indy with Kids website, plus Mann’s fun ideas for putting together an Easter egg hunt at home. | https://fox59.com/indy-now/indy-easter-egg-hunts-free/ | 2022-04-14T16:27:29 | 1 | https://fox59.com/indy-now/indy-easter-egg-hunts-free/ |
This segment has been paid for by Lifestyle Group
The Lifestyle group gave one client the bathroom of their dreams. In the project, they gave the master bath a facelift.
While nothing moved in the bathroom, they were able to upgrade it to modern amenities and knit it together to turn into something nice for the client.
The bathroom has all of the details one would want, including steam shower functionality, a freestanding tub and a modern design.
In this project, like all projects the group works on, they walk the clients through the process and provide context around the pricing.
If you are interested in having Lifestyle Group help you out with your next project, visit their website at www.lifestylegroup.com | https://fox59.com/indy-now/lifestyle-group-shows-off-westfield-renovation/ | 2022-04-14T16:27:35 | 0 | https://fox59.com/indy-now/lifestyle-group-shows-off-westfield-renovation/ |
INDIANAPOLIS – Becky the Bakester has some great DIY marshmallow egg kits for Easter!
You can use the promo code “Easter” for 10% off at beckthebakester.com!
Let’s get social: follow your friends at Indy Now
Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes fun, the latest on what’s happening in central Indiana, information about the local businesses featured on the show, and much more. | https://fox59.com/indy-now/perfect-easter-diy-marshmallow-egg-kits/ | 2022-04-14T16:27:41 | 0 | https://fox59.com/indy-now/perfect-easter-diy-marshmallow-egg-kits/ |
MORGAN COUNTY, Ind. — The Morgan County Emergency Medical Services is in mourning after director Keenan Blair died Wednesday.
The Morgan County EMS said crews with EMS, Fire, and Police responded to the area of South Ohio Street just before 7 pm Wednesday on a report of a person down.
On Thursday, Morgan County EMS announced the death of EMS director Keenan Blair. While details have not been released, the Johnson County Coroner’s Office took over the death investigation. They hope this will limit the impact of the event on those who worked closely with Blair.
Funeral arrangements for Blair are pending. We will provide that information when it becomes available. | https://fox59.com/news/morgan-county-ems-director-dies-after-being-found-unresponsive/ | 2022-04-14T16:27:47 | 1 | https://fox59.com/news/morgan-county-ems-director-dies-after-being-found-unresponsive/ |
(NEXSTAR) – Potentially-contaminated popcorn that hit grocery store shelves in a number of U.S. states is now under recall, the Food and Drug Administration warns.
Snak King Corporation issued the voluntary recall after discovering that certain five-ounce packages of O Organics Sea Salt Organic Popcorn may have an undeclared milk allergen.
The recalled items were sold in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington DC, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Idaho.
Popcorn bags, which all have the “best by” dates of 9/24/2022 – 9/25/2022, landed on shelves in ACME, Safeway, King’s, Balducci’s, Jewel-Osco, Andronico’s Community Markets, Vons, Pak ‘N Save, Albertsons, Eagle, Carrs-Safeway, Haggen and Pavilions locations.
The UPC number for the recalled items is 079893 403038.
While a milk allergen may be seriously harmful and even life-threatening for people who are allergic, as of Tuesday there were no reports of illness.
Anyone who bought a now-recalled O Organics bag of popcorn is urged not to eat it, and to return it to the store where it was purchased for a full refund.
Consumers can call the company with any questions at (626) 363-7711. | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/popcorn-sold-in-more-than-a-dozen-states-recalled-over-allergen-concerns/ | 2022-04-14T16:27:53 | 1 | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/popcorn-sold-in-more-than-a-dozen-states-recalled-over-allergen-concerns/ |
ABINGTON, Pa. -- "I was doing hair at the age of 17," said Myisha Stratton. "And when I opened the salon, I had clients come to me that had cancer."
Stratton, whose passion for hair dates back to her early childhood, opened her own salon called, "D.D. Daughters Lace Wig Beautique." The hair stylist found a new purpose through her clipping career.
"I was helping them feel comfortable with their hair loss," she said. "We would shave their hair off. We would give them the same look that they had."
Stratton used wig-styling to create natural looks for women, which were particularly valuable for those undergoing chemotherapy.
"You really do feel good if you look good," she said. "And that's the whole key."
Stratton would soon come to learn that first-hand.
"At the age of, like, 20, I had spots of alopecia. And then I got diagnosed with breast cancer at 35," she said. "So, those same clients helped me feel comfortable."
One client provided Stratton with a chemotherapy care package. The box included different kinds of healthcare products to address all the bodily changes that come with such cancer treatment.
"It helped me so much," she said. "So, ever since I have been in remission, I give out boxes to women patients at Fox Chase Cancer Center."
Stratton also occasionally creates boxes for male patients. Each comes packed with the unique gift of a free wig voucher.
During her first round of donations last year, Stratton collected enough funds to provide 50 boxes to those who received similar diagnoses.
"A cure for breast cancer may be far away," said Myisha Stratton. "But in the meantime, I just want to make people feel good, look good."
Breast cancer survivor, salon owner donates wigs to women
By Matteo Iadonisi | https://abc7ny.com/breast-cancer-survivor-women-health/11734648/ | 2022-04-14T16:27:55 | 1 | https://abc7ny.com/breast-cancer-survivor-women-health/11734648/ |
(NEXSTAR) – Toyota is issuing a safety recall to address a software glitch affecting approximately 460,000 Toyota and Lexus vehicles.
Toyota says the problem concerns the cars’ Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) systems, a feature designed to help drivers “maintain vehicle control under adverse conditions,” according to the automaker’s website. Toyota says the VSC systems of the recalled vehicles may be experiencing an “error” that prevents the feature from automatically enabling in certain situations.
The voluntary recall notice, issued Wednesday, names 10 different models of Toyota and Lexus vehicles: Toyota Venza, Mirai, RAV4 Hybrid, RAV4 Prime, Sienna HV and Highlander HV models, and Lexus LS500h, LX600, NX350h and NX450h+ models.
“Owners of involved vehicles will be notified by the middle of June 2022,” Toyota says.
The fix will be provided free of charge at Toyota and Lexus dealers, the automaker added.
Customers can check with Toyota of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to see if their vehicles are affected.
Also on Wednesday, Toyota issued a recall for 4,000 additional 2022 Lexus NX vehicles (both HEV and PHEV) for potentially “incorrect welding” at the site of the front shock absorbers and the body panels.
“Incorrect welding could eventually cause a shock absorber to separate from the mounting area, resulting in a loss of driving stability and increasing the risk of a crash,” Toyota writes.
Owners will be notified by mid-June once a remedy is developed. | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/toyota-recalls-460000-vehicles-over-stability-control-issue/ | 2022-04-14T16:27:59 | 1 | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/toyota-recalls-460000-vehicles-over-stability-control-issue/ |
INDIANAPOLIS – After a rainy & stormy Wednesday, we have bounced back with the sunshine, not so much with the temperatures. The rest of the week will be quiet, but cooler.
Windy conditions for Thursday
A Wind Advisory has been issued for areas along and north of I-70 from 12 PM-8 PM. Winds could gust up to 40-50 mph this afternoon. You’ll want to take in or tie down any loose objects you have outside. Make sure to take in your trash cans too. Power outages could be possible.
The rest of your Thursday will feature plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the 50s and 60s. Overnight lows will drop into the 40s.
Wrapping up the workweek
Friday will be very seasonal. Temperatures will top off in the middle 60s. A few showers cannot be ruled out during the day, so keep the rain gear handy.
Indy weekend forecast
The holiday weekend will be cool, but dry. Both days will have a mix of sun and clouds with temperatures during the day in the 50s.
Freezing temperatures expected, protect your plants
Easter morning and again Tuesday morning temperatures will drop at or below freezing. With flowers and trees already in bloom, this could damage plants and gardens if they are not covered.
Easter forecast
It won’t be the coolest or warmest Easter on record, but it will be nice! Temperatures will be in the 50s with a mix of sun and clouds. No rain or snow is expected! | https://fox59.com/weather/windy-cooler-end-to-the-week-cool-easter-weekend/ | 2022-04-14T16:28:05 | 1 | https://fox59.com/weather/windy-cooler-end-to-the-week-cool-easter-weekend/ |
Local candidates for commissioner, Superior Court I and sheriff will participate in a candidate forum Monday.
The forum, put on by the Greater Kokomo Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters and Kokomo Tribune, will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at Indiana University Kokomo's Kresge Auditorium.
The event is free and open to the public. The forum will last from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., followed by a 30-minute meet and greet with the candidates.
These forums provide an opportunity to hear directly from candidates running for local office in this year's May 3 primary.
Candidates expected to attend are Jerry Asher and Harold Vincent, Republican candidates for sheriff; Jeff Lipinski and Leonard Baxter, Republican candidates for Howard County Commissioner District 1; Blake Dahl and Matthew Elkin, Republican candidates for Superior Court I judgeship, and Lisa Washington, Democratic candidate for Commissioner District 1. | https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/local_news/local-candidate-forum-to-be-held-monday-at-iuk/article_80a39410-bc00-11ec-a631-2b1b3ec4c909.html | 2022-04-14T16:28:37 | 1 | https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/local_news/local-candidate-forum-to-be-held-monday-at-iuk/article_80a39410-bc00-11ec-a631-2b1b3ec4c909.html |
A man found guilty of battering a public safety official in Miami County after insisting he represent himself at trial now says the judge should have barred him from doing so.
Sanchez Stephens was charged with the Level 5 felony in May 2020. During the first pretrial hearing in January 2021, he told Miami Superior Court Judge David Grund he didn’t want a lawyer and would represent himself.
Stephens told Grund that he had an associate degree in criminal justice and said, “I know my rights, man, I know what I’m doing, thank you,” according to court records.
As the trial approached, prosecutors told the judge they had concerns about Stephens’ ability to represent himself in trial. They said Stephens “seemed to be unaware of some basic procedural things” during depositions and “appeared to be talking to himself in conversations back and forth.”
In another hearing, prosecutors told Grund that Stephens was having “full conversations with himself” between depositions and had concerns about his competency to stand trial, let alone his competency to represent himself.
Grund gave Stephens time to hire an attorney, but after he failed to do so, appointed a public defender to serve as standby council during trial.
During a final hearing, Grund told Stephens he had serious concerns about his ability to represent himself. Even so, Stephens repeatedly insisted under oath that he wished to represent himself at trial.
A one-day jury trail ensued in which Stephens was found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison.
The next month, Stephens appealed his conviction, arguing Grund violated his Sixth Amendment rights when he allowed Stephens to waive his right to counsel and represent himself.
The appeals court cited a previous ruling that says a court may deny a defendant’s request to represent themselves if the defendant is mentally competent to stand trial but suffers from severe mental illness to the point where they are not competent to conduct trial proceedings.
However, the appeals court said that over the course of eight pretrial hearings, Stephens consistently maintained his ability and desire to represent himself. Furthermore, the court said, the record reveals no indication that Stephens suffered from a severe mental illness that made him incompetent to represent himself.
“While he may have lacked some legal knowledge and skills, that is not sufficient evidence of a severe mental illness rendering him incompetent to represent himself,” the court said. | https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/man-says-miami-county-judge-shouldnt-have-let-him-represent-himself/article_abb53106-bb5e-11ec-ad42-9f308aa750bc.html | 2022-04-14T16:28:44 | 0 | https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/man-says-miami-county-judge-shouldnt-have-let-him-represent-himself/article_abb53106-bb5e-11ec-ad42-9f308aa750bc.html |
Howard County
Arrests
Tuesday, 12:50 a.m., deputies arrested Heather N. Harris, 42, Peru, in the area of Reed Road and Sycamore Street, on a charge of driving while suspended with a prior suspension, a misdemeanor.
Tuesday, 10:38 a.m., deputies arrested Melissa Faye Hancock, 49, 900 block of East Walnut Street, at the Howard County Courthouse, on a warrant for failure to appear.
Tuesday, 1:37 p.m., deputies arrested Jerry Leroy McKinney, 33, 900 block of West Jackson Street, in the 3000 block of Vinton Circle, on a warrant for failure to appear and a warrant for petition to revoke.
Tuesday, 1:48 p.m., deputies arrested Robert Graybeal, 49, Tipton, in the area of Park and Markland avenues, on a charge of possession of methamphetamine, a Level 6 felony.
Tuesday, 2:50 p.m., deputies arrested Amanda Marie Wallace, 31, 1000 block of South Leeds Street, in the area of Park and Markland avenues, on a charge of operating without ever obtaining a license, a misdemeanor.
Tuesday, 3:31 p.m., deputies arrested Modesty A. Hinton, 27, 100 block of Rainbow Circle, at the Howard County Jail, on a warrant for domestic battery with bodily injury on a person under 14.
Tuesday, 5 p.m., deputies arrested Levi Michael Moon, 34, unknown address, at the HCJ, on a warrant for non-compliance and a warrant for violation of work release.
Tuesday, 8:23 p.m., deputies arrested Steven Andrew McElroy, 35, Russiaville, in the area of 400 South and Timber Valley Drive, on charges of leaving the scene of a property damage crash, reckless driving, resisting law enforcement, driving while suspended with a prior suspension, operating while intoxicated-endangerment and criminal mischief, all misdemeanors.
Wednesday, 4:15 p.m., officers arrested Antoinitte Ewing, 33, 2800 block of South Reed Road, at the same location, on a warrant for neglect of a dependent.
Wednesday, 11:32 p.m., officers arrested Anthony Harden, 63, 900 block of Rainbow Drive, in the area of Harrison and Washington streets, on charges of possession of methamphetamine, a Level 6 felony, and operating without ever obtaining a license, a misdemeanor.
Thursday, 12:48 a.m., officers arrested Indranil Rahatekar, 31, 2800 block of Heritage Drive, in the area of Berkley Road and Monroe Street, on charges of operating while intoxicated and operating while intoxicated-endangerment, both misdemeanors.
Miami County
Arrests
Monday, 10:35 a.m., deputies arrested Michael Parrish, 45, Pendleton Correctional Facility, on a court order.
Monday, 10:40 a.m., deputies arrested Ronald Krieg, 41, Bunker Hill, on a court order.
Monday, 11 a.m., deputies arrested Randy Warner, 27, 200 block of Cherokee Court, Peru, on a warrant for violation of probation.
Monday, 5:41 p.m., officers arrested Gabriel Tressel, 19, 70 block of East Franklin Street, Peru, on an unknown charge.
Monday, 6:20 p.m., officers arrested Cody Oaks, 29, 300 block of East Sixth Street, Peru, on a Dekalb County warrant.
Monday, 9:11 p.m., officers arrested Travis Kelley, 42, 1900 block of George Avenue, Peru, on charges of being a habitual traffic violator and resisting law enforcement.
Tuesday, 11:04 a.m., deputies arrested Tyrone Rucker, 27, 100 block of West Riverside Drive, Peru, on an unknown charge.
Tuesday, 4:37 p.m., officers arrested Randall Johns, 55, Bunker Hill, on an unknown charge. | https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/police-reports-april-14-2022/article_fe41ea86-bbf9-11ec-b855-3facb1651732.html | 2022-04-14T16:28:50 | 1 | https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/police-reports-april-14-2022/article_fe41ea86-bbf9-11ec-b855-3facb1651732.html |
SEATTLE — Now a licensed clinician and recovery advocate, Marcos Sauri embarked on his own recovery journey years ago. On the other side of addiction, Sauri is driven to help everyone he can find hope for their own futures.
"I was a heroin addict, and at a young age I knew I had a problem and I had an opportunity to be given a second chance," Sauri said. "Not by my choice, but I ended up at a place where they gave me the help and I never left. I volunteered, they sent me to school, it wasn't my choice that I wanted to be in the business, in the field, but's how I ended up here."
Sauri said most people don't understand that it's not always as easy as waking up and choosing to stop using.
"It's not an overnight thing. You end up there, you don't want to be there, but you don't know how to stop it," Sauri said. "The turning point was to see my first-born and mother suffering."
He said reducing stigma is key and believes a change in societal perspectives is necessary and coming.
"As a society, we didn't use to really care about recycling," Sauri said. "Now, it's a norm... we can go talk about prohibition, alcohol, whatever it was at the turn of the century, birth control, viewpoints change, and this one needs to change too. There's so much stigma and misunderstanding and misconceptions of what addiction is."
This week, the Washington Department of Health (DOH) released new provisional data showing drug-related overdose deaths surpassed 2,000 in 2021, which the department says was a more than 66% increase compared to 2019. It says overdose deaths increased across all demographics, with a majority of people dying tending to be male and age 45 or younger. The DOH says the increase is fastest growing among Black, Latin and Native American/Alaskan Native people.
Nonprofit "Not One More" Seattle unites community members impacted in one way or another by substance abuse, addiction or loss. They, too, echo Sauri's desire to change societal perceptions, encouraging more education on harm reduction and pointing to the need for more resources, including treatment beds.
Watch their full interview here:
While they hold many events in the community, they sometimes have trouble attracting attendees.
"Because everyone is so ashamed of having an addict in their family, nobody shows up, or they think it's not going to happen to them. So, in a school of 1,000 students we were lucky to have parents, maybe 25 to be honest with you," said Kelli Vogel. "I get it. I was there one time. But if we don't start talking about it, nothing's going to get done."
They encourage people to get involved to find support and work toward change.
"What they have to gain is to know they're not alone and to talk about it because when you're a parent who's faced, in my situation, my son came to me and said, 'I'm withdrawing from heroin,' and I had no idea he was even using," Kim Chilcott said. "And I didn't know what to do, and I took him to Swedish downtown to the ER. He went to detox and rehab in Yakima, but then 21 days later they say, 'you've graduated, you're all good.' No. It's not that simple. It takes years."
The DOH encourages people to consider carrying naloxone to help prevent deaths from opioid overdose.
"To access naloxone at a pharmacy, call ahead to make sure they have it in stock and show this standing order to the pharmacist, which is a prescription for everyone in the state to use. Use this link to find naloxone near you," the DOH said in a statement. | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/amid-rise-in-drug-overdose-deaths-advocates-share-desires-to-reduce-stigma/281-d247c3f4-651d-429f-8a86-79ff5626dcef | 2022-04-14T16:36:01 | 0 | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/amid-rise-in-drug-overdose-deaths-advocates-share-desires-to-reduce-stigma/281-d247c3f4-651d-429f-8a86-79ff5626dcef |
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic content.
On April 8, a missile hit a train station in Kramatorsk, a city in eastern Ukraine, killing more than 50 people and wounding dozens more. There were thousands of people near the station, mostly women and children trying to flee Ukraine, when the missile hit.
Since the bombing, Russian media outlets falsely claimed missiles that were recovered near the train station belonged to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Those claims persisted a week later. On April 12, a video that appeared to have BBC News branding circulated across Twitter and pro-Russian channels on messaging app Telegram. The video appears to show BBC News reporting that Ukraine attacked one of its own train stations.
THE QUESTION
Did BBC News air a video claiming Ukraine bombed one of its own train stations?
THE SOURCES
- BBC News
- Joe Inwood, a producer for BBC News
- Analysis of verified BBC News social media channels
THE ANSWER
No, BBC News did not air a video claiming Ukraine bombed one of its own train stations. The viral video is doctored and has since been removed from most social media platforms.
WHAT WE FOUND
The viral video appearing to be from BBC News shows footage from the April 8 attack on the train station in Kramatorsk. The video contains the BBC News logo and branding elements similar to what is used by the news organization on its vertical videos that it posts on Facebook and Twitter.
On April 13, BBC News issued a statement on social media that the video was a fake. The BBC News Press Team said that the video was manipulated to appear as if it came from its news site.
“We are aware of a fake video with BBC News branding suggesting Ukraine was responsible for last week’s missile attack on Kramatorsk train station. The BBC is taking action to have the video removed. We urge people not to share it and to check stories on the BBC News website,” the BBC News press team tweeted.
VERIFY analyzed the Facebook and Twitter accounts for BBC News and did not find this video posted to these accounts. VERIFY also did not find a news report matching the fake video clip on the BBC News website.
BBC News producer Joe Inwood also tweeted that the videos were not from BBC News. In response to a tweet showing the purported BBC News clip, Inwood wrote: “As the BBC producer covering the story, I can confirm the video IS A FAKE. They do appear to have gotten hold of our branding, however, so I’m worried we will see more of these.”
Starting 44 seconds into the clip, the doctored video's English captions read: “Military experts stressed that Ukraine has often started using fake news to promote its position. Earlier, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy complained that he was asked for proof of the Russian army’s involvement in ‘The Bucha Massacre’. The strike on the train station killed 50 people. Ukraine blamed Russia for the attack.”
BBC News spells Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s name with only one Y, while the fake BBC News report used two Ys in the last name. The grammar and punctuation is also inconsistent with BBC News reporting from Ukraine.
VERIFY analyzed the fake video and compared it to actual BBC News video reports.
Vertical videos are typically published to meet standard size, just like horizontal videos are produced to fill a widescreen television. This sizing is measured by an aspect ratio, or the ratio of the width to the height of the video. Vertical videos are typically produced with a 9:16 aspect ratio. The doctored video is inconsistent with typical aspect ratio standards used in BBC News vertical videos.
So, we can VERIFY the report did not come from BBC News.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/world-verify/ukraine-verify/bbc-didnt-air-a-video-claiming-ukraine-bombed-train-station/536-60588bac-dc4b-4cdf-919f-c0f382130e8d | 2022-04-14T16:36:07 | 0 | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/world-verify/ukraine-verify/bbc-didnt-air-a-video-claiming-ukraine-bombed-train-station/536-60588bac-dc4b-4cdf-919f-c0f382130e8d |
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.
“I want to say goodbye and thank you to the sport and people who have helped shape me the only way I know how—with one last run. 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.”
Felix said her record-setting career has grown far beyond her early expectations — but that it has taken a lot from her.
"As a little girl they called chicken legs, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I’d have a career like this," she wrote. "I have so much gratitude for this sport that has changed my life. I have given everything I have to running and for the first time I’m not sure if I have anything left to give."
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 4x400 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.”
Val Lick contributed to this report. | https://www.kgw.com/article/sports/olympics/allyson-felix-retiring/507-39f31617-ee9f-4bc4-91bb-8128e317486e | 2022-04-14T16:36:13 | 0 | https://www.kgw.com/article/sports/olympics/allyson-felix-retiring/507-39f31617-ee9f-4bc4-91bb-8128e317486e |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — USS The Sullivans is slowly going underwater.
The Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park is temporarily closing off the museum and all ships to the public on Thursday as fire and DPW crews work at the scene.
A statement from Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown further explained what was happening:
“This morning, the USS The Sullivans took on water and is partially sinking due to a major hull breach. Efforts are underway to evaluate the situation and take appropriate action to preserve this critical piece of our nation’s naval heritage. The Department of Public Works and the Buffalo Fire Department are on site and coordinating with the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Servicemen’s Park staff to determine the next course of action.”
Naval Park President Paul Marzello says it’s a tough day for veterans and the park itself.
“It’s a tough day for anybody who has put their time effort sweat into making sure that this park can sustain operations and keep and preserve these ships for another generation,” Marzello said. “We are confident that we are going to be able to correct the situation. It doesn’t look very good. But we are going to be back on this as soon as we can find out what is the cause.”
Marzello says some sort of incident took place Wednesday night, and it’s not clear if it was a seam split or a puncture. But his confidence remains.
“There is no chance that the ship actually going to sink,” Marzello says.
It’s been just over 79 years since USS The Sullivans was launched. In recent years, it’s desperately been in need of repairs to keep it from taking on more water. Earlier this month, Congressman Brian Higgins made an announcement about $490,000 in federal funding that had been awarded to the Naval Park.
Saving The Sullivans has been an ongoing effort, with support coming from multiple sources, including at least 25 states and seven countries. After the Naval Park raised $1 million to keep it shipshape, another fundraiser took place last month at Seneca One Tower.
Work to fix the ship started in August but stopped two months later. The plan was to continue the work this Monday.
Named for the five Sullivan brothers who were killed in World War II, Higgins calls USS The Sullivans “a critical piece of our maritime history that deserves to be preserved long into the future.”
“As the decommissioned ship shows its age, this funding will ensure that necessary repairs can be completed so it can continue to be toured and enjoyed by veterans, visitors, and community members for many years to come,” Higgins said of the previously announced federal funding.
USS The Sullivans was commissioned in 1943 and later decommissioned in 1965. Earning 11 battle stars over more than two decades, the ship was used in World War II, the Korean War and the Cuban Missle Crisis.
Today, it sits at the Buffalo Waterfront. Anyone looking to help keep the ship above water can make a donation here.
Evan Anstey is an Associated Press Award and Emmy-nominated digital producer who has been part of the News 4 team since 2015. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter. | https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/buffalo-naval-park-looking-into-situation-with-uss-the-sullivans/ | 2022-04-14T16:36:16 | 1 | https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/buffalo-naval-park-looking-into-situation-with-uss-the-sullivans/ |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Buffalo’s Italian Heritage Festival is coming back this year after the COVID-19 pandemic kept it from happening in 2021.
It’s not clear where, and it’s not known when, but News 4 has confirmed it’s happening. Typically, the festival takes place in July, but festival organizers won’t announce specific details until next week.
News 4 will provide more information when it becomes available.
Latest Posts
Evan Anstey is an Associated Press Award and Emmy-nominated digital producer who has been part of the News 4 team since 2015. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter. | https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/italian-festival-returning-to-buffalo-this-year/ | 2022-04-14T16:36:22 | 0 | https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/italian-festival-returning-to-buffalo-this-year/ |
New Mexico State Police is investigating the deaths of two people in the village of Ruidoso whose home burned as residents were evacuating the area due to a wind-driven wildfire.
Local firefighters responded to the home fire around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, state police said in a news issued release late Wednesday night. Ruidoso police later learned an elderly couple had attempted to evacuate because of the McBride Fire, but family members lost contact with the couple.
The blaze, one of several burning in the state, ignited Tuesday and so far has burned more than 5,000 acres and has destroyed scores of structures.
Ruidoso police detectives and state police investigators, working with the Bonita Volunteer Fire Department, found the remains of two people at the burned home on Gavilan Canyon Road on Wednesday.
State police is working with the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator to identify the victims, the news release said.
The State Fire Marshal's Office, the village of Ruidoso and the U.S. Forest Service are participating in the investigation into the deaths.
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As city officials entered the second day of budget hearings Wednesday, union leaders questioned a proposal to create a mortgage fund for public safety personnel, arguing the money also should be extended to other city workers.
The $750,000 fund was unveiled Monday as part of the city’s proposed $382 million 2023 fiscal year budget and is intended to help police officers, firefighters and EMTs place down payments on local homes. But American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3999 Vice President Gil Martinez said he felt the fund created an inequity.
“I understand where they are coming from, but some of those incentives, AFSCME would like to be included in as well,” Martinez said Wednesday.
Martinez said the union appreciated the proposed 8 percent salary bump offered to AFSCME members. But he said the raise offered to the Santa Fe Police Officers Association, which could reach 16 percent, caught the union’s attention, as did the public safety mortgage assistance program.
The local chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters also is receiving a prospective 8 percent raise, but Martinez noted the firefighters union will have access to the mortgage fund as well.
The final distribution of the raises will have to be collectively bargained by the unions.
Union leaders voiced their frustration with the budget layout during the first day of the city’s Finance Committee budget hearing Tuesday. The introduction of the budget was the first leg in months’ worth of hearings that will wrap up at the April 27 City Council meeting.
“It was difficult not to notice the disparity of all the budgetary appropriations for all the employee unions,” Therese Martinez, chairwoman of the union’s labor management committee, said during the meeting.
According to a budget summary, the fund will kick off a pilot project that will then be vetted and studied after implementation.
In a Monday interview, Mayor Alan Webber said the fund was intended to help ensure more public safety personnel lived and worked in Santa Fe, which is in the throes of a housing crisis that is pushing many workers in both the public and private sectors to other communities, including Rio Rancho, Albuquerque and Española.
But Martinez countered the majority of city employees who aren’t in public safety also live outside Santa Fe’s boundaries and would benefit from the assistance as well.
“These essential people have to be as close to Santa Fe as well,” he said. “It’s not just the police.”
City Manager John Blair was in budget hearings Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. But in a statement he said, “We fundamentally believe that public safety is a very high priority for the community right now so we’re doing all we can to attract the very best men and women to serve in the Santa Fe Police Department.
“Offering mortgage assistance to public safety staff, including police officers and firefighters, so they can afford to live in the city is an important piece of this plan and one that will enhance the overall safety of our community,” Blair said. “At the same time, we’re excited to recommend the equivalent of an 8 percent increase for all other city employees and to engage with AFSCME on negotiations regarding what best meets their needs in accordance with the allocated budget and labor laws.”
The city is working toward completing a class and compensation study by December in the hopes of ironing out any salary inequities within city government.
City Councilor Chris Rivera, a former city fire chief, said he believes the fund should be extended to all city employees and expects the topic to be discussed later during budget hearings.
He said “public safety” could also define those who work in sanitation, public utilities and other positions.
“There are essential employees that cover all bases,” he said. “They are just as important to the system as everyone else.”
Rivera said there are some things about the budget he liked, but he was concerned about the proposed pay raises for city police and how they compare to other employees.
“You will never see the fire union say anything about it; it is just a common courtesy thing, but it is something that is of concern to me,” he said. “Not just for morale, but for retention of employees in all other areas.”
City Councilor Renee Villarreal, who serves on the Finance Committee, wrote other committee members Monday that she shared the union’s concerns while asking for additional information from Local 3999’s brass.
“I don’t want to sound like we are ungrateful for them offering the 8 percent raise,” Martinez said. “But our concern is AFSCME is always left behind compared to everyone else. We are the backbone of the city, and we are the ones who are left holding the bag all the time.” | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/union-offer-mortgage-help-to-all-city-workers/article_92ada9ee-bb5f-11ec-bbca-031cd0b1ae14.html | 2022-04-14T16:39:51 | 1 | https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/union-offer-mortgage-help-to-all-city-workers/article_92ada9ee-bb5f-11ec-bbca-031cd0b1ae14.html |
Gray Television, Inc. Advertising Non-Discrimination Certification
Published: Feb. 14, 2020 at 9:34 AM CST|Updated: 34 minutes ago
Stations licensed to Gray Television do not discriminate in the sale of advertising time, and will accept no advertising which is placed with intent to discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity.
The parties to an agreement for the sale of advertising time on a station licensed to Gray Television affirm that nothing in that agreement will discriminate in any way on the basis of race or ethnicity. | https://www.kttc.com/2020/02/14/gray-television-inc-advertising-non-discrimination-certification/ | 2022-04-14T16:43:12 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/2020/02/14/gray-television-inc-advertising-non-discrimination-certification/ |
DNC officials approve plan to change states for first presidential primaries
(CNN) - Democratic Party officials approved a plan Wednesday that could shake up the presidential primary calendar.
The big unknown is which states will get to hold their primaries first in 2024.
The Democratic National Committee’s new plan does away with the current, traditional set of early states: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
The updated process would prioritize more diverse battleground states that hold primaries, not caucuses.
States would apply for early primaries, and party officials would pick up to five to go before Super Tuesday.
Those four traditional early states can apply to keep their places.
However, Iowa’s spot would be especially threatened, in part because the largely white state is no longer a battleground.
Also, it is required by state law to hold caucuses.
State parties must submit applications by June 3.
The rules committee will decide in July, and final approval is in August or September.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/dnc-officials-approve-plan-change-states-first-presidential-primaries/ | 2022-04-14T16:43:22 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/dnc-officials-approve-plan-change-states-first-presidential-primaries/ |
E-cigs using synthetic nicotine come under FDA oversight
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators will soon begin cracking down on vaping companies using a now-closed loophole, including a line of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes that have become teenagers’ top choice.
Under a law taking effect Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration can regulate e-cigarettes and similar products that use synthetic nicotine.
The action targets Puff Bar and several other vaping companies that recently switched their formulas to laboratory-made nicotine to skirt FDA oversight.
The change “allows FDA to protect the public health from the harms of tobacco products, regardless of the source of nicotine,” the agency said in a statement Wednesday. Companies must register with the FDA and submit their products for review within 30 days.
Puff Bar did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The FDA’s action does not automatically ban Puff Bar and similar products. Instead it brings them under the same regulatory scheme as older e-cigarettes that derived their nicotine from tobacco.
“The synthetic nicotine products do not necessarily just disappear on their own,” Robin Koval, chief executive of the Truth Initiative, an advocacy group that runs anti-tobacco ads. “The FDA will have to decide how they want to enforce the law and hopefully they will.”
The FDA has been reviewing applications for an array of vaping devices, formulas and flavors — rejecting more than 1 million, usually because of their potential appeal to youngsters. Anti-tobacco advocates hope the agency will quickly do the same for any applications submitted by Puff Bar and other manufacturers.
Nicotine, the chemical the makes smoking and vaping addictive, occurs naturally in tobacco plants.
The 2009 law that first gave the FDA oversight of cigarettes and related products only referred to tobacco-based nicotine. That left an opening for artificial nicotine, which is being used in e-cigarette liquids, nicotine pouches and other products.
Last month, Congress passed language clarifying that the FDA can regulate any form of nicotine, regardless of the source.
After appearing in 2019, Puff Bar has grown to become the most popular e-cigarette among teenagers, by far, sold in flavors like blueberry, strawberry banana and mango. Under FDA pressure, the company said it was halting sales in 2020, pulling its disposable vaping devices out of convenience stores, gas stations and vape shops.
Last February, the company announced a “fresh launch” of its colorful devices using synthetic nicotine. In marketing language, the company said its products “do not contain tobacco or anything derived from tobacco.” That put Puff Bar in a legal gray area, because federal, state and local restrictions nearly always apply to tobacco-based products, not nicotine itself.
Stanford researchers last year found synthetic nicotine products for sale via online platforms that prohibit tobacco sales, such as Amazon, eBay and Target. Under the new law, synthetic nicotine will be subject to the same federal age limit and sales restrictions as other tobacco products.
Using synthetic nicotine is not a new idea. Tobacco companies experimented with chemically derived nicotine as early as the 1960s, but deemed it too expensive for mass production. Manufacturing advances in recent years finally made it a viable alternative to tobacco-derived nicotine.
A large government survey last year showed Puff Bar had leapfrogged over better-known brands to become the top choice among high schoolers who vape. Juul — which is widely blamed for initially sparking the teen vaping trend — was the fourth most popular brand.
In 2020, the FDA restricted flavors in cartridge-based e-cigarettes like Juul to just menthol and tobacco, which are generally preferred by adults. But the flavor ban didn’t apply to disposable e-cigarettes like Puff Bar and other types of vaping devices.
Anti-tobacco groups worry that the FDA is always one or two steps behind whichever products are making inroads among kids.
“The lesson we can all take away from this is that when the FDA’s actions are incomplete and happen after the fact — which has often been the case with e-cigarettes — you will always be playing whack-a-mole and catch-up,” said Koval.
___
Follow Matthew Perrone on Twitter: @AP_FDAwriter
___
The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/e-cigs-using-synthetic-nicotine-come-under-fda-oversight/ | 2022-04-14T16:43:29 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/e-cigs-using-synthetic-nicotine-come-under-fda-oversight/ |
Republican National Committee votes to withdraw from presidential debates group, reports say
Published: Apr. 14, 2022 at 11:31 AM CDT|Updated: 12 minutes ago
(Gray News) - The Republican National Committee voted Thursday to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates.
This is according to media reports that cited a statement from Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who called the group biased.
“Today the RNC voted to withdraw from the biased CPD, and we are going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people,” the news release said.
“To be clear, we are not walking away from debates. We are walking away from the CPD.”
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/republican-national-committee-votes-withdraw-presidential-debates-group-reports-say/ | 2022-04-14T16:43:35 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/republican-national-committee-votes-withdraw-presidential-debates-group-reports-say/ |
Teacher would rather be redeployed to Iraq than go back to the classroom
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC/Gray News) – As a sergeant in the U.S. Army, Justin Bullock has endured demanding training, strict military discipline and even enemy fire, but nothing could prepare him for the stress and violence he faced as a teacher at Liberty Hill Academy.
“I have a lot of trauma now,” Bullock told WCSC.
He was deployed to Iraq in 2009 and was preparing to begin training to become a drill sergeant to instruct new soldiers. He says his future is now in jeopardy after suffering multiple injuries at Liberty Hill.
“I doubt that I will probably step my foot back inside a school in general for a very long time. I am terrified ... I don’t want to get beaten anymore,” Bullock said. “I don’t want to get sexually harassed any more. I don’t want to fear for my life.”
Last month, Bullock attempted to break up a fight between two students and was punched in the head multiple times.
He continued working but the next day went to the hospital where they took a brain scan and determined that he had a neck strain and was recovering from a concussion.
“By that Saturday, I was having major anxiety just like rethinking everything because I was also beaten in the back of my head in February 2021 by a student,” Bullock said. “I was also sexually harassed by a student who was also putting his hands on me. It took the school two and a half months to get him out of my classroom.”
Bullock was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
His husband, Caleb Ferrell, says he doesn’t want Bullock to go back to work.
“Honestly, I get terrified sometimes. He wakes up at night and has a hard time sleeping. It’s honestly heartbreaking,” Ferrell said. “Sometimes I am afraid that he’s not going to come home after work.”
Liberty Hill Academy is an alternative school for special needs students and those with behavioral issues.
Teachers and staff are given extra training, and Bullock has even taught at alternative schools in other districts, but he says they are wholly unprepared to deal with some of these students.
“I definitely felt like the upper administration needs to reevaluate the situation,” Bullock said. “This has become a really dangerous situation, and we really need to make some changes before a real, true tragedy occurs.”
Bullock is one of multiple staff members at Liberty Hill who have been assaulted by students.
On March 31, two staff members were injured breaking up a fight.
In December, former employee Vera Gordon filed a lawsuit alleging constant abuse from 2016 until the time she left in 2020.
Gordon’s lawsuit describes female employees “being punched in their face by students, headbutted, drugged [sic] by their hair, having trash cans slammed over their head, knocked unconscious, subjected to frequent racial and sexual slurs.”
She said these factors generally led to a state of heightened anxiety and fear while at work.
In March alone, the North Charleston Police Department was called to the school 14 times. On Friday, the Charleston County School District confirmed another fight among students was broken up by a number of teachers.
Given the choice between the classroom and deployment, Bullock said he’d take deployment.
“Iraq a million times over,” Bullock said. “Because at least I know that my chain of command has my back.”
Next week, Bullock is meeting with his commanding officer to see if he is still mentally fit for military service.
Copyright 2022 WCSC via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/teacher-would-rather-be-redeployed-iraq-than-go-back-classroom/ | 2022-04-14T16:43:42 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/teacher-would-rather-be-redeployed-iraq-than-go-back-classroom/ |
WATCH: Dolphin attacks trainer during performance at Miami Seaquarium
Published: Apr. 14, 2022 at 10:09 AM CDT|Updated: 1 hours ago
(CNN) - A dolphin show took an unexpected turn at the Miami Seaquarium this weekend.
The incident was caught on camera Saturday during a show in front of families and young children.
One of the dolphins, named Sundance, attacked a trainer.
Photographer Shannon Carpenter was there with his family and captured the video.
A spokesperson for the Miami Seaquarium said that the trainer and the dolphin collided by accident. The dolphin apparently responded by striking the trainer.
The trainer was taken to the hospital but did not sustain any serious injuries.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/watch-dolphin-attacks-trainer-during-performance-miami-seaquarium/ | 2022-04-14T16:43:48 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/watch-dolphin-attacks-trainer-during-performance-miami-seaquarium/ |
WATCH: Puppy rescued from rubble in Ukraine
Published: Apr. 14, 2022 at 11:27 AM CDT|Updated: 16 minutes ago
(CNN) - The amazing rescue of a puppy from the rubble in eastern Ukraine was caught on camera.
The rescue took place in the village of Mykhailvka on Wednesday.
Video shows rescuers digging through a pile of rubble until they reach the puppy buried underneath. The dog was miraculously pulled out alive and reunited with its 77-year-old owner.
According to the National Police of Ukraine, the blast nearly killed the man.
Both the owner and the dog were given medical care. The police said, “All is well with them.”
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/watch-puppy-rescued-rubble-ukraine/ | 2022-04-14T16:43:55 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/watch-puppy-rescued-rubble-ukraine/ |
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — After three days of testimony the jury has reached a verdict in the death penalty case against Warren Hardy, a man accused of killing 72-year-old NASA retiree, Kathleen Lundy in August 2016.
The jury found Hardy guilty on all five charges:
- One count of capital murder in the commission of a robbery – guilty
- One count of first-degree kidnapping – guilty
- One count of first-degree kidnapping – guilty
- One count of first-degree domestic violence and aggravated stalking – guilty
- One count of discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle – guilty
Jurors spent about four hours deliberating on Wednesday and met for a short time Thursday morning before announcing their decision.
Hardy, who had been formerly employed as a bus driver through a company contracted with Huntsville City Schools, was facing the above charges from an incident that happened in 2016 – one that authorities referred to as a “crime spree.”
According to court documents, Hardy allegedly kidnapped his ex-girlfriend’s (Jessica Holtcamp) daughter and stepfather by holding them at gunpoint and forcing them to drive to another residence to look for Holtcamp.
This was just days after Holtcamp had filed a protection order against Hardy. Court records showed at this point, Hardy had not been officially served a notice of the order.
When Hardy found Holtcamp, he forced her into the car at gunpoint. That’s when her stepfather was able to drive away before Hardy could get back in the car with them.
Hardy began searching on foot for another vehicle and noticed Kathleen Lundy stepping out of her home as she was heading to a friendly gathering. According to court documents, Hardy approached her, demanded her car keys, shot her and then stole her car.
Lundy’s husband Rusty testified during the trial that he had been sitting in the living room with their 5-year-old granddaughter watching cartoons. Kathleen had been preparing food to take to a neighborhood gathering.
Rusty testified he saw Hardy coming up the driveway, grabbing her around the neck and pulling her. That’s when Rusty said he gave the keys to Hardy, who then shot his wife and pushed her into the house.
The audio of Rusty’s 911 call was played in court.
Hardy eventually caught up to the car Holtcamp and her family were in and fired shots into it, but the three were able to escape unharmed.
Hardy fled to Tennessee but was arrested in the state two days later.
The penalty phase is expected to start right away, where the jury will decide if Hardy should be sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole or given the death penalty.
Because the case happened in 2016 before the state abolished the rule of judicial override in 2017, the jury’s decision for or against the death penalty is a recommendation and Madison County Circuit Court Judge Chris Comer will have the final say on the issue. | https://www.cbs42.com/alabama-news/warren-hardy-found-guilty-in-death-penalty-case/ | 2022-04-14T16:48:19 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/alabama-news/warren-hardy-found-guilty-in-death-penalty-case/ |
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – An Ossian man is accused of using a sport-utility-vehicle to run over another man after a crash in the Waynedale area this past Sunday.
Allen County prosecutors formally charged 29-year-old Rodney A. Winters with a litany of felonies Thursday, including one count of aggravated battery which results in the loss or impairment of a victim’s bodily function.
Winters, driving a white SUV, first rear-ended a burgundy van at the intersection of Ideal Avenue and Lower Huntington Road, according to newly released Allen Superior Court documents.
When the driver of the van got out to check the damage, Winters is accused of backing up his vehicle and then driving forward, court documents said. He struck the driver of the van and pinned his body against the van, witnesses told Fort Wayne police in court documents.
Winters is accused of continuing to drive forward, dragging the man along the body of the van, according to court documents. The force then knocked the man over the hood of the van and to the ground.
Witnesses told police Winters sped away – running over the man’s legs in the process, court documents said.
The man suffered a fractured left tibia, according to court documents.
Some of those witnesses at the scene chased Winters and gave police information regarding the SUV he was driving. Police traced the car to Winters’ home in Ossian. Once there, they found the SUV with the license plate removed, according to court documents.
Police also brought a witness who identified Winters as the man who drove the SUV at the scene of the hit and run.
Along with the aggravated battery count, prosecutors also charged Winters with battery resulting in seriously bodily injury, battery by means of a deadly weapon, criminal recklessness committed with a deadly weapon, leaving the scene of an accident with moderate or serious bodily injury and obstruction of justice.
Winters was booked into Allen County Jail on $25,000 bond shortly after his arrest Sunday. | https://www.wane.com/news/crime/court-docs-man-struck-run-over-during-hit-and-run-in-waynedale/ | 2022-04-14T16:48:19 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/crime/court-docs-man-struck-run-over-during-hit-and-run-in-waynedale/ |
RISON, Ark. (KARK) – A 20-year-old Arkansas woman is dead after a tree fell on her home Wednesday as severe storms tore through Cleveland County, officials said.
According to the Cleveland County Department of Emergency Management, the woman was pinned to a couch under the tree, which had fallen onto a mobile home in Rison, which is about 55 miles south of Little Rock.
Crews attempted to rescue the woman around 4:45 p.m., but she died from her injuries at the scene. The woman’s name had not been released pending notification of relatives.
Two other people were inside the home but were not hurt. So far, there have been no other reports of injury from Wednesday’s storms.
The woman’s death occurred during what was part of a multi-day severe weather outbreak that caused tornadoes, powerful winds and huge hail in parts of the central United States.
Damage was reported in the Central and Northwest portions of Arkansas, with several tornado warnings issued on Wednesday.
A day earlier, 23 people were injured in the central Texas town of Salado. The National Weather Service in Fort Worth said Wednesday that the twister was rated an EF3 with peak wind speeds of 165 mph (265 kph).
Tornadoes were also reported Tuesday in parts of Iowa and Minnesota. And a blizzard struck North Dakota this week, closing the state Capitol, schools, government offices and interstates.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/20-year-old-woman-killed-when-tree-falls-on-home-during-arkansas-storms/ | 2022-04-14T16:48:25 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/20-year-old-woman-killed-when-tree-falls-on-home-during-arkansas-storms/ |
WARNING: The following story contains some graphic content that might not be suitable for all readers
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – He defended the honor of his fiancé.
The problem is, he’s accused of using a gun while doing so.
And that landed him in jail.
Allen County prosecutors on Thursday formally charged 27-year-old Jonnie P. Faust with a felony count of criminal recklessness in connection to a night he’s accused of running a man off his Grabill property while firing a gun.
Allen County police were called to the home this past Saturday about about 7:30 p.m.
There, Faust said he was in the home with several people he knew, including his fiancé, and one man he did not know. Faust told police in Allen Superior Court documents the group had been drinking.
At one point, the man Faust did not know began saying inappropriate things about Faust’s fiancé. The man started talking about “tying her up and raping her,” according to court documents. Faust asked the man to leave and that he was no longer welcome in his home, court documents said.
Faust also admitted to chasing the man out of his home with a gun. He fired two shots into the ground in the man’s direction, according to court documents. Faust told detectives he was not trying to shoot the man but instead was trying to scare him, court documents said.
“What would you do if it was your family,” he asked the arresting officer multiple times, according to court documents.
Booked into Allen County Lockup that night on a felony count of criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, Faust was given a monitored release. | https://www.wane.com/news/grabill-man-accused-of-firing-gun-to-scare-off-another-lands-in-jail/ | 2022-04-14T16:48:25 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/grabill-man-accused-of-firing-gun-to-scare-off-another-lands-in-jail/ |
The historic Annie Russell Theatre will mark its 90th year with its 2022-23 season. The theater, on the campus of Rollins College in Winter Park, announced its upcoming show schedule Thursday.
“This milestone offers a chance to look back with pride, to celebrate the artists who grew so much, gained so much, gave so much,” wrote Professor Thomas Ouellette, the theater’s producing director, in announcing the season.
And he noted that the college’s theater program isn’t resting on its laurels: The venerable Annie is about to get a state-of-the-art new neighbor.
“It’s a time to look ahead with promise,” Ouellette stated. “As I write this, the new Tiedtke Theatre and Dance Centre is rising out of the ground, just outside my window. The Rollins College Department of Theatre and Dance is poised to turn a corner this year and we hope Central Florida audiences will come see what we’re up to.”
The 2022-23 season will feature four mainstage productions in the Annie. The college’s Department of Theatre and Dance also will present three shows as part of the student-directed Second Stage Series, as well as the “Expressions” dance concert in December.
Here’s a chronological look at the Annie Russell Theatre 2022-2023 subscription series.
- A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2: Sept. 23-Oct. 1. Lucas Hnath picks up after the conclusion of Ibsen’s masterwork – though you don’t have to know the original to pick up the sequel in which a woman defines life on her terms.
- WATER BY THE SPOONFUL: Nov. 11-19. Playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes asks if anger can turn to forgiveness in an ages of uncertainty and chaos. “Spoonful” is about creating connections and family in a world where everyone lives day to day.
- AS YOU LIKE IT: Feb. 17-25, 2023. William Shakespeare’s comic romance reminds us that “All the world’s a stage.”
- INTO THE WOODS: April 21-29, 2023. James Lapine and composer Stephen Sondheim envision what happens to fairy-tale characters after the “happily ever after” in this tuneful musical that – spoiler alert – has a lot to say about how people behave in the real world, too.
Four-show subscription packages cost $70, with discounts available for seniors, students and Rollins alumni. For more information, go to rollins.edu/annie or call 407-646-2145.
Find me on Twitter @matt_on_arts, facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Want more theater and arts news and reviews? Go to orlandosentinel.com/arts. For more fun things, follow @fun.things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/arts-and-theater/os-et-annie-russell-rollins-2022-23-season-20220414-6sc2ugyejzferezklkvg3oszxa-story.html | 2022-04-14T16:48:26 | 0 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/arts-and-theater/os-et-annie-russell-rollins-2022-23-season-20220414-6sc2ugyejzferezklkvg3oszxa-story.html |
Pfizer said Thursday it wants to expand its COVID-19 booster shots to healthy elementary-age kids.
U.S. health authorities already urge everyone 12 and older to get one booster dose for the best protection against the newest variants — and recently gave the option of a second booster to those 50 and older.
Now Pfizer says new data shows healthy 5- to 11-year-olds could benefit from another kid-sized shot.
In a small study, 140 youngsters who’d already gotten two shots were given a booster six months later, and researchers found the extra shot generally revved up their immune response. But a closer look at 30 of the children found a 36-fold increase in virus-fighting antibodies, levels high enough to fight the super-contagious omicron variant, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said in a press release.
The data has not been published or vetted by independent experts.
Pfizer tested the kid booster while omicron was surging this winter. While COVID-19 cases now are at much lower levels in the U.S., in recent weeks an even more contagious version of omicron, called BA.2, has become the dominant type locally and around the world.
In the coming days, the companies plan to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize a booster for healthy 5- to 11-year-olds. They also plan to share the data with European and other regulators.
Vaccinations are generally less effective against the omicron variant than earlier versions of the coronavirus — but they do still offer strong protection against severe disease. While COVID-19 is a bigger threat to adults, youngsters can get seriously ill. But regulators will have to decide if healthy elementary-age kids really need a booster, and if so, when.
The Pfizer shots are the only vaccine available to U.S. children. Those ages 5 to 11 receive one-third of the dose given to everyone 12 and older. Just over a quarter in the younger age group have gotten two doses since vaccination opened to them in November, shortly before omicron struck.
The U.S. hasn’t yet allowed vaccinations for children under 5. But certain 5- to 11-year-olds — those with severely weakened immune systems — already are supposed to get three doses, to give that high-risk group a better chance of responding. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/health/coronavirus/pfizer-to-ask-fda-to-ok-covid-booster-for-healthy-kids-ages-5-11/ | 2022-04-14T16:48:31 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/health/coronavirus/pfizer-to-ask-fda-to-ok-covid-booster-for-healthy-kids-ages-5-11/ |
INDIANAPOLIS — Indy may not be one of the country’s top dining destinations just yet, but according to one major food publication — we are soo close.
Food & Wine has named Indianapolis as one of America’s “Next Great Food Cities.” The list features metro areas considered up-and-comers in the food travel sphere. Cincinnati (Ohio), Boise (Idaho), Omaha (Nebraska), Jersey City (New Jersey), Tucson (Arizona), and Charlotte (North Carolina) were also named.
So what makes Indianapolis so promising for foodie travelers?
Food & Wine pinpointed the city’s burgeoning bakery scene, the abundance of quality coffee shops, food halls like The Garage at Bottleworks and The AMP, plus the diversity of cuisines available throughout the Indy metro area.
The article namedropped several of the people that have cultivated the city’s evolving food climate like Bluebeard chef Abbi Merriss, chef Oya Woodruff of The Trap, and Patachou Inc. owner Martha Hoover.
Hoover and Woodruff were recognized specifically for “taking charge to reduce food insecurity.” Hoover’s PataSchool program works to create more rounded meals in school cafeterias, while Woodruff consistently donates trays of her boiled seafood to those in need.
Other can’t miss places mentioned by Food & Wine?
- Gallery Pastry Bar
- Amberson Coffee & Grocer
- The Commodore
- Amelia’s Bread
- Melon Kitchens (inside The AMP)
You can read the entire article here. | https://www.wane.com/news/indiana/so-close-you-can-taste-it-indianapolis-named-one-of-the-countrys-next-great-food-cities/ | 2022-04-14T16:48:31 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/indiana/so-close-you-can-taste-it-indianapolis-named-one-of-the-countrys-next-great-food-cities/ |
PARIS — Films by David Cronenberg, Park Chan-wook and Kelly Reichardt will vie for the coveted Palme d’Or at a Cannes Film Festival set to unspool against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
Cannes film festival artist director Thierry Frémaux and president Pierre Lescure announced the lineup to this year’s festival, Cannes’ 75th, in a press conference Thursday in Paris. After cancelling the 2020 event and hosting a slightly scaled down 2021 edition, the French Riviera festival is looking to reclaim its pre-pandemic allure with some 35,000 accredited attendees expected next month.
The 18 films announced in Cannes’ prestigious competition lineup feature new works by several former Palme winners, including Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Broker”), Swedish social satirist Ruben Ostlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (“Tori and Lokita”).
Also in competition: Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future,” starring Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart and Viggo Mortensen; Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up,” which reunites her with “Wendy and Lucy” star Michelle Williams; Chan-wook’s Korean mystery thriller “Decision to Leave”; and French filmmaker Claire Denis’ “Stars at Noon” with Margaret Qualley.
The 75th anniversary of the French Riviera film extravaganza “is happening in special circumstances: the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, a world that has changed and will keep changing,” Fremaux said.
The biggest Hollywood splashes expected at Cannes had already been announced, including a screening of “Top Gun: Maverick,” which will be accompanied by a tribute to star Tom Cruise. The “Top Gun” sequel will play out of competition, as will Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic “Elvis,” starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks.
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Organizers will announce the jury at a later date.
Cannes’ international village of flag-waving pavilions annually hosts more than 80 countries from around the world. But organizers earlier said no Russian delegations would be welcome at the this year because of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian director, Kirill Serebrennikov, who recently fled Russia for Berlin after several years banned from travel, will premiere his latest film, about composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky
As usual, most of the directors in the competition are men. Only three of the 18 films competing for the Palme d’Or were directed by women. Last year, Julia Ducournau became only the second woman in Cannes history to win the top prize, for her film “Titane,” the body-horror thriller.
The festival will open on May 17 with the premiere of the zombie comedy “Final Cut,” by “The Artist” director Michel Hazanvicius. The film had earlier been scheduled to debut in January at the Sundance Film Festival but was pulled when the festival shifted to a virtual edition amid a virus surge.
Ethan Coen will debut his first feature without his brother, Joel, in the out-of-competition documentary “Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind.” Other highlights include George Miller’s first film since 2015′s “Mad Max: Fury Road”: “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” a fantasy romance with Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton. And Brett Morgan will premiere “Moonage Daydream,” a David Bowie documentary.
As has been the case since 2017, no Netflix films are in competition at Cannes. The streamer and the festival have been an impasse due to the country’s rigid windowing rules. Once a film plays in cinemas in France, it can’t stream for 15 months. Earlier this year, though, Netflix signed a three-year agreement with French film guilds to spend a minimum of $45 million financing French and European films to play theatrically in France.
The Cannes Film Festival runs May 17-28. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/ct-ent-cannes-2022-films-20220414-c3kmstdtazhz3iabckzfnfati4-story.html | 2022-04-14T16:48:32 | 0 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/ct-ent-cannes-2022-films-20220414-c3kmstdtazhz3iabckzfnfati4-story.html |
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — The school zone crossing where three students have been struck by passing vehicles is set for a safety improvement.
The city of Fort Wayne said Thursday a “conceptual plan” calls for signalized intersection at Arrowwood and Busche drives and East State Boulevard, outside Blackhawk Middle School. City Traffic Engineer said the city was currently designing improvements for the area.
A traffic signal is expected to be installed in 2023, he added.
Three Blackhawk Middle School students have been struck by vehicles while crossing East State Boulevard at the intersection.
The first incident happened in December 2020. That student suffered a broken leg and foot.
A year later, in December 2021, a boy was struck by a vehicle while crossing East State Boulevard on the way to school. He suffered two broken legs and other injuries and nearly died.
Finally, last month, a third student was hit in the intersection as she was walking to school. That student – a girl – was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
After the most recent accident, a change.org petition was launched, calling for calling for traffic lights and flashing school zone signage in the area. As of Thursday, it had nearly 600 signatures. | https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/traffic-signal-planned-for-crossing-where-3-students-have-been-hit/ | 2022-04-14T16:48:37 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/traffic-signal-planned-for-crossing-where-3-students-have-been-hit/ |
(NEXSTAR) – Thursday is the new Friday at 38 companies in the U.S. and Canada that are testing out a shorter workweek in hopes of boosting productivity while keeping employees happy.
The companies are participating in a six-month trial working with the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global and researchers at Boston College.
“We establish their baseline before the trial,” explained Joe O’Connor, 4 Day Week Global’s CEO. “So we figure out what their company performance looks like under a range of different metrics like revenue, productivity, energy use, staff turnover, levels of absenteeism and sick leave, and then also their employees’ wellbeing.”
Those baseline levels under the five-day workweek will be compared with levels after testing out the reduced workweek.
Exactly what the schedule looks like at each company may vary a bit, O’Connor said. “Our prerequisite is that it must be genuine work time reduction. So it cannot be four 10-hour days. It can’t be the same hours compressed into four days,” he said.
Most employees will opt for a four-day workweek – and therefore a three-day weekend – when given the chance, O’Connor said. But he noted a minority of employees like to spread out their 32 hours of work across five days, giving them a chance to spend more time with their kids in the morning and after school.
No matter how they cut down their workweek, employers are not cutting back on pay; everyone gets the same salary and same benefits they had before.
The 38 participating organizations employ about 2,200 to 2,300 people, O’Connor said.
Not all 38 companies have decided to go public just yet, explained O’Connor. There are 20 companies and nonprofit organizations who have decided to disclose their participation in the pilot program. They are:
- Advanced RV
- Blue Sky Philanthropies
- CULTIQUE
- Floodlight Invest
- Fresh Squeezed Ideas
- GillespieHall Strategic Communications and PR
- GLIDE Design
- Healthwise
- IPR Denver
- Kickstarter
- Mental Health Advocacy Services
- Montana Nonprofit Association
- M’tucci’s Restaurants
- Own Trail
- Public Policy Lab
- Run for Something
- Seed&Spark
- simPRO
- USENIX Association
- WYNDR
While a four-day week is still rare in the United States, it’s gained popularity in other parts of the world. A study in Iceland involved moving about 1% of the country’s workforce to a 35- or 36-hour week, reports the Washington Post. They found employees loved the shorter week, and productivity either remained the same or improved.
“There is actually a fairly large amount – and growing – of current literature on the four-day workweek,” Timothy P. Munyon, associate professor of management at the University of Tennessee, told Nexstar’s WATE. “The general consensus is that it improves productivity, reduces burnout, and increases respite.”
O’Connor – who works a four-day week, by the way – is confident the participants will see similarly positive results from their trials. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/looking-for-a-new-job-these-companies-are-piloting-a-4-day-workweek/ | 2022-04-14T16:48:37 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/looking-for-a-new-job-these-companies-are-piloting-a-4-day-workweek/ |
A Florida teen has his pick of colleges after receiving 27 offers and more than $4 million in scholarship money.
Jonathan Walker, 18, said he was amazed that so many schools accepted his college application, according to Breezy Scroll.
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Walker has been earning college credits through the International Baccalaureate Program, allowing him to take college-level courses, since his junior year of high school.
He said the key to so many acceptances was the personal touches he added to his essays.
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“Every campus has something special about it and so, I found something that I loved within all of them,” Walker told the Panama City News-Herald.
Read the full report on breezyscroll.com. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/florida/os-ne-florida-teen-accepted-into-27-colleges-offered-4-million-in-scholarships-20220414-hmuszyunmfczjf2yq3i5twjiey-story.html | 2022-04-14T16:48:39 | 0 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/florida/os-ne-florida-teen-accepted-into-27-colleges-offered-4-million-in-scholarships-20220414-hmuszyunmfczjf2yq3i5twjiey-story.html |
CHANDLER, Okla. (KFOR) – A man is recovering at a hospital in Oklahoma City after he was mauled by a pack of wild dogs Wednesday.
“The worst thing I’ve ever seen,” said Lincoln County Sheriff Charlie Dougherty. “As far as a dog injury.”
The 65-year-old man was on a morning walk along a rural stretch of road in Chandler when he was attacked by the wild dogs.
“The dogs come out and get him down and go mauling him,” said Dougherty. “Looks like he’d been out there quite a while. They’d ripped all his clothes off.”
The recently retired man lay on the dirt road for hours with open wounds until a passerby called 911 and reported finding a body. The man was later found to be alive and was flown to OU Health in Oklahoma City to undergo surgery.
“He received injuries pretty much all over his body, with the exception of maybe his neck,” said the sheriff.
Dougherty said the pack of wild dogs came from a marijuana grow operation sandwiching the street. Early in March, deputies and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics busted the grow for selling bud — the smokable part of a cannabis plant — on the “black market” and out of state. The operation had been licensed with the state.
“I don’t know if these dogs was supposed to protect the grow or if they’re just mean dogs altogether,” said Dougherty.
Two of the dogs were caught and taken to a local veterinary clinic. So far, it’s unclear if they’ll be put down.
“The investigators will be looking at trying to bring charges against somebody for some type of restitution for medical and different ones,” said the sheriff. “If you’re going to own dogs, you got to take care of them. You got to be responsible.”
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office has been getting calls about more wild dogs in the area. If you know where they are, call the sheriff’s office so deputies can capture them. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/ripped-all-his-clothes-off-wild-dogs-maul-65-year-old-man/ | 2022-04-14T16:48:43 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/ripped-all-his-clothes-off-wild-dogs-maul-65-year-old-man/ |
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Komets goaltender Samuel Harvey is technically a rookie, but he’s been playing like a seasoned veteran since stepping foot in Fort Wayne this season.
Harvey enters the final two games of the regular season with a record of 21-8-3. He’s tallied two shutouts while posting a 91.2 save percentage and allowing just 2.92 goals per game. He was named the ECHL’s “Goalie of the Month” for the month of March.
The Quebec native has also played seven games with the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL this year.
Harvey and the Komets play at Wheeling on Friday, then host the Nailers on Saturday at the Coliseum in the final game of the regular season. | https://www.wane.com/sports/komets/rookie-harvey-playing-like-seasoned-veteran/ | 2022-04-14T16:48:43 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/sports/komets/rookie-harvey-playing-like-seasoned-veteran/ |
Mark Meadows, a former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, has been removed from North Carolina’s list of registered voters after documents showed he lived in Virginia and voted in that state’s 2021 election, officials said Wednesday.
Questions arose about Meadows last month, when North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s office asked the State Bureau of Investigation to look into Meadows’ voter registration, which listed a home he never owned — and may never have visited — as his legal residence.
A representative for Meadows, a former congressman from the area, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meadows frequently raised the prospect of voter fraud before the 2020 presidential election, as polls showed Trump trailing Joe Biden, and in the months after Trump’s loss, to suggest Biden was not the legitimate winner. In his 2021 memoir, he repeated the baseless claims that the election was stolen.
Judges, election officials in both parties and Trump’s own attorney general has concluded there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Experts point to isolated incidents of intentional or unintentional violations of voter laws in every election.
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Under North Carolina general statutes, “If a person goes into another state, county, municipality, precinct, ward, or other election district, or into the District of Columbia, and while there exercises the right of a citizen by voting in an election, that person shall be considered to have lost residence in that State, county, municipality, precinct, ward, or other election district from which that person removed.”
Public records indicated Meadows had been registered to vote in Virginia and North Carolina, where he listed a mobile home he did not own as his legal residence weeks before casting a 2020 presidential election ballot in the state.
Meadows listed a mobile home in Scaly Mountain, North Carolina, as his physical address on Sept. 19, 2020, while he was serving as Trump’s chief of staff in Washington. Meadows later cast an absentee ballot for the general election by mail. Trump won the battleground state by just over 1 percentage point.
The New Yorker spoke to the former owner of the Scaly Mountain property, described as a 14-foot by 62-foot mobile home with a rusty metal roof, who indicated that Meadows does not own the home and never has. The previous owner said Meadows’ wife rented the property “for two months at some point within the past few years” but only spent one or two nights there. Neighbors said Meadows was never present, The New Yorker reported.
The New Yorker story doesn’t identify the former owner’s name, saying she requested that her name not be used.
In announcing his removal from the voter rolls, the Macon County Board of Elections said it had received no formal challenge and was referring the matter to the SBI, the state elections board said Wednesday.
Macon County District Attorney Ashley Welch had asked the attorney general’s office to handle any investigation into Meadows’ voter registration, recusing herself from the matter because Meadows contributed to her campaign for DA and appeared in political ads endorsing her. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-aud-nw-mark-meadows-voter-registration-20220414-vys5seus6rhlfjhfbbbmpntmzy-story.html | 2022-04-14T16:48:45 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-aud-nw-mark-meadows-voter-registration-20220414-vys5seus6rhlfjhfbbbmpntmzy-story.html |
A booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech increased the level of neutralizing antibodies against both the original version of the virus and the omicron variant in a small trial of children age 5 to 11, the companies announced on Thursday.
If the companies’ claims of a strong immune response pass muster with federal regulators, the government could broaden eligibility for booster doses to include 28 million more children.
The study by Pfizer and BioNTech, which the companies described in a brief news release, included 140 children who received a booster six months after their second shot.
The children showed a sixfold increase in antibody levels against the original version of the virus one month after receiving the booster, compared with one month after receiving a second dose. Laboratory tests of blood samples from a subgroup of 30 children also showed 36 times the level of neutralizing antibodies against the omicron variant compared with levels after only two doses, according to the news release and a Pfizer spokeswoman.
The study did not show how long the antibodies last, or test effectiveness against COVID. The data was not published or peer-reviewed.
Antibodies are the immune system’s first line of defense against infection. They are expected to rise after an additional dose; how rapidly that protection wanes has been an enduring concern for vaccine experts, regulators and manufacturers.
The companies said they would ask the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization of a booster for 5- to 11-year-olds “in the coming days.” The agency has typically acted within a month of receiving such requests.
Currently, Americans 12 and older are eligible for at least one booster, and about 30 million people age 50 or older are eligible for a second one. Studies suggest that 5- to 11-year-olds may particularly need a booster.
Researchers in New York state recently found that while two Pfizer shots protected children in that age group from serious illness, they provided virtually no protection against symptomatic infection, even just a month after full immunization.
“I think a bottom line is that in order to protect from the omicron, we know from studies and from adults and adolescents that you need three doses,” said Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a pediatric vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “So I think the FDA will likely approve the third dose for the 5- to 11-year-olds.”
The companies’ announcement comes as new U.S. virus cases are again ticking up slightly after two months of sustained declines. The upswing has been particularly noticeable in the Northeast, where the omicron subvariant known as BA.2, now the dominant version of the virus in the United States, first took hold.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, warned in recent days that the nation could see a significant increase in infections over the next several weeks. But he has said the rates of hospitalizations are unlikely to rise in tandem because so many Americans have a degree of immunity, either from vaccines or prior infections.
Several hundred children age 5 to 11 have died of COVID since the pandemic began, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but pediatric shots have been a hard sell for many parents. Only about 28% of children in that age group have received two doses and would be eligible for a booster. Roughly 7% have received just one dose, the agency’s data shows.
There was an initial rush for shots after they were first offered for that age group in November, but the increase in the vaccination rate then slowed to a crawl.
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Edwards said some parents feel that the chances are low that their children will get seriously ill, while the shots are an unknown. She said some research indicates that 45% of children who get infected have no symptoms at all.
“The problem is that we can’t predict who is going to get sick and who is not,” she said. And among those who do, “there will be kids that are going to be hospitalized, and there will be a few deaths.”
The share of children age 5 to 11 with at least one dose varies starkly by region, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Five of the top 10 states with the highest vaccination rates were in New England, while eight out of the 10 states with the lowest rates were in the South.
The study done by New York researchers, posted online in late February, found that for children age 5 to 11, the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness against infection fell to 12% from 68% within 28 to 34 days after the second dose. That was a steeper decline than for older adolescents and teens who received a much stronger dose.
Another study by the CDC stated that two Pfizer doses reduced the risk of omicron infection by 31% among those ages 5 to 11, compared with a 59% reduction in risk among those ages 12 to 15.
Pfizer’s vaccine is so far the only one authorized for those younger than 18.
c.2022 The New York Times Company | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-aud-nw-nyt-covid-booster-children-20220414-gmapfufep5di7g4vpedl4ov5qi-story.html | 2022-04-14T16:48:51 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-aud-nw-nyt-covid-booster-children-20220414-gmapfufep5di7g4vpedl4ov5qi-story.html |
The coronavirus pandemic and its ripple effects have snarled supply chains around the world, contributing to shipping backlogs, product shortages and the fastest inflation in decades.
But in a report released Thursday, White House economists argue that while the pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain, it didn’t create them — and they warned that the problems won’t go away when the pandemic ends.
“Though modern supply chains have driven down consumer prices for many goods, they can also easily break,” the Council of Economic Advisers wrote. Climate change, and the increasing frequency of natural disasters that comes with it, will make future disruptions inevitable, the group said.
White House economists analyzed the supply chain as part of the Economic Report of the President. The annual document, which this year runs more than 400 pages, typically offers few new policy proposals, but it outlines the administration’s thinking on key economic issues facing the country, and on how the president hopes to address them.
This year’s report focuses on the role of government in the economy, and calls for the government to do more to combat slowing productivity growth, declining labor force participation, rising inequality and other trends that long predated the pandemic.
“The U.S. is among and remains one of the strongest economies in the world, but if we look at trends over the last several decades, some of those trends threaten to undermine that standing,” Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview. The problem is in part that “the public sector has retreated from its role.”
The report dedicates one of its seven chapters to supply chains, noting that the once-esoteric subject “entered dinner-table conversations” in 2021. In recent decades, Rouse and the report’s other authors write, U.S. manufacturers have increasingly relied on parts produced in low-cost countries, especially China, a practice known as offshoring. At the same time, companies have adopted just-in-time production strategies that minimize the parts and materials they keep in inventory.
The result, the authors argue, are supply chains that are efficient but brittle — vulnerable to breaking down in the face of a pandemic, a war or a natural disaster.
“Because of outsourcing, offshoring and insufficient investment in resilience, many supply chains have become complex and fragile,” they write, adding: “This evolution has also been driven by shortsighted assumptions about cost reduction that have ignored important costs that are hard to turn into financial measures, or that spilled over to affect others.”
But some economists noted that making supply chains more resilient could carry its own costs, making products more expensive when inflation is already a major concern.
Adam S. Posen, the president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might lead companies to locate at least some of their supply chains in places that were more politically stable and less strategically vulnerable. But pushing companies to duplicate production could waste taxpayer dollars and introduce inefficiencies, raising prices for consumers and lowering growth.
“At best you’re paying an insurance premium,” he said. “At worst you’re doing something for completely political reasons that’s very economically inefficient.”
Other economists have emphasized that global supply chains are not always a source of fragility — sometimes they can be a source of resilience, too.
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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director general of the World Trade Organization, said in an interview that the world had been seeing a trend toward the decentralization of manufacturing and production, in which supply chains were moving out of China into Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and other countries. That is an opportunity to diversify supply chains and bring poorer countries into the global trading system, allowing them to reap the benefits of globalization, too, she said.
Rather than reeling in supply chains to concentrate them in developed countries, she said, businesses are doing more “nearshoring” — shifting to low-cost but less-distant countries — as well as pursuing risk-mitigation strategies like building up inventory.
Rouse, the White House economic adviser, said that while it could make sense to promote increased domestic production of some critical components such as computer chips, the Biden administration was not pushing to reverse offshoring entirely.
“We don’t need to make everything here,” she said. “We understand that would be excessively costly and unnecessary.”
But despite their emphasis on the public sector’s role in the economy, the White House economists recommended only modest steps that the federal government could take to strengthen supply chains. They suggested that the government help aggregate and disseminate data that could make it easier for companies to understand their supply chains and identify weaknesses. And they said the government could encourage domestic production of products that were vital for national security or other core interests. Independent experts said those steps could be useful, but were unlikely to solve the problems outlined in the report.
“The short answer is there’s no easy answers,” said Chad P. Bown, a trade economist and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute.
c.2022 The New York Times Company | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-aud-nw-nyt-pandemic-supply-chain-20220414-csguamzcmzbxvmxlkxey7ztm2a-story.html | 2022-04-14T16:48:57 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-aud-nw-nyt-pandemic-supply-chain-20220414-csguamzcmzbxvmxlkxey7ztm2a-story.html |
Talking about kale, spinach or broccoli could cost you your livelihood in Florida. Health coach Heather Kokesch Del Castillo experienced just that when the language police caught her promoting nutritious food.
Trouble started when Del Castillo left California with her small business and resettled in Fort Walton Beach. As a privately certified health coach, Del Castillo earns income by giving nutritional advice and encouragement to clients. Things went well at the new location until 2017, when a state-licensed dietitian filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Health.
The anonymous informant alleged that Del Castillo was engaged in the unlicensed practice of nutrition and dietetics — a criminal offense in Florida. Parents can tell their children to finish their vegetables, and friends can share opinions on weight-loss fads. But regulators get involved when they catch anyone providing individualized dietary advice for compensation.
Although Del Castillo had been truthful about her qualifications — never representing herself as a state-licensed nutritionist or dietitian — Florida slapped her with a cease-and-desist order and demanded she pay more than $750 in fines and fees. Essentially, the state ordered her to stay silent.
“All I wanted to do was give people advice on how to eat healthier,” she says. “If I had written a book giving the exact same dietary advice, my speech would have been totally protected. But because I talked with clients directly and they paid me for it, Florida claims that my speech is a crime because I’m unlicensed.”
Florida’s crackdown on Del Castillo is curious. The law that requires her to be licensed also carves out numerous exemptions for others. Acupuncturists, podiatrists, naturopaths, optometrists, dentists and cooperative extension home economists all can give dietary advice without having the background and education that the state demands of Del Castillo.
Rather than accept the censorship, Del Castillo fought back with a First Amendment lawsuit in federal court. After losing at the trial court level and again in front of a three-judge panel at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, she petitioned the entire 11th Circuit to reconsider her case on March 10. Our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, represents her.
The case hinges on the supposed distinction between speech and conduct. Del Castillo does not provide medical care, massage therapy, beauty services, meal preparation or anything similar. She literally talks for a living. The fact that her clients pay for the information does not alter the message.
Political Pulse
Unfortunately, the 11th Circuit panel saw things differently. The court ruled that speech between a buyer and seller of information is a form of “professional conduct” that can be licensed without offending the First Amendment. The opinion has implications for millions of workers, who might find themselves needing government permission to speak.
The list includes artists, photographers, tutors, personal trainers, motivational speakers, buyers, sellers, recruiters and nearly anyone who has a job with “adviser,” “consultant” or “coach” in the description. As other Institute for Justice cases show, even North Carolina drone operators and Mississippi mapmakers who sell technical information are engaged in speech. So are Virginia teletherapy providers, South Carolina tour guides and California vocational school instructors.
If the government can circumvent the First Amendment merely by imposing occupational licensing requirements, then almost anyone who works with words and ideas could face arbitrary restrictions. People like Del Castillo would have to go back to college and earn specific degrees to comply. Others would have to complete apprenticeship programs, pass licensing exams, pay registration fees and clear other hurdles — all to be able to talk for a living.
Their shield is the First Amendment. Crisis pregnancy counselors relied on the protection in 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that states do not have “unfettered power to reduce a group’s First Amendment rights by simply imposing a licensing requirement.”
Other courts have fallen in line with the landmark ruling. Now the 11th Circuit has a chance to correct its error.
Occupational oversight boards have authority to regulate conduct when traditional public health and safety considerations are implicated. But nobody in the United States should need a license to speak.
Ari Bargil is an Institute for Justice attorney and Daryl James is an Institute for Justice writer. They wrote this for InsideSources.com. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/guest-commentary/os-op-florida-health-coach-right-to-speak-20220414-aemssfkop5bwlax3wh7csbbm44-story.html | 2022-04-14T16:49:03 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/guest-commentary/os-op-florida-health-coach-right-to-speak-20220414-aemssfkop5bwlax3wh7csbbm44-story.html |
Two junior cousins competing for rival schools put on a show in Wednesday’s Seminole Athletic Conference track and field meet in Sanford.
Junior speedster Amari Turner of host Seminole High School ran career best times in the boys 100-meter dash (10.59 seconds) and 200 (20.89) and then anchored a sensational 4x100 relay time of 40.71 that ranks No. 6 nationally.
Cousin Karis Reese of Lake Mary, also a junior, turned in her own personal bests in victories in the girls 100 hurdles (14.63) and 300 hurdles (44.90). Reese also won the high jump to lead the Rams to a razor-thin victory in the team race. Lake Mary outscored Seminole 176.5 points to 174.5 at the eight-school meet.
Lake Mary also edged the ‘Noles for the boys crown, 185 to 180.5. Markel Jones, another Rams junior, won the 110 hurdles in an area-leading 14.43 time and added a 300 hurdles victory. Lake Mary sewed up the title with wins by area leader Isaac Peters in the discus and shot putter Jake Ramsey.
Seminole’s all-underclass boys 4x100 relay foursome of Turner, freshman Trarell Beckford, junior Tyrique Lewis and junior Marshae McDonald, broke a school record that dated to 1986.
Turner was the only returner from Seminole’s 2021 Class 4A state championship group that included USF freshman football standout Jimmy Horn Jr.
Beckford’s rapid progress and the addition of Lewis after he played basketball for a Seminole team that reached the state final four in March has made the ‘Noles again the team to beat in the event.
“Tyrique is just coming around,” said Seminole coach Kenny Brauman. “When they ran 41.63 the first time out at Lake Howell (Raymond Gaines Silver Invitational, March 26) I told them this group had the ability to be faster than we were last year. We had two bad handoffs and ran that time. Tonight, we hit all the handoffs.”
Seminole junior Sidney Allen won the girls long jump (17 feet, 7¼ inches), triple jump (36-5¾) and 200 (25.24) and anchored a first place 4x100 (47.99).
SHS junior Sarai Simpson heaved the shot put 40 feet, 3¼ inches to join Ocoee senior Leilany Laureano (44-2¼) as the area’s two 40-footers.
Winter Springs senior Caroline Wells, the reigning Orlando area girls track athlete of the year, churned out a season-best 4:56.14 in the 1,600 and also dominated the 3,200 in a tuneup for the 3A District 4 meet at East River on April 28.
District competition starts next week for most area teams.
Elsewhere
Tohopekaliga senior Orlando Descartes high jumped 6 feet, 7½ inches – third best in the state – in Thursday’s Orange Belt Conference meet.
Sentinel Sports Final
Harmony repeated as the OBC team champ for boys and girls.
Aidan Mizell, Boone’s junior football/track speedster, ran the 100 for the first time in his high school career and clocked a 10.78 time to win at the Freedom Open.
Ocoee’s girls edged Evans 155-153 to give the Knights a sweep of both team titles in last Saturday’s Metro West Division meet. Dylan Horne, an Ocoee junior, upped his area-leading shot put best to 54-1¼.
The Metro East titles were determined way back on March 11, with Boone sweeping boys and girls championships ahead of Winter Park.
Trinity Prep hosts its Saints Invitational today.
Saturday’s 32nd Brian Jaeger Elite Classic at Showalter Field in Winter Park to wrap up the regular season.
Orlando area high school scores and top performers from Monday. You can go to SentinelVarsity.com for more news and look here for previous nightly scores collections: | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/os-sp-hs-spring-sports-0415-20220414-yg3mke3gjze3jc6l6tl3t7xtsm-story.html | 2022-04-14T16:49:10 | 1 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/os-sp-hs-spring-sports-0415-20220414-yg3mke3gjze3jc6l6tl3t7xtsm-story.html |
Justine Vallieres was recently named the new Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife conflict management specialist to fill the role of longtime grizzly bear manager Tim Manley.
Vallieres worked as a technician under Manley for four years and worked under wolf biologists Kent Laudon and Diane Boyd for one year each prior to that.
She's originally from New Hampshire and has a degree in applied animal science and wildlife from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
To date, she's says she's worked with about 100 grizzly bears through her tenure and learned a lot from Manley, who retired last year.
"He's my mentor and a good friend," she said.
Originally she wanted to work on wolf research, but said she really found her home in wildlife conflict management, working both with people and with bears.
What's the best part of working with large animals with sharp teeth and claws?
"I love the continual learning of their behaviors and highly emotional intelligence, and I've always had an innate passion for the intricate and delicate relationship between large predators and humans," she said.
In the past, Manley did most of the grizzly bear management calls across the Flathead Valley, with FWP colleague Erik Wenum taking care of the black bear calls and other conflicts.
This year, Vallieres will take calls for the north end of the valley and Wenum the south end of the valley, regardless of species.
Her territory includes Columbia Falls, the North Fork and Whitefish up to the border and to Marias Pass.
And yes, the bears are awake. She's already had calls about black bears and radio collared grizzlies have shown movement into the valley floors.
She spoke to a couple of bear incidents from last year, including the decision to kill a North Fork grizzly named Monica and her cubs, after they tore apart campers looking for food.
She noted that sort of bear behavior is typically progressive, which is to say a bear gets a human food reward here and there and then eventually hones in on human foods as an easy meal.
Prevention goes a long way in stopping bear conflicts.
"Secure your attractants," she noted. "Help us help you."
That means putting garbage in bear resistant containers, not feeding pets outside, and putting electric fencing up around chickens and other stock and their foods.
The electric fencing needs to be done correctly. For example, about 10 grizzly bears last year were finding easy pickings at a local compost facility just outside the Columbia Falls city limits because the electric fencing wasn't operating correctly.
The fence has since been fixed and bolstered and Vallieres said she doesn't expect problems this year.
She said she's always willing to help any landowner or homeowner with fencing and other tips.
"I'm all for helping people trying to be proactive and keep conflicts from occurring," she said.
Folks with bear or lion problems can contact her via her cell phone at 406-250-1265.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/animals/new-montana-grizzly-bear-manager-is-woman-from-new-hampshire/article_e45a5e3d-1c7f-511c-bd0c-8a2966a070e7.html | 2022-04-14T16:57:48 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/animals/new-montana-grizzly-bear-manager-is-woman-from-new-hampshire/article_e45a5e3d-1c7f-511c-bd0c-8a2966a070e7.html |
The shipbuilder behind the world's largest yacht by tonnage describes it as "one of the most complex and challenging yachts ever built," with "entertainment and recreation spaces never before seen on" such a vessel, and an interior of "rare and exclusive luxury materials."
It has two helipads and the largest yacht pool ever built, and it can accommodate 36 guests and 96 staff. And this week, it was impounded by German authorities for its ties to a Russian oligarch.
Germany's federal police said Tuesday that "through extensive investigations despite offshore concealment," it found that the yacht is owned by Gulbakhor Ismailova, the sister of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
After police confirmed with Brussels that the vessel's owner was sanctioned, the superyacht -- named Dilbar, after Usmanov's mother, according to the U.S. Treasury Department -- was impounded. It is being held in the Port of Hamburg in Germany.
Meanwhile, in Fiji, police are reportedly investigating a superyacht, suspected of being owned by Russian oligarch Suleyman Kerimov, which docked in the Pacific island nation this week.
The Dilbar, the yacht impounded in Germany, is registered in the Cayman Islands, according to the Treasury Department, and worth between $600 million and $735 million, with an estimated annual running cost of $60 million.
There are larger yachts by length. But at 15,917 tons, the Dilbar is the world's largest yacht by internal volume, according to the ship's maker, Lürssen, which touts its "classic profile with a light ivory hull and bronze accents."
Usmanov is "known to be close to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin as well as Dmitry Medvedev, the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia and former President and Prime Minister of Russia," the Treasury Department said, alleging that his ties to the Kremlin "enrich him and enable his luxurious lifestyle."
In the early days of the invasion, President Joe Biden warned Russian oligarchs: "We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets."
The United States said on March 3 that it had sanctioned Usmanov, alleging he was among the "key elites" allowing Putin to wage his war on Ukraine. Experts from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe determined in a fact-finding report published Wednesday that Russia broke international humanitarian law by deliberately targeting civilians during its invasion of Ukraine. The United States and other nations have accused Russia of committing war crimes there, and Biden on Tuesday said Putin was committing "genocide" in Ukraine.
Usmanov, 68, is the 86th-richest person in the world, with an estimated fortune of $19.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He has "vast holdings across multiple sectors" of Russia's economy and internationally, the Treasury Department said, including a 49% stake in USM, a holding company that controls Russia's largest iron ore producer, according to Bloomberg.
A representative for Usmanov was not immediately available, and USM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the Fiji case, an official at the National Police Command and Control Center told Reuters that the captain of the vessel, which arrived Tuesday, was being questioned about how it came to Fiji without customs clearance.
Kerimov has been sanctioned by the United States, Britain and the European Union, but questions about the ownership of the luxury vessel remain. Police have seized the superyacht, called the Amadea, a 348-foot vessel worth $325 million, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The U.S. Embassy in Suva told the Fiji Times it is "cooperating with Fijian authorities on the matter" and is "committed to finding and seizing the assets of the oligarchs who have supported the Russian Federation's brutal, unprovoked war of choice against Ukraine."
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The Wasington Post's Adela Suliman in London contributed to this report. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/worlds-largest-yacht-linked-to-russian-billionaire-seized-by-germany/article_1193d15e-43b9-579d-b25f-65ad175c8a1a.html | 2022-04-14T16:57:54 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/worlds-largest-yacht-linked-to-russian-billionaire-seized-by-germany/article_1193d15e-43b9-579d-b25f-65ad175c8a1a.html |
Elon Musk has launched a hostile takeover bid of Twitter - promising to "unlock" its "extraordinary potential" as a private company - in the latest twist in a stunning multweek saga.
In a securities filing dated Wednesday, the billionaire tech CEO proposed $54.20 a share for the social media giant, calling it his "best and final offer. If it is not accepted, he added, "I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder."
The hostile takeover bid comes after a wild two weeks between Musk and Twitter, which was full of head fakes and at least one lawsuit.
The company's share price closed on Wednesday at around $46 per share but it was up 10 percent in premarket trading Thursday morning. If Musk decided to unload his shares, it could send the company's stock price sharply lower.
Through the course of this year, Musk quietly acquired 9.2% of the shares of Twitter, suddenly becoming its largest shareholder. Musk is a prolific Twitter user but also a frequent critic, and in late March he suggested in a tweet that he was considering launching his own social media company.
On April 5, Twitter surprised employees and investors by announcing that it was appointing Musk to its board of directors.
He was supposed to start his new position on April 9, a role that outraged some employees and led Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal to announce that Musk would join employees for an "ask me anything" event.
The company disclosed several days ago, however, that Musk wouldn't join the board after all. Joining the board would have "handcuffed" him from fully acquiring the company, according to an email CFRA equity researcher Angelo Zino.
Over the weekend, Musk unloaded a series of sharply barbed tweets at the company, acting more as a bomb-throwing critic than as a board member.
At 6:33 a.m. Pacific on Saturday, Musk asked "Is Twitter dying?" He continued tweeting as the weekend went on, questioning Twitter's most popular users, its San Francisco headquarters and its process for authenticating accounts. Before he was done, he made a lewd joke about removing the "W" from the company's name.
Musk's hostile takeover bid met mixed reactions from Twitter's users Thursday morning. Fred Wilson, a New York-based venture capitalist, said Twitter is "too important" to be owned and controlled by a single person.
"The opposite should be happening," Wilson tweeted. "Twitter should be decentralized as a protocol that powers an ecosystem of communication products and services."
Tech industry analyst Dan Ives said he suspects Musk will succeed in his bid to acquire Twitter, although questions remain around financing, regulations, and balancing Musk's time between his two other companies, SpaceX and Tesla.
"The next step will be Twitter's Board officially reviewing the Musk filing/letter and then it's get-out-the-popcorn time as we expect many twists and turns in the weeks ahead as Twitter and Musk walk down this marriage path," Ives wrote in a note to investors.
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The Washington Post's Reed Albergotti and Faiz Siddiqui contributed to this report. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/elon-musk-launches-hostile-takeover-bid-of-twitter/article_8bd7ade8-299d-534b-8733-c817a8000feb.html | 2022-04-14T16:58:00 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/elon-musk-launches-hostile-takeover-bid-of-twitter/article_8bd7ade8-299d-534b-8733-c817a8000feb.html |
Ron Covey, president and CEO of St. Mary’s Bank, will be honored as the next Greater Manchester Chamber Citizen of the Year.
Over the past 14 years, he helped grow the nation’s oldest credit union.
Beyond his executive role at the bank, Covey is a volunteer, philanthropist and community leader, wrote Ken Senus, chief operating officer of St. Mary’s Bank in a nomination letter.
“He considers, at every turn, what he does for others. Ron ultimately demonstrates the values that unequivocally qualify him to be Citizen of the Year. Ron never seeks any attention for the good work that he does, he does it because he has a passion for helping others,” Senus wrote.
Covey, 65, of Hooksett, will be honored during a celebration at 5 p.m. June 15 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Manchester. The annual event is sponsored by the Elliot.
Married with two children, Covey grew up on the West Side of Manchester not too far from the credit union’s headquarters. He became the credit union’s eighth president in 2008.
At St. Mary’s, he has made it his goal to build on the credit union’s mission to serve the ever-diversifying population of Manchester.
He serves on the Boys & Girls Club Greater Manchester, America’s Credit Union Museum, Daniel Webster Council nonprofit boards and the advisory board of the University of New Hampshire at Manchester.
Heather McGrail, interim CEO of the Greater Manchester Chamber added, “Leadership and personal integrity are at the core of what it means to be a Citizen of the Year. Ron has embodied a deep commitment to service in the pursuit of lifting others throughout his entire career.” | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/st-marys-ceo-ron-covey-named-manchester-chambers-citizen-of-the-year/article_5f59c81a-d084-56b1-9da7-8d3e480b8ed6.html | 2022-04-14T16:58:06 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/st-marys-ceo-ron-covey-named-manchester-chambers-citizen-of-the-year/article_5f59c81a-d084-56b1-9da7-8d3e480b8ed6.html |
A defendant charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol testified Wednesday that he believed he was "following presidential orders" from President Donald Trump when he stormed the building and stole liquor and a coat rack during the deadly riot.
Dustin Byron Thompson, 38, has not contested the allegations, specifically that he broke into the Senate parliamentarian's office twice and stole a bottle of bourbon and a coat rack. He testified at his trial that he made the trip from his home in Columbus, Ohio, to Washington, and later entered the Capitol, in the hope of gaining Trump's "respect, his approval."
"Besides being ordered by the president to go to the Capitol, I don't know what I was thinking," Thompson told the jury, according to CNN. "I was caught up in the moment."
Thompson is among the first Jan. 6 defendants to argue to a jury that Trump is ultimately to blame for the mob that stormed the Capitol. More than 15 months later, Thompson said he is "deeply ashamed" of his actions, believing that he was misled by Trump's "outlandish" and false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Although Trump has denied that he's responsible for the actions of the Jan. 6 rioters, Thompson, who attended the Stop the Steal rally that preceded the riot, testified that Trump urged supporters to march to the Capitol and "fight like hell" against the confirmation of Joe Biden as president.
"If the president's giving you almost an order to do something, I felt obligated to do that," Thompson said, reported NBC News.
Thompson faces seven criminal charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting, theft of government property, and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. He has pleaded not guilty to all but one of the counts, according to the Justice Department. Thompson, who was arrested, indicted and arraigned last year, has remained on personal recognizance bond.
Neither Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich nor Samuel Shamansky, Thompson's attorney, immediately responded to requests for comment early Thursday.
Thompson's testimony comes at a time when President Biden has authorized the National Archives and Records Administration to hand over a new tranche of Trump White House documents to the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol. Trump previously - and unsuccessfully - asserted executive privilege over a series of White House documents, including daily presidential diaries, schedules, drafts of speeches, remarks and correspondence concerning the events of Jan. 6.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who is a member of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, said in a Post Politics Now interview Wednesday that the House select committee is planning public hearings in May and June. Raskin said that the panel will issue a report that will be "profuse in setting forth crimes that have not yet been alleged."
Thompson's jury trial is the third among those of the nearly 800 Capitol rioters who have been charged in connection to the attack, according to the Associated Press. The first two jury trials ended with both defendants convicted on all counts with which they were charged. Earlier this month, a federal judge found Matthew Martin, a former Energy Department contract engineer from Santa Fe, N.M., not guilty of trespassing and disorderly conduct, saying the defendant plausibly argued that police officers allowed him into the Capitol. The acquittal was the Justice Department's first defeat in a Capitol breach prosecution.
Thompson, who had worked as an exterminator and at a pawnshop after graduating from Ohio State University in 2008, found himself unemployed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, he testified. At a time when he was "isolated" and "stuck at home," Thompson told jurors that he "went down the rabbit hole on the internet" and latched onto conspiracy theories.
As Biden led Trump, Thompson said he "didn't think it was possible" for the Democrat to defeat the president, echoing Trump's false and debunked claim that the election was rigged, according to the federal complaint.
"Dustin spent a lot of time on the internet," Sarah Thompson, his wife, testified Wednesday, according to NBC. She testified that she was a Democrat who had voted for Biden, as well as former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former president Barack Obama.
"He was very angry about the election results," she said of her husband. "He believed that the election had been stolen."
After listening to all of the speakers at the Stop the Steal rally, Dustin Thompson joined hundreds in storming the Capitol.
"Wooooo! 'Merica, hey!" he yelled, according to video. "This is our house!"
At around 2:51 p.m. that day, security footage shows Thompson carrying a bottle of bourbon he found in the Senate parliamentarian's office, according to the complaint. More than 30 minutes later, a photo was taken of a grinning Thompson holding a wood and bronze coat rack taken from inside the Capitol, authorities say.
He was arrested on Jan. 25, 2021, after FBI agents were able to match Thompson's description with photo records of him from the Ohio Department of Motor Vehicles.
Since his trial began this week, Shamansky, Thompson's attorney, has argued that Trump participated in a "sinister" plot to encourage Thompson and other "vulnerable" supporters to storm the Capitol. A judge rejected the defense attorney's subpoena request to call Trump and Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, as witnesses at Thompson's trial.
"It's Donald Trump himself spewing the lies and using his position to authorize this assault," Shamansky said during Tuesday's opening statements, according to the AP.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney William Kennelly Dreher has argued that Thompson, who is married and has a college degree, is an adult capable of making his own decisions.
"You're not a child, right?" he asked Thompson, reported CNN. The defendant responded that he was not.
Thompson did, however, acknowledge that he needed to make decisions on his own and not be persuaded by Trump's rhetoric and false claims.
"I can't let other people tell me what to do," he said, according to NBC. "Even if they're the president." | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/jan-6-defendant-says-trumps-orders-caused-him-to-steal-liquor-coat-rack/article_68aa694d-0a81-5d59-a815-a0cb26f98a01.html | 2022-04-14T16:58:12 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/jan-6-defendant-says-trumps-orders-caused-him-to-steal-liquor-coat-rack/article_68aa694d-0a81-5d59-a815-a0cb26f98a01.html |
Cheney Public Schools in Spokane County, Washington, will hold informal interviews with four candidates on Thursday and Friday as it seeks to find a new superintendent to replace Robert Roettger.
The four semifinalists are John Goldhardt, former superintendent of the Manchester School District in Manchester, New Hampshire; Sean Dotson, superintendent of the Tumwater (Washington) School District; Ben Ferney, superintendent of the Valley School District in Stevens County; and Don Vanderholm, superintendent of Lind-Ritzville Cooperative Schools.
Interviews will begin at 5:30 p.m. both days in the Cheney High School auditorium where staff, students and community members may attend.
The interviews will also be accessible via Zoom. Webinar information can be found on the district website calendar.
Following Friday's interviews, the district board of directors is scheduled to meet in an executive session to determine which candidates will move forward as finalists.
Finalist interviews are scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday and will include a full-day process for each candidate.
Roettger will serve until June 30, after which he will become the new superintendent of Educational Service District 101.
All four of the candidates have experience as a superintendent, three of them in Washington.
Citing a wish to move west to be closer to family, Goldhardt recently resigned as the superintendent in Manchester, N.H., the state's largest district.
Last month, Goldhardt was offered the superintendent's position at Carson City, Nevada, but the offer was withdrawn on March 23 after that district's trustees rejected some of his contract demands.
Goldhardt served in a senior leadership position in Salt Lake City schools before moving to New Hampshire in 2019.
Dotson has spent the past three years at Tumwater, a district of about 6,250 students near Olympia. Prior to that, he spent 12 years in Cheney — five as principal at Sunset Elementary School and seven as assistant superintendent. Earlier in his career, Dotson was a teacher in East Valley and Spokane, and a principal in Elma, Washington.
For the past four years, Ferney has led the 1,600-student Valley School District, located south of Chewelah.
For five years before that, Ferney was the principal at Freeman Middle School. A Washington State University graduate, Ferney also has taught in Cheney and Spokane.
Vanderholm has served the past four years as superintendent of Lind-Ritzville Cooperative Schools in Adams County.
Prior to that, Vanderholm was the principal of Manson (Washington) High School, northwest of Chelan.
Vanderholm began his career as a social studies teacher and basketball coach on the Colville Indian Reservation, then worked for 11 years as a teacher, coach and administrator at the Mary Walker School District in Stevens County.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/goldhardt-among-finalists-for-superintendent-job-in-spokane-wash/article_8a680fba-bae6-54da-b131-b413dd27c69a.html | 2022-04-14T16:58:18 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/goldhardt-among-finalists-for-superintendent-job-in-spokane-wash/article_8a680fba-bae6-54da-b131-b413dd27c69a.html |
President Xi Jinping now has a bigger problem than stopping Covid-19 infections: Quelling escalating anger in Shanghai before it spreads across China, creating a wider crisis of confidence in the Communist Party.
The lockdown in China's main financial hub, now in its third week, has spawned some of the most anti-government criticism in years on the country's tightly controlled social media. The latest trending post to get censored featured an 82-year-old man pleading for medication with a local party official who said he could offer only traditional Chinese remedies.
"I'm also very worried about the people seeking help," the party official said in the recording. "I'm also very angry but there's nothing we can do."
While food shortages have eased in some places and protests are still rare, simmering rage is rife among 25 million people confined to their homes with no end in sight. Tens of thousands of social media users have passed around acts of individual defiance and reports of suicides on Weibo and WeChat, with censors quickly removing some posts on government misconduct.
One particularly notable sign of discontent was an uptick in links to "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from the musical Les Miserables, which was first censored during pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019 and briefly resurfaced in the disarray following the initial outbreak in Wuhan.
"Once in a while people need this song, and that would scare some," one user said. "Let's see who is afraid."
The crisis is one of the biggest tests yet for Xi, who is likely to seek a third five-year term during a Communist Party congress later this year. The lockdowns in Shanghai and Jilin -- a northeastern province of 24 million people -- have fueled widespread criticisms of his government's response to the highly infectious Omicron variant, threatening to taint an occasion to tout his accomplishments and trumpet China's rise.
Xi made a veiled reference to the growing outrage on Wednesday on a visit to the tourist destination of Hainan province, saying the country needed to stick with its zero-tolerance approach to Covid despite the growing discontent and economic costs. In particular, he said, it was necessary to overcome "paralyzing thoughts" and "war weariness" while preventing any imported cases and local virus flare-ups.
"Prevention and control work cannot be relaxed," Xi said. "Persistence is victory."
Unlike some shorter lockdowns in China, like one last month in the technological hub of Shenzhen, the extended restrictions in Shanghai are testing just how much citizens can push back in one of the world's most tightly controlled authoritarian systems. Xi's rigid approach -- now depriving citizens of food, medical care and movement -- also threatens to undermine his goals to improve the lives of ordinary people, a key pillar of the social contract that underpins the Communist Party's legitimacy.
"For Xi, there's some significant grumbling," said Dali Yang, professor of political science focusing on China at the University of Chicago, while adding that it's yet to reach crisis levels for the president.
"Overall, the situation is localized at the moment -- it depends on how the virus spreads," he added. "But I would never underestimate the capacity of Chinese propaganda system to lead Chinese opinions. After Wuhan, the public support for the leadership did not decrease, it actually increased."
For all those who see Shanghai as an example of why Xi's policies are impractical and unsustainable, other social media users blamed the city's leaders for "lying flat" -- a reference to young people who are less than keen on picking a career -- and failing to stamp out the virus early enough. Sima Nan, a commentator known for staunchly supporting the Communist Party, garnered some 600 comments for a Weibo post saying that Shanghai should stick with a zero-tolerance strategy. One user said the city's inability to control the virus "damaged the whole country."
Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Communist Party backed Global Times newspaper, said on Weibo that the majority in China still supports a Covid Zero approach even while noting the "disturbing messages and videos" out of Shanghai. He said other provinces aren't ready to live with the virus even if it's acceptable to the city, warning that it "will really become an island, or soon the whole country will be 'pulled down.'"
"But we should be careful to not fan the flames, not elevate problems into a class issue, and more importantly not to gloat at others' misfortune," Hu added. "We still need to give Shanghai a little more time."
Investors have been looking for any sign that Xi would relax some Covid curbs. Speculation on Tuesday over easing measures lured the biggest foreign inflows this month to local stocks, though that optimism quickly dissipated with Xi's latest comments. Most bets are centered on how much economic stimulus is coming to help achieve a 5.5% growth target that looks increasingly untenable.
Pimco Asia Ltd. this week downgraded its China growth forecast to mid-4% this year on expectations that the mainland's Covid disruption won't normalize until May. "The longer local lockdowns last, the harder it will be for factories to make up losses," Carol Liao China economist wrote in a note.
One concern is that China is in a "worsening totalitarian feedback loop" similar to what's happening in Russia, in which officials around Xi are scared to bring him bad news, according to Anne Stevenson-Yang, a co-founder of J Capital Research Ltd. who spent roughly a quarter-century in China.
"People tend to double down when pressured," she said. "The narrative has to be about how China is facing an increasingly hostile external environment through no fault of its own and must achieve a greater level of self-reliance and isolation."
In Shanghai, the government has piled pressure on grassroots leaders and police officers to strictly enforce the lockdown, prompting some to get fed up. One residential community party chief expressed frustration about "rigid instructions from above" on constant lockdowns and mass testing orders in a resignation letter passed around on social media. Another broke down when talking to a resident requesting help in a leaked audio, saying "I have no vegetables, I have no manpower, I have nothing."
"The gripes among ordinary people are not so much directed toward Covid Zero as it is about the messy implementation," Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.
Still, for residents like Irene Li, the damage is lasting. "Shanghai was the best place in China because of her freedom, her modernization, her internationalization," she said. "And yet it has turned to this, where one ridiculous policy has harmed so many lives."
- - -
Bloomberg's Shirley Zhao contributed to this report. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/coronavirus/xi-moves-to-stop-shanghai-covid-rage-from-sweeping-across-china/article_0603b0a6-b5f6-5b70-9689-22f2fa328561.html | 2022-04-14T16:58:24 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/coronavirus/xi-moves-to-stop-shanghai-covid-rage-from-sweeping-across-china/article_0603b0a6-b5f6-5b70-9689-22f2fa328561.html |
Conflicting assertions about what happened to a key Russian warship swirled Thursday, with some Ukrainians claiming that a missile attack sank the ship and the Kremlin saying only that it suffered significant damage from a fire.
But whatever happened to the Russian navy missile cruiser Moskva - the flagship of its Black Sea fleet - the episode serves as a significant morale boost for beleaguered Ukrainian forces and a major blow to Russia, military experts said.
Late Wednesday, Odessa state regional administrator Maxim Marchenko said a Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship cruise missile had struck the Moskva, causing serious damage. Hours later, the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that a key ship in its Black Sea fleet had sustained significant damage, but it did not address the Ukrainian claims.
Instead, the Russians said they would investigate what caused the fire, which they said detonated the ship's ammunition. All of the ship's approximately 500 crew members were evacuated to other Black Sea fleet ships in the area, Russia said.
Russia's Defense Ministry later said that "the fire on the cruiser Moskva has been localized" and that "explosions of ammunition have been stopped," the RIA Novosti news agency reported. It said the ship is maintaining "buoyancy" and that its "main missile armament" was not damaged. The ministry added that efforts are underway "to tow the cruiser to the port," RIA Novosti reported.
Ukraine said in an update that the Moskva "was severely damaged" by a Neptune missile that caused a fire. "Other units of the ship's group tried to help, but a storm and a powerful explosion of ammunition overturned the cruiser and it began to sink," the Ukrainian military said.
Adding to the confusion, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN that senior Ukrainian officials were not sure what was true. "Either two sailors were smoking in the wrong place, or once again certain safety measures were violated," said Oleksiy Arestovych. He later tweeted that the ship "drowned."
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said early Thursday in an interview on CNN that "there was an explosion" on the ship, but he added that the United States could not immediately determine whether the ship was struck by a missile.
"We're not quite exactly sure what happened here. We do assess that there was an explosion, at least one explosion on this cruiser. A fairly major one at that, that has caused extensive damage to the ship," he said. He added that the vessel was still afloat and was probably headed to Sevastopol to undergo repairs.
The Moskva had been operating along with other Russian ships about 60 miles south of the port city of Odessa, Kirby said. He added that "the explosion was sizable enough that we picked up indications that other naval vessels around her tried to come to her assistance, and so eventually that wasn't apparently needed."
Early Thursday, the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based think tank, said on its Telegram channel that it believed the ship had been sunk and sided with the Ukrainian assessment. "The flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva cruiser, was indeed attacked by the Neptune anti-ship missiles from the coastline between Odessa and Nikolaev," it said. A drone distracted the ship before the missiles hit, it said.
If the 12,000-ton Moskva went under, it would be the largest wartime sinking of a naval vessel since World War II.
The Washington Post could not independently verify the accuracy of the claims.
The Moskva does not have major strategic value, but as the Black Sea flagship, it possesses symbolic significance, said Artyom Lukin, an international relations professor at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia.
The ship is named after Russia's capital and was at the center of a widely reported attack on Snake Island, when Ukrainian border guards drew global attention for insulting Russian troops during the early days of the invasion.
"The loss of not just a principal surface combatant in the Russian navy, but also the fleet flagship, would amount to more of a psychological blow to the Russians," said Collin Koh, an expert on maritime security at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
The notion that Ukrainian missiles hit the Moskva reinforces "the image of hardened resistance by the Ukrainians" and sows "more doubt in the minds of Russian servicemen," particularly the sailors serving on Russian warships off Ukraine's southern coast, he added.
The damage to the Moskva is more significant because of previous Russian naval losses, said James Black, an expert on the Russian military at the Rand Corp. Last month, Ukraine's navy said it hit a Russian amphibious landing ship in Berdyansk, a Ukrainian port that Russian forces have occupied.
Regardless of what caused the damage to the Moskva, "it will likely be seen as poetic justice by Ukrainians and their supporters," Black said. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/russias-top-warship-in-black-sea-damaged-ukraine-says-missiles-sunk-it/article_de2f8520-c8cc-5be1-8f85-419001425f54.html | 2022-04-14T16:58:30 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/russias-top-warship-in-black-sea-damaged-ukraine-says-missiles-sunk-it/article_de2f8520-c8cc-5be1-8f85-419001425f54.html |
GROTON, Conn. — The Naval Submarine Base on Wednesday announced partnerships with the Hartford-based Capitol Region Council of Governments, Connecticut Department of Transportation, and Groton Utilities, which will allow the base to share services and save money.
The base and CRCOG signed an Intergovernmental Support Agreement to complete three projects: perimeter fence and internal gate repairs, lead abatement services, and bulk purchases of chlorine. Capt. Kenneth Curtin, commanding officer of the submarine base, said anticipated savings from these projects could be more than $150,000.
He and other officials at the ceremony — attended by Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, and Gov. Ned Lamont, on his first day out of isolation with COVID-19 — touted the benefits of IGSAs.
Congress in 2013 authorized military installations to enter into these public-public agreements with state and local governments, which can be simpler than going through the federal contracting process. Curtin noted that such agreements can also create new revenue streams in the community and keep jobs local.
"It's not often that state government is the low-cost alternative, but in this case, we're able to save some money and I think that makes a difference," Lamont said.
Curtin and Mark Rolfe, deputy commissioner of DOT, also signed a letter of intent to enter into an ISGA, which Curtin said was for stormwater improvements where the base abuts Route 12. He said an agreement would mitigate flood risk and maintain environmental resilience, and that savings of $200,000 to $400,000 could be realized.
Lastly, Curtin announced a partnership with Groton Utilities to explore how GU could help the base maintain its water infrastructure. He said the base would seek GU's assistance with tasks like providing water testing in military housing areas, and the hope is that GU could also help with flushing and testing fire hydrants, upgrading water mains, and providing emergency repairs.
Bob Ross, executive director of the Connecticut Office of Military Affairs, said he was thrilled about the announcement regarding three agreements at one time at three levels of government: local, regional and state. And he said it's about more than money.
"When Captain Curtin no longer has to worry about that stormwater system on Route 12, on the east side of his base, he can focus on the west side of his base, deploying combat-ready submarines," Ross said. "We can take some things off of his plate so he can focus on the more important things."
Courtney talked about tough moments in the base's history, citing when it was targeted for closure through the Base Realignment and Closure process in 2005. He said the state must be a partner in protecting the future of the base, saying it's not enough to show up with protest signs during the BRAC process but that there must be preventative policy.
Courtney said of the announcements Wednesday, "This is the kind of collaboration and teamwork that I think is going to really make this state succeed and keep this base an enduring base for our country for years and years to come."
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/submarine-base-announces-partnerships-with-capitol-region-council-of-governments-dot-and-groton-utilities/article_fb7dd9a2-54ee-52f2-8183-63e145ab3b2a.html | 2022-04-14T16:58:36 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/submarine-base-announces-partnerships-with-capitol-region-council-of-governments-dot-and-groton-utilities/article_fb7dd9a2-54ee-52f2-8183-63e145ab3b2a.html |
Pope Francis's stance on Russia's invasion has drawn sharp criticism from Ukraine's Catholics and prompted fears that angry believers may disrupt Holy Week rites.
The Vatican's decision to put a Ukrainian and a Russian side by side during a Good Friday celebration is being criticized for equating victims to their aggressors. Ukraine's top Catholic cleric called the move "untimely" and "ambiguous."
An internal Vatican briefing described to Bloomberg said that Ukrainians working within the Vatican were disconcerted by the plan. It also mentioned possible protests during the Stations of the Cross celebration at the Coliseum on Friday in Rome, which Pope Francis is due to lead.
The Catholic leader has condemned the "senseless massacre" by Russian troops in Ukraine and the murder of civilians, women and children in Bucha, but he has never explicitly mentioned Russia as responsible for the war. His appeals to end violence in the country have stopped short of directly calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the invasion.
"Sitting in warm chairs in the Vatican offices, they probably do not understand truly to the very end what the war is," Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church, said Thursday of the Vatican officials who organized the Good Friday event. "We cannot talk about reconciliation now when they are killing us."
Shevchuk said he appealed to the Vatican to change its plans. Ukraine's government also expressed concern through its ambassador to the Holy See. Some Ukrainians also see the event as potentially playing into Moscow's propaganda about Russians and Ukrainians being brothers that is used to imply they should be all part of one Russian nation.
Since the criticism erupted, the Vatican has tried to explain the gesture as a symbol of reconciliation and of the brotherhood between all Christians, and between Russian and Ukrainian peoples in particular. Father Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit and confidante of Francis, said it was important to keep in mind that the pope is "a shepherd, not a politician."
The Pope has actively tried to end or at least suspend the fighting, calling for an Easter truce and visiting Russian representatives at the Vatican. Francis has also spoken with Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia's Orthodox Church and a staunch supporter of Putin and of the invasion of Ukraine. He may meet with Kirill in Jerusalem in June, according to Reuters.
The two women set to participate in the Good Friday rite both work at a Catholic hospital in Rome, one as a senior nurse and the other as a nursing student. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/religion/popes-russia-ukraine-good-friday-plan-draws-kyivs-ire/article_ba27639f-1b67-5809-9a75-7251a5874937.html | 2022-04-14T16:58:43 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/religion/popes-russia-ukraine-good-friday-plan-draws-kyivs-ire/article_ba27639f-1b67-5809-9a75-7251a5874937.html |
NOTHING WELCOMES SPRING here in the Granite State quite like the bleats, chirps, squeals and giggles at Strawbery Banke Museum’s grounds.
“Baby Animals: Heritage Breeds at the Banke” is a lesson in agricultural history, only way cuter.
Recently-born lambs, piglets, chicks, calves, ducklings and rabbits — and their moms — will visit the Portsmouth museum, where such heirloom breeds would have been familiar to coastal New England communities as far back as the 17th century.
The nine-day event is a popular seasonal draw. Between 7,000 and 8,000 visitors came through the gate each year from 2016 through 2019. The collaboration between the museum and various farms was put on hold in 2020 and 2021, but it’s making a return.
You’ll be able to check out the latest crop of baby animals from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily from Saturday, April 23, through Sunday, May 1.
One of the participating farms is Tiny Hill Farm in Milton Mills. One peek at Larissa Mullen’s images on the farm’s Facebook page are enough to unleash a case of the warm fuzzies. A Nigerian Dwarf dairy goat baby named Floppy (her registered name is Tiny Hill Love is PowPowerful, for obvious reasons) stands on a table atop a pink blanket, her tongue poking out of her mouth as she peers into the camera lens.
Mullen, who has operated the farm for about 14 years and hosts visitors by appointment, says litters usually range from one to five babies, with two or three being the most common.
“They take about three years to get to full size. They are about knee-height when full grown, the same as a golden retriever or lab. They’re stocky and weigh about 60 to 70 pounds,” she says.
This is a hectic time on many animal farms. Amy Gentile, who jokes she’s practically been living in the barn with all the baby animals making their entrances, has about 40 Gloucestershire Old Spot piglets, along with their mamas, snuffling around the property right now. That’s not including the 25 head of cattle and various poultry.
“We’re very fortunate to be able to raise our kids around the animals,” she says of sons Sawyer, 12, and Elias, 9.
She’s bringing a sow named Polly, and her litter of eight piglets, to the “Baby Animals” event.
“Any interest we can raise for this awesome breed, we love to do that. Old Spots deserve all the press they can get,” she says of the threatened breed. “People really just adore the piglets.”
Guest curator Peter Cook has been overseeing the annual “Baby Animals” event since its inception. It’s a chance for people to learn about heritage breed preservation, while invariably doing a lot of “oooh-ing” and “awww-ing” along the way. (It’s the humans who do most of the giggling.)
“We are pulling in animals from five states, some of (those breeds) with less than 500 left on the planet,” Cook said. “This is really rare genetic material, and many are near to extinction.”
Cook, a lifelong historian who lives on the mid-18th-century Tare Shirt Farm in Berwick, Maine, serves up snippets of facts about fiber arts as well as modern efforts to protect heritage breeds, all mixed with funny one-liners and personal asides.
Technically retired from teaching and museum work, Cook never misses a chance to share his field of expertise.
“I’ve been a museum curmudgeon for 45 years,” he says. “I love meeting with the public. People come up to me (during “Baby Animals”) and tug on my sleeve and say, ‘You know … this kind of museum works for the whole family – my 2-year-old, teenager and extended family.”
Visitors aren’t permitted to touch the animals for safety reasons, but they’ll take away interesting tidbits about the heritage breeds.
While a “modern cow like a Holstein is a milk factory,” there are characteristics of interest in older breeds, too, Cook says. “Some of the animals are parasite-resistant, some handle heat well, and some breeds can convert inferior vegetation, like weeds, into protein.” | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/arts_and_ent/baby-animals-pint-sized-heritage-breeds-return-to-strawbery-banke/article_c334af13-19e9-5d94-a02b-435ebe2a1f6a.html | 2022-04-14T16:58:49 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/arts_and_ent/baby-animals-pint-sized-heritage-breeds-return-to-strawbery-banke/article_c334af13-19e9-5d94-a02b-435ebe2a1f6a.html |
Phil Mickelson plays his shot from the 15th tee during the first round of the U.S. Open Thursday, June 17, 2021, at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson put their names into contention for the U.S. Open Championship, multiple outlets reported Thursday.
That doesn't mean that either, or both, are confirmed to participate in the tournament, scheduled for The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., from June 16-19. Wednesday night was the deadline to reserve their spots should they choose to play.
Woods played in his first tournament in more than a year last weekend at the Masters, finishing 47th, as he works his way back from injuries sustained in a devastating single-car crash in February 2021. He has committed to playing at The Open at St. Andrews in July, but not in the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla., or the U.S. Open.
Mickelson hasn't played on the tour since January after controversial comments he made about a planned Saudi Arabia-backed golf league and his criticisms of the PGA Tour went public.
They were among the 9,265 golfers to enter the tournament. Woods and Mickelson are among 48 players -- including 12 past U.S. Open champions -- who are exempt and have an automatic entry. Thousands of other entrants will try to qualify through local tournaments.
Jon Rahm of Spain won the U.S. Open last year at Torrey Pines Golf Course near San Diego.
Woods has won the U.S. Open three times -- 2000, 2002 and 2008. It is the only major that Mickelson hasn't won, though he is a six-time runner-up.
Mickelson, 51, won the PGA Championship last summer to earn a five-year U.S. Open exemption. | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/golf/reports-tiger-woods-phil-mickelson-enter-u-s-open/article_1f0a11a8-31ca-566b-b932-c29113e39b49.html | 2022-04-14T16:58:55 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/golf/reports-tiger-woods-phil-mickelson-enter-u-s-open/article_1f0a11a8-31ca-566b-b932-c29113e39b49.html |
'Cost of Living' — Theatre
Friday is opening night for American Lives Theatre's production of "Cost of Living" at Fonseca Theatre.
The Pultizer Prize-winning play by Martyna Majok is about the human need for other people, no matter our advantages or disadvantages in life. Cost of Living showcases the intersection of a truck driver reuniting with his ex-wife after she suffers a devastating accident and a doctoral student who hires an overworked caregiver.
Tickets to see Cost of Living at Fonseca Theatre can be purchased online for $25. It will be showing April 15-30.
MORE: American Lives Theatre gives Indy actors with disabilities the stage in 'Cost of Living'
Indiana Comic Con — Convention
One of Indianapolis' largest conventions is set to hit the downtown streets this weekend.
Indiana Comic Con has comic books, magazines, toys, games, Star Wars, Star Trek, anime, manga, cosplay, artwork, sketches, and apparel. According to event organizers, this year's roster of comic industry professionals and celebrities is the biggest in the convention's history.
There are a variance of passes that can be purchased for the weekend-long event, from $30 to $300.
The Culture on 10th Street — Teen
"The Culture on 10th Street" on Saturday is a Black teen art exhibit featuring visual artists, businesses, musicians, and poets from across the state. The free event starts at 1 p.m. and lasts til 6 p.m. at 2301 E. 10th St.
Living Room Theatres — Movies and Music
Gagarine opens at Living Room Theaters on Friday. The independent film is about Yuri who fights to save his home town from demolition, which he shares with his namesake, Yuri Gagarin.
Living Room also has pre-sale tickets available now for the opening of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" staring Benedict Cumberbatch, Patrick Stewart, and Rachel McAdams.
On Friday, catch Tim Wright performing in the Living Room cafe lounge from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Brad Mitchell takes over the lounge during the same time frame.
The House at Pooh Corner — Theatre
If you're looking to head a little out of the city, drive out to Noblesville to see the children-friendly play "The House at Pooh Corner."
Opening Friday night at the Recreation Annex Auditorium at Noblesville Ivy Tech the play is about the timeless Winnie the Pooh characters as they face a great challenge. The House at Pooh Corner runs April 15 and 16 and April 22 - 24. Tickets are $15.
For Your Eyes Only — Art
Soledad Decca's solo exhibition at Re:Public, an art pop-up space, is titled For Your Eyes Only. The free event asks those in attendance: "What if instead of uncovering the story behind the artwork, the art uncovers the story behind you?"
The exhibit is Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. at 2301 E. 10th St.
David Spiller: Small Works. Big Magic — Art
The late British pop artist David Spiller's work will be on display at Long Sharp Gallery starting Saturday through May 6.
The exhibit will have 20 of Spiller's small-scale paintings. None of them have been physically shown in the United States before, according to Rhonda Long-Sharp, the gallery' owner.
All of the pieces span three decades of Spiller's life, and, according to the gallery, give a glimpse to his process and unique style. as an artist.
Inside Indy: Events | Places | Food
WRTV Digital Reporter Shakkira Harris can be reached at shakkira.harris@wrtv.com. You can follow her on Twitter, @shakkirasays. | https://www.wrtv.com/entertainment/inside-indy/events/top-7-things-to-do-in-indianapolis-this-weekend-april-15-17 | 2022-04-14T17:02:09 | 1 | https://www.wrtv.com/entertainment/inside-indy/events/top-7-things-to-do-in-indianapolis-this-weekend-april-15-17 |
NORTH PORT, Fla. — The family of Gabby Petito will get a jury trial in their suit against the parents of Brian Laundrie.
Documents filed in Sarasota County this week show a civil jury trial scheduled to begin Aug. 14, 2023. A preliminary hearing has been set for May.
The suit filed in March alleges the Laundrie family withheld information from police that would have helped the Petitos in the search for their daughter. Their suit also claims the Laundries helped Brian avoid police, and in doing so, inflicted intentional emotional stress.
The Laundries filed a motion to throw the case out, but a judge ruled in favor of the Petito family.
Gabby Petito went missing last summer while on a road trip with Brian Laundrie. She was found dead in a national park in Wyoming.
After a 30-day search for Laundrie, his body was discovered in the Myakkahatchee State Park. Investigators said he killed himself and left a note that said he also killed Petito.
This article was written by WFTX. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/petito-family-to-get-jury-trial-against-laundrie-parents | 2022-04-14T17:02:15 | 1 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/petito-family-to-get-jury-trial-against-laundrie-parents |
A wind-driven blaze believed to have killed two people and that burned at least 200 homes and other structures in New Mexico.
The blaze in the Village of Ruidoso was fueled by winds between 50 and 90 mph on Tuesday.
Authorities have ordered or advised up to 4,500 people to evacuate.
Airtankers resumed an aerial attack on the fire Wednesday after high winds kept them grounded much of the day.
Authorities say that they are working to confirm the identities of the people who died.
The fire has reportedly burned more than 5,7000 acres and is 0% contained.
A state of emergency has been declared for Ruidoso. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/2-killed-in-new-mexico-wildfire | 2022-04-14T17:02:21 | 1 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/2-killed-in-new-mexico-wildfire |
For the first time since 2019, the White House will host the annual Easter Egg Roll. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will host children and their families on the White House South Lawn on Monday.
Each year, keepsake wooden eggs are given to children attending the Easter Egg Roll at the White House. The White House says more than 14,000 hard-boiled eggs are hand-dyed for use in the Easter Egg Roll and the egg hunt.
The White House receives nearly 50,000 submissions for a total of 200,000 tickets for the annual event. A portion of the tickets is reserved for local military families and public school students.
Visually-impaired youngsters can participate in the egg roll and egg hunt through the use of special “chirping eggs,” the White House said.
The first Easter Egg Roll was held in 1878 when President Rutherford Hayes opened the south lawn to children who had been chased off the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/annual-easter-egg-roll-returns-to-the-white-house-following-pandemic-hiatus | 2022-04-14T17:02:27 | 0 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/annual-easter-egg-roll-returns-to-the-white-house-following-pandemic-hiatus |
DNC officials approve plan to change states for first presidential primaries
(CNN) - Democratic Party officials approved a plan Wednesday that could shake up the presidential primary calendar.
The big unknown is which states will get to hold their primaries first in 2024.
The Democratic National Committee’s new plan does away with the current, traditional set of early states: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
The updated process would prioritize more diverse battleground states that hold primaries, not caucuses.
States would apply for early primaries, and party officials would pick up to five to go before Super Tuesday.
Those four traditional early states can apply to keep their places.
However, Iowa’s spot would be especially threatened, in part because the largely white state is no longer a battleground.
Also, it is required by state law to hold caucuses.
State parties must submit applications by June 3.
The rules committee will decide in July, and final approval is in August or September.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/dnc-officials-approve-plan-change-states-first-presidential-primaries/ | 2022-04-14T17:02:28 | 1 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/dnc-officials-approve-plan-change-states-first-presidential-primaries/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of committing a mass shooting on a subway train in Brooklyn is expected to make his first court appearance Thursday.
Frank James was arrested in Manhattan a day after the attack in which 10 people were wounded by gunfire.
According to CNN, James is charged with violating a federal law that prohibits terrorist and other violent attacks against a mass transportation system. If he's convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison, the network reported.
Authorities say a trove of evidence connects James to the attack. His credit card and a key to a van he’d rented were found at the shooting scene.
Officers also recovered the handgun used in the shooting, which records show James purchased legally in Ohio in 2011.
James didn't respond to questions shouted at him by reporters after his arrest Wednesday. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/brooklyn-subway-attack-suspect-to-make-1st-court-appearance | 2022-04-14T17:02:33 | 1 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/brooklyn-subway-attack-suspect-to-make-1st-court-appearance |
Gov. Ricketts, State Senators call out Charles Herbster following reports of sexual misconduct
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, along with every female State Senator, is condemning gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster’s behavior, following a Nebraska Examiner story about the GOP frontrunner’s repeated sexual misconduct.
“This is beyond horrible,” Gov. Ricketts said. “Charles W. Herbster should beg forgiveness of the women he has preyed upon and seek treatment. Sexual assault is criminal behavior and should disqualify anyone from elected leadership. I encourage my fellow Nebraskans to respect, support, and stand with these survivors, who had the courage to tell the truth about what happened to them. These brave women have Susanne’s and my full support.”
The Nebraska Examiner detailed the stories of eight women, including a State Senator, who say Herbster groped them at public events. Republican State Sen. Julie Slama, in a statement, confirmed that as she walked by Herbster, he reached up her skirt, without her consent, and touched her inappropriately. The incident reportedly happened in the middle of a crowded ballroom at the Douglas County Republican Party’s annual Elephant Remembers dinner.
“Today’s Nebraska Examiner report about Charles Herbster sexually assaulting me in 2019, when I was 22 years old, is true. I indirectly referenced the assault in a February 2022 floor speech in the Legislature and prayed I would never have to relive this trauma. When the Nebraska Examiner contacted me about a witness account of my assault and the seven other women who shared their stories, I was not going to deny the truth. I am not seeking media attention or any other gain, I simply was not going to lie and say it did not occur. I would request my family’s privacy be respected at this difficult time,” Slama said.
All the incidents reported occurred between 2017 and this year, according to those involved. The women ranged in age from their late teens to mid-20s at the time of the incidents. The author of the article confirmed that all women who the Nebraska Examiner talked to were over the age of 18.
On Thursday, a bipartisan group of state senators signed a joint statement Wednesday, calling Herbster’s behavior “disqualifying”.
Herbster’s campaign manager, Ellen Keast, in a statement issued Wednesday evening, said Herbster denied the women’s allegations “unequivocally.” Keast said that “this is a political hit-piece built on 100% false and baseless claims.” Keast blamed the “political establishment” for “smearing and trying to destroy him with lies.”
Copyright 2022 KOLN. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/gov-ricketts-state-senators-call-out-herbster-following-reports-sexual-misconduct/ | 2022-04-14T17:02:37 | 1 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/gov-ricketts-state-senators-call-out-herbster-following-reports-sexual-misconduct/ |
Delta Air Lines is dropping an extra charge for employees who aren't vaccinated against COVID-19.
Delta said it has dropped the $200-a-month surcharge, which applied to unvaccinated employees covered by the company's health plan.
CEO Ed Bastian says Delta is dropping the charge because, he says, COVID-19 is now “a seasonal virus.”
U.S. airlines tried different approaches to encourage employees to get vaccinated — United Airlines made it a mandate.
Delta was the only one to impose an insurance surcharge.
When the airline introduced the surcharge, Bastian said it was necessary because the average hospital stay for an employee cost the company $50,000.
More than 95% of employees are vaccinated, according to Delta. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/coronavirus/delta-drops-monthly-surcharge-for-unvaccinated-employees | 2022-04-14T17:02:39 | 0 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/coronavirus/delta-drops-monthly-surcharge-for-unvaccinated-employees |
LPD: Homeowner catches men trying to cut catalytic converter, fires shotgun at suspect’s SUV
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - The Lincoln Police Department said a homeowner who caught three people trying to steal a catalytic converter from his car fired a shotgun at the suspect’s SUV.
Related: LPD sees continued rise in catalytic converter thefts despite new requirements
On Thursday, around 2:50 a.m., LPD said officers responded to a home off 62nd and Fremont Streets on a report of several men, dressed in dark clothing, trying to cut a catalytic converter off a vehicle.
LPD said officers made contact with a 22-year-old man who said he heard ‘sawing’ noises coming from his driveway and when he opened the door, he saw three people under the vehicle.
According to police, the man explained that he retrieved a shotgun from his home but when he returned, the men were getting into a dark colored SUV parked in the street.
Police said the homeowner then discharged one round from his shotgun in the direction of the SUV which sped away from the area.
LPD said at this time, it is unknown if the SUV was struck.
In this case, LPD said the catalytic converter was not stolen, but the homeowner’s vehicle was damaged totaling $500.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call LPD at (402) 441-6000 or Crime Stoppers at (402) 475-3600.
LPD said 513 catalytic converter thefts have been reported to date in 2022. In comparison, a total of 978 catalytic converter thefts were reported in 2021.
Last November, LPD outlined the new ordinance which requires people to apply for and receive a special permit to buy and sell catalytic converters.
Copyright 2022 KOLN. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/lpd-homeowner-catches-men-trying-cut-catalytic-converter-fires-shotgun-suspects-suv/ | 2022-04-14T17:02:43 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/lpd-homeowner-catches-men-trying-cut-catalytic-converter-fires-shotgun-suspects-suv/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration says it will begin cracking down on e-cigarettes that have used synthetic nicotine to skirt oversight.
The companies behind those products sell vaping flavors that appeal to kids.
Previously, the agency could only regulate products that used nicotine derived from tobacco.
Under a new law taking effect Thursday, the FDA can regulate products using manmade nicotine.
The action specifically targets companies like Puff Bar.
In a statement, the agency said the change would allow the FDA "to protect the public health from the harms of tobacco products, regardless of the source of nicotine,” the Associated Press reported.
That company recently switched its formula to laboratory-made nicotine to avoid oversight.
Puff Bar is the most popular brand among teenagers, selling flavors like blueberry, strawberry banana and mango.
The agency said within 30 days companies must register with them and submit their products. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/e-cigs-using-synthetic-nicotine-come-under-fda-oversight | 2022-04-14T17:02:45 | 0 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/e-cigs-using-synthetic-nicotine-come-under-fda-oversight |
Nebraska launches official NIL marketplace for Husker student-athletes
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - The University of Nebraska has created the Nebraska Huskers Marketplace, one of the first licensed school NIL marketplaces in college sports. The website is powered by Opendorse and will help Husker student-athletes benefit from their name, image and likeness.
The marketplace gives Nebraska fans, brands and sponsors the ability to browse, book, pitch and pay any Husker student-athletes for NIL activities in one platform.
All current Husker student-athletes can be found in the Nebraska Huskers Marketplace. In addition, former Nebraska athletes who use Opendorse can also be accessed through the marketplace.
“Our new Nebraska Huskers Marketplace will streamline the NIL process for both our student-athletes and for those who want to connect with them for opportunities. This is another valuable tool to assist our student-athletes in maximizing their NIL opportunities,” Nebraska Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Trev Alberts said. “We are proud to expand our relationship with Opendorse. As a Lincoln-based company, Opendorse has played a vital role in establishing Nebraska as a national leader in the NIL space.”
Through the Nebraska Huskers Marketplace, every Nebraska athlete will receive an Opendorse profile, which they can customize and promote to fans on their personal social media channels. When offered a NIL deal, athletes receive a notification through the Opendorse app, where they can choose to accept and complete the opportunity. Once completed, the student-athlete immediately receives compensation to their account and can automatically disclose their activity to Nebraska Athletics.
“Nebraska’s commitment to student-athlete NIL success is second-to-none in college sports,” said Opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence. “By launching the Official NIL Marketplace of the Nebraska Huskers, the program has set the standard for athlete support and fan access. Starting today, the Greatest Fans in College Sports can support their favorite Huskers easier than ever before.”
Interested supporters can view the Nebraska Huskers NIL Marketplace.
Copyright 2022 KOLN. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/nebraska-launches-official-nil-marketplace-husker-student-athletes/ | 2022-04-14T17:02:50 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/nebraska-launches-official-nil-marketplace-husker-student-athletes/ |
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed an abortion ban into law.
The law bans abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The Republican governor signed the legislation at a news conference at a church in Kissimmee on Thursday.
The new law does allow an exception if two doctors certify in writing that an abortion is necessary to save the woman’s life or to "avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman other than a psychological condition."
It also allows exceptions if a doctor certifies that there is a fetal abnormality.
It does not allow for exemptions in cases where pregnancies were caused by rape, incest or human trafficking.
DeSantis referred to late-term abortions as "infanticide" and said being able to sign the bill was, "really meaningful."
The move comes amid a growing conservative push to restrict abortion ahead of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could limit access to the procedure nationwide.
The new law also marked a significant blow to abortion access in the South, where Florida has provided wider access to the procedure than its regional neighbors.
Under current law, Florida allows abortions up to 24 weeks. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/florida-governor-signs-15-week-abortion-ban-into-state-law | 2022-04-14T17:02:51 | 1 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/florida-governor-signs-15-week-abortion-ban-into-state-law |
Problem-solving is no problem for Gizmo Gang
Omaha, Neb. (KOLN) - A Nebraska 4-H FIRST Lego League team from Omaha earned top honors at the Nebraska State Championship. The team’s idea for improving the transportation of cargo is getting some attention as a solution for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The Gizmo Gang consists of four students, and they’ve been competing together for the past three years. FIRST Lego League is a program that encourages youth in STEM subjects. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Kids are able to explore these subjects in a competitive, athletic-type environment. We caught up with the Gizmo Gang in Omaha to talk about their achievements. “We compete in four areas,” Westside Middle School 8th grader Aaron Thernes said. “The project, core values, robot design, and robot game. With core values, we explain how we work together as a team. For the robot design, you design, build and program a robot, and then for robot game, that robot does missions on a table autonomously for under 2-and-a-half minutes.” The team earns points in all of those areas, and they’ve been quite successful. After winning at state, they are now preparing for a trip to Houston for the 3-day FIRST World Championship, where they will compete with teams around the world. This is on April 20-23.
In addition to all of this, the Gizmo Gang is getting a lot of attention for one aspect of their competition, and that’s the project area. The “project” presents a problem, and teams must come up with a solution. “The problem we are trying to solve is to reduce the number of trucks on the road, reduce emissions and increase safety on the road, by delivering detergent in bulk,” Westside Rockbrook Elementary 6th grader Henry Thernes said. The gang’s solution is very innovative. “We created a bulk dispenser which would dispense detergent from a 303 gallon tote into a dispenser,” OPS King Science and Technology Middle School student Grace Warta said. “The customer would bring back a refillable jug and then they could refill their jugs. That way, they are not buying a new jug every time, and they are not throwing it away in the landfill.” We are told one tote could be used 40 times, and one tote used 40 times would save 18,360 jugs from entering the landfill, according to the team’s study and research. “It would create a 2 to 3 truck ratio of totes to jugs,” Westside Middle School 8th grader Liam Cronican said. “It would take two trucks of totes to transport the same amount of products it would take for three trucks to transport jugs.”
Again, by using the dispenser the team designed, liquid detergent would not be delivered in disposable bottles. It would be dispensed, much like a soda machine, and this would reduce the amount bottles used, and would thus reduce the amount of trucks needed to transport them. The detergent dispenser is called HAGL, and there’s a reason why. “So HAGL is the first letter of all of our team members. Henry, Aaron, Grace and Liam,” Warta said.
A prototype of the dispenser has already been built. The goal is to perhaps turn all of this into a business. “We have two companies that have agreed to make a pilot test for the dispensers,” Warta said. “Our business plan would involve making our dispenser, and we would lease it to stores for $2,000,” Cronican said.
The Gizmo Gang sees this idea becoming a national business, and even going world-wide. They say, all they need are some investors. For now, they are going to take their solution, and their robotic skills, on the road to the FIRST World Championship. As you might imagine, they are ready for the journey. The team even has a cheer and the last part goes like this: “We think together when we work, play together after work, have fun when we work, and enjoy great team work. Gizmo Gang!” It’s a gang, that certainly has their eye on a brighter future for everyone.
Copyright 2022 KOLN. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/problem-solving-is-no-problem-gizmo-gang/ | 2022-04-14T17:02:56 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/problem-solving-is-no-problem-gizmo-gang/ |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic ushered in what may be the most rapid rise in homeschooling the U.S. has ever seen.
Now, even with schools back open and vaccines available, many homeschooling families are sticking with it.
Data obtained by The Associated Press found homeschooling numbers this year dipped from last year’s all-time high, but are still significantly above pre-pandemic levels.
According to the National Home Education Research Institute, approximately 3.7 million students were homeschooled for the 2020-2021 school year. That's an increase from 2.5 million in the previous school year, according to the organization.
Families may have turned to homeschooling as an alternative to hastily assembled remote learning plans. But they say they're staying with it for many reasons, including continuing COVID health concerns, disagreements with school policies and a desire to keep what has worked for their children. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/homeschooling-surge-continues-despite-schools-reopening | 2022-04-14T17:02:57 | 0 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/homeschooling-surge-continues-despite-schools-reopening |
Republican National Committee votes to withdraw from presidential debates group, reports say
(Gray News) - The Republican National Committee voted Thursday to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates.
This is according to media reports that cited a statement from Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who called the debates group biased.
“Today the RNC voted to withdraw from the biased CPD, and we are going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people,” the news release said.
“To be clear, we are not walking away from debates. We are walking away from the CPD.”
The Commission on Presidential Debates was slammed by the RNC for debate timing and what the RNC said was an appearance of partisanship.
Among the issues, the news release criticized “waiting until 26 states had begun early voting before hosting the first presidential debate in 2020″ and “making unilateral changes to previously agreed upon debate formats and conditions, in some cases without even notifying the candidates.”
They also said a moderator at a debate had once worked for Joe Biden.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/republican-national-committee-votes-withdraw-presidential-debates-group-reports-say/ | 2022-04-14T17:03:02 | 1 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/republican-national-committee-votes-withdraw-presidential-debates-group-reports-say/ |
The United Nations reported Thursday that 1,964 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine, but warned the number is likely much higher.
The U.N. Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said reports have been delayed or are pending in areas where there is intense fighting.
"This concerns, for example, Mariupol (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Popasna (Luhansk region), and Borodianka (Kyiv region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties," the organization said.
Most civilian casualties are the result of missiles and airstrikes, the U.N. said.
Among the dead are 72 children, according to the U.N.
The agency says more than 2,600 civilians have also been injured during the war. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/un-reports-nearly-2-000-civilians-killed-in-ukraine | 2022-04-14T17:03:03 | 0 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/un-reports-nearly-2-000-civilians-killed-in-ukraine |
Teacher would rather be redeployed to Iraq than go back to the classroom
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC/Gray News) – As a sergeant in the U.S. Army, Justin Bullock has endured demanding training, strict military discipline and even enemy fire, but nothing could prepare him for the stress and violence he faced as a teacher at Liberty Hill Academy.
“I have a lot of trauma now,” Bullock told WCSC.
He was deployed to Iraq in 2009 and was preparing to begin training to become a drill sergeant to instruct new soldiers. He says his future is now in jeopardy after suffering multiple injuries at Liberty Hill.
“I doubt that I will probably step my foot back inside a school in general for a very long time. I am terrified ... I don’t want to get beaten anymore,” Bullock said. “I don’t want to get sexually harassed any more. I don’t want to fear for my life.”
Last month, Bullock attempted to break up a fight between two students and was punched in the head multiple times.
He continued working but the next day went to the hospital where they took a brain scan and determined that he had a neck strain and was recovering from a concussion.
“By that Saturday, I was having major anxiety just like rethinking everything because I was also beaten in the back of my head in February 2021 by a student,” Bullock said. “I was also sexually harassed by a student who was also putting his hands on me. It took the school two and a half months to get him out of my classroom.”
Bullock was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
His husband, Caleb Ferrell, says he doesn’t want Bullock to go back to work.
“Honestly, I get terrified sometimes. He wakes up at night and has a hard time sleeping. It’s honestly heartbreaking,” Ferrell said. “Sometimes I am afraid that he’s not going to come home after work.”
Liberty Hill Academy is an alternative school for special needs students and those with behavioral issues.
Teachers and staff are given extra training, and Bullock has even taught at alternative schools in other districts, but he says they are wholly unprepared to deal with some of these students.
“I definitely felt like the upper administration needs to reevaluate the situation,” Bullock said. “This has become a really dangerous situation, and we really need to make some changes before a real, true tragedy occurs.”
Bullock is one of multiple staff members at Liberty Hill who have been assaulted by students.
On March 31, two staff members were injured breaking up a fight.
In December, former employee Vera Gordon filed a lawsuit alleging constant abuse from 2016 until the time she left in 2020.
Gordon’s lawsuit describes female employees “being punched in their face by students, headbutted, drugged [sic] by their hair, having trash cans slammed over their head, knocked unconscious, subjected to frequent racial and sexual slurs.”
She said these factors generally led to a state of heightened anxiety and fear while at work.
In March alone, the North Charleston Police Department was called to the school 14 times. On Friday, the Charleston County School District confirmed another fight among students was broken up by a number of teachers.
Given the choice between the classroom and deployment, Bullock said he’d take deployment.
“Iraq a million times over,” Bullock said. “Because at least I know that my chain of command has my back.”
Next week, Bullock is meeting with his commanding officer to see if he is still mentally fit for military service.
Copyright 2022 WCSC via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/teacher-would-rather-be-redeployed-iraq-than-go-back-classroom/ | 2022-04-14T17:03:08 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/14/teacher-would-rather-be-redeployed-iraq-than-go-back-classroom/ |